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| Designed for deep concealment and gunfighting at close ranges, the distinctive Kahr Arms pistols have proven popular as backup sidearms with many police officers. |
While there is no shortage of compact semiautomatic pistols chambered for serious cartridges from which to select at this time, Kahr Arms has dominated this arena, with justification, for some time. While its line of compact pistols is available in either .40 S&W or 9x19 Parabellum chamberings (and in one case even ,.45 ACP) I personally believe that compact hideout handguns are a dish best served in 9x19mm Parabellum. The recoil impulse is easier to control with this cartridge and with the proper bullet selection they are every bit as effective.
SHOTGUN NEWS was recently sent three different 9mm Kahr pistols for test and evaluation, including a new economy model. The new Kahr CW9 (Concealed Weapon 9mm) has a polymer frame and a slide machined from 321 stainless steel. The overall length of this pistol is 6.0 inches with a height of 4.5 inches and a width at the slide of .90". The pistol weighs 15.8 ounces and another 1.9 ounces must be added for the empty magazine. The 3.5-inch barrel has conventional rifling with a 1:10 right-hand twist. The full-length, one-piece guide rod is made of steel.
The seven round, single-column, detachable box-type magazine has six indicator holes on each side of the magazine body. A steel projection on the left side of the black plastic follower operates the slide's hold-open feature. The magazine falls freely away when the serrated, spring-loaded magazine catch/release button, located on the left side of the frame, directly to the rear of the trigger guar, is depressed.
Rather effective stippling has been molded into the front and rear straps of the black polymer frame. Kahr pistols with polymer frames have steel rail inserts on each side of the dust cover for its entire length and also at the very tip of the end of the frame. The CW9, Kahrs' best value, carries a suggested retail price of $533, complete with one magazine, a trigger lock and black plastic storage box.
We were also sent two of Kahr's smallest pistols: the MK9 Elite 2003 and the PM9. The PM9 has a black polymer frame and the MK9 Elite 2003 has a slide fabricated from stainless steel. THe slide of both pistols is machined from 321 stainless steel. The PM9 slide has been blackened with Tungsten DLC. The MK9 has black synthetic two-piece, wrap-around grip panels held in place by two stainless steel screws on each side. The overall length of these two pistols is 5.3 inches with a height of 4.0 inches and a width at the slide of .90". The MK9 Elite 2003 weighs 22.1 ounces, while the PM9 tips the scales at only 14.8 ounces. In each case you must add another 1.9 ounces for the empty magazine.
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| The new economy model Kahr CW9 has a polymer frame and a slide machined from 321 stainless steel. It's smooth and snag-free for a fast draw from deep concealment. |
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| The Kahr CW9 9mm is the picture of a modern pistol, with polymer frame, stainless slide, recoil spring guide, and an a complete absence of safety levers. |
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| The new CW9 pistol features conventional rifling and a seven-round single-column magazine. The locking system will be familiar to any Glock or SIG pistol fancier. |
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| The Kahr blade front sight has a single white dot, paired with a vertical white bar centered under the rear notch. Kokalis is skeptical of dots and bars in combat. |
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| A steel projection on the left side of the Kahr Arms magazine's black plastic follower operates the slide's hold-open feature, which Kokalis found to be positive. |
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| Flagship of the Kahr line is the MK9 Elite 2003, a stainless pistol with black synthetic two-piece, wraparound grip panels and six- and seven-round magazines supplied. |
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| Left side view of the Kahr PM9 illustrates the lack of manual controls. Once loaded, it's ready to go. it's no different than a snubnose revolver, ultimately. |
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| Highly touted by many armed professionals, the very compact Kahr Pm9 weighs only 14.8 ounces. Kokalis likes the 9mm cartridge for use in these small hideout pistols. |
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| Though some have pooh-poohed it, Kokalis favors the subsonic 147-grain JHP, here from Black Hills, for use in compact 9mms. Penetration is the vital factor, he claims. |
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| The Ken Null Super Speed Scabbard is a strong-side holster with a rearward muzzle rake that rides so high that the magazine catch/release button clears leather. |
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ON THE COVER
 Senior Editor Peter Kokalis says Kahr's new CW9 makes an excellent choice for a compact defensive pistol. With it in a GunVault from Cannon safe and SureFire A2 Aviator light, reassurance is close at hand when things go bump in the night. Photo by Kristopher Kuhn. |
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Kahr pistols in this envelope series employ a telescoping recoil spring system with two springs and guide rods. This is now a common feature of compact semiautomatic handguns and helps to insure reliable operation when the slide recoils for only a very short distance.
The 3.0-inch barrel, manufactured by the famous German barrel maker, Lother Walther, has six-groove, polygonal rifling with a 1:9.84 (250mm) right-hand twist for 9x19mm Parabellum barrels. Polygonal bores provide a better gas seal, more consistent velocities, superior accuracy and ease of maintenance. The barrel lug and feed ramp are cut away on the right side to accommodate a projection inside the frame that houses the trigger bar and trigger return spring. This brings the bore's axis somewhat closer to the trigger mechanism and thus the shooter's grip as well, and by so doing slightly moderated the perceived recoil.
Two single -column magazines are provided with these pistols: a six-round magazine that rests almost flush with the butt of the frame and a seven-round magazine with a grip extension. There are six indicator holes on each side of both types of magazines. With exactly the same design as those for the CW9, both types fall away smartly when the magazine catch/release button is pressed. Kahr magazine bodies are made from 400 series stainless steel (tumbled at the factory to remove burrs). The magazine are conventional in design and easily disassembled principally as a consequence of the two-piece black plastic floorplate, and this should be done each time the pistol is cleaned. None of the Kahr pistols have a magazine disconnect safety and they can be fired with the magazine removed.
The suggested retail price of the MK9 Elite 2003 (catalog #M9098), which has beveled edges, a polished slide and frame with laser engraving and beveled magazine well, complete with two magazines, a trigger lock and black plastic storage box is $783. The price of the PM9 (catalog #PM9094) is $707, complete as above.
The grip-to-frame angle (that angle formed by the front leading edge of the grip portion of the frame with a line perpendicular to the bore's axis) for these pistols is 13°. The M1911 Government Model's is approximately 17°.
The front of the trigger guard on the entire Kahr series is rounded. This is a refreshing change from the current dumb fetish to square off or re-curve the front of the trigger guard to supposedly provide a rest for the index finger of the support hand and stabilize the weapon. This is, of course, utter nonsense as high-speed photography has demonstrated many times over that during the recoil stroke the finger of the support hand invariably flies away from the front of the trigger guard. All four fingers of the support hand should remain firmly wrapped around the firing grip.
Both the front and rear sights are dovetailed to the slide. The blade front sight, .14" thick, has a single white dot. The open, square-notch (which measures about .146" in width) rear sight has a single, white, vertical bar centered under the notch.
In my opinion, when fired under stress, these types of colored dots and bars are never seen. The rule for fighting is a "flash" front sight picture and the consequent reaction is "front sight, press." Both the front and rear sight are a secure press fit. Trijicon three-dot self-luminous tritium night sights are an available option.
A salient feature of the Kahr pistol series is that evolution and product improvement has always been an ongoing process. Specific examples are as follows. More than a decade ago, chamber dimensions of the original K9 pistol were opened up .0015" to improve feeding with a wider range of ammunition types. The angle of the extractor claw was eventually increased to further enhance reliable feeding.
The extractor body was re-designed for self-cleaning as a consequence of relief cuts on the top and bottom and a hole machined into the body. The steel recoil rod was hollowed out to reduce weight. The slide's back cover fit was tightened by use of an integral keyway to reduce movement. Both the trigger and trigger bar spring were re-designed for increased durability. The slide's breech face was changed to a broached type instead of milled for tighter corner radii, which provides a tighter barrel-to-slide lock-up. These changes demonstrate Kahr's total dedication to manufacturing a product line possessing the highest possible quality and reliability.
All testing of the Kahr pistols was conducted with 9x19mm Parabellum Jacketed Hollow Point (JHP) ammunition from Black Hills Ammunition (Dept. SGN, P.O. Box 3090, Rapid City, S. Dak. 57709; phone: 605-348-5150; fax: 605-348-9827; website: www.black-hills.com).
Complaints about the US M9 service pistol in Iraq and Afghanistan center around its ineffective performance on enemy targets. Full metal-jacketed 9x19mm Parabellum ball ammunition invariably over-penetrates to an undesirable extent. However, Article 23 of the annex to the Hague Convention No. IV of 18 October 1907 proscribes the use of bullets without full metal jackets. All of the Coalition nations fielding military units fighting against Islamic terrorists in the Middle East conform to this prohibition and do not empty expanding bullets.
Law enforcement agencies and civilians are not so constrained. When loaded with jacketed hollow-point bullets of the proper design, the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge can be quite effective. A minimum of about 12 inches of penetration in soft tissue up to a maximum of approximately 18 inches is the desired range. That's exactly the penetration performance range designed into the bullets used in Black Hills 147-grain 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition.
In assessing handgun ammunition, penetration is, without doubt, the most important single parameter. The bullet must penetrate deeply enough to crush, cut and break through the human body's vital structures and organs.
Once we've obtained the required penetration, the bullet that makes the biggest hole will do the most damage. It's important to remember that if we drive a hollow-point projectile at too high a velocity, it will inevitably over-expand and reduce the penetration to an unacceptable depth. It may also fragment to an undesirable extent.
There's a correct velocity for every handgun bullet, and it's never the highest velocity possible. Big game hunters understand this, but the hobbyist who write about gun-fighting in the popular gun press, with few exceptions, still don't seem to have a glimmer. In general, the best rule of thumb is to select the heaviest JHP bullets and drive them at moderate velocities. That means 147-grain projectiles in 9mm Parabellum at subsonic velocities.
I have fired several thousand rounds through kahr Arms pistols over the last decade and I can personally testify to their robust construction and completely satisfactory reliability. The accuracy potential matches the intended function of these weapons: close-range, high stress, rapid-fire desperation shooting when all else has failed.
Method of Operation
These locked-breech, short-recoil-operated pistols are a clever blend of both innovative and well-proven conventional features. The barrel and slide are locked together by a rectangular locking lug above the barrel's chamber that engages the slide's ejection port. This form of locking is found on the SIG-Sauer series, Ruger and Glock pistols as well. The slide stop's axis pin passes through a kidney-shaped cutout in the barrel's underlug.
After ignition, the barrel and slide recoil rearward, locked together for approximately a half-inch. At that point, the camming action of the slide stop's axis pin upon the cutout in the barrel's underlug pulls the rear of the barrel downward out of battery with the slide.
At that time, the extractor withdraws the empty case and as the slide continues rearward the case strikes the ejector (pinned to the frame back, a separate component) and is propelled out the ejection port. The compressed recoil spring, which is quite powerful (and will cause some to have difficulty manually retracting the slide), drives the slide forward to strip another round from the magazine and chamber it upon locking with the barrel.
All of this is fairly mundane, but the firing mechanism is not and requires some explanation. Like the Glock. this so-called "trigger-cocking" semiautomatic pistol has no thumb, grip or magazine safeties and the absence of these controls is somewhat startling at first.
When locked in battery, with a round in the chamber, the Kahr K9 is-ready or not-ready to fire. As the trigger is pulled, the trigger bar is drawn forward, pivoting the spring-loaded cocking cam, the left lobe of which engages the spring-loaded, three-piece firing pin assembly, rearward. At the end of its rotation the cocking cam drops out of engagement with the firing pin, allowing it to fly forward and impinge against the primer.
Simultaneously, the cocking cam's right lobe lifts up the firing pin's spring-loaded passive safety block and the cam pulls the firing pin assembly rearward from half-cock to a fully-cocked position under full spring tension. A ramp on the right side rail disengages the trigger bar from the cocking cam and permits the cam to reset itself, reactivating the firing pin block.
When the slide and barrel move forward into battery, the firing pin is caught and put under half-cock tension by the cocking cam. Trigger pull-weights on SGN's test specimens were 5.0 pounds for the CW9, 5.75 pounds for the PM9 and 6.5 pounds for the MK9, respectively. All three were somewhat mushy as the trigger travel prior to let-off describe an arc of .6".
Field Stripping
Remove the magazine and clear any loaded round from the chamber. Retract the slide rearward, about three-quarters of an inch, until the disassembly notch on the left side of the slide is aligned with the slide stop's axis pin. Gently drive out the slide stop lever, from right to left, with a brass hammer or plastic screwdriver handle. Ease the slide forward under control.
Pull the trigger to release the firing pin. Let the trigger go forward, to permit the passive firing pin safety to pass over the cocking cam, and push the slide group forward and off the frame. Press forward on the recoil spring guide rod and remove the guide rod and recoil spring from the slide. Lift out the barrel. No further disassembly is recommended. After cleaning and lubrication, reassemble in the reverse order.
Slapping Leather
An effective holster is an important, but frequently overlooked factor in the deployment of small concealment-type handguns. Kenneth L. Null (Dept. SGN, K.L. Null Holsters, 161 School Street N.W., Resaca, Ga. 30735; phone: 706-625-5643, fax: 706-625-9392) specializes in concealment rigs, of the highest possible quality, for government operatives and under cover federal and local law enforcement personnel. I use his holsters on an almost daily basis.
Ken uses the most impeccable of materials. He has for many years used vegetable-tanned horsehide excluusively. While more expensive than steerhide, horsehide is much denser and the same strength can be obtained with thinner leather. Although harder to work, horsehide doesn't lose its hand-molded configuration as easily as steerhide. Ken emphatically states that horsehide will maintain its retention qualities by a ratio of six to one over steerhide.
My favorite Null belt holster is his Model SSS Super Speed Scabbard and this is the one I selected for the Kahr PM9 and this is his strong-side holster with a rearward muzzle rake rides so high on the belt that the magazine catch/release button clears leather. Another outstanding feature is the absence of leather at the root of the trigger guard, which permits the shooter to obtain a proper grip on the piece while it's still holstered and at the very start of the presentation without ever needing to reposition the grip during the drawstroke.
Ken Null's work represents the highest-level craftsmanship to which a custom holster maker can aspire. Few ever reach this level. Those armed professionals who move in the shadowy world of clandestine operations would be well advised to examine his wares. I can recommend his product line without reservations of any kind.
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