PM9 Question/Problem

[heeler]

I have a recently purchased a PM9 and am having a couple of issues with it I thought maybe you guys could help me with.
My first question is when I first brought my pistol to the range for it's initial shooting when I inserted the fully loaded six round standard magazine and racked the slide it would lock back and of course to get the round into battery you would have to depress the slide stop as Kahr suggests to get the round chambered.
The pistol did do this without a problem.
And just to clear up any confusion after firing the last round in a magazine the pistol would always be fully locked back.
However after the first 70 or 80 rounds whenever you would insert the fully loaded magazine and pull the slide back this no longer occured and the slide would basically sligshot the round into the chamber,which from what I understand Kahr prefers that you depress the slide stop to send in the round.
On an empty magazine when you rack the slide it it stays locked open so I dont understand the change here.
What's going on??
Also the supplied seven round magazine if loaded with all seven rounds will always fail to feed the second round in the battery and that second round is jammed with it's nose pointing down not being able to go into the chamber because of it's downward angle.
However when you only load six rounds in it there is no problems at all.
I now have put 300 rounds through this pistol and it's accurate,shoots fine,but I am concerned about the issues I mentioned.
Any help appreciated.

[BuckeyeBlast]

If you're inserting a loaded mag and pulling the slide back, it should NOT lock open. If it was doing it before, THEN was the problem, and it sounds fine now. OR, maybe while you were first loading your first few mags and racking the slide, your thumb was hitting the slide stop lever as you were struggling to rack the new and tight gun.

If you look at an empty magazine, on the left side of the follower (the black part you put your first round onto and depress), you'll see a small metal tab. That metal tab on the magazine comes up through the grip and engages the slide stop. With ammo in the mag, it's too low and the gun should not lock open. When the mag is empty, it sits high enough to engage the slide stop. What Kahr is suggesting is that you lock open the gun BEFORE you put a loaded mag into the gun, THEN release the slide stop to chamber your first round.

As far as the magazine issue, make sure your mag spring is inserted properly. Also make sure the rounds are seated against the rear wall of the magazine when you're loading them. Could be ammo picky too, especially during break in. Or, you could just to what I did and quickly retire the 7 round mag. Don't even know where it is, although I think it's down on my reloading bench somewhere.

[heeler]

Well I dont know what to think now.
When I inserted the first few loaded magazines and racked the slide it would hold open so you could depress the slide stop to load the first round of the fresh magazine.
I say this because during my first range session with my PM9 I was alternating between it and my Diamondback .380 so when ever the last round fired and the slide locked back I would thumb down the slide stop so the pistol would release the slide and put it back in the OEM plastic box to keep the range nannys off my back and start firing my 380.
Perhaps I should just junk the seven round magazine and purchase another six rounder??
Also I failed to mention that whenever the seven round magazine is inserted and you grip the pistol to fire there is a bit of lateral movement in the magazine and I was thinking this might be the cause of the failure to feed on the second upcoming round.
Although that still does not explain why it feeds reliably when only six rounds are put in it.
And I want to be perfectly clear here,the standard six round magazine has never once caused ANY issues with the pistol,it just loads them and the pistol fires and spits them out.
In fact through out the whole 300 rounds of various ammo I have used to break in my PM9 the only issue of failing to feed has been with the factory supplied seven round magazine.
I feel much better now that you have explained the sequence of operations on the loaded inserted magazine and the racking of the slide but honestly I dont think I thumbed that slide up on the initial loads.
Damn weird,but weird things do occur upon breaking in of mechanical components and devices.
Thanks for getting back to me.

[TTPower]

when you insert a loaded magazine and rack the slide, the slide should not hold open. when you insert an empty magazine and rack the slide, it should hold open. and after firing the last round and and the magazine is empty, the slide should also hold open. this is normal.
i have also read people experiencing nosedive with their 7 round magazines and i know there is a fix for this. other shooters says that this is caused by your pinky pulling on the extension of the magazine. i'm sure other people can shed more light to this.

[jocko]

listen up, the only thing wrong with that PM9 is that fokking worthless ass7 round magazine that came with it. It seems to give more issue s in the PM9 and PM40's than any other. Don't pitch it, just don't tuse it. Or send it back to kahr and have them exchannge it for another 6 rounder. I can't give you a definitive answer as to why it does what it does. My theory is that the magwell is not long enough to keep the magazine alignmment for now yoiur fingers are on the bottom of that extended magazine and causing it to be come distorted somewhat. Why it does that on the second round is a good question. You might check to see if the magazine spring is in correctly and maybe take the magazine apart and check it over and with some fine sand paper smooth out the sides of the magazine follower. Don't oil the inside of the magazine, leave it clean and dry.

If this fals to make the 7 round magazine reliabe, you can do two things, send it back and get another 7 rounder and cross your fingers or send it back and get another 6 rounder and worry no more. You bought the gun for concealment, so really that 7 rounder to me is not needed. For range use, I think u should train the way you carry to, but if you just gotta have that 7 rounder, send it back . If you notice the gun with the 7 round magazine gives you a different feel than with the 6 round flushy fit, so IMO ur gonna shoot different because of that to.

Besides that 7 round magazinbe not working right, it is the most butt ugly magazine I have ever seen. I think I have maybe used my 7 rounder a couple of times,but I have 3 6 round magazines,if u getmy point.. Nice gun and to me it sounds like your gun is good to go.

When you rack the slide on an empty magazine it will and should lock open. When you rack the slide with a loaded magazne it will load that top rtound and not lock open.If you read your manual as you should have kahr stresses that one should use the slide lock lever to load thatfirst round. Hand racking of a PM9 is alittle tricky at first and if u don't hand rack perfectly, u will get issues. Once the gun gets smoothed out some and you get more accustomed to it also, you will be able to hand rack with ease.

If you have not, I would suggest you look in the kahr tech section for two great stickys
#1 Kahr lube section> it is awesome

#2 Propper prepping of yhour new kahr, This will help you with alot of unanswered questions to.

[TTPower]

if a lot people experience misfeed with the 7round mags why doesn't kahr do something about it?

[jocko]

good question, evidently "MOST" PEOPLE have no issues with the 7 ROunder, we just read of it more with people on this forum. Kahr proably has a couple hundred thousand PM9 floating around out there. I am sure they feel it is no problem. Mine worked the 2 or 3 times I tried it but I just hated that magazine. They will exhange magazaines if one has issues.I think If I wanted a 7 round magazine, I would have bought a cw9 or a P9. I bought my PM9 for its concealability so why would I want that extra length sticking out the bottom of my pocket gun. Just my two cents. No real reason why but some people do put more pressure on that extended magazine than others and this could be the culprit sometimes. Hard to trouble shoot that 7 round magazine thing. I don't think they are defective magazines, just that they don't perform well in the PM9 and PM40's..

[Indigo]

good question, evidently "MOST" PEOPLE have no issues with the 7 ROunder, we just read of it more with people on this forum. Kahr proably has a couple hundred thousand PM9 floating around out there. I am sure they feel it is no problem. Mine worked the 2 or 3 times I tried it but I just hated that magazine. They will exhange magazaines if one has issues.I think If I wanted a 7 round magazine, I would have bought a cw9 or a P9. I bought my PM9 for its concealability so why would I want that extra length sticking out the bottom of my pocket gun. Just my two cents. No real reason why but some people do put more pressure on that extended magazine than others and this could be the culprit sometimes. Hard to trouble shoot that 7 round magazine thing. I don't think they are defective magazines, just that they don't perform well in the PM9 and PM40's..

I switched out the baseplate on my Mk9 magazine to use it like normal 7 rounder in my K9 so to my knowledge the metal tube, follower, spring are all the same as a normal 7 round magazine thus supporting the above theory that the magazine itself is not at fault but simply the pressure/angle applied to it in extended form.

[jocko]

that makes sense. I have a K9 and never thought of that. THANKS

[Indigo]

that makes sense. I have a K9 and never thought of that. THANKS

No problem. I know I've seen somebody throw that info out before I'm far from the first but since I don't know who I'll take the credit. Why not. It turns that useless turd of an extended mag into something valuable.

[jocko]

would turd be just a "hard term" for POS extended mag???

[Indigo]

would turd be just a "hard term" for POS extended mag???

Yeah that one word sums up all other descriptive phrases you can think of all neat and tidy.

[jocko]

thank you, as I want to be politcally correct for Bawanna monitors all these posts and he is such a stickler for correctness!!!

[Indigo]

thank you, as I want to be politcally correct for Bawanna monitors all these posts and he is such a stickler for correctness!!!


Politics and turds go hand and hand so you're on the right track.

[heeler]

Back to my Kahr and thanks to all for answeing.
Yes I have read the manual and yes the first several magazine loads when I first starting shooting my pistol did in fact lock back when racking the slide but it does not anymore which I now understand is exactly as it should be.
Yes I read the lube tech address and did it after cleaning the pistol before ever taking it out to shoot.
Did some of the new prep but it's doing so well that I do think it's truely broken in now and need to start using some different defensive loads and will buy some AFTER my Visa card bill comes in as I bought no less than 1300 rounds of various fmj to see how my PM9 does with these.
Have bought WWB 115 gr.,Blazer Brass 115 gr.,Federal AE 115 gr.Remington UMC 115 gr.,and Blazer with the Aluminum case that I have not used yet because my indoor range that is a mile from the house strickly forbids aluminum case ammo there.
The best part of this is to know a lot of others have had the same similiar issues with their 7 round mag and frankly I dont like it anyway as it looks so weird hanging out of the pistol the way it does.
Maybe Kahr will do a swap and send me another 6 rounder.
If not I will just buy one or two.
Still I find it damn weird that when you load the 7 rounder with 6 instead of 7 it runs just fine.
Thanks guys.
Any suggestions on what to stay away from on defensive ammo??

[jocko]

karh will replace your 7 rounder with a 6, al lu gotta do is box it up and send it back with what exchange u want made .

Kahrs are not ammo sensitive at all, that being said any of the good defense stuff should do well for you. #1 is reliability, after that it is ur choice. I buy my range fodder ammo art wal mart in the 115 wwb per 100 fmj box round nose. works great, priced great,..