Quickdraw
07-29-2011, 11:16 PM
Well today must have been Kahr Range Day.
I went to the range today to run through the breakin of my Kahr CM9. I thought in addition to having several different type of ammo having several shooters would give another perspective to the reliability of the pistol.
We started with the factory 6 round mag and ran 1 Purple box of Federal 115gr ammo through it without a hiccup alternating shooters. Then I went with my hand loads and went through another 75 rounds with 1 FTF which I called as a limp wrist shot as it happened. We then change over to the 7 round Kahr mags that I had purchased. As I had read right after I ordered them some people have been having FTF issues with them. Well we were having the same issues where after the first and sometimes second shot the cartridge would FTF. Looking down into the open chamber you could see the top round in a nose down position in the mag. When I down loaded these mags to 5 rounds they ran flawlessly. After some discussion between us we surmised that the only difference between a mag loaded with 5 rounds and 7 rounds was spring pressure. When we got back to my home we disassembled the 6 and 7 rounds mags and started looking at the springs. It seemed and felt like the 7 round mag springs put a tremendous amount of pressure on the last 2 cartridges we would load. We slide the 6 rounds mag spring in the 7 round mag and it still gave good solid pressure right down to the last cartridge. Anyway we left the 6 round spring in the 7 round mag and went back to the range. Started shooting reloads again through the 7 round mag and the first 9 mags we had 2 FTF's after the first shot which was a huge improvement over the first time out. I then took 1 of the 7 round springs and cut 2 coils out to make it the same as the 6 round. We fired another 70'ish rounds with zero malfunctions. I believe problem solved although for the foreseeable future I will stick with the perfect running 6 round mag in the pistol for CCW. Somewhere in all of this we also fired 50 rounds of 124gr +P Speer Gold Dot SD ammo which ran perfectly. Total of 350 rounds. Final report, with the 6 rounds mag it was perfect and the 7 round mag issue may be resolved
Getting comfortable with the long DAO trigger pull started off as a little surprise but it became much more comfortable after a few mags. I found that I was better served if I stayed with a continuous smooth trigger pull through the entire range, there is no slack to take-up like on a Glock or Springfield. We both felt that with the range ammo there was next to no recoil or muzzle flip. The +P stuff was a little sharper but still less than out of my full size pistols. Accuracy was right there when we did our part and while cycling through several shots quickly it still did real well.
Overall this pistol is a keeper. I cycled the slide 500 times before I even went to the range and after the 350 rounds today it is now smoothing out and the spring tension is back to a reasonable pressure. I believe as it gets more rounds put through it it will even come together more in the way it shoots and cycles.
I picked up my DeSantis Nemisis pocket holster on the way home and the CM9 is in action as my new CCW pocket pistol.
I went to the range today to run through the breakin of my Kahr CM9. I thought in addition to having several different type of ammo having several shooters would give another perspective to the reliability of the pistol.
We started with the factory 6 round mag and ran 1 Purple box of Federal 115gr ammo through it without a hiccup alternating shooters. Then I went with my hand loads and went through another 75 rounds with 1 FTF which I called as a limp wrist shot as it happened. We then change over to the 7 round Kahr mags that I had purchased. As I had read right after I ordered them some people have been having FTF issues with them. Well we were having the same issues where after the first and sometimes second shot the cartridge would FTF. Looking down into the open chamber you could see the top round in a nose down position in the mag. When I down loaded these mags to 5 rounds they ran flawlessly. After some discussion between us we surmised that the only difference between a mag loaded with 5 rounds and 7 rounds was spring pressure. When we got back to my home we disassembled the 6 and 7 rounds mags and started looking at the springs. It seemed and felt like the 7 round mag springs put a tremendous amount of pressure on the last 2 cartridges we would load. We slide the 6 rounds mag spring in the 7 round mag and it still gave good solid pressure right down to the last cartridge. Anyway we left the 6 round spring in the 7 round mag and went back to the range. Started shooting reloads again through the 7 round mag and the first 9 mags we had 2 FTF's after the first shot which was a huge improvement over the first time out. I then took 1 of the 7 round springs and cut 2 coils out to make it the same as the 6 round. We fired another 70'ish rounds with zero malfunctions. I believe problem solved although for the foreseeable future I will stick with the perfect running 6 round mag in the pistol for CCW. Somewhere in all of this we also fired 50 rounds of 124gr +P Speer Gold Dot SD ammo which ran perfectly. Total of 350 rounds. Final report, with the 6 rounds mag it was perfect and the 7 round mag issue may be resolved
Getting comfortable with the long DAO trigger pull started off as a little surprise but it became much more comfortable after a few mags. I found that I was better served if I stayed with a continuous smooth trigger pull through the entire range, there is no slack to take-up like on a Glock or Springfield. We both felt that with the range ammo there was next to no recoil or muzzle flip. The +P stuff was a little sharper but still less than out of my full size pistols. Accuracy was right there when we did our part and while cycling through several shots quickly it still did real well.
Overall this pistol is a keeper. I cycled the slide 500 times before I even went to the range and after the 350 rounds today it is now smoothing out and the spring tension is back to a reasonable pressure. I believe as it gets more rounds put through it it will even come together more in the way it shoots and cycles.
I picked up my DeSantis Nemisis pocket holster on the way home and the CM9 is in action as my new CCW pocket pistol.