I used to hate kahr.
I bought a new pm9 because of how small and light it was, yet chambered in a sufficient defensive caliber. I didn't listen when the forums warned me, and soon learned why they did. WOW what a poS (is what I thought to myself at the time).
First negative impression came from all the plastic hairs and burrs (almost chunks in some cases) all over the frame, and plastic portions of the rails. Huge mold lines and mold injection button. Very poorly finished. Compared to the dense hard plastic of GLOCK, Kahr's plastic is like clay. Maybe that's why they have to use so much of it (the WALLS of the frame are very thick compared to other polymer frames). Too bad that extra thickness doesn't prevent the soft plastic from getting chewed up as you grind the slide back and forth.
Trigger was smooth and light, but LOOOONG. WIth a LOOOOONG reset. Not great for rapid fire. Hated it.
Of course I had a handfull (ten or twelve) of failure to feeds and failure to fires during the "break in period", a concept completely new to me (kinda spoiled to pistols running straight out of the box).
Then to top it all off, shortly after buying mine, I read the January Handguns magazine article- while praising the pm9, they also admitted that "Kahr's not fooling anyone, the company will flat out tell you the pm9 is a 6,000 round gun". Definition of "carry alot, shoot a little" I guess. Along w/break-in periods, another concept I'm just not down with.
All this for a HIGHER price than my other autos (which I did NOT used to hate).
But now, all that's changed. I realized that while my glocks and rugers cost less, have never had a failure, never needed a breakin period, never grew plastic beards, never need to be dripping in lube in order to run, easier to dissasemble (no tools) and maintain, built of higher quality materials and finished with more attention; I wasn't looking at the big picture: you have to judge the Kahr for what it IS (not for what it's NOT).
Now, I no longer hate kahr. It quit generating plastic hairs at around 500 rounds, and the slide works better. I've gotten used to shooting slower with the long trigger & reset. And apparently Handguns magazine just pulled that whole 6k round report straight out of their cornhole, because I read that someone on the interweb shot 10k rounds through theirs with no problems. And as far as paying more money for a lower quality gun? Well, it wasn't that much more, and at least the profits go somewhere I can feel good about (some type of religious organization I believe).
Anyways, if I can become a reformed Kahr owner, so can anyone. So why buy a BLOCK when you can own a Kahr?!
I bought a new pm9 because of how small and light it was, yet chambered in a sufficient defensive caliber. I didn't listen when the forums warned me, and soon learned why they did. WOW what a poS (is what I thought to myself at the time).
First negative impression came from all the plastic hairs and burrs (almost chunks in some cases) all over the frame, and plastic portions of the rails. Huge mold lines and mold injection button. Very poorly finished. Compared to the dense hard plastic of GLOCK, Kahr's plastic is like clay. Maybe that's why they have to use so much of it (the WALLS of the frame are very thick compared to other polymer frames). Too bad that extra thickness doesn't prevent the soft plastic from getting chewed up as you grind the slide back and forth.
Trigger was smooth and light, but LOOOONG. WIth a LOOOOONG reset. Not great for rapid fire. Hated it.
Of course I had a handfull (ten or twelve) of failure to feeds and failure to fires during the "break in period", a concept completely new to me (kinda spoiled to pistols running straight out of the box).
Then to top it all off, shortly after buying mine, I read the January Handguns magazine article- while praising the pm9, they also admitted that "Kahr's not fooling anyone, the company will flat out tell you the pm9 is a 6,000 round gun". Definition of "carry alot, shoot a little" I guess. Along w/break-in periods, another concept I'm just not down with.
All this for a HIGHER price than my other autos (which I did NOT used to hate).
But now, all that's changed. I realized that while my glocks and rugers cost less, have never had a failure, never needed a breakin period, never grew plastic beards, never need to be dripping in lube in order to run, easier to dissasemble (no tools) and maintain, built of higher quality materials and finished with more attention; I wasn't looking at the big picture: you have to judge the Kahr for what it IS (not for what it's NOT).
Now, I no longer hate kahr. It quit generating plastic hairs at around 500 rounds, and the slide works better. I've gotten used to shooting slower with the long trigger & reset. And apparently Handguns magazine just pulled that whole 6k round report straight out of their cornhole, because I read that someone on the interweb shot 10k rounds through theirs with no problems. And as far as paying more money for a lower quality gun? Well, it wasn't that much more, and at least the profits go somewhere I can feel good about (some type of religious organization I believe).
Anyways, if I can become a reformed Kahr owner, so can anyone. So why buy a BLOCK when you can own a Kahr?!
