Magazines

[ricklee4570]

Anyone know why Kahr magazines have a cut out that goes so low on the front of the magazines? When manually unloading a Kahr magazine, you will notice that the second round automatically slides forward about a 1/4 of an inch. I believe this is one reason that a lot of the slide stops have to be filed down to get Gold Dots to work properly (the wide hollowpoint contacts the slide release forcing it up causing premature slide lock back when firing the gun). I believe this may also be the cause of the dreaded nose "dive down" of the bullet when cycling that jams the gun up as well.

Comparing it to my Ruger LC9 magazine I noticed a huge difference. First, the Ruger magazine has no cut out on the front of the magazine. So when cycling, the second round cant move forward. Hence it goes straight up and the cartridge rim stays flat against the back of the magazine. It is in the perfect position to properly feed.

Also, the Ruger holds the bullet uniformally. The Kahrs feedlips are wider than the cartridge case, so they can move laterally, whereas the Ruger is nice and snug, the cartridge is positioned the same everytime.

If you remove the slide and attatch the slide release and barrel to the frame, you can manually feed the bullets from a magazine and see the inconsistency how the Kahr magazine positions the rounds. The LC9, when done the same way is so much more precision like.

I am assuming that there must be a reason behind the cut out.

[jocko]

I have attributed that to the offset feed ramp that kahr has a patent on, to lower the bore axis of the gun. It is there by design. I try not to compare kahrs to what others do. I don't think that round moving forward has anything to do with hitting that slide lock lever. If all is correct in the gun, the round will move forward and it will not hit that slide lock lever. If it hits itk, then one has to either mod the lever a tad on thge inside or call kahr and ask for another slide lock lever. I had 3 replaced in my Para Carry 9 before my issues were solved.

[targetshooter]

I had a conversatioon about the magazine design with a fellow at Kahr, who seemed very knowledgeable about the pistol but could not give a definite comment on the mag design. I do remember, he told me the offset feed ramp was designed to allow the width of the pistol to be smaller than a center feed ramp design. And, the lower front cut on the mag could be to aid feeding into the offset ramp.