Hello! I finally joined up after reading the forums for a while here. I got into shooting when I was a reporter - I did a story on an NRA Women on Target event at a gun range in my area, and it completely changed my idea of guns and if I could handle something like that. I met a man not long after I did that who carried, and it completely fascinated me. He taught me a little at a time about each caliber, what each pistol, shotgun and rifle did, country of origin and manufacturer habits and tastes, and a year later, we were living together, and he was sending me off to my first concealed carry class with his Walther PPS and the first box of Federal 9 I ever bought.

About July I began aching for my own (plus he wasn't fond of the purse lint that accumulated when I couldn't wear it at my new job), so I dug a little deeper and made many a chart and list on compact & sub-compact gun details, weight, height, caliber, SA/DA. trigger pull, recoil, polymer vs. steel framed, blah blah blah, but it wasn't until about a month ago that I finally decided to look closer at this "Kahr" that kept popping up in my perifery. I was pretty set that I wanted a steel framed pistol (not that the polymer PPS was a bad thing - but I held his father's 1911 and never wanted to put another plastic thing in my hand again) and discovered the beautiful little MK9. I layaway-ed it from Bud's and have it here, in my hands, two weeks later. He didn't get involved in my decision making, but was impressed with my choice.

When I got home with it this afternoon, I immediately drew up my KahrTalk stickys about cleaning it the first time and how and where to lube it. I have seen that some have gotten fresh-off-the-line dirty guns. Mine seems to have been inspected and heavily lubed, but no shavings or anything. Since I'd seen the take down videos, the manual directions were easy to follow. However, it goes without saying that this is not made for my little lady hands, and I was havin' to suck it up and just do it when it came to locking it open! But - I am not discouraged. I know from reading this forum that the break in process is an important and beneficial one if done properly, so I am not complaining as I sit here and rack it until my arms are jelly, because my gun is going to be reliable and awesome when I get out to the range and run a few boxes of Winchester white box through it tomorrow. Also INTENSELY thrilled with this trigger. I love that I can't feel that stop in it before it breaks, like the PPS, because I have a tendancy to anticipate the bang and pull the nose of my gun down to try to fight the recoil. (Which isn't that bad - there's a recoil reducer in it to begin with.) Can't wait to feel it with some lead behind it.

We thought we'd have a holster that fit, but this is so much smaller than ones we have now that I simply do not have a suitable carry option right now. BUT, I have ordered an IWB Kahr MK9 leather custom holster from TTGunleather in California, because they have made a few simply fantastic, classy holsters for us in the past. As with any good thing, I must wait for it, so I'm thinking about getting a holster attachment to put on a CompTac Minotaur we use for the P99. Suggestions for temporary holster options? I'm not a pocket carrier. And a little slim for appendix carry. Please don't make me put it on my ankle.

One more question, and I know this is probably the initiation question or something, but I have a fancy "7" written in ... Sharpie? on the inside of my slide and frame. Is it the batch number or something?



Thanks so much for the awesome forum! I appreciate having all the answers in one place!