Michael W.
05-14-2010, 03:53 PM
Well, I decided to "double dip" this week and hit the range twice
in the same week. Not something I can afford to do too often but
hey....the Kahr instruction manual said I needed to shoot 200 rounds
to break in my new CW40 so I was only complying.....:D
(My wife wasn't buying that either....:o)
Anyway, since I was pretty sure I had enough ammo to do the break in
already in my safe all I would be out was the range fee so it wasn't too bad.
As an interesting and somewhat amusing side note, I've owned a number of
different 40 S&W guns over the years, but the last 3 years or so I did not
have one in the stable. When I was going into my gun safe to grab some
ammo for the break in session today it was almost like opening a time
capsule. I picked up a box of CorBon 135gr round that had a mfg date of
March 5, 1993! That's how long its been sitting in my safe and it represents
the early era of the .40 when all the rage was trying to reproduce the
ballistics of the 357 Magnum with light and fast loads. This load slings a Nosler
135gr bullet at 1300fps and is absolutely exhilarating to shoot. Moving up the
sediment layers a few years and I have a stash of Golden Saber 165gr. This
was during the era of widespread LE adoption of the .40 (mid to late 90's)
and the advent of the 'tweener" rounds splitting the difference between the
180gr and 135/155 rounds. As I recall, this load has racked up a seriously
impressive street cred in actual LEO shootings. Then comes the Age of the
Gold Dot when this impressive bonded bullet became the darling of the
industry and .40 aficianados in both 180 and 165 gr loadings. I still have a few
bags of the Georgia Arms loaded Gold Dot 165's that was loaded a tad faster
than the Speers and cranked along at 1100fps. This was (and is) and
excellent round, accurate with low flash. And to give you an idea how long
I've had it....it's marked on the bag $15/50....and thats with nickeled cases...
yikes!
So just goes to show you....I'm the perfect target demographic for ammo
designers:) If you make something cool, I'll probably buy a box to try!
Ok, so once I got myself to the range and set up in my lane, I started with
150 rounds of Sellier & Bellot flat nose FMJ. Once again, although I am
no longer surprised by it, I was still pleased at how sweet the .40 shot.
In fact, although its been a few years since I shot a G23 and G27 I seem
to remember both having more muzzle flip than the CW40. There's no doubt
that there's more recoil than the 9 and perhaps even than the .45 but once
again, just the ergonomics of the grip and grip to frame angle really do a lot
to tame the bark. I could have easily shot twice as many rounds as I did
and not felt any discomfort. I'm really pleased with the way all 3 of my Kahrs
shoot.
Right at around 50 rounds I had an FTF where the flat nose profile of the S&B
hung up at the bottom of the feed ramp. Around about the same time I had
a single FTRTB. It was out about 1/4 inch. A slight nudge on the back of the
slide and it went in and fired. That would be it for malfunctions.
Also, one thing I had not encountered before with my other Kahrs
during the first 150 rounds or so, if I let the trigger back slowly after
firing to a reset point it would sometimes not reset but seem to hang up just
shy of the rest point. I little jiggle and it would reset. A couple of times I
would instead "nudge" the trigger from behind and it would reset all the way.
This was beginning to worry me and I was envisioning in my head what could
be causing it, perhaps bent trigger bar binding on the mag? Weak trigger
return spring? But within about 50 more rounds it completely went away.
In fact I've tried inducing the "won't completely reset" condition a number of
times both with live ammo and empty gun and I can't do it. Trigger is as
smooth as silk now. So apparently "something" broke in properly just
like it was supposed to.
One other thing I noticed, while I was not too concerned with accuracy
during todays session, I did notice that the gun tended to shoot low as
compared to the PM9 and PM45. Not sure if this is a function of the sights or if it was the
longer sight radius throwing me off. Something to explore on the next session
I think.
All in all, I shot 150 rounds of the S&B FMJ, 50 rds of G.A. Gold Dot 165gr,
25 rds of Golden Saber 165gr, and 25 rounds of CorBon 135gr.
Total of 250 rounds with only two malfs early in the shooting. Sounds like
another freaking perfect break in session!
I absolutely love this gun, but part of that love I believe is just the sheer
value of it. With the CW9/40 series easily available for ~$400 it's an almost
incredible deal. The workmanship and build quality TOTALLY blows
away anything else you can get at that price point. I also rather like the
blockier more business like slide aesthetic, reminds me of my Glocks.
Some pics...
Nestled between my Glock 26 and Glock 19 for context and perspective.
http://www.fototime.com/44E41AD26F90BA2/orig.jpg
Here covering a G19....note the slide is slightly shorter than the Glock, the
grip lenghth is about the same.
http://www.fototime.com/4D31C931ABF925F/orig.jpg
Here covering the G26....slide length is the same, grip is a tad
longer.
http://www.fototime.com/D6CD78CA255437A/orig.jpg
Ahhhh the comfort of "slim".......
http://www.fototime.com/394A52182D7C4C9/orig.jpg
Under the PM9...
http://www.fototime.com/44F50B40D98D872/orig.jpg
And the happy family....
http://www.fototime.com/73B59A39EAF13C4/orig.jpg
Michael-
in the same week. Not something I can afford to do too often but
hey....the Kahr instruction manual said I needed to shoot 200 rounds
to break in my new CW40 so I was only complying.....:D
(My wife wasn't buying that either....:o)
Anyway, since I was pretty sure I had enough ammo to do the break in
already in my safe all I would be out was the range fee so it wasn't too bad.
As an interesting and somewhat amusing side note, I've owned a number of
different 40 S&W guns over the years, but the last 3 years or so I did not
have one in the stable. When I was going into my gun safe to grab some
ammo for the break in session today it was almost like opening a time
capsule. I picked up a box of CorBon 135gr round that had a mfg date of
March 5, 1993! That's how long its been sitting in my safe and it represents
the early era of the .40 when all the rage was trying to reproduce the
ballistics of the 357 Magnum with light and fast loads. This load slings a Nosler
135gr bullet at 1300fps and is absolutely exhilarating to shoot. Moving up the
sediment layers a few years and I have a stash of Golden Saber 165gr. This
was during the era of widespread LE adoption of the .40 (mid to late 90's)
and the advent of the 'tweener" rounds splitting the difference between the
180gr and 135/155 rounds. As I recall, this load has racked up a seriously
impressive street cred in actual LEO shootings. Then comes the Age of the
Gold Dot when this impressive bonded bullet became the darling of the
industry and .40 aficianados in both 180 and 165 gr loadings. I still have a few
bags of the Georgia Arms loaded Gold Dot 165's that was loaded a tad faster
than the Speers and cranked along at 1100fps. This was (and is) and
excellent round, accurate with low flash. And to give you an idea how long
I've had it....it's marked on the bag $15/50....and thats with nickeled cases...
yikes!
So just goes to show you....I'm the perfect target demographic for ammo
designers:) If you make something cool, I'll probably buy a box to try!
Ok, so once I got myself to the range and set up in my lane, I started with
150 rounds of Sellier & Bellot flat nose FMJ. Once again, although I am
no longer surprised by it, I was still pleased at how sweet the .40 shot.
In fact, although its been a few years since I shot a G23 and G27 I seem
to remember both having more muzzle flip than the CW40. There's no doubt
that there's more recoil than the 9 and perhaps even than the .45 but once
again, just the ergonomics of the grip and grip to frame angle really do a lot
to tame the bark. I could have easily shot twice as many rounds as I did
and not felt any discomfort. I'm really pleased with the way all 3 of my Kahrs
shoot.
Right at around 50 rounds I had an FTF where the flat nose profile of the S&B
hung up at the bottom of the feed ramp. Around about the same time I had
a single FTRTB. It was out about 1/4 inch. A slight nudge on the back of the
slide and it went in and fired. That would be it for malfunctions.
Also, one thing I had not encountered before with my other Kahrs
during the first 150 rounds or so, if I let the trigger back slowly after
firing to a reset point it would sometimes not reset but seem to hang up just
shy of the rest point. I little jiggle and it would reset. A couple of times I
would instead "nudge" the trigger from behind and it would reset all the way.
This was beginning to worry me and I was envisioning in my head what could
be causing it, perhaps bent trigger bar binding on the mag? Weak trigger
return spring? But within about 50 more rounds it completely went away.
In fact I've tried inducing the "won't completely reset" condition a number of
times both with live ammo and empty gun and I can't do it. Trigger is as
smooth as silk now. So apparently "something" broke in properly just
like it was supposed to.
One other thing I noticed, while I was not too concerned with accuracy
during todays session, I did notice that the gun tended to shoot low as
compared to the PM9 and PM45. Not sure if this is a function of the sights or if it was the
longer sight radius throwing me off. Something to explore on the next session
I think.
All in all, I shot 150 rounds of the S&B FMJ, 50 rds of G.A. Gold Dot 165gr,
25 rds of Golden Saber 165gr, and 25 rounds of CorBon 135gr.
Total of 250 rounds with only two malfs early in the shooting. Sounds like
another freaking perfect break in session!
I absolutely love this gun, but part of that love I believe is just the sheer
value of it. With the CW9/40 series easily available for ~$400 it's an almost
incredible deal. The workmanship and build quality TOTALLY blows
away anything else you can get at that price point. I also rather like the
blockier more business like slide aesthetic, reminds me of my Glocks.
Some pics...
Nestled between my Glock 26 and Glock 19 for context and perspective.
http://www.fototime.com/44E41AD26F90BA2/orig.jpg
Here covering a G19....note the slide is slightly shorter than the Glock, the
grip lenghth is about the same.
http://www.fototime.com/4D31C931ABF925F/orig.jpg
Here covering the G26....slide length is the same, grip is a tad
longer.
http://www.fototime.com/D6CD78CA255437A/orig.jpg
Ahhhh the comfort of "slim".......
http://www.fototime.com/394A52182D7C4C9/orig.jpg
Under the PM9...
http://www.fototime.com/44F50B40D98D872/orig.jpg
And the happy family....
http://www.fototime.com/73B59A39EAF13C4/orig.jpg
Michael-