It's been a long time since I was in the mood to purchase a handgun.

I just happened to look on the web at some Kahr handguns all these years later, and was pretty surprised at how cheap they are now. Were they always this cheap?

What is the opinion on them these days? In terms of quality and reliability?

My carry gun is Kahr CW9. I like it fine, and it carries easily.

I should add that I have long owned a P9, but haven't shot it much.

The slide spring is very stout. I don't think my wife or most women could rack this slide.

I have a K9, an MK9, and an MK40. These are the all stainless Kahrs. Mine have run flawlessly and shoot very well. The all stainless guns are fairly pricey but nicely finished and well made.

My only real complaint is magazine fit. The magazine doesn't fit flush with the bottom of the grip frame. It has too much of a gap between the bottom of the grip and the magazine baseplate that I think detracts from an otherwise nicely finished gun.

At one time, Kahrs seemed pretty popular because of their super small size, but with the advent of the super high capacity micro compact 9s, they got left behind. Kahr was late to the party with double stack mags in their X series so today they often get forgotten about it seems.

But I think they are a fundamentally good design. I like their cam striker DAO fire control system. They have long but very smooth trigger pulls. Some don't like the long trigger stroke, but given it lacks a trigger dingus, I think it's a good safe design. My K9 trigger is especially fantastic!

I forgot to mention, their takedown is a bit more difficult compared to other striker pistols.

If you get a Kahr just be sure and run many boxes of ammo through it before carrying. If no hang ups, they're good pistols.

I have a PM9 that has been flawless over a great number of years. It used to be my EDC, but I retired it from that use when I purchased a P365. I still have it though, since I like it a lot (the trigger is great) and can't make myself get rid of it. Now it hides in my home office desk.

Two friends have Kahrs, they both love theirs. The triggers on them are phenomenal, and certainly better than any other sub-compacts I've ever used. And I've used pretty much all of them except the Mossberg. I very much enjoy shooting my friend's CW9, which has an excellent trigger. I wouldn't mind picking one up for myself one day, although I have no use for one at all.

I think a Kahr makes for a very suitable cc, as long as a potential owner knows that they require a very specific manual of arms in order to operate them correctly, and that the factory states they need a 200 round break-in. And of course that potential owner must be comfortable with a magazine capacity that is lower than what is now average. Although I would agree that nowadays there are better choices for cc, I certainly would have no qualms about carrying one.

C

The Kahr P380 had the potential to be the best pocket 380 ever made. It is tiny, no recoil and is extremely accurate for its size. The problem is you can't trust them. All of their 380 either have a problem or develop one at some point. Yes Kahr will work with you to fix it but you can't trust your life to something you aren't sure will go bang when needed

Thaddeus Beauregard said:

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I forgot to mention, their takedown is a bit more difficult compared to other striker pistols.

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That's an understatement, for sure.

I had a K40 back 20+ years ago. Great shooting pistol, especially for a .40 of that size. But disassembly and reassembly were such a PITA that I eventually sold it.

In order to disassemble the pistol, you have to pull the slide partially back, then pop out the slide release. As others have mentioned, the recoil spring is quite stout, and since the pistols are small, there's not a lot to get a grip on to hold the slide while you push the release lever out the side.

My preferred technique was to actually stick a screwdriver down through the ejection port and use that as a lever to hold the slide so I could pop out the slide release lever.

I have an old MK40, I think I bought it at Champions when it was next to the cafeteria on Texas. I had to get some springs from Kahr for it to get it to run right, but after that, I carried it for years.

RockwallAg said:

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The Kahr P380 had the potential to be the best pocket 380 ever made. It is tiny, no recoil and is extremely accurate for its size. The problem is you can't trust them. All of their 380 either have a problem or develop one at some point. Yes Kahr will work with you to fix it but you can't trust your life to something you aren't sure will go bang when needed

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Can confirm. Have one and while I want to love it, it manages to malfunction enough that I would never dream of carrying it anymore. Plus, well gun technology has moved past it considerably tbh.

The damned thing is, I could never get it to "break" reliably to diagnose a major issue. Nothing super obvious that would cause repeated malfunctions. Do a remedial action and it was ok for a bit.

The one I was able to nail down somewhat is the magazines are kinda garbage. At least all three I ended up getting. But past that, failure to feeds, double feeds, FTEs, etc. It got them all. Just not enough in a row to be able to figure it out. I would shoot 2 mags fine, then get a single FTE, then 4 mags fine, then a double feed, then 5 rounds and get a failure to feed. Then go like 200 rounds with no problem. It was maddening. Never seen anything quite like it tbh. I gave up around the 800 round mark.

Honestly forgot I even had it until you mentioned it here.

This is a datapoint of one but my cm9 was a complete jamming pos. Sent it back to them twice and they couldn't fix it. Worst gun I've ever owned.

Heavy, due to all metal. All the rage 15 yrs ago, but they got passed by

I loved my CW40. Sold it to a buddy to fund an XDS 45 that I eventually sold. Would love to have it back.