Kahrs: Love them, Hate them, or...?

[silicosys4]

Steel Kahrs are sweeet

plastic Kahrs are complete POS's, all of them.

 

[Gladius]

My EDC is a Kahr P9. It works for me. It hits what I point it at and has eaten everything I've fed it. Trigger is fine for a defensive handgun. I see no real need to replace it with anything else at this point.

 

[Elkins45]

I own several. I bought a P9 back around 2003 and it has been my carry gun ever since. I love how easy they are to conceal and they fit my smallish hands great. Plus, it’s one of the safest of the striker fired guns because of the long trigger travel. It shoots like a really smooth DA revolver. When I was working in an office I used to pocket carry a J frame but replaced it with a PM9 to eliminate the cylinder bulge and pick up two rounds capacity.

I also have a metal framed K40 that I bought new for $304 during the de-transition back to 9mm when gunshops were clearing out 40s at fire sale prices. It was too good a bargain to pass up!

plastic Kahrs are complete POS's, all of them.

My two aren’t.

 

[orionengnr]

I have owned and carried a (used) PM9 since about 2006. Had the "barrel peening" issue early on which Kahr fixed quickly and free.

I then bought a (used) P45 and carried it for about six months but went back to the PM9. Nothing wrong with the P45 for IWB, but it is just a little large for pocket carry, at which the PM9 excels.

Next I bought a used PM45, which I figured would split the difference, but I did not bond with it (it was ammo-picky) an ended up selling it back to the guy I had bought it from...life can be funny sometimes.

Finally I bought a (new) CW380. Liked it a lot better than the 4 or 5 LCPs I seem to keep ending up with (and never carry).
A friend's wife got her LTC, shot it well and liked it. It's small enough for her to conceal. She had a happy birthday.

I kind of miss the CW380, but I still have an LCP (imagine that...) plus the PM9, which is in my pocket as I type this.

I keep looking at P365s, Hellcats and other double-stack 9s, but I can't make any of them work for pocket carry. So I am always interested in something "new and improved" but haven't found it yet.

Don't see the PM9 going anywhere...

 

[jdc1244]

CT 380 – dreadful gun, completely unreliable well past 200 rounds.

 

[Armybrat]

All four of mine shot fine. Kids & grandkids now own them, so just bought this S9 for a fire sale price. Nice sights.
I’ll get to the range next week to shoot it.

 

[plainsdrifter]

Never tried one, Glock either. The only fer-in made pistol I have is a Walther PPKs and its made here.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

I dunno, they just never interested me at all.

 

[silicosys4]

My two aren’t.

have a look inside your grip at the spring for the magazine release. The way the designed the spring in the polymer frame Kahrs is different and much cheaper than their steel frame guns. They imbed the end of a rod in the frame and use the opposite end as the spring. After a while the polymer loosens around the spring, the spring loses tension, stops holding the magazine catch in place, and the magazine starts falling out under recoil. Thats hi point level design quality. On a $300 CW, hmm....On a $600 PM9, .
I will say mine failed on the CW, not on either of my PM's. Maybe the PM's have an insert in the frame for the spring end instead of relying strictly on the polymer. Maybe the newer ones do as well. My CW didn't at the time.
Their solution was to send me a replacement release that was machined longer to take up that slack. They knew enough about the nature and predictability of the problem to have a ready supply of purpose made parts, but they wouldn't redesign or recall the gun. Maybe they have redesigned it since then, I don't know, don't care.



Then take a look at the slide stop spring.
There is a reason nobody else does it that way.

They eat magazine followers. They eat slide stop springs. They have a cheap design quality. They have issues with the magazine release. They have to have a 200rd break in period, requiring you to spend a significant amount of money on ammo. They are notoriously unreliable. The percentage of people who have owned them and won't carry them is significant.

That being said, I loved the trigger on them, enough to be burned three times by plastic kahrs yet still buy a K9.
The K9 is a whole different animal. Extremely well made and reliable, compact, and pleasant to shoot.

 

[mavracer]

I had a PM9 and a CW45 that I cut the grip to use the shorter PM45 mags. I sold the PM9 off and replaced it with a Ruger LC9S pro when they came out, the Ruger has since been replaced by a Hellcat. I let the 45 go because I was carrying the 9mm more and figured I only needed to keep one larger caliber pocketish size gun and like my Walther PPS 40 better. My daughter still has the CW9 that I bought her, they're okay they're pistols and they go bang.

 

[usp9]

I've owned a total of nine Kahrs, all medium and large sized, (K, T, TP, P, S, CW), but no small sized. All were 9mm except for two .45 acp, neither of which were reliable. Currently I have only three; a K9, TP9 and a S9. Lack of reliability has always been my main beef with Kahr line, a brand I've obviously tried hard to love. However, some could not feed and fire reliably, the K9, had the trigger bar break on me, and several had the followers break.

I like the size, weight, concept and purpose but I just can't rate them as a top tier, carry worthy, brand. A couple of those I bought have indeed been reliable, accurate and fun to shoot. that's why I voted "they're OK".

 

[kje54]

Kahrs have never interested me, not because of bad reviews just because I've always been interested in other brands. That puts me squarely in the never tried. never thought about trying category.

 

[lightman]

I had a CW9 for less than a year. I really like that gun for CCW use but it proved unreliable and the customer service was even worst. With less than 1000rd through the gun, the trigger bar broke. The customer service was very difficult to work with just to get an RMA number and then it took another 3 months to fix the gun. The repaired gun was never right it would light strike 2-3 rounds per box (even with premium ammo) and I never trusted it to carry after that. The idea of dealing with customer service against to fix the light strike issue was so repugnant that I traded it (with full disclosure) to a buddy for an XD-45. This was ~10 years ago and hopefully they have improved their customer service.

I have not handled one but a buddy had the same experience. His proved to be unreliable and had a few parts break. Bad experience with customer service. He traded it in for something else.

 

[DeepSouth]

Never tried one, Glock either. The only fer-in made pistol I have is a Walther PPKs and its made here.

KAHR’s are US made
company headquarters is in Greeley, PA….
manufactured in Worcester, MA.

 

[Elkins45]

have a look inside your grip at the spring for the magazine release. The way the designed the spring in the polymer frame Kahrs is different and much cheaper than their steel frame guns. They imbed the end of a rod in the frame and use the opposite end as the spring. After a while the polymer loosens around the spring, the spring loses tension, stops holding the magazine catch in place, and the magazine starts falling out under recoil. Thats hi point level design quality. On a $300 CW, hmm....On a $600 PM9, .
I will say mine failed on the CW, not on either of my PM's. Maybe the PM's have an insert in the frame for the spring end instead of relying strictly on the polymer. Maybe the newer ones do as well. My CW didn't at the time.
Their solution was to send me a replacement release that was machined longer to take up that slack. They knew enough about the nature and predictability of the problem to have a ready supply of purpose made parts, but they wouldn't redesign or recall the gun. Maybe they have redesigned it since then, I don't know, don't care.
View attachment 1161781

View attachment 1161782
Then take a look at the slide stop spring.
There is a reason nobody else does it that way.

They eat magazine followers. They eat slide stop springs. They have a cheap design quality. They have issues with the magazine release. They have to have a 200rd break in period, requiring you to spend a significant amount of money on ammo. They are notoriously unreliable. The percentage of people who have owned them and won't carry them is significant.

That being said, I loved the trigger on them, enough to be burned three times by plastic kahrs yet still buy a K9.
The K9 is a whole different animal. Extremely well made and reliable, compact, and pleasant to shoot.

You do realize that Glock magazine release springs work the same way, right? And Kahr made the same 200 round break-in recommendation for the metal framed guns before they even made a polymer model.

I’ve been shooting my P9 for almost 20 years now. I’ve replaced the recoil spring and the extractor spring as wear items but nothing has broken. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. The experiences of other people do not change my experiences.

 

[plainsdrifter]

KAHR’s are US made
company headquarters is in Greeley, PA….
manufactured in Worcester, MA.

My bad. Sounds Korean.

 

[9mmepiphany]

My bad. Sounds Korean.

That's funny...it is meant to sound German. It is a made up name made up for marketing like Haagen Dazs

The origin of the name was brought up in a Massad Ayoob article in American Handgunner in the early 2000s

 

[bannockburn]

First Kahr I had was a CW40 and while I really liked the ergonomics, size, weight, and the trigger of the gun, it had it's fair share of problems (even after the 200 round break-in period). It was also a bit of a handful with muzzle flip and recoil with some of the hotter .40 loads. Sold it at a gun show and put getting another Kahr on the back burner for several years.

When the CM9 came out I was ready to give Kahr another chance and picked one up. Loved it's small size and great trigger and found it to be much better built this time around. I think the 9mm. is the sweet spot cartridge for this gun.

 

[doubleh]

I have never had any interest in them. For all I know about them they could be the qreatest thing since sliced cheese or total junk. They are a brand that I seldom see in area gun shops or gun shows.

 

[megatronrules]

I voted for that I love kahr arms guns for the reasons stated. That being the trigger pull, lightweight,slim and smaller than other makers guns in the same caliber.

I've owned eight different kahr arms guns over the years, including my current PM45. I've owned 2 other PM45's,a CM40,P9,CW45,and a PM9 that I sold to purchase my current PM45. The PM45 is my EDC,before this it was the PM9 that was sold to funs the purchase of my PM45. I reasoned that I'd rather have a PM45 than the PM9 as I prefer 45ACP and the PM45 isn't much bigger than the PM9,the PM9 with it's 7rd extended magazine in place had the same length grip as the PM45 with it's 5rd flush fit magazine in.

The PM45 is scarecly longer than the PM9 and barely wider. 0.9" wide for the PM9 vs. 1.1" wide with the PM45. All of my kahr arms guns have been utterly reliable. With the exception of the 2nd PM45 has 2 or 3 FTF in the first 100 rounds,the CM40 had I think 9 or 10 FTF failures to feed. After the 150 or so round mark,the CM40 smoothed out and ran fine. All the others ran great even within the 200 round break in the kahr recommends. So yes I'm a satisfied kahr owner. As far as the PM45 goes it's the smallest lightest 45acp I'm aware of. Being significantly smaller and lighter than the XDS,and a lot smaller,thinner and lighter than the Glock 36 I used to own.

 

[Armybrat]

You do realize that Glock magazine release springs work the same way, right? And Kahr made the same 200 round break-in recommendation for the metal framed guns before they even made a polymer model.

I’ve been shooting my P9 for almost 20 years now. I’ve replaced the recoil spring and the extractor spring as wear items but nothing has broken. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. The experiences of other people do not change my experiences.

Kahr recently built a “break-in” machine that racks the slides 200 times at the factory before the pistols are shipped out. That was in response to the negative feedback about the original break-in recommendation.

 

[Elkins45]

That's funny...it is meant to sound German. It is a made up name made up for marketing like Haagen Dazs

Marketing and product names are a funny business. The first time I ever heard of a Ruger pistol I assumed it was a garbage quality gun and the company was attempting to capitalize on the familiar Luger name.

My bad. Sounds Korean.

I’m almost positive the original founder of the company is the son of Sun Myung Moon, the Korean leader of the “moonies”, the Unification Church. He was reportedly not an active member of the church.

Kahr recently built a “break-in” machine that racks the slides 200 times at the factory before the pistols are shipped out. That was in response to the negative feedback about the original break-in recommendation.

Massad Ayoob (among others) recommends shooting 200 rounds of your preferred carry ammo just to make sure your gun is functional before trusting it to save your life. I can see how that would get expensive unless you get a deal. Most self-defense ammo isn’t cheap.

 

[MarshallDodge]

I've had an E9 since the late 90s when they first came out. My K9 left in a divorce settlement, she claimed it as hers, but I still have the MK9

 

[Double_J]

I have a CW9 I bought in 2006 that has been a solid shooter, with the sole exception of the plastic front sight breaking off. The shop I bought it at fixed it for free as they sell every gun with an in-house "lifetime" warranty. It has several hundred rounds through it and is a daily carry for when I pocket carry.

 

[megatronrules]

Kahr recently built a “break-in” machine that racks the slides 200 times at the factory before the pistols are shipped out. That was in response to the negative feedback about the original break-in recommendation.

I'm a fan of kahr arms guns have been for years. My EDC is a PM45. I find this comment hilarious,is it satire of fact? I'm seriously asking as my PM45 was bought new was very tight. It also very smooth And right. But ran fine from round number one. So I'm honestly wondering if kahr actually has done this.