New Kahr MK9 Elite 98 Range Report
Well, as fate would have it, an amended tax return proved very fruitful and I just happened upon a NIB Kahr MK9 Elite w/ night sights for a pretty good price. Needless to say, I jumped on it.
Here are some of my observations and thoughts for those who have considered the Kahrs, but who have held out from purchasing.
Fit and Finish:
First off, the slide is beautifully done with nice brushed flats, crisp serrations, well places sights, and no observable defects. This was the first thing that I saw with this gun, and was perhaps one of the nicer selling points of this particular Kahr. The feed ramp is mirror polished and shows no rough spots anywhere that could lead to FTFs.
(Serial Number whited-out)
The frame is mostly well done. The fit between the slide and the frame is very nice with all lines even. The post processing machining is flawless on the entire frame except in a small area on the bevelled area above the trigger guard on the right side of the gun and on the extractor, where the surface is a bit rough from the casting process, as well as, one other small area. Also, the dust cover on the frame near the muzzle is uneven
in thickness from one side to the other. Reading other Kahr reports, this doesn't seem to be too uncommon for Kahr pistols. Seriously, one of the sides of the dustcover is so sharp that
I could probably shave with it. This has no bearing on the function of the pistol, and is purely cosmetic. However, These things, in my opinion, unacceptable for a pistol that has a
MSRP on the same level as SIGs and Walthers, and that generally cost more than Glocks. Milling inside of the frame and slide is flawless with no tooling marks. Kahr gets and A+ for the
inside of the slide -- it is really nicely done.
My last gripe involves the grips where it seems that some flashing was poorly trimmed from the grip near where the lanyard loop would go if this gun had one. Again, it is only cosmetic, but
these grips should have never made it out the door.
Other than that, the Trijicons are extremely bright and easy to pick up in low-light situations, and the trigger is so smooth it is scary. One thing that I immediately liked about
this gun was the simplicity of the design. When removing the slide and inspecting the fire control unit, it is just two cams -- one for the striker and one for the plunger firing pin safety -- and the firing pin assembly.
Take down was a real bear the first couple of times due to tight tolerances. I prefer the SIG/Steyr takedown system -- or even the USP system -- over the Kahr system.
Impressions at the range:
I put about 200 rounds through the gun. The diet of the day consisted mostly of hot, milsurp Danish NATO 9mm ball, a few rounds of Winchester White Box, and some Speer 147gr GoldDots and Federal 9BP 115gr JHPs.
I had two stovepipes in the gun -- both with the Danish milsurp. One at about round 85, and another at about round 165. This doesn't dishearten me, though, because even my seemingly
infallible SIG 239 had a couple of stovepipes in the first 150 rounds or so (though it has gone 1300 flawless rounds since...
). The Kahr manual explicity states that the pistol has a 200 round break-in period before it should be considered completely reliable. The next 500 or so rounds should
give an indication of whether this Kahr is a performer or not.
Feeding was absolutely flawless on the gun, even with the long OAL of the 147gr loads. Recoil was actually surprisingly pleasant for such a small gun with even the hot Danish ammo and the defense ammo. The White Box felt wimpy (because it is... ). The management of recoil was no doubt handled because of
the Kahr's very heavy weight for its size. Putting the pistol in a fronts pant packet that is not well supported yeilds an unacceptable droop. Coat pocket carry is more than acceptable, and I have done it a few times already (no round chambered because I don't have a holster yet). I would have never realized
that the pistol was jumping around as much as it was at the range if I hadn't brought along my Steyr M9 to compare. The Steyr was simply pleasant to shoot and had almost no felt recoil in comparison to the little Kahr. Like I said, though, the Kahr was still quite pleasant to shoot with even the hottest loads.
The little Kahr didn't like the hard primers on the milsurp ammo. I had good solid primer strikes that didn't ignite the primer at least twice on about 10 different rounds. All of these rounds were promptly digested through my Steyr without any complaints whatsoever. I wouldn't trust this gun (as of yet) if all I had to grab was Danish milsurp ammo -- or any other ammo that is known to have hard primers (like S&B) -- if my life was on the line. I would much rather grab my Steyr, P7, or a CZ75 in this case. With that caveat, the Kahr performed flawlessly with all of the premium ammo that I had on hand.
Accuracy was excellent for such a small gun, but the short sight radius did prove to be detrimental to accuracy and the best group sizes at 30 feet offhand were in the area of 2-2.5" with a flyer or two here and there. Close in, rapid-fire, shooting at 7 feet proved simply and effective with half of the rounds going within the 8-ring and the other half outside. There were a couple of flyers (still on the paper) that were all my fault, but the gun proved easy to control despite its small size.
The realm of double taps at 7 feet is where this gun really shined for me. I didn't have a timer to measure my splits, but I can say that I was pulling the trigger as fast as I could, and one of my double taps had both rounds touching on the paper with another at less than 1" apart, and the other double tap drills being less than 1.5" apart. This, to me, was more than acceptable, and I was delighted with my performance as I would expect my
groups to open up in a stressful life-or-death situation. (You really don't want 1" groups on the bad guy -- you want to perforate as many organs and vessels as possible. Thus, I am happy with a 1.5" group on the range, but I would expect that these groups would open up to 6" or so in a stressful situation, which is perfect in my book.)
One thing that I did note while shooting this gun was that I shorted the trigger a few times and missed the reset. Normally, being a DA/SA kind of guy with my SIGs and HK USP Compact, I found myself switching back to my training unconsciously and changing my trigger pull in expectation of the DA/SA transition to the shorter trigger during rapid fire. This, of course, had no bearing on the function or design of the gun as DAO, but it
is important to note that training is a must when switching to a different carry gun so that the muscle reflexes automatically operate the gun in the intended fashion during a stressful situation.
Also, the gun runs out of ammunition quickly during rapid fire drills. I am not one to whine about magazine capacity because I know that the average number of shots fired in a self-defense situation is 2, and because people have successfully carried revolvers for one and a half centuries, but it is important to train for a "tactical" (yes, I know ) reload if you are ever involved in a shooting. With the gun only carrying 6+1, pulling the trigger 3 or 4 times empties half of your capacity and therefore it is definitely a good idea to swap mags if there
is a lull in the fighting.
Ergonomics:
The feel of this gun in the hand is surprising considering its compact size. I had no trouble holding on to the gun during shooting sequences, and getting a positive grip is easily done despite the pinky hanging off of the bottom of the grip. The Kahr does not feel blocky like the Glock 26 due to its narrow profile. The gun is extremely narrow (0.9") and, testing with preliminary impressions by mexican carrying an unloaded gun in the 3:30 position, seems to disappear on my waist. I am a small framed individual at 5'9" and 155lbs. Switching to my Steyr, the gun felt huge in my hands even though it really isn't all that big of a gun. One thing that the Kahr could benefit from would be some 30dpi checkering on the frontstrap as I would begin to worry about grip and retention of such a small gun if my hands were sweaty. Checkered woods grips would also assist to make gripping
the gun more positive than the less than ideal texture on the nylon grips. HK USP Compact stipling would have been
ideal for the nylon grips.
Conclusions:
Overall, I am quite satisfied with this gun. The two stovepipes are forgiveable sins as long as the gun evens out now that it has surpassed the break-in period. Time will tell with this little gun, but I believe that it will step up to the plate. The gun was more than accurate enough for defensive shooting, and it just seems to disappear when put IWB of my normal clothing and belt. The gun, IMHO, would be a stretch for front-pants-pocket carry because of how heavy it is. Ankle carry would require a good holster like an Alessi in order to stabilize a gun that is almost as
heavy as my SIG 239. Pocket carry in a coat would be ideal as long as there was a holster that covered the trigger guard. The trigger pull is far too light and short for mexican or unholstered pocket carry.
The rough spots and uneven dust cover on the frame are annoying for such an expensive gun, and Kahr really needs to
adjusts its QC standards if they are going to keep their customer base. My SIGs, HKs, Steyrs, Smiths, etc... show none of these manufacturing defects and oversights. I am not going to take this issue up with kahr at this time because I know that Kahr CS is spotty with things like this (read the "Kahr's solution to a problem" thread on TFL). Also, I don't want to send in a reliable gun for a Monday-morning replacement, but it is somewhat disappointing.
I got a fairly good deal on the gun for a quarter over 5 Benjamins with night sites and the Elite trigger NIB, but with the QC issues that I have mentioned, I would feel that anything more than this would be far too much to pay. I say this because my SIGs with night sights (with exception to my 220TT) were all $500 or less.
Well, as fate would have it, an amended tax return proved very fruitful and I just happened upon a NIB Kahr MK9 Elite w/ night sights for a pretty good price. Needless to say, I jumped on it.
Here are some of my observations and thoughts for those who have considered the Kahrs, but who have held out from purchasing.
Fit and Finish:
First off, the slide is beautifully done with nice brushed flats, crisp serrations, well places sights, and no observable defects. This was the first thing that I saw with this gun, and was perhaps one of the nicer selling points of this particular Kahr. The feed ramp is mirror polished and shows no rough spots anywhere that could lead to FTFs.
(Serial Number whited-out)
The frame is mostly well done. The fit between the slide and the frame is very nice with all lines even. The post processing machining is flawless on the entire frame except in a small area on the bevelled area above the trigger guard on the right side of the gun and on the extractor, where the surface is a bit rough from the casting process, as well as, one other small area. Also, the dust cover on the frame near the muzzle is uneven
in thickness from one side to the other. Reading other Kahr reports, this doesn't seem to be too uncommon for Kahr pistols. Seriously, one of the sides of the dustcover is so sharp that
I could probably shave with it. This has no bearing on the function of the pistol, and is purely cosmetic. However, These things, in my opinion, unacceptable for a pistol that has a
MSRP on the same level as SIGs and Walthers, and that generally cost more than Glocks. Milling inside of the frame and slide is flawless with no tooling marks. Kahr gets and A+ for the
inside of the slide -- it is really nicely done.
My last gripe involves the grips where it seems that some flashing was poorly trimmed from the grip near where the lanyard loop would go if this gun had one. Again, it is only cosmetic, but
these grips should have never made it out the door.
Other than that, the Trijicons are extremely bright and easy to pick up in low-light situations, and the trigger is so smooth it is scary. One thing that I immediately liked about
this gun was the simplicity of the design. When removing the slide and inspecting the fire control unit, it is just two cams -- one for the striker and one for the plunger firing pin safety -- and the firing pin assembly.
Take down was a real bear the first couple of times due to tight tolerances. I prefer the SIG/Steyr takedown system -- or even the USP system -- over the Kahr system.
Impressions at the range:
I put about 200 rounds through the gun. The diet of the day consisted mostly of hot, milsurp Danish NATO 9mm ball, a few rounds of Winchester White Box, and some Speer 147gr GoldDots and Federal 9BP 115gr JHPs.
I had two stovepipes in the gun -- both with the Danish milsurp. One at about round 85, and another at about round 165. This doesn't dishearten me, though, because even my seemingly
infallible SIG 239 had a couple of stovepipes in the first 150 rounds or so (though it has gone 1300 flawless rounds since...
). The Kahr manual explicity states that the pistol has a 200 round break-in period before it should be considered completely reliable. The next 500 or so rounds shouldgive an indication of whether this Kahr is a performer or not.
Feeding was absolutely flawless on the gun, even with the long OAL of the 147gr loads. Recoil was actually surprisingly pleasant for such a small gun with even the hot Danish ammo and the defense ammo. The White Box felt wimpy (because it is...
). The management of recoil was no doubt handled because ofthe Kahr's very heavy weight for its size. Putting the pistol in a fronts pant packet that is not well supported yeilds an unacceptable droop. Coat pocket carry is more than acceptable, and I have done it a few times already (no round chambered because I don't have a holster yet). I would have never realized
that the pistol was jumping around as much as it was at the range if I hadn't brought along my Steyr M9 to compare. The Steyr was simply pleasant to shoot and had almost no felt recoil in comparison to the little Kahr. Like I said, though, the Kahr was still quite pleasant to shoot with even the hottest loads.
The little Kahr didn't like the hard primers on the milsurp ammo. I had good solid primer strikes that didn't ignite the primer at least twice on about 10 different rounds. All of these rounds were promptly digested through my Steyr without any complaints whatsoever. I wouldn't trust this gun (as of yet) if all I had to grab was Danish milsurp ammo -- or any other ammo that is known to have hard primers (like S&B) -- if my life was on the line. I would much rather grab my Steyr, P7, or a CZ75 in this case. With that caveat, the Kahr performed flawlessly with all of the premium ammo that I had on hand.
Accuracy was excellent for such a small gun, but the short sight radius did prove to be detrimental to accuracy and the best group sizes at 30 feet offhand were in the area of 2-2.5" with a flyer or two here and there. Close in, rapid-fire, shooting at 7 feet proved simply and effective with half of the rounds going within the 8-ring and the other half outside. There were a couple of flyers (still on the paper) that were all my fault, but the gun proved easy to control despite its small size.
The realm of double taps at 7 feet is where this gun really shined for me. I didn't have a timer to measure my splits, but I can say that I was pulling the trigger as fast as I could, and one of my double taps had both rounds touching on the paper with another at less than 1" apart, and the other double tap drills being less than 1.5" apart. This, to me, was more than acceptable, and I was delighted with my performance as I would expect my
groups to open up in a stressful life-or-death situation. (You really don't want 1" groups on the bad guy -- you want to perforate as many organs and vessels as possible. Thus, I am happy with a 1.5" group on the range, but I would expect that these groups would open up to 6" or so in a stressful situation, which is perfect in my book.)
One thing that I did note while shooting this gun was that I shorted the trigger a few times and missed the reset. Normally, being a DA/SA kind of guy with my SIGs and HK USP Compact, I found myself switching back to my training unconsciously and changing my trigger pull in expectation of the DA/SA transition to the shorter trigger during rapid fire. This, of course, had no bearing on the function or design of the gun as DAO, but it
is important to note that training is a must when switching to a different carry gun so that the muscle reflexes automatically operate the gun in the intended fashion during a stressful situation.
Also, the gun runs out of ammunition quickly during rapid fire drills. I am not one to whine about magazine capacity because I know that the average number of shots fired in a self-defense situation is 2, and because people have successfully carried revolvers for one and a half centuries, but it is important to train for a "tactical" (yes, I know
) reload if you are ever involved in a shooting. With the gun only carrying 6+1, pulling the trigger 3 or 4 times empties half of your capacity and therefore it is definitely a good idea to swap mags if thereis a lull in the fighting.
Ergonomics:
The feel of this gun in the hand is surprising considering its compact size. I had no trouble holding on to the gun during shooting sequences, and getting a positive grip is easily done despite the pinky hanging off of the bottom of the grip. The Kahr does not feel blocky like the Glock 26 due to its narrow profile. The gun is extremely narrow (0.9") and, testing with preliminary impressions by mexican carrying an unloaded gun in the 3:30 position, seems to disappear on my waist. I am a small framed individual at 5'9" and 155lbs. Switching to my Steyr, the gun felt huge in my hands even though it really isn't all that big of a gun. One thing that the Kahr could benefit from would be some 30dpi checkering on the frontstrap as I would begin to worry about grip and retention of such a small gun if my hands were sweaty. Checkered woods grips would also assist to make gripping
the gun more positive than the less than ideal texture on the nylon grips. HK USP Compact stipling would have been
ideal for the nylon grips.
Conclusions:
Overall, I am quite satisfied with this gun. The two stovepipes are forgiveable sins as long as the gun evens out now that it has surpassed the break-in period. Time will tell with this little gun, but I believe that it will step up to the plate. The gun was more than accurate enough for defensive shooting, and it just seems to disappear when put IWB of my normal clothing and belt. The gun, IMHO, would be a stretch for front-pants-pocket carry because of how heavy it is. Ankle carry would require a good holster like an Alessi in order to stabilize a gun that is almost as
heavy as my SIG 239. Pocket carry in a coat would be ideal as long as there was a holster that covered the trigger guard. The trigger pull is far too light and short for mexican or unholstered pocket carry.
The rough spots and uneven dust cover on the frame are annoying for such an expensive gun, and Kahr really needs to
adjusts its QC standards if they are going to keep their customer base. My SIGs, HKs, Steyrs, Smiths, etc... show none of these manufacturing defects and oversights. I am not going to take this issue up with kahr at this time because I know that Kahr CS is spotty with things like this (read the "Kahr's solution to a problem" thread on TFL). Also, I don't want to send in a reliable gun for a Monday-morning replacement, but it is somewhat disappointing.
I got a fairly good deal on the gun for a quarter over 5 Benjamins with night sites and the Elite trigger NIB, but with the QC issues that I have mentioned, I would feel that anything more than this would be far too much to pay. I say this because my SIGs with night sights (with exception to my 220TT) were all $500 or less.
from Kahr. I hated to spend that much money on something so frivilous but I couldn't sleep at night knowing that that dumb looking plastic part was sticking out of my pretty new gun. 
