Reliability of Kahr Pistols

[PSP]

I've had eight Kahrs. Five have been very reliable, a P9, K9, TP9 and a T9. These have been problem free. The all steel Kahr seem most solid and well made.

The three Kahrs that gave me problems were a CW9 with incurable light strikes and a P45 and TP45, both had ejection problems. I must say that I didn't enjoy the .45 as much either. Maybe a little too light wieght for my aging hands to handle.

The ease of carry due to the weight and slim profile make the Kahe line worth a look if you need a CCW. Combined with a good holster, it is hard to find a more useful, simple to use, accurate and safe pistol. Some can handle the trigger, some don't like it.

 

[CWKahrFan]

"Would you trust a broken-in Kahr with your life?"

Yes! I have CW9 and CW45 and haven't had ANY problems with either one. To me, CW9 is an especially accurate sweet-shooter for its size... Easy to CC... Fits my hand perfectly. I carry it mostly IWB but also shoulder-holster sometimes.

I've considered also buying a CM9 but, so far, I've decided that the extra grip that the CWs provide is a very important factor for me.

 

[catnphx]

I'm a S&W guy but also have a CW9 with about 800 rounds through it ... very pleased with the gun. Great conceal option and I wear mine alot. It would be a mistake to dismiss Kahr without further investigation.

Good luck.

 

[Scimmia]

Just received my P380 from its third vacation to warranty service since mid-April on Tuesday. It will be taking its fourth trip tomorrow afternoon.

Yeah, they've had some issues with the P380, far more than they've had with their other offerings. My CM9 has been perfect through the first 500 rounds or so. I would and do trust my life with it, but I don't think I would with the P380 until things get worked out.

 

[hulley]

I have a CW9 that should be arriving today. Follow the clean/lube/rack procedure in the tech forum at kahrtalk.com and everything should be ok. I had some similar problems with a FNP-40 in the begining and now its my smoothest running gun! I'll never let it go. Are there lemons out there? Sure. Do guns need a proper break-in and cleaning/lube before shooting? I believe so.

 

[Squibb]

I've had a CW9 for a few years and it has been flawless. A good friend has had the same experience with his PM9.

I've been a member at kahrtalk for a few years and it is a good source of information. I noticed about the first of the year the complaints with the CW45 started to increase quite a lot. However, I thought along the same lines that it it's the folks who have to deal with a problem that post about it.

Wrong! I love my CW9 so much I just could not imagin a dud Kahr. But, to make a long story shorter, I finally sold my new CW45 after Kahr could't make it work. I was so disappointed; they obviously have a problem right now, so if you want a Kahr go with a 9mm.

 

[vyse.04]

I bought a used K9, and it has been great. No FTFs/FTEs since I've owned it, so I am happy with my purchase. IMO it is the perfect compromise between size and firepower, and the super smooth trigger is just icing on the cake.

 

[2edgesword]

I own a CW45 and during the 200 round break-in period I had one fail to fire and one fail to eject. Since then with another 200 rounds through it it has been 100%.

 

[dean1818]

kahr K9........I havent had a single FTF or FTE

Great (Perfect CCW gun)

 

[KyJim]

I put another 107 rounds through mine today (7 of my carry load). Very happy!

 

[dajowi]

Had a K-9 for a number of years. Like the Glock I used to own, it never once had a failure of any kind with any ammo.

 

[Thespis]

Got a PM9, and it has functioned perfectly. No personal experience with Kahr .45s, but based on what I've read and heard here and elsewhere, I doubt if I'd want to add one of theirs to the Colts and S&Ws I have in that caliber.

 

[Lucky 7]

I've had 50/50 luck with Kahrs in the past year. Love the revolver-like trigger, accuracy, slim grip, and streamlined looks.

Had a used K9 that I put 1000rds through, but made the mistake of letting my sister shoot it and couldn't get it back from her.

~6 months ago I bought a new TP9, because I loved the balance, lightweight, and longer sight radius. 2 weeks ago it threw it's extractor 500 rounds into it's life and is now out of my life.

If I do get another it's going to be the MK9, but for now my faith in them is shaken. Not knocking it, but it's the 1st lemon I've had in 25 or so handguns.

Regards,
Lucky

 

[Dashunde]

Definitely keep in mind when reviewing the reputation of anything that the web is a gigantic annonymous complaint hole - if 5 out of 100 have an issue you'll hear from 4 of them in 3 different places and nothing from the other 95 unless you ask.

I had an older PM9 that I foolishly sold when I moved to a non-ccw state, I bought a new one a few months ago now that I'm back in MO.
The first one was perfect from the start - I cleaned and lubed it prior to shooting it.

I took the newest one straight from the store to the range and it had a couple of hicups during the break-in that all cleared up within the first 50 or so - slide not staying back, round #2 nosing in under the feed ramp with the 7-rounder.

500 or so rounds later its been flawless - Its a sweet shooting accurate little edc gun that I completly trust.

Some people crank on Kahr about how a "good" gun shouldnt need to be broken in... crapola.
Nobody should trust any gun with fewer than 200 rounds thru it anyway, so its a moot point.

 

[rodwhaincamo]

I like the fact that Kahr has awesome CS with very reasonable turn arounds. They stand behind their product and make it right on their dime.
Despite the fact that there are many happy Taurus owners, I would never buy another due to their crappy CS. If you do get a bad one it may be years and still no reliable firearm. I was naive then.
But how do you really know your pistol is reliable? Would really suck to find that your pistol was uber reliable for 1000 rounds, gained your confidence and trust, to find your mag snagged, the slide locked back prematurely, the ejector flying off, etc. when the SHTF.
So what makes you guys confident in the Kahr you carry?
I must say that a Kahr is most likely coming home one day. A CM9 unless they make a CM40 before that day, and that the GF still fancies after having handled and fired a few of the other options.
Despite the fact I don't feel the need for such a compact pistol (carried an AMT Hardballer, though not well due to grip length), I can't help but want to do a Covert conversion.
Still on the top 'o tha list.

 

[AustinTX]

Some people crank on Kahr about how a "good" gun shouldnt need to be broken in... crapola.

Every gun should be "broken in," in the sense of being test-fired several hundred rounds for confidence, but not every gun actually needs it to function properly, like so many Kahrs do.

The common need for "break-in" in order to achieve reliability with Kahrs is just a symptom of the real issue, a problem that's extremely irritating for pistols at Kahr prices: Kahr's final fitting and finishing is poor to non-existent. Close inspection of a brand new Kahr pistol almost invariably reveals burrs on the slide rails, high spots and burrs on the dustcover frame rails, often-substantial burrs on the barrel, sloppy trimming of the polymer frame, among other issues. Because the factory doesn't care to spend any resources on final fitting, the expense is outsourced to the consumer, who has to fire the gun a couple of hundred times just to wear down flaws that should have been removed before the gun left the factory. This process obviously has to be concluded before any conclusive testing of the gun's reliability can be performed, so "break-in" on a Kahr is very often more expensive than with any other comparably-priced brand.

 

[rodwhaincamo]

Definitely keep in mind when reviewing the reputation of anything that the web is a gigantic annonymous complaint hole - if 5 out of 100 have an issue you'll hear from 4 of them in 3 different places and nothing from the other 95 unless you ask.

I definately agree.
But I haven't seen nearly the scope of problems with most of the other <$800
pistols.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I own and carry 2 Kahr pistols, a PM40 and a P380.

I haven't had a single issue with either of them.

This isn't to say that others haven't, or that they're lying, but it is to suggest that your personal experience could be significantly different from that of others. The way some shooters interact with their firearms can have impacts on how those firearms perform. Many shooters have, over the years, seen others who had problems with one sort of handgun or another that other shooters simply didn't have.

I carry my Kahrs for self-defense, and do not feel either under-gunned or poorly protected.

Use whatever you feel comfortable with, but realize that your perceptions regarding how reliable your handguns are should probably be validated by your own experience with the firearm(s) you select, rather than by anonymous reports of this or that happening from others on the internet.

The noise to signal ratio on many forums can be extremely misleading.

 

[serf 'rett]

My go to carry is a P9. Round count is in the 400+ range and the only problem I've had were some failures to feed. After careful experimentation and consideration, I realized the failures were operator induced. The pistol must be gripped tightly; i.e., no limp wristing. Makes me wonder how many of the problems we read/hear about are operator error.

I like feel of the pistol’s trigger and the accuracy is impressive for a small pistol.

 

[MLeake]

Dashunde,

On one hand, yes there are many trolls, who have a bad experience, and then bash a gun and its manufacturer on any forum they can find.

On the other, some of us have actually run into problems with guns that are the darlings of the many.

Maybe it's user error in some of those cases.

I'd been shooting handguns for 25 years before I picked up my PM9, and I'd been shooting handguns quite a lot by most standards ever since 2002, when I realized the Navy might deploy me to places where they'd hand me a weapon, but they weren't really providing much in the way of training - just the bare minimum to get the qualification on record.

I don't like bare minimums. I tend to hit the range twice a week. The majority of my pistol quals in the latter part of my military time were perfect scores - not that that is all that hard at a Navy or Army pistol course. But the point is, I'm not exactly new with semi-autos.

My PM9 had FTF/FTE issues on a regular basis with its included 7rd magazine. Could I have been exerting too much pressure on the base with my little finger? It's possible, but if so, that's still a design flaw. I mentioned the problem I was having at the time, and another TFL member offered to trade his spare 6rd for my 7rd. I guess he figured it might just be a spring thing, and perhaps it was. I didn't try replacing the mag spring, and possibly I should have.

In any case, the 6rd mag worked better, but the gun still had occasional hiccups.

So, again, I checked TFL, and somebody sent me a link to a Kel-Tec fluff-n-buff site. He thought it might help, in a general sense. I thought, "Why not?" I found some burrs in the polymer, and dealt with those via exacto knife and fine-grit sandpaper. I also did a little buffing inside the slide.

Now, the PM9 runs like a top.

But, for a while there, it didn't.

I really like the PM9. It is wonderfully accurate for such a small pistol. I'm not exactly a basher. However, mine needed some work on the front end of things...

It's nice that most others in the thread have not encountered the same issues.