BluesHarp
10-04-2012, 10:29 PM
I'm no stranger to the fine pistols made by Kahr. I bought my first two "large caliber" pistols back in 2000, one of them a Browning BDM, and one a Kahr K9. Until then I had only owned .22 pistols. I gave the little Kahr to my little brother as a gift, and had many happy years with my Browning 9mm. When my brother became disabled and couldn't use the Kahr anymore, he gave it back. I turned it into my carry pistol, and have used it for the past 5 years as my primary carry gun. Despite the weight of the all-metal gun, I loved its compactness, solid operation and total reliability. Over the years I acquired many guns, eventually getting two 1911 .45s. I became convinced that nothing could compare to the perfection of the 1911. When I decided recently that carrying a 9mm just wasn't enough power, I labored over the decision of which Commander-sized 1911 I would get to use as a new carry weapon, since my attempts to carry the full-sized pistols just wasn't comfortable. I surprised myself when I decided instead to get a Kahr CW45. I was sure that a compact 1911 was the only way to go, to get the .45 stopping power I wanted. I was never a fan of "plastic" guns, having bought and sold several Glocks over the years. But this CW45 felt different. I decided to give poly-frames another try, especially when I found that the CW45 was virtually identical in dimensions to my little K9. I have to say that from the very first shot I LOVED this gun. It's accurate, simple to operate, lightweight, and handles the .45 rounds amazingly well for a light gun. I've put the K9 away now, and my CS45 goes everywhere in the small of my back in an IWB holster. I never thought I'd trust my life to a DAO "plastic" gun with my beloved .45 rounds! The only problem it has is that it won't reliably feed my reloaded SWC ammo for practice, like my 1911s do. That's fine, I just stick will ball ammo. Polishing the feed ramp and opening up the throat a little made it feed about half the time, but I'm not too disappointed. It handles commercial hollowpoint self defense rounds fine. And I've had a couple of occasions of the slide stop pin walking out during sustained practice. Kahr is mailing me a new retaining spring that is supposed to fix the problem, which I hear is kind of common. Otherwise, I'm a big fan of Kahr, and although I still love my 1911s for general shooting, the CW45 goes everywhere with me.