Rather than adding my range report to the tongue-in-cheek "I didn't take the high road " thread (which was getting weird), I'll sum up & include it here.
Was between g26 and pm9 for pocket carry, ultimately went with pm9 on a reliabilityleap of faith, as it was so much lighter and slimmer in my pocket.
Got it in thursday, sat on it for a few days, finally got it to the range yesterday:
I brought 450 total rounds of CCI aluminum, WWB fmj & jhp. Logged all failures by ammo type and magazine; all ammo types split evenly through the flush mag and the +1 extended mag.
Started with a hundred through each mag before I got to jhp's- 3 failures to FIRE with the flush mag within the first 50 rounds- from the same box; so it could have been ammo related- except that upon inspection, there were no visible primer strikes. These three ftf's were the only failures of any kind with the FLUSH mag.
The +1 extended mag otoh, had a few more problems. Twice (once with jhp's once with ball) the slide locked back prematurely, and a few failures to feed. All the way out to the end. Not many, but they were evenly distributed during and after the "break in" period (200 rounds).
Anyways, as it will be pocket carried, I would be using only the flush mag, so I can dump the +1 (or send it back to kahr, maybe weak spring), and just focus on whether I am comfortable with the performance of the flush.
The problem is, I thought I brought enough ammo to come away (three hours later) with a definite decision one way or another. I don't know why I thought it would either run perfectly (= keep it), or have a failure every other mag (= dump it); but it kind of landed in no man's land- just enough trouble to make the decision hard.
Functioning aside, some +/-'s of overall impressions kind of surprised me. Only prior experience with kahr trigger was dry fire, and a couple of mags through a pm40. Not too heavy, very smooth, and crisp break, but the length of pull and long reset only complaints there. Minor though, and I can get used to it.
Accuracy impressed me. Was able to shoot it alot better than I expected. POA = POI with CCI, and the jhp's cloverleafed at 7 yards. Not so much with WWB fmj (soot)- POI was even a little high/left(?!). But very impressed with the overall shootability of this little thing- it didn't even seem to matter if I had the +1 in there to grip, or whether using the pinky dangling mag (with large hands, the circumference of the grip itself took more getting used to than anything else).
I told myself I wouldn't worry about the following issues- so these are not complaints as much as observations on the polymer frame. Overall pretty rough for a non "budget/value" pistol. Attached is an up close photo that shows much thicker mold lines it as compared to for instance glocks (which do have them too); and a giant BUTTON left from the injection molding on the top rear of the frame. Just in general, the frame could be much smoother, plastic "hairs" along the edges scraped off with a fingernail, no biggie. The slide otoh is very nicely sculpted. Controls are great- even the too sharp slide release is not too bad for me, even after hundreds of rounds (apparently those get rounded off alot, due to sore thumbs).
Overall, I'm not disappointed, but not impressed either. Don't know where to go with it now. Won't make a rash decision. Figure I at least owe it another range trip, with a few different boxes of jhp's, and the flush mag only. If it makes it through that, I think I'll keep it (or at least until GLOCK releases their 3" single stack nine at the shot show... lol i won't hold my breath).
Was between g26 and pm9 for pocket carry, ultimately went with pm9 on a reliabilityleap of faith, as it was so much lighter and slimmer in my pocket.
Got it in thursday, sat on it for a few days, finally got it to the range yesterday:
I brought 450 total rounds of CCI aluminum, WWB fmj & jhp. Logged all failures by ammo type and magazine; all ammo types split evenly through the flush mag and the +1 extended mag.
Started with a hundred through each mag before I got to jhp's- 3 failures to FIRE with the flush mag within the first 50 rounds- from the same box; so it could have been ammo related- except that upon inspection, there were no visible primer strikes. These three ftf's were the only failures of any kind with the FLUSH mag.
The +1 extended mag otoh, had a few more problems. Twice (once with jhp's once with ball) the slide locked back prematurely, and a few failures to feed. All the way out to the end. Not many, but they were evenly distributed during and after the "break in" period (200 rounds).
Anyways, as it will be pocket carried, I would be using only the flush mag, so I can dump the +1 (or send it back to kahr, maybe weak spring), and just focus on whether I am comfortable with the performance of the flush.
The problem is, I thought I brought enough ammo to come away (three hours later) with a definite decision one way or another. I don't know why I thought it would either run perfectly (= keep it), or have a failure every other mag (= dump it); but it kind of landed in no man's land- just enough trouble to make the decision hard.
Functioning aside, some +/-'s of overall impressions kind of surprised me. Only prior experience with kahr trigger was dry fire, and a couple of mags through a pm40. Not too heavy, very smooth, and crisp break, but the length of pull and long reset only complaints there. Minor though, and I can get used to it.
Accuracy impressed me. Was able to shoot it alot better than I expected. POA = POI with CCI, and the jhp's cloverleafed at 7 yards. Not so much with WWB fmj (soot)- POI was even a little high/left(?!). But very impressed with the overall shootability of this little thing- it didn't even seem to matter if I had the +1 in there to grip, or whether using the pinky dangling mag (with large hands, the circumference of the grip itself took more getting used to than anything else).
I told myself I wouldn't worry about the following issues- so these are not complaints as much as observations on the polymer frame. Overall pretty rough for a non "budget/value" pistol. Attached is an up close photo that shows much thicker mold lines it as compared to for instance glocks (which do have them too); and a giant BUTTON left from the injection molding on the top rear of the frame. Just in general, the frame could be much smoother, plastic "hairs" along the edges scraped off with a fingernail, no biggie. The slide otoh is very nicely sculpted. Controls are great- even the too sharp slide release is not too bad for me, even after hundreds of rounds (apparently those get rounded off alot, due to sore thumbs).
Overall, I'm not disappointed, but not impressed either. Don't know where to go with it now. Won't make a rash decision. Figure I at least owe it another range trip, with a few different boxes of jhp's, and the flush mag only. If it makes it through that, I think I'll keep it (or at least until GLOCK releases their 3" single stack nine at the shot show... lol i won't hold my breath).