CW40... Give me an unbiased opinion

[jps37033]

I have owned glock 23's, taurus 24/7, xd40's, M&P 40s, and about any other handgun in 40 or 45 caliber you could own. I own a kahr cw40 and cw45. The fit and finish and feel in my hand is amazing. I want nothing but to stock ten of each in my safe. I have had a crush on the kahr line for years and have owned and traded over 20 of each. I just always fall back to the same issue. No matter which model I own, when hand racking the slide the bullet always nose dives into the feed ramp and locks up. Every model does it.

Gosh I love Kahrs. I love everything about them. But why a break in period? M&P and Glocks I own flawless from day one shell one. I will say I have only had one failure live shooting in all the kahrs I own.

Be honest. Are Kahrs as great as I see them in my mind? (and lets not factor in the most amazing buttery smooth trigger you have ever felt on any gun)

[bob98366]

Well, here are my data points. I'm a happy Kahr camper, but the journey did have challenges. Skip to the last paragraph for the short version.

Although I've been an occasional shooter for over 50 years, I'm a newbie to Kahr (bought two CW40s in early 2013) so did the break in procedure recently. Both had nosedive and FTE issues early on. Deburring the ejection path on the right rear of the barrel fixed the FTEs. Did the magazine follower sanding which helped but did not completely eliminate nosedives. However, since lightly sanding the slanted portion of the slide stop (where the next round passes to become chambered) to ensure a smooth path, I've had no nose dives in 700 rounds for each. At 1,200 rounds each, they are reliable, accurate, eat anything, hand rack very smoothly and are a joy to shoot. I carry one of them everyday with full confidence and have no intention of finding another carry pistol.

Now for comparison, we recently purchased two S&W semiauto pistols. The M&P Pro 40 (home protection) has 300 flawless rounds and the M&P Shield 9 (wife's new carry pistol) had two FTE issues very early on which I attribute to limp wristing. The cases were extracted normally but struck the hood of the slide and did not cleanly eject. My wife worked on a better grip and has shot 200 rounds on target since without any issues. She's happy so I'm ecstatic.

I would not recommend Kahr to a beginning shooter or someone mechanically challenged. But for someone who is experienced and not afraid of looking for solutions, they are very sweet pistols that mature like fine wine. YMMV

[hardluk1]

If it chambers well using the release it funtions as designed. Many hand racking problems are from ether rideing the slide even the slightest bit Or just not getting a full then clean release.

FTE can be an ammo issue do to a light bullet and light loads or grip issues more times than not. Add something to aide control. I get free used 1.75" inner tubes from a bike shop to use on small handguns and cut sleeves to slip on over the grip. Cut to cover the whole grip area. Also watch then round count when shooting.

Don't plane on shooting as many round as with your full sized pistol. You may find 50 rounds is enough maybe a 100 rounds during shooting section. Fatigue can set in quicker with smaller pistols than some my release.

I have cm9 that for some reason will s l o w rack and fully chamber a round ever time but the recoil spring pressure is higher. need a great grip and I found when breaking it in a was glad the slide lock worked so well. Grip was gone by 100 rounds I could not have clear it when done . A cw9 that would be hard for anyone to mess up racking if you get any decent rack and release and a large tp40 that will not slowly rack but works well done any other way. All have got'n better, smoother with rounds fired.

Most any mid and large pistols can be racked by a blind man that's never touch a handgun before , no special skills needed . Glocks ,1911, hk, sigs, m&p I does not matter.

The smaller the handgun gets the pickier they are about both shooter skills , maintenance along with ammo more so than larger pistol and when new. What may not work well new my feed a fire fine after a 100 or 200 rounds.

[TheTman]

I had a hell of a time with my CW40 when I first got it. It was my first polymer frame gun, and I didn't know I had a limp wristing issue. It never came up in my other metal framed semi-auto's, 1911, Star Model 30, Beretta Cougar .40, but I could not make it through a whole magazine on the CW40 without some kind of failure. A talk with one of the guys at the indoor range, clued me in to the limp wristing, and a small change to my grip on the gun improved things dramatically. Since then it has been totally reliable.

[b4uqzme]

But why a break in period?

Honest? I've never understood the issue some have with the recommended break in period. I insist on putting any gun through its paces before I trust it with my life. Regardless of what the manual says. Seems wise to me.

Honest? I hesitate to recommend Kahrs not because of the gun but because of the shooter. Not everyone is as anal as I and as diligent developing their shooting and maintenance skills. I do tell them that I love my Kahrs and would choose no other for my own protection.

[berettabone]

I have owned glock 23's, taurus 24/7, xd40's, M&P 40s, and about any other handgun in 40 or 45 caliber you could own. I own a kahr cw40 and cw45. The fit and finish and feel in my hand is amazing. I want nothing but to stock ten of each in my safe. I have had a crush on the kahr line for years and have owned and traded over 20 of each. I just always fall back to the same issue. No matter which model I own, when hand racking the slide the bullet always nose dives into the feed ramp and locks up. Every model does it.

Gosh I love Kahrs. I love everything about them. But why a break in period? M&P and Glocks I own flawless from day one shell one. I will say I have only had one failure live shooting in all the kahrs I own.

Be honest. Are Kahrs as great as I see them in my mind? (and lets not factor in the most amazing buttery smooth trigger you have ever felt on any gun)
I have never had a nosedive with any of my firearms, so to say that all models do it, is a stretch. I do polish the feed ramps on all of my firearms.

[b4uqzme]

I had a hell of a time with my CW40 when I first got it. It was my first polymer frame gun, and I didn't know I had a limp wristing issue. It never came up in my other metal framed semi-auto's, 1911, Star Model 30, Beretta Cougar .40, but I could not make it through a whole magazine on the CW40 without some kind of failure. A talk with one of the guys at the indoor range, clued me in to the limp wristing, and a small change to my grip on the gun improved things dramatically. Since then it has been totally reliable.

+1. My BIL is my best shooting partner and an excellent marksman but his grip is lousy. He cannot shoot my MK9 without limpwristing failures. Even his CCW instructor chastised him about his grip. But he shoots his guns well. I'd love to see him get a Kahr because it might be just what he needs to get him to improve his grip. But I could never recommend that even though it worked for me.

[kerby9mm]

I have 2 Kahrs (mk9 & mk40) & I can ride the slide on purpose as slow as possible & they both chamber rounds perfectly. I don't know what the difference is between the steel & plastic Kahrs is but I won't buy plastic framed guns from any manufacturer.

[warbird1]

I have a question. Why...do we insist on doing a sling shot of the slide when the one that built the gun says to release the slide with the slide stop/release. Are we that hard headed? I've never had the first problem with my CW40. That could be because I read and follow directions I am thinking. Well that is my rant for the day...so far anyway.

[SDGlock23]

I had one and it shot well, no issues as far as that goes. It would auto eject the magazine on the last round for some reason, but otherwise no issues.

[muggsy]

There is no such thing as an unbiased opinion. Opinions are formed of unadulterated bias. What are you some kinda nut? :)

[hardluk1]

Slide work as design while shooting but when I clean it I never pull the slide back to lock it just to insert the mag to chamber a round That sounds anal to me. I insert the mag, rack and ride and pull the mag to top it off.

SDGlaock23 Now if it locks the slide back too you got something special. It makes it self read for a new mag, hurry up, hurry up.

[Captquest]

Well, I bought mine with an already bent slide stop spring, and it has a magazine drop issue and I experienced a trigger malfunction once in 200 plus rounds. I love it. LOL, I haven't given up on it, I'm sure I will get it working right. I really do love every other thing about it, from the size and caliber to the revolver like DAO trigger.