Kahr: The Reliably Unreliable Brand!

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I started this thread not because I hate Kahr. I actually have grown to really like my K9. My problem with the brand is you never know what you are going to get! They are inconsistent at putting out a reliable gun.

With a CZ, most are wonderful out of the box.

With Sig, like a rolex, they just work.

Ruger has problems from time to time but most often they are good reliable guns.

All makers have guns that have to be sent back. I think Kahr has a lot of problems that could be ironed out in production and by dumping their substandard parts like hollow guide rods made of soft steel that peens and chambers that are not very well polished and some cheap plastic used in magazine base plates and followers.
 
I used to carry a P9. 100% flawless.

I bought a CW40. Jam-o-matic. Replaced the recoil spring and it seemed to fix that issue but I traded it shortly after for a Sig P226. No long term testing done.

My dad had a P40. I think he sent it back 3 or more times until they basically sent him a new gun. I don't know the current status but he never mentions it either. I think he gave up.

Gave him a used (Pawn Shop) PM9. Loved it. No reliability issues so far.

I think the 40s and lower end ones (CW) have more issues. I don't carry my P9 anymore since it's too small for me to shoot accurately. It's not the gun. It's my grip.
 
WOW eye opening to see the issues some folks have! I have pretty extensive collection of Kahr 380 to 45 and my only issue was 2 FTE with a CT380 at the 50 round mark. No longer my EDC but I occasionally still carry the CT380. Never had any issue with any of my other Kahr pistols!
 
Did you notice how I said the 9mm version are the least troubled?

Then two posts above this one a person said 2 of their 40s had trouble.


And just a heads up, if your CM9 or PM9 or CW9 or K9, or P9 is older than 2018, Kahr has a new mag follower that fixes issues with jams.

You might not have experienced jams with your 9mm Kahr, but Kahr did update it after Lakeline fixed the issue with their aftermarket metal follower.


The PM9 was intro'd in 2004. It had a mag update between this follower update where mags were splitting at the weld and at pinch points.
PM9 was recalled in 2006 too.
 
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I really dislike OP's that start off condemning a product. Literally every manufacturer has had problems and recalls, especially those who were producing tiny pocket guns. Kahr's issues pretty much focused on the magazine and specifically the shape of the followers.
I have a nine year old PM9 and although I never had a problem, after joining a Kahr forum full of very helpful people, I learned with a piece of 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around a pencil and ten minutes of my time, I will never have a feeding problem of any kind.
Now, after thousands of rounds fired and no malfunctions I can say this is one of the finest small firearms I have ever owned.
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Is it strange that I'm honestly less concerned about the reputation of the firearms and more about the reputation of the founder?

Honestly, a bad reputation for reliability doesn't really bother me, as I've often chosen to ignore the reputation of a brand or a particular firearm if I've seen evidence to the contrary, but Justin Moon being the son of a couple of infamous cult leaders who've been tied up in a number of crimes including tax evasion, fraud, and conspiracy makes me far less interested in owning a Kahr considering that the company might have been funded by ill-gotten-gains and that Justin Moon has never attempted to distance himself from his parents by disowning/condemning them bothers me as well.
 
gnystrom said:
I really dislike OP's that start off condemning a product. Literally every manufacturer has had problems and recalls, especially those who were producing tiny pocket guns. Kahr's issues pretty much focused on the magazine and specifically the shape of the followers.
I have a nine year old PM9 and although I never had a problem, after joining a Kahr forum full of very helpful people, I learned with a piece of 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around a pencil and ten minutes of my time, I will never have a feeding problem of any kind.
Now, after thousands of rounds fired and no malfunctions I can say this is one of the finest small firearms I have ever owned.
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I hear ya Brother. Believe the same. Personally I never once was concerned about the internet comments concerning break in issues. I knew before I ever bought one that the gun was so well made with tight tolerances that breaking in one was a small price to pay for the quality, size, trigger etc. Persoanlly I have always believed and to this day believe that 95% of the problems were just guns not broken in, or other issues like every manufacturer out there has.
A quality pistol with premium steel will have tiny microscopic burs etc. I understand that. Some buyers even complained about having to put 200 rds in a gun to break it in. Not sure why someone would buy one knowing this and then complain.
From what I understand, Kahr came out with a hydraulic machine to cycle the CW and S9. Fine, but I would not have a problem just breaking one in, IF I actually needed to.

As far as Moon and whatever, could care less. Do not know much about any of the founders of many guns and could care less. I am sure some Glock Fan will come forward and say Gaston Glock was a choir boy and later promoted to Saint Hood. Could care less. Good for Gaston.
 
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@Carl the Floor Walker,

I am glad that you have not had issues with your Kahr's and to each his or her own. Have you considered the internal corrosion factor? I carried my PM9 for years and really didn't have a problem, but when I sweat all over it rusted to the point of being unreliable. Glock has torture tested their guns in salt water for weeks without issues. While this is not to knock Kahr, I think people should know about this potential problem and keep their guns cleaned and well oiled. As for the frame of my MK9 rusting, that is unacceptable for a stainless gun.
 
Have not had a problem even the used one I bought was fine and that was about 4 years old and looked like it never had been cleaned but no rust. Besides, on all my guns no matter who the manufacturers are, I clean my guns on a regular basis. Even the trigger groups gets cleaned with Ballistol milk (10% Ballistol and 90% water. Leaves a very very thin film of protection and very slick. Sometimes I use a Sonic cleaner. If near Salt water, and mine hunting shotguns are exposed to a lot of salt, I clean right away.
Stainless Steel is susceptible to rust and corrosion, just better at protecting. If Glock has some special coating or what ever, then great. Not a feature that would make me buy a Glock. (And I have absolutely nothing against Glock).
Even if I did own a Glock, I would take care of it, just like any other gun I own. Just curious, what is this coating or what ever it is Glock uses? Some patented type of metal?
 
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@ Carl,

I am not sure what metal Glock uses that makes them so corrosion resistant, but I was pretty disappointed that a DLC coated stainless steel slide and a polymer fram would have internal rusting issues. I really never expected it to be a problem, but I found out the hard way after Hurricane Irma. In a poop hits the fan situation, I need a gun that takes care of me, not a gun that I need to take care of.

My other issue with the Kahr trigger is that the longer pull is detrimental to longer range accuracy. While I am sure some will say more practice is required, I do practice fairly often and I practice with what I carry. My longer range accuracy went up significantly when I switched to the Glock and upgraded to the Agency Arms trigger and Double Diamond connector.

In the end, we will all like what we like and carry what we carry. I just wanted others to know about the possibility of Kahr's internals rusting fairly quickly. Like I said, I really wasn't expecting that.
 
My friends 380 (i do not know the model number) went back to Kahr so many times they finally replaced it with a different pistol which was immediately traded for a Smith and Wesson Model 36 which is his prized possession. I have never owned a Kahr but have had the same problems with a Taurus..A brand I will never own another of. And then there is Bersa, a .22 pistol (firestorm) that has yet to fire a complete mag of ammo without failure.
I do have over two hundred firearms that work as intended.:D
 
I dunno. From all these stories, and many more I've heard from people who've owned Kahrs, maybe it's better to say it's the brand that is reliably inconsistent?

It always seems to be either "piece of junk never ran right and constantly chokes when it tries to feed my ammo," or "man are you talking about the same thing? Mine's been flawless for 20K rounds and I don't even clean it."
 
Stainless by itself is not true rustless.

Treated ferritic nitrocarburized steel is going to do better than stainless for rust.

I suspect Kahr doesn't treat the stainless guts...not much you can do to stainless...

A thought.
 
Lol, one thing great about America is the fact that you can choose what you do and choose what gun to own or not own. By the way,
I would not read the Washington Post or listen to CNN for any information. But that is just me.
I am lucky. Belong to a club where I can shoot different guns from the members I have known for years. Typically it is how I have purchased all the guns I do own now. I get the opportunity to talk to dedicated owners, guys that have owned certain guns for years and vice versa. It works out well and separates a lot of the nonsense you see and hear on the internet.
We also will take a gun and all of us chip in ammo and do a lot of side by side comparisons by breaking down the guns and shooting them. Good way to find out what is the best fit for each individual.
Yes you get many different opinions, but when it comes down to what is right for you the individual, you have something solid to base it on.
My experience and from the experience of other owners I have known over the years is that Kahr makes a exceptionally great EDC firearm.
 
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Kahr’s Moonie background? Lol
What about all these gun guys falling over themselves to buy commie & nazi hardware?
Spare me the angst. :rolleyes:

Anyway, Kahr makes a quality product. I own the CW45, CW9, PM9, and the CT380. No problems at all, and each one is a great carry pistol.
 
I would not read the Washington Post or listen to CNN for any information. But that is just me.
Click to expand...

Personally, I didn't read anything about Sun Myung Moon or his Unification Church from either source, and it has been around long enough by now to rule out the possibility that everything said about both in the media is fabricated, especially when for all the criticism there's an equal amount of folks who have lined up over the years to defend the Unification Church who make no attempt at denying what goes on within, merely playing spin-doctor to sound less heretical, shady, and outright crazy it is.

I don't know how Justin Moon ties into all of this, but the fact that he's never spoken out against it, nor has he ever denied affiliation with it just makes me less interested in rolling the dice on a firearm which has a reputation for unreliability.
Frankly, there are enough other brands of firearms to choose from which don't require the additional cost of 200+ rounds of ammo to break it in and weren't founded by the children of criminality insane cult leaders who apparently don't deem it necessary to distance themselves from their parents.
 
If you're trying to distance yourself from a cult, you don't go around announcing to everyone that you disapprove of them, you don't just introduce yourself by "Hi my name is ____, my parents started a cult." If your business is unrelated to your parents actions, why would you feel it necessary to have a press conference to announce to the world "Hey everyone, my business has nothing to do with that big cult my parents started, I just wanted to let everyone know not to associate my company with the cult."

By all means, if you doubt Kahrs reliability, or if the owners background is somehow a problem for you, don't buy Kahr, you certainly won't be hurting my feelings, but try to use reason over emotion for your decision, using facts and not assumptions.
 
I have a 45 cal Karh PM and it used to throw brass directly into my face and hard enough to bring blood. I made a shell deflector and silver soldered it to the slide so it now misses me with the brass.
Other than that I have had no problems with either it's reliability or it's accuracy and I was shocked that it seems to kick less then my full size 1911.
 
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