Kahr Arms PM9
(9mm)
Early on in '08, I found myself wanting for a backup
pistol for carry purposes. Once I had made the decision as to
whether or not it was really a good idea, that left the choice
of what and how big. For years, the .380 has been the caliber
of choice for such use but these days there are many more
offerings in larger, more powerful rounds. Wether a .380 or a
9mm is the better choice is pretty hotly debated and
doubtlessly will be for many more years to come. One of the
biggest points in favor of the .380 is that with modern
defensive rounds, improving both power and expansion, that the
.380 is much more effective that it was just a few years
ago. However, the counter to that is that the same
advancements have been made in virtually all of the defensive
rounds such that the net effect is zero, leaving you back to
the question of power.
Some research into the give and take of both offerings
ultimately led me to the conclusion that, while a .380 would
get the job done, the possibility of a good hit being
ineffective was too great for my tastes. So I settled on a
9mm and ultimately, after a few trips to the usual set of gun
shops, on the Kahr PM9.
Kahr's Pistols
Kahr started business in 1981 producing precision tools for
CNC machines, quickly expanding into other ares, including
aerospace, scientific instrumentation, and telecommunications
by 1986. It was not until 1995 that Kahr entered the firearms
business but when they did, they did with a vengance. Their
first offering was their model K9 which immediately took the
ultra-compact market by storm, led by the genius of designer
and CEO Justin Moon.
These days, Kahr has a wide assortment of pistols in .380,
9mm, .40 S&W, and even offering several ultra-compact .45
ACP pistols with the new PM45 delivering 5+1 rounds from a
pistol weighing just 19.3 ounces, unloaded. During their brief
history, this company has gained a reputation for quality and
reliability that's hard to match in a pistol this small. My
particular specimen is the PM9, introduced at the 2002 SHOT
show in Las Vegas.
Among the features the company touts is their cocking cam
trigger. By using a cam to release the internal safety, cock,
and fire the pistol, they have given their pistols a very
smooth and even double-action trigger pull. Combined with
their patented "offset barrel" – a feature which
places the trigger mechanism beside the barrel lug, rather
than beneath it, raising the shooter's hand closer to the
centerline of the bore – this pistol is quite
controlable for a short barreled 9mm.
Kahr's tactile loaded chamber indicator
Among the features that I find particularly nice is Kahr's use
of the extractor as a loaded chamber indicator. All that is
necessary to verify that you have a round in the chamber is a
quick stroke along the side of the slide by your trigger
finger. I much prefer tactile indicators over view ports since
not only can tactile indicators be used in low light, the view
ports become an avenue for crud to enter the chamber.
Not surprisingly, having an extensive background in CNC
processes, Kahr machines their slide out of a solid billet of
either 4140 chromolly or 416 stainless steel. Machining
rather than stamping means greater precision and improved
strength. This in turn means greater accuracy and reliability.
But the expertise is not confined to manuafacturing
alone. Another side effect of their expience with precision
manufacturing is that every weapon is totally designed using
electronic means and has been from the beginning. These
designs are then fed directly to the CNC machines without the
need to re-enter the specifications. So long as the
specifications entered are within what the machine is capable
of producing, accuracy is guarenteed.
Of course, once a gun is produced, it must be tested and boy
do they get tested. During the prototyping and refinement
process, Kahr fires litterally thousands of rounds through
these pistols. If they can stand up to that, they can stand up
to anything you're likely to dish out. Seemingly as something
of a challenge for consumers to break it, perhaps the best
feature of this gun is Kahr's very generous 5 year warranty.
Evaluation And Impressions
One of the first things I noticed when I got this pistol home
was what was required to disassemble it. After removing the
magazine and clearing the pistol, in order to get the slide
off, you first have to pull the slide back just to the point
where two witness marks line up. Holding the slide at that
point, you push out the slide stop from the other side. Once
removed, you have to release the striker by pulling the
trigger on an empty chamber. Once released, the slide is free
to be removed. This leads me to my first negative comment
about Kahr's design.
While many out there have no problems with this process, I do.
First, with a good recoil spring, that slide can be difficult
to hold at the correct position. For those of more slight
features than myself, this can be a problem. Since Kahr uses a
dual spring recoil system – a good choice, I think
– that means this spring will stay pretty stiff.
Second, having to pull the trigger at any point during
disassembly, to me, is just an inviting an accidental
discharge. I'm more paranoid about such things than most,
constantly double checking the chamber, and am always careful
to point any pistol at a very solid object such as my gunsafe
or the wall in front of the water heater but I can envision
others less careful.
Finaly, there is a prominent warning, printed in red no less,
about reassembly. When putting the slide stop back in, Kahr
cautions you most firmly to make certain that the back of the
slide stop lines up correctly with the cutout in the slide
when you're reinstalling that part. If you fail to get it to
line up correctly, you get to send the pistol back to the
factory for repair.
So it seems that Kahr has some significant room for
improvement in the take down process. Over time, I have gotten
more adept at manipulating these parts and pieces and have not
encountered any real difficulty in managing this process,
however the process still needs improvement, in my oppinion.
Shootin' Time
Not perfect, but acceptable
As I've noted elsewhere, I'm not the world's greatest
shot although I try pretty hard and am much better with rifles
than I am with pistols. Rarely are trips to the range
entertainment for me, rather, each session is concentration
and evaluation, searching for areas of improvement, and looking
for patterns. That said, I still need more practice.
With a short barreled pistol such as this one, I also
expected my accuracy to be further dimminished. I mean, for
something this size, are sights really even necessary? It's
not supposed to be effective beyond "Oh crud!"
ranges anyway, isn't it? Not so! I was pleasantly surprised by
how controlable the PM9 actually is. Sure, it's got more kick
to it than a full sized 9mm pistol would but that's to be
expected. Only a few shots were necessary before I got
used to it and from then on, I hardly noticed it. Some of this
is probably attributable to the considerations observed
earlier that Kahr made to get the shooter's hand more inline
with the barrel.
Down at the range, I received a box of Magtech 115gr FMC from
the gentleman at the counter and headed to my assigned
lane. For my tests for this article, I chose to use the
magazine with the grip extender just to give myself that extra
bit of help even though I only fired 5 rounds at a time. One
thing I noticed right off was that this
trigger feels different than other DA pistols I have
used. There is no preload with this one, that is, you don't
get to feel the trigger gain tension and then break. There is
also no short reset. This is the effect of their cocking cam
and serves to give ths pistol a smooth, clean stroke that
releases without additional tension. You can feel the cam go
back into place but that occurs pretty well near the rest
point of the trigger. What that meant for me was that the
trigger control on this pistol was going to be far more
important than on others since each trigger pull required the
full stroke.
At 21&apos this'll do just fine
I was right that my accuracy suffered with this pistol but
that had nothing to do with the gun and everything to do with
the shooter as noted above. The line and dot sight is also a
new one to me. In many ways, I actually found that I can line
this up easier than the more traditional dot contrast sights
found on so many other pistols. To me, this was a good choice
by Kahr and I hope they stick with it. For those who really
want it, tritium sights as well as Crimson Trace® laser
grips are available and can be factory fitted in some cases.
At the end of the day, I was somewhat disappointed with my
performance but not with the pistol. I was quite surprised to
find that, despite the short barrel and light weight of the
pistol, it was quite possible to get hits out to 50 feet with
aimed fire. While the two targets I chose to include here
don't exactly show a spectacular grouping of the 15 shots
perforating each piece of paper, they do given an indication
of the potential of this gun in the hands of someone who has
more practice and training than I have.
But I can hear the echos of those of you out there telling me
that a light weight, short barreled 9mm can't possibly
drive the bullet to full velocity and therefore it's not
going to have enough power to get the job done. Well, while I
never thought it couldn't do the job, I was curious to see how
the size of this pistol affected the muzzle velocity. A few
rounds of Winchester 115gr FMJ through my F1 Chrony® gave
very encouraging results, clocking out at an average of 1063.5
fps, pretty well inline with expectations. Yes, the rounds did
move 123fps slower than in my full sized S&W M&P9 but
it's still enough speed to stop a threat.
Tight Leather
Since this, for me, is a gun I intended as a backup pistol but
also something I could take to places where I would not
neccessarily feel it appropriate to carry a full sized gun on
my hip, it naturally follows that another carry position would
be in order. My choice was to go for the ankle.
Normally, I buy Kydex® holsters but that's not a good choice
for an ankle gun. Instead, I purchased a Galco Ankle Glove
with the calf strap. I've noticed though that the thumb break
has a tendancy to dig in and I've had to bend it away from my
leg a bit to make it comfortable to wear but otherwise, it
fits well and with the calf strap, generally stays put. Of
course, with an ankle holster, if you have to go for it, it's
not a fast draw but at least it's there. Just expect to take
between 5 and 10 seconds to get it loose, not the 2 to 3 you are
used to from your waist. As with any pistol, an appropriate
amount of practice drawing and acquiring a target is
necessary. When you actually need your pistol is not the time
to be learning how to draw it.
One note about leather holsters... Remember that this sort of
holster is designed to keep the gun securely in place. That
means it fits tightly. When new, don't expect the gun to slide
in and out with ease. The leather will stretch and soften
somewhat and over time form more perfectly to the particular
gun carried in it (similar to leather work gloves, a good
baseball mitt, or leather boots) but it will also be affected
by temperature and humidity. The day to day fit will vary
slightly because of this although probably not enough to
notice. If it's an ankle or shoulder holster, it's advisable
that there be some sort of retention mechanism such as a snap
or a strap to prevent the weapon from working loose from the
holster as you move around during the day. This is especially
important if you're quite active.
I've had my holster for a good many months now and at this
point it's been thoroughly run in. The PM9 goes in and out of
the holster with ease but doesn't budge an inch when the snap
is secured. Once I got used to the pistol being on my ankle,
there are times when I almost forget that it's even
there. (Almost, but not quite.)
The Right Bullet for the Right Gun
With my employer maintaining a policy forbidding weapons to be
carried at the office combined with the legal prohibition of
arms at the local community college, most days, my pistols
tend to remain at home, locked up in my safe. To avoid
accidents caused by potential memory lapses, it has been my
habit to store my pistols with an empty chamber. The top
round in my magazine therefore goes in and out of the chamber
repeatedly.
Type: |
Semi-Automatic DAO Pistol |
Caliber: |
9mm |
Capacity: |
6+1 |
Barrel Length: |
3 in. |
Overall Length: |
5.3 in. |
Weight: |
15.9 oz. |
Sights: |
White Bar and Dot,
Drift Adjustable |
Finish: |
Two-tone Black Polymer and Stainless Steel |
MSRP: |
$837 |
Following the advice of my local shooting instructors, I
usually carry Federal's Hydrashock in my magazines. Yet I have
noticed that in this particular pistol, the repeated
loading and unloading does not mix well with these
rounds. Repeated trips across the feed ramp have a tendancy to
deform the point of these bullets. While it will still fire, I
would not trust the expansion in a soft target after that. As
much as my limited knowledge will all me to interpret things,
I believe this comes from the angle of the feed ramp being a
touch too steep. This interpretation seems to be supported by the
fact that in Kahr's booklet, they state explicitly that when
loading this pistol, you need to make sure you don't hold the slide
as it moves forward but make sure you just let go and let the spring
carry it forward. Failing to follow their recommendation will
likely result in the round not being chambered but getting stuck
on the feed ramp. My other pistols do not suffer this same
problem with deformation but just to be safe, I fire off the top
two rounds every couple of months anyway.
To correct this issue, I switched to Hornady's JHP/XTP
rounds. These bullets seem to fare much better and so far have
not shown any signs of the cup collapsing or otherwise
becoming deformed. In practice, I expect these two rounds to
be comperable in terms of impulse forces on a target and
expansion within that target so I consider this to be a
net/net trade.
Final Notes
Kahr's pistols continue to be as popular as they were when the
K9 was first unveiled and Kahr continues to introduce new
models to the market place. My impressions from the time I
have spent with my PM9 are that this is a very shootable, very
reliable pistol.
The PM9 is one of the smaller offerings from Kahr and
therefore usually relegated to the roles offered such small
pistols. However, it by no means needs to remain in that
role. For those who are looking for an every day carry that
doesn't stand out, you could do far worse than this. I would
be just as happy carrying one of Kahr's larger pistols on my
hip as I am my trusty M&P.
Is this pistol perfect? I don't think so, but then, is any
pistol really perfect? Kahr's got some design obstacles to
overcome in my oppinion, but what they have produced to date,
by all accounts, has completely lived up to expectations and
then some. Not everyone will like these pistols, just as not
everyone likes the smell of perfume or the taste of a good
chocolate. Each individual's tastes are unique but my
impression of this pistol is that it will generally satisfy
those varied tastes and will easily do the job for which it was
designed.
In the end though, discussions of features, likes, dislikes,
annoyances... they're all irrelevant. What it
ultimately all boils down to is one thing: would you trust
your life to the pistol you're carrying right now? For me, if
that pistol were a Kahr, yes, I would.
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