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| Thunderwear carries this PM9 and one-more-round spare magazine with little finger extender hidden in the groin area. |
October 2004, a genteel lady in the deep South pulls her Buick onto her property and spies a huge diamondback rattlesnake slithering nearby. She loves wildlife, but as a mother and grandmother she does not tolerate large, poisonous snakes. Her dominant left hand slides smoothly through the opening of her Galco purse and from the hidden compartment that holds her loaded Kahr P9 9mm...
The Kahr pistol has been with us for about a decade now, the brainchild of Justin Moon. Designed from the ground up to handle the most powerful ammunition in its two calibers, 9mm and .40, these slim semiautomatics fit the hand well, harkening to the exquisite "feel" of the classic Browning Hi-Power and, in the T9 model with handsomely checkered Pao Ferro grips from Hogue, to the almost-as-classic S&W M39. Smaller than either of those famous 9mms, it has been known to outshoot both in out-of-the-box dress. Striker fired, the double-action-only Kahr has one of the smoothest DAO trigger pulls in the industry.
Kahr Roundup
Even the "big" Kahr, the T9, is a slim pistol that's easy and comfortable to conceal. The first Kahrs, the P9 9mm and the soon to follow .40 caliber P40, were not terribly hard to hide, and from the beginning were among the best compact autos for concealed carry. These were followed by the MK (Micro Kahr) series in both calibers, true subcompacts smaller than many .380 and .32 pistols but much more powerful.
The only complaints about these guns were about the weight. Being of all-steel construction, they were heavy for their size. Moon and his design team experimented with all manner of lightweight alloys for the frame before deciding on polymer. The P9 was a clone of the K9 with a "plastic" frame, and became an instant success.
Weight was now down from the 25 ounces of a K9, to only 18 ounces. Kahr's sales soared. A P40 soon followed. Eventually came the PM9 (Polymer Micro 9mm). With only a 3-inch barrel, half an inch shorter than the original gun's, the PM9 with its proportionally shorter slide and synthetic frame was down to just under a pound; 15.9 ounces unloaded. This is the poundage territory of the Airweight five-shot .38 revolver, but a PM9 held 6 + 1 9mm rounds, which delivered more power with less recoil. This pistol was soon joined by its .40 caliber twin with one less round in a magazine flush to the butt, giving the PM40 a total of 6 cartridges for in-gun firepower. Each model came with a longer spare magazine fitted with polymer finger extension, which brought cartridge capacity up by one.
In between, in each caliber, came the Covert style. This combined the barrel and slide of a P or K series compact with the short grip frame of a PM or MK series subcompact. Many shooters apparently thought this was the best of both worlds, because a number of Coverts in each caliber have been sold.
Today, the Kahr dealer's showroom is replete with models ranging from the 9-shot, 6.5-inch long, 28.1-ounce T9 to the 5.3-inch overall, 15.9-ounce, 7-shot PM9. None of these pistols is as much as an inch wide at any point, a key dimension that endears them to those who must carry in undetectable, hopefully comfortable concealment, 24/7. Another key dimension is height, where butt protrusion and "printing" comes from when concealed carry is compromised. Even the T9 is a manageable 4.95 inches in this measurement, while an MK9 is only 4 inches high. That thin width contributes to a disproportionate improvement in the smaller Kahr's concealability, making it much more effective as a trouser pocket pistol or an ankle gun.
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| An ex-cop from NYPD, where the K9 is approved for off-duty use, straps this blue steel version to his leg... |
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| ...with an Alessi ankle holster, here holding a polymer framed P9. |
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| This genteel southpaw lady keeps a stainless and polymer P9 in the hidden pocket of her "gun purse." |
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| Conventional hip holsters work fine with Kahrs. This T9 sits in a Yaqui Slide by Galco. |
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| Kydex hip holster from Blade-Tech is very comfortable, very fast, with PM9. |
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| Fast, comfortable and discreet, the IWB Kydex holsters from Ky-Tac are particularly so with the slim Kahr pistols. |
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| Flat, light, and slim, the PM9 fits well in front pocket of jeans. The fabric pocket holster, reinforced with a firm internal plastic strip... |
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| ...was sold by Colt for their Pocket Nine, a gun the size of the Walther PPK/S .380, yet fits 9mm Kahr PM9. |
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| LFI Concealment Rig designed by Ted Blocker and the author mates IWB holster to dress gunbelt with Velcro tab and belt lining. It is particularly fast, comfortable, and concealable with flat Kahr pistols. |
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| Author's favorite of the "tuckable" holsters by Elmer MacEvoy of Leather Arsenal. Shirt tucks between first two layers of leather, and other two snap to belt, masquerading as a key ring strap. Pistol is Kahr PM40. |
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| Kahrs are drawn like this from vest holsters, through the front of the shirt. The Kahr's slim profile makes it particularly comfortable and concealable in this application. |
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| PM9 rides in Bianchi Ranger bellyband, which doubles as a money belt. Slickest draw... |
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| ...is through the front of the shirt. |
Creative Concealment
The smaller (and sometimes, the lighter) your pistol is, the more places there are that you can hide it with minimum sacrifice of comfort, discretion, and access. Let's look at some of the options.
Hip carry. Sure, you can carry a GI .45 automatic or a Dirty Harry Commemorative .44 Magnum on your hip. But you can carry a Kahr pistol there a whole lot more comfortably and discreetly. Its limited thickness and rounded edges reduce bulge. I've worn the various Kahrs hung on belts in scabbards by Blade-Tech, Mitch Rosen, Uncle Mike's, and others, and always found them comfortable, easy to conceal, and accessible.
Inside the waistband holsters hide even better, and the slimness and round edges of the Kahr earn bonus points here for concealability and comfort alike. IWBs in which I've packed the various Kahrs include the LFI Concealment Rig I designed many years ago with Ted Blocker, and an assortment of others.
Shoulder holster carry. The fastest of all shoulder rigs is the true horizontal style, which holds the gun barrel parallel to the ground instead of up or down, according to the late, great holster master Chic Gaylord. I've seen the wisdom of his assessment over the decades since he made that statement, and have come to agree with it.
However, unless you can fit the old clothes of either Fatty Arbuckle or Lou Ferrigno, you'll need a handgun with a short barrel and short overall length to fit in this position without bulging at front, back, or both. Even if you resemble the "before" picture in the Charles Atlas ad, the smallest Kahrs, and perhaps even some of the slightly larger models, will fill this bill. Galco's "Original Jackass" and "Miami Classic," Mitch Rosen's "Stylemaster," and the horizontal, synthetic Safariland shoulder rig would be my choices here. The first two are even available as double rigs, holding a pistol under each armpit and turning the shoulder rig into a two-Kahr garage.
Pocket holster carry. Kahrs, particularly the smaller ones, particularly the small and light ones, make sense in the side trouser pocket. With any handgun carried in this location, even a revolver, it makes sense to keep it in a pocket holster that covers the triggerguard. There are lots of choices. Those by Jerry Ahern, Greg Kramer, Ky-Tech, Mach-2, and doubtless many more will do nicely. My favorite pocket holster for the PM9 is Greg Kramer's classic design. Lately, I've been using a nylon one with plastic outline-breaking liner that was produced by an unnamed maker for Colt for their short-lived Pocket Nine pistol. The Pocket Nine was exactly the size of the beloved Walther PPK/S .32/.380, and it's significant that a holster made for it will accept the Kahr PM9.
Ankle holster carry. Few autopistols survive ankle holster carry well. The gun is only a few inches above the ground, and every step you take kicks up some fine dust that begins to settle on the holstered gun. I've seen ankle guns that literally had "dust bunnies" in them. Small, finely fitted pocket autos are compromised by this abuse. From coast to coast, I've run across documented cases of a cop who pulled a tight little Europeanmade .380 from an ankle rig in a gunfight, got off one or a few shots, and then found his gun jammed from the accumulated curd.
I've carried all the Kahrs except the "big" T9 in one or another ankle holster. I found the K9 and K40 a bit heavy, but not impossible, so long as I had straight-leg pants. (Any striker-fired pistol protrudes somewhat at the back of the slide, creating a bulge point that is not present on, say, a "hammerless" revolver.) The polymer framed P9 and P40, while no easier than the K-series to conceal, were distinctly more comfortable due to a weight saving of almost half a pound. Most concealable and most comfortable of all, of course, is the Polymer Micro PM series.
A good friend of mine is a state trooper whose issue weapon is a large frame, full capacity traditional double-action auto. He has gone through a bunch of backup guns, and has finally settled on the Kahr PM9, worn in an ankle holster. He finds it particularly accessible while seated, and in training has learned that it's actually easier to draw his Kahr from the ankle when down on his back than the big .40 in his Safariland SS-III uniform security holster.
The selection of an ankle holster is an intensely personal and subjective thing, since there are so many comfort factors to consider. These include skin sensitivity and potential allergies, shape and size of lower leg bone structure, muscularity, etc. For my money, the best ankle holster currently available at any price is the Alessi. The PM9 is the gun I'd get it for.
Belly-band carry. The rounded edges of the Kahr's slide and frame mitigate discomfort factors when the pistol is pressed tight to the body for deep concealment. When one must wear a tucked-in shirt without a covering garment, and must not be seen to be armed, the belly-band comes into its own. Typically a 4-inch wide band of elastic containing one or more gun pouches, and securing with Velcro, the belly-band is best worn at belt level. It goes "over the underwear and under the overwear."
Some shooters wear the gun in a straight-draw position on their strong side hip. This requires the free hand to jerk loose the shirt while the dominant hand makes a conventional draw, a technique developed by firearms and tactics instructor Ken Hackathorn. Others prefer a front crossdraw position with the gun butt-forward and just to the side of the navel. This allows the gun hand to knife through the front of the shirt for a draw made faster if the second button above the belt is left undone, a minor violation of the dress code that Miss Manners will doubtless forgive if you cover it with a necktie. In a danger situation, you can clasp your hands querulously in front of you, projecting a body language posture of helpless defeat that tends to put aggressors off their guard, while your gun hand slips unseen inside the shirt and takes an early grasp of your Kahr. The shorter-barrel models work best for this application, since they're less likely to dig their muzzles into the juncture of thigh and torso when you bend forward or sit down.
There are many good brands of belly-bands; Gould & Goodrich and many others will give good service. My own favorite is the Bianchi Ranger, which also functions as a money belt. That's particularly handy on long journeys, especially overseas, a situation where the deep concealment afforded by a flat little Kahr in a belly-band is all the more appreciated.
Vest carry. Those of us who sometimes wear body armor appreciate a holster like the one currently offered by Uncle Mike's that allows a pistol to be strapped to it under the armpit and beneath the uniform shirt. The draw is as with a conventional shoulder holster, through the front of the shirt. It's a concept originally developed by police survival expert Jim Horan. Those who don't wear "bulletproof vests" can achieve the same effect with Greg Kremer's Confidante unit, a heavy-duty sleeve-less undershirt with fabric "holster pockets" in the same position. Less than an inch thick amidships, the slim Kahr pistols particularly lend and themselves to this type of carry, and with three different lengths grip frame can be adapted to the upper torso thickness of the wearer for maximum concealment.
Groin holster carry. This sort of hideout rig has been around since the nineteenth century, but did not achieve popularity until the coming of the Thunderwear concealment concept and its host of subsequent imitators. Most of the old ones were designed to be drawn from through the fly front, as if the wearer was reaching for his...well, you get the idea. Thunderwear is much more practical, not to mention socially acceptable in that the handgun is accessed by reaching down through the top of the waistband.
While I don't much care for carrying a loaded gun with its muzzle pointed at my most sensitive appendages, if I'm going to do it I want the gun to be double-action-only, requiring a deliberate pull of the trigger before it goes off. The entire Kahr pistol series fits that bill.
Unconventional Options
With a gun this small, other hideout options open up for you. The old cutaway book trick needs a small handgun. The Micro size Kahr is the logical size for this application.
I once spoke in print about handguns small enough to be concealed at a nudist colony. I wasn't talking about body cavity holsters. Very small pocket autos such as the Walther PPK/S with flat-bottom grip; the late, lamented, Kahr-influenced Colt Pocket Nine mentioned earlier; and the Micro size Kahrs can all just barely fit in a camera case. I'm not talking a photographer's carry bag here, though that's certainly possible too, but the leather or synthetic case that wraps around the camera itself to protect it as it hangs around your neck. You can pick them up cheap in the used equipment bin at the camera shop, or at yard sales or flea markets or pawn shops. You want one for a large 35mm, like the old Nikon F2.
With this trick, so long as you don't go too far into the water, you can wear your baby Kahr at the beach in swimwear or at the aforementioned nudist camp. What I did with mine was to hang a couple of the little film carriers on the neck strap, unzipped and open to show that they were empty. If someone asked me to take their picture, I could simply gesture at the empty film holder and honestly say, "Sorry, I can't. I'm out of film."
Assorted other options exist. There are fake daytimers with small packets that hold small handguns. (And, for that matter, large fake daytimers that hold large handguns, but small is always easier to carry than large.) We live in a time of a burgeoning trade in concealment garments with built-in holsters. From the vests by Concealed Clothiers, Inc., and 5.11, to the special shirts from the latter manufacturer, factory-made clothing with hidden gun pockets is readily obtainable. A friend of mine is a brilliant radiologist and a superb tactical shooter. He works daily in an anti-gun environment. None of his colleagues know that those "Sierra Club-looking" casual khaki shirts he wears are actually part of the 5.11 line, and that he carries a Kahr PM9 invisibly every day in its hidden inside breast pocket, readily accessible through its hidden Velcro opening.
Advice For The Kahr-Buyer
I've shot everything in the Kahr showroom, and owned nearly every pistol in their catalog. They are, for the most part, uncommonly accurate. My first K9 put five rounds of Federal 9BP (115-grain standard line JHP) into 1.38 inches at 25 yards. A Covert .40 proved even more accurate with Black Hills EXP, a hot defense load that spits a CCI Gold Dot 165-grain bonded hollow point at a nominal 1140 feet per second (fps).
That said, most Kahrs I've owned and shot will tend to throw their first shot a bit away from where follow-up bullets will land. Known as "4-plus-1 syndrome" among gun experts, this is common with semiautomatic pistols and is probably due to the fact that the hand-cycled first round is fired with the parts in a slightly different battery, or positioning vis-a-vis one another, than subsequent cartridges which are automatically cycled into the chamber during firing. This will only bother you if you're an NRA match shooter competing in bull's eye, police pistol, or action pistol events. At the typical self-defense distances for which the Kahr pistol was designed, the very slightly errant first shot is almost meaningless.
These guns have tight chambers, and tend to work flawlessly with factory ammo but can get fussy about any but the most precisely reloaded ammo in the most carefully resized cases. Reloaders should also be aware that most Kahrs will dent ejected brass badly.
Some models, the early P-series and early MKs, had sharp edges on the slide stops, but Justin Moon listened to constructive criticism and started rounding those parts some time ago. If you have an old model, Clark Custom in Shreveport, Louisiana, does an excellent "melt job." My friend Dave Breed had that done on one of his Kahrs, and it's a joy to handle.
Night sights are sensible on these little protection pistols, but the rear sight fits the slide in such a way that it's best done at the factory. You can send in your current pistol, or simply have your dealer order the night sights on a new one.
The Kahrs are so small that their trigger reach, while perfect for small hands, may actually be too short for the proportional finger of an average or larger size male. John Quintrall pioneered a modification during his California gunsmith days where he welded up the trigger about 0.38 of an inch at the front and then polished the trigger's surface glass smooth. It was an improvement for larger hands that had to be felt to be appreciated. John is out of the pistolsmithing biz now, but my old shooting team buddy Al Greco, who runs the redoubtable AI's Custom operation in Freedom, PA, will do the same work plus a primo action slick that gilds the lily and actually makes the famously smooth Kahr trigger action even smoother.
People are surprised at how lightly most Kahrs recoil in relation to their size, even most of the lightweight polymer models. The single exception in my experience is the lightest .40 caliber, the tiny PM40. Recoil is fairly nasty with this gun, and that buffeting may be why it has been the only breakage-prone Kahr in my experience. After monitoring two recoil springs that stopped functioning properly and two magazine release buttons that broke, I decided to give the PM40 a rest. Anything it can do, my durable and perfectly functioning PM9 can do as well with a 9mm hot load, such as the +P Pro-Load Tactical, which puts its fast-moving 115-grain Gold Dot bullets into about 2.5 inches at 25 yards. This pistol has never failed, and neither have any of the many PM9s used and carried regularly by friends.
Smaller, lighter, and more user-friendly than ever, the latest Kahr pistols offer new dimensions of comfortable, daily concealed carry with adequate power and high orders of shootability. It's no wonder that they've become so popular among the more knowledgeable pistol-packers.
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