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| MK9 |
KAHR'S SPRINGS AND SHOCKS
Wolff makes virtually all the springs for Kahr. That's comforting to know, since Wolff is the best name in the business. Early K9 models had a reputation for needing a strong hand on the slide to jack it all the way back. Justin Moon originally designed the gun to feed hot +P and +P+115 gr. ammo. The design was driven by Moon's studies of what worked on the street. The advice of the studies still holds.
However, Moon learned a lot of customers preferred standard-pressure 9mm rounds or had to carry the feeble subsonic ammo issued by their agencies. He also discovered that some female users found the slide spring too strong to manipulate. He designed a model using a lighter recoil spring. This was originally known as the "Lady Kahr" model. No more than 2,000 were made, say Harris, before the company went back to using standard springs.
Changing a gun's springs is a synergistic endeavor. "To overcome the lesser-power recoil spring, we had to make other changes," explained Harris. "We had to make a different extractor for the Lady Kahr, a different striker spring and hone out the striker bore. It wasn't cost efficient and the demand didn't justify it." Now, all the Kahr models have full-power springs.
Consider the matter of recoil. The 9mm models with standard pressure have remarkably light "kick" and low muzzle rise thanks to the advantageous low-bore axis of all the Kahr pistols. The 9mm with a hot 115 gr. bullet at 1,300 to 1,350 fps nominal velocity will jump a little more and a standard-pressure .40 round will have about the same increase in recoil over the standard 9mm cartridges. I can't tell the difference between a .40 S&W 180 gr. subsonic round in a K40 and a hot 9mm load in a K9. The hotter .40s will kick proportionally more but not to a degree that a trained shooter can't handle in accurate rapid fire. In mine, I carry the 135 gr. Pro-load or Triton hollowpoints, factory loaded to the 1,300 fps range. These .40 rounds give the performance of a 125 gr. .357 Mag. revolver cartridge, with a lot less recoil and blast.
There's one caution concerning what you put in your Kahr's "gas tank." These guns tend to have tight chambers. While they function perfectly with virtually all conventional factory ammo, they don't like handloads unless the cartridges have been very carefully resized, taper-crimped and loaded to proper overall length. The only jams I see in Kahr pistols are usually with reloads.
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