Kahr CM9On Target Magazine (June/July 2011)
“Slim-nines,” wafer-thin 9mm pistols small enough to carry in a pocket, are hot this year. There are more new introductions of them than anything else in the defensive handgun world except 1911 variations, and the latter is only so because it’s the Centennial year of that pistol.
I’ve tested most every new “thin is in” 9mm pocket auto. This one feeds with total reliability and that one is more than a little finicky about what ammo will jam it and what won’t. This one has a sweet trigger, but that one’s pull is horrible, and this other one is somewhere in between. There are good sights, and bad sights, and “good enough for a pocket pistol sights,” whatever the heck that means. Some shoot to the sights, and some have so much difference between point of aim and point of impact that if you lined up a head shot on a ransom rest at 25 yards, you’d still miss. Some group well and some don’t.
Based on my test sample, the Slim-nine from the 2011 crop that gets my vote as pick of the litter is the Kahr CM9. Where much of its competition is new, sometimes even radical, and therefore yet not tested by time, the CM9 is simply an economy rendition of a platform already proven to be reliable and functional, the Kahr PM9. However, production economies make the CM9 some $220 less than its predecessor, throwing it right into the middle zone of the price range represented by the newest batch of 9mm pocket autos.
