New K9 owner, with questions

[leadcounsel]

New K9 owner. Local purchase, thru an FFL as required by my state, from private seller.
$300 for the gun and $20 for transfer.

It's as close to 100% condition as a used gun could be. I contacted Kahr before buying with the serial number and Kahr responded that it's a 2017 year manufacture. Serial is BF48XX range. I looked on the chart and expected it to be about 10 years old, but not according to Kahr.

It's black finish, bright trijicons, FIVE magazines, and polymer IWB holster, original serialized box and accessories. Has good texture Hogue style factory rubber grips. Black finish is flawless. A very good deal for the price.

Really neat pistol. I own a couple polymer Kahrs. I primarily use a Walther PPS for single stack needs, but am totally comfortable with Kahr polymer guns. I was considering this K9 for a carry gun and noticed a quirk. With an unloaded gun and mag, in slide lock, I cannot physically depress the slide release to bring the slide forward/home. I have to remove the magazine and wrestle the slide release to depress it. Got home and with a loaded mag on open slide, I can fairly easily drop the slide on a live round. Is that by design, or a fluke or defect?

Anyway, the weight and size are great. Very high quality, tight machining. Quality exudes from this gun IMO. Anything else I should be aware of in this gun?

I'm told it will be accurate and reliable. If this plays well at the range I can definitely see it in my carry rotation.

[skiflydive]

With an unloaded gun and mag, in slide lock, I cannot physically depress the slide release to bring the slide forward/home. I have to remove the magazine and wrestle the slide release to depress it. Got home and with a loaded mag on open slide, I can fairly easily drop the slide on a live round. Is that by design, or a fluke or defect?


That's by design I believe. Congrats, I'm looking for one of those myself in SS.

[Bawanna]

By design for sure.

Welcome aboard.

[Old No7]

New K9 owner. Local purchase...

$300 for the gun and $20 for transfer...

It's as close to 100% condition as a used gun could be...

Kahr responded that it's a 2017 year manufacture...

It's black finish, bright trijicons, FIVE magazines, and polymer IWB holster, original serialized box and accessories...

Black finish is flawless...

A very good deal for the price.


I think you're wrong -- that was an OUTSTANDING DEAL even at 1.5X the price paid!

Shoot it like you stole it -- 'cause you did ! ! !

Old No7

[ripley16]

Anything else I should be aware of in this gun?

The slide resists closing on a empty mag by design. There are also 8 round mags available for the K9. There are a variety of other aftermarket grips available if that's your bent. If you find takedown difficult (the slide stop pin can be hard to remove on the K9 without a tool), you can whittle a piece of wood to hold the slide open at the correct spot. You found a great deal by a wide margin, congratulations.

[leadcounsel]

The slide resists closing on a empty mag by design. There are also 8 round mags available for the K9. There are a variety of other aftermarket grips available if that's your bent. If you find takedown difficult (the slide stop pin can be hard to remove on the K9 without a tool), you can whittle a piece of wood to hold the slide open at the correct spot. You found a great deal by a wide margin, congratulations.

My other Kahr's (P9, CW9) don't have the slide lock issue on an empty mag. They ride home easily. They
are simple take down and assembly. I was not anticipating this K9 rubic cube... Yikes.

The K9 was filthy inside. So like with any new gun I cleaned it. Take down was not too tricky and got it probably on the 2nd or 3rd try. Scrubbed and lubed the gun thoroughly with home-brew gun cleaner (motor oil and atf fluid mix) and put a little lithium grease on the rails. I will note that the gun is probably the most highly and tightly fitted gun in my collection. The tolerances are extremely tight, and I'm hopeful this is not so tight as to cause reliability problems. The barrel was tricky to get out/in. Not much room on the rails for grease and most was forced out. Re-assembly was challenging and took probably 15 minutes to get the slide release lever reinstalled. I didn't see any guide notches so it was just guess work holding open and compressing a strong recoil spring. Got it, but it was a PITA. It's among the most challenging to re-assemble.

Probably taking it shooting in the next week.

[JohnR]

Wish I could find a K9 for $300.

[BirdsThaWord]

I read that dropping the slide on an empty mag could damage the exactor, so maybe a good thing you could not do so. As far as the tolerances, you can break it in with out any ammo. You can do this in a few ways. You can remove the barrel and recoil ass. and rack, rack, rack. This will let the slide & rails “mate”, immitating range time. If the recoil assembly is too tight, you can do so with the barrel and recoil in place, and/or leave the slide locked back overnight (or a few nights if extreme). I found that the easiest way to do manual racking with the recoil in there is to just hold the slide in place and push the gun away. I have sat watching tv doing this and can mimic 100’s of rounds being fired before long at all. I had an Iver Johnson Thrasher SS that was too tight so I did this. It ran like a champ afterwards. I miss that lil .45. Congrats on your steal of a deal!!!

[finpro]

I read that dropping the slide on an empty mag could damage the exactor, so maybe a good thing you could not do so. As far as the tolerances, you can break it in with out any ammo. You can do this in a few ways. You can remove the barrel and recoil ass. and rack, rack, rack. This will let the slide & rails “mate”, immitating range time. If the recoil assembly is too tight, you can do so with the barrel and recoil in place, and/or leave the slide locked back overnight (or a few nights if extreme). I found that the easiest way to do manual racking with the recoil in there is to just hold the slide in place and push the gun away. I have sat watching tv doing this and can mimic 100’s of rounds being fired before long at all. I had an Iver Johnson Thrasher SS that was too tight so I did this. It ran like a champ afterwards. I miss that lil .45. Congrats on your steal of a deal!!!

You can accelerate the manual break-in process by lubricating the K9 with "honing oil", sometimes called "sharpening oil", which is used on sharpening stones. While it is an oil, it does not protect against wear and actually polishes metal on metal surfaces, like pistol slides, barrels, steel guide rods, with motion. You can actually observe the polishing action which is surprisingly quick. It also works on the trigger mechanism and the drop safety. When using this on the cams of the trigger mechanism, you can pull the trigger until it is just short of releasing so you can quickly do many pulls. At some point, you will want to pull fully to release the striker. It may be controversial, but I think it helps to put some honing oil into the striker channel to polish the metal on metal striker parts. Usually it will make the sliding parts slightly harder to move initially and then it becomes easier. You can feel this happening. When finished, this oil should be wiped off the gun and you will be able to see the metal that has been polished away. i have done this on several guns and have never observed any problems and the moving parts were remarkably smooth.

This oil is usually USDA food safe, apparently because it may be used on kitchen knives, and may be water soluble. It is easily removed with dish detergent or alcohol and then gun oil or grease should be applied to the moving parts. It is also useful in sharpening hair clippers, beard trimmers, electric shavers, etc. Just clean any old lubricant then put a few drops on the blades and run the mechanism for a few seconds. Be sure to check the appearance of the blades before and after and replace the sharpening oil with the proper lubricant.

[leadcounsel]

Took the Kahr K9 out today. Myself and 3 shooters, and a bunch of pistols.

It performed well, and was combat accurate. It was well received but didn't bowl me over either, and nobody gravitated to it. The most popular gun was the Walther P99, and the FN FNS9.

To be blunt the K9 won't be unseating my Walther PPS gen 1 any time soon. The PPS is, IMHO, a better pistol. But I did like the K9. It's a great, well made pistol no doubt. Trigger was fine, it was fully reliable. The ejection was sporadic and unpredictable, with cases going in all directions with varying force.

I did have one weird probably ammo-related issue. Gun performed flawlessly. One round had a large flash explosion inside the chamber and did not cycle the gun or eject. It was not a squib.

I expected to see a head-case rupture or something. I ejected the case and inspected it carefully under light and with magnification and see no abnormality. I *think* I grabbed the right case off the ground. It's possible that I grabbed the wrong case and missed the correct one.

Fired probably 4 mags before the event, and 10 mags afterward without issue.

Someone on another forum suggested it fired out of battery, hence the flash and no ejection. Anyone have out of battery firing on their K9?

What might have caused this?

[JohnR]

My K9 seized up once from lack of lubrication. Perhaps it was dirty and dry?

[gb6491]

.... Anyone have out of battery firing on their K9?

....


Not with mine.

[leadcounsel]

My K9 seized up once from lack of lubrication. Perhaps it was dirty and dry?

I had previously stripped it, scrubbed it clean, and lubed it so that wasn't an issue.

I'd estimate we put ~100 - 150 rounds thru it and only had 1 hiccup with that weird ammo issue, which occurred very early in the K9 range use.

[cardguy]

ALG's Go Juice is a very high grade lube made for guns of all sorts.

[BirdsThaWord]

You can accelerate the manual break-in process by lubricating the K9 with "honing oil", sometimes called "sharpening oil", which is used on sharpening stones. While it is an oil, it does not protect against wear and actually polishes metal on metal surfaces, like pistol slides, barrels, steel guide rods, with motion. You can actually observe the polishing action which is surprisingly quick. It also works on the trigger mechanism and the drop safety. When using this on the cams of the trigger mechanism, you can pull the trigger until it is just short of releasing so you can quickly do many pulls. At some point, you will want to pull fully to release the striker. It may be controversial, but I think it helps to put some honing oil into the striker channel to polish the metal on metal striker parts. Usually it will make the sliding parts slightly harder to move initially and then it becomes easier. You can feel this happening. When finished, this oil should be wiped off the gun and you will be able to see the metal that has been polished away. i have done this on several guns and have never observed any problems and the moving parts were remarkably smooth.

This oil is usually USDA food safe, apparently because it may be used on kitchen knives, and may be water soluble. It is easily removed with dish detergent or alcohol and then gun oil or grease should be applied to the moving parts. It is also useful in sharpening hair clippers, beard trimmers, electric shavers, etc. Just clean any old lubricant then put a few drops on the blades and run the mechanism for a few seconds. Be sure to check the appearance of the blades before and after and replace the sharpening oil with the proper lubricant.
Excellent advice! I will have to get some and give it a whirl. Thanks!