New PM9 - 300 round break in recap

[Puinsai]

Aloha!
I'm brand new to the forum and owning a Kahr. I have been. CCW a Glock 26 for 4 years now. Last week I purchased a new PM9 with night sights. I lve the slender feel and fit/finish. I went to the range today and blew through 300 rounds. My hand is blistered and soar but made it through the stint with not a single failure.
The pistol is snappy and the trigger is very different than my Glocks. I was consistently hitting lower left all day long. Anyway. My 1st impressions of my performance was disappointing. I trust with more trigger time I will improve on my accuracy. If I don't improve in the next 500 rounds perhaps the PM9 is not for me...
Anybody had a similar 1st experience and can offer some insight/feedback?
Ty...

[sas PM9]

P:

One days practice with a new guns trigger system is not much of an education.
300 rounds was way too much in one session. Probably 100 rounds at a time is all that a person can assimilate.

I'm not sure that you can successfully re-educate your trigger finger from the feel of a glock to the feel of a kahr in such a short amount of time.
Lots of dry firing will help the transformation. It can be done. Most of us here started with a different handgun and had to adjust. Best of luck.

-steve

[ScottieG59]

I think low/left hits are possibly due to "milking the grip, " that is, there is sympathetic movement of the other fingers along with the trigger.

My Kahr PM9 has been a great little pistol, extremely accurate and reliable. It takes some adjustment to handling the smaller the smaller pistols. Problems in grip will cause accuracy and reliability problems.

[RRP]

I went to the range today and blew through 300 rounds.

Welcome aboard, Puinsai, and congratulations on your purchase.

As you learned from your first range session, these tiny DOA pistols don't shoot like guns with larger frames. To become proficient, you will have to adjust your training.

First, slow down. I know it's a new gun and it's hard to contain our excitement when test-driving a new toy, but you'll have to slow down and focus your technique on every shot, if you wish to become proficient. To "blow through" 300 rounds is not training. There's nothing wrong with shooting 300 rounds in one session, but in order to learn from the experience, you have to do more than sling lead down-range.

You're not a new shooter, so you know the fundamentals. Focus on every, single step: grip; sight alignment; sight picture; trigger control; and follow-through. Slow and deliberate with each step, for every shot. Speed will come later. To build proper muscle memory, consistency is key. Do it the same way, every time.

Pay particular attention to your trigger pull. Focus on pulling the trigger straight back. To begin, really, really slow this step down; way slower than you normally shoot. Watch your sight picture as the trigger breaks. Call the shot.

To enhance this drill, have someone else load your mags and randomly insert dummy rounds. Again, watch your sight picture as the trigger breaks. When your gun goes "click" (dummy round), and you're still on target, you're making good progress. Now you can begin to speed-up the process, little by little, but no faster than you can keep the gun on target as the trigger breaks.

Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

Train safe. Enjoy.

[AIRret]

Try dry firing while balancing a snap cap on top of your sight. It will really help smooth things out!

[RRP]

Try dry firing while balancing a snap cap on top of your sight. It will really help smooth things out!

Excellent advice, and a whole lot cheaper than live rounds.

[smo79]

I too had a similar situation when I got my cm9 but I spend 10 minutes a night dry firing to start building muscle memory. You can also put a dime on your front sight and practice balancing it while working on trigger control.

[muggsy]

You didn't mention at what distance you were shooting, but 21' is the norm for guns of this type. At that distance I can keep the majority of my shots within a 3" circle. With a little practice you can probably better that. The trigger takes getting used to unless you've done a lot of shooting with double action revolvers. The feel is similar. The accuracy of Kahr pistols is far better than it needs to be for a self defense pistol. One long continuous smooth pull seems to work best for me.

[berettabone]

Glock's can ruin you for life;)