Bug Splat
12-12-2011, 05:28 PM
Finally have her back after many years. I sold my old K40 to fund another pistol and have regretted it ever since. Decided to spend my gun money on re-buying all the firearms I once sold but regret. After a long time searching I found one.
If you have not held a K9 or K40 it is spectacular. Its amazing how well it fits in the hand for such a small pistol. Handles like a full size but can fit in your pocket. No, the Poly models do not feel anywhere as nice. The fit and finish from the outside to the internal parts are amazing. I spent a lot of time studying this pistol part by part and am just blown away at the quality and design.
When I found her online she was a mess but the price was good and the model year I was looking for. Once out of jail I did a full inspection. Dead skin encrusted on the slide serrations, rusty grip screws and guide rod, powder grime just caked in every crack. The internal parts were a mess and I'm not sure it was every cleaned. Wear was not bad at all though aside from some obvious holster wear. Looked like the owner fired a few hundred rounds through her and slapped it on his waste and carried it for 15 years without another shot. Found a lovely surprise under the grips. Looked like the owner spilled soda on it and just wiped off what he could. Everything was gooey and sticky underneath. So sad.
First thing I did was clean her. Took apart every piece and soaked it in a pot of almost boiling water with Dawn soap for an hour. Grips were soaked in cold water. When when the water was cool enough to get my hands in I went to work with a toothbrush and cleaned ever part till there was no more grime. I had to use a toothpick to scrape of all the dead skin from the slide. NASTY! Each part was then moved to a rinse station and cleaned with running water part by part and toweled off. Then it was off to be oiled. Rubbed each piece with CLP working it into every crack. Let soak for about an hour. At this point the grime was so broken down that it was just wiping away with q-tips. I was amazed at the great condition the parts were in. Most looked brand new.
Being a used gun with obvious unknown and abusive history, I ordered all new springs from Kahr. $50 was a small price to pay for knowing all my springs were new and strong. There was no need to order new parts as they all looked new after the cleaning. Reassembled and checked the function. Meh, it felt like a new gun which is great but did not have that smooth broken in feel. Trigger was gritty and slide felt like it was riding on sandpaper. Also the sides were not polished like I had done on my original K40. This would not do.
First thing was to polish those sides. Glass pane with wet sandpaper does a great job. I used an "L" piece of steel as a guide to make sure my polish/brush lines were straight. Tape was used to protect all the areas I did not want polished. Started with 100gr and moved up to 1000gr polishing the slide and frame. Then it was off to the buffing wheel for a final shine. WOW it was mirror just as it was before...... I then I remembered something, I hated the mirror finish on my old K40. DAMN! Finger print smudges are the worst for me. Drive me nuts. Took it back to the 600gr sand paper. Better but still had a semi-glossy look so I hit it with a Scotch pad and bingo, I had my perfect amount of polish. It stood out from the matte parts enough but did not show prints.
Next was to go over all the little internal parts. If they rubbed metal to metal, they were polished to a high shine. This improved the trigger 100 fold. It was smooth as butter. Also polished the slide and mag release, grip screws and the whole barrel. The slide was still gritty so I spent a couple hours going over this part with a scotch pad. I did not want to take off any material but just smooth it out to retain that tight fit. Too much polish and it will not hold oil very well. Worked like a charm and slide pulled back smooth.
Ran into a couple things I did not like about the pistol, the slide release. For one, the serrations are very sharp and did a number on my thumbs while releasing the slide, two, the slide was so hard to release that I had to push with all my strength to send it home. This will not do for a carry pistol at all. I filed off the last shelf of the serrations and combined it with the second to last shelf. I then filed down the corners and buffed everything to a nice smooth polish. Ok, it felt better on my thumb but I still could not release the slide. After inspecting the mating surface of the release and slide and I could see they were laying in a way that just dug the two into each other. Pushing the release down was also pushing the slide back and the Kahr recoil spring is HEAVY. So I took the angle of both and filed them to about a 85 degrees so they were parallel. The angle was exactly perpendicular to the release arm. Picture a "T". Now pushing down was straight movement rather than each fighting their way apart. Areas were polished and the slide releases with little effort. I spent a lot of time testing to make sure a hard mag insertion didn't drop the slide. Had zero problems.
The pistol was now finished. I functioned tested the hell out of it and smoothed out areas that showed resistance. The mag followers were showing too much nose dive. The pistol cycled dummy rounds fine but it felt clunky. I change the angle of the tops of each follower to encourage nose rise. This made a huge difference in the feeding. I could ride the slide all the way down and it would chamber in one fluid motion. It was if there was no round in the mag.
I was done! It was as smooth as i could possibly make. I had worked over every part in some way to improve its operation. I took it to the range for the first time and was delighted beyond words. It fired every round which was 25rds of 180gr hydra-shocks and 100 rds of PMC 180gr FMJ. The pistol felt funny at first. It would fire but it felt odd like it was jamming on a round and not returning. I look and see that it indeed chambered a round. It was not until a few mags in that I realized what was happening. The pistol was not giving me that push forward after the slide returned. In ever pistol I have fired there was an obvious jump in the hand when the slide hit home. The difference was the incredibly smooth feeding of the Kahr. There is no resistance when the slide goes forward. The round is chambered while still in the back swing. There is no feeling of return in the slide. Each shot feels like the slide it still locked back. My old K40 was not like this at all but I also did not fine tune my old K40 like my new one. I'm still not used to the feeling yet but I'm sure it will grow on me :D
And now for the pics. I'd post pics of my target but the previous owner, Bubby, drifted the rear site to the left to suit his poor shooting skills. Idiot. I'll have to drift it back to center. Groups were in the 1 inch size at 10 yards. Pics are from my cell phone too, sorry.
The before pic. ....
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-11-29_18-33-22_332.jpg
And after....
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-03-12_237.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-05-19_734.jpg
K40 compaired to Bersa 380....
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-23-06_167.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-24-03_206.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-26-36_641.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-28-58_842.jpg
If you have not held a K9 or K40 it is spectacular. Its amazing how well it fits in the hand for such a small pistol. Handles like a full size but can fit in your pocket. No, the Poly models do not feel anywhere as nice. The fit and finish from the outside to the internal parts are amazing. I spent a lot of time studying this pistol part by part and am just blown away at the quality and design.
When I found her online she was a mess but the price was good and the model year I was looking for. Once out of jail I did a full inspection. Dead skin encrusted on the slide serrations, rusty grip screws and guide rod, powder grime just caked in every crack. The internal parts were a mess and I'm not sure it was every cleaned. Wear was not bad at all though aside from some obvious holster wear. Looked like the owner fired a few hundred rounds through her and slapped it on his waste and carried it for 15 years without another shot. Found a lovely surprise under the grips. Looked like the owner spilled soda on it and just wiped off what he could. Everything was gooey and sticky underneath. So sad.
First thing I did was clean her. Took apart every piece and soaked it in a pot of almost boiling water with Dawn soap for an hour. Grips were soaked in cold water. When when the water was cool enough to get my hands in I went to work with a toothbrush and cleaned ever part till there was no more grime. I had to use a toothpick to scrape of all the dead skin from the slide. NASTY! Each part was then moved to a rinse station and cleaned with running water part by part and toweled off. Then it was off to be oiled. Rubbed each piece with CLP working it into every crack. Let soak for about an hour. At this point the grime was so broken down that it was just wiping away with q-tips. I was amazed at the great condition the parts were in. Most looked brand new.
Being a used gun with obvious unknown and abusive history, I ordered all new springs from Kahr. $50 was a small price to pay for knowing all my springs were new and strong. There was no need to order new parts as they all looked new after the cleaning. Reassembled and checked the function. Meh, it felt like a new gun which is great but did not have that smooth broken in feel. Trigger was gritty and slide felt like it was riding on sandpaper. Also the sides were not polished like I had done on my original K40. This would not do.
First thing was to polish those sides. Glass pane with wet sandpaper does a great job. I used an "L" piece of steel as a guide to make sure my polish/brush lines were straight. Tape was used to protect all the areas I did not want polished. Started with 100gr and moved up to 1000gr polishing the slide and frame. Then it was off to the buffing wheel for a final shine. WOW it was mirror just as it was before...... I then I remembered something, I hated the mirror finish on my old K40. DAMN! Finger print smudges are the worst for me. Drive me nuts. Took it back to the 600gr sand paper. Better but still had a semi-glossy look so I hit it with a Scotch pad and bingo, I had my perfect amount of polish. It stood out from the matte parts enough but did not show prints.
Next was to go over all the little internal parts. If they rubbed metal to metal, they were polished to a high shine. This improved the trigger 100 fold. It was smooth as butter. Also polished the slide and mag release, grip screws and the whole barrel. The slide was still gritty so I spent a couple hours going over this part with a scotch pad. I did not want to take off any material but just smooth it out to retain that tight fit. Too much polish and it will not hold oil very well. Worked like a charm and slide pulled back smooth.
Ran into a couple things I did not like about the pistol, the slide release. For one, the serrations are very sharp and did a number on my thumbs while releasing the slide, two, the slide was so hard to release that I had to push with all my strength to send it home. This will not do for a carry pistol at all. I filed off the last shelf of the serrations and combined it with the second to last shelf. I then filed down the corners and buffed everything to a nice smooth polish. Ok, it felt better on my thumb but I still could not release the slide. After inspecting the mating surface of the release and slide and I could see they were laying in a way that just dug the two into each other. Pushing the release down was also pushing the slide back and the Kahr recoil spring is HEAVY. So I took the angle of both and filed them to about a 85 degrees so they were parallel. The angle was exactly perpendicular to the release arm. Picture a "T". Now pushing down was straight movement rather than each fighting their way apart. Areas were polished and the slide releases with little effort. I spent a lot of time testing to make sure a hard mag insertion didn't drop the slide. Had zero problems.
The pistol was now finished. I functioned tested the hell out of it and smoothed out areas that showed resistance. The mag followers were showing too much nose dive. The pistol cycled dummy rounds fine but it felt clunky. I change the angle of the tops of each follower to encourage nose rise. This made a huge difference in the feeding. I could ride the slide all the way down and it would chamber in one fluid motion. It was if there was no round in the mag.
I was done! It was as smooth as i could possibly make. I had worked over every part in some way to improve its operation. I took it to the range for the first time and was delighted beyond words. It fired every round which was 25rds of 180gr hydra-shocks and 100 rds of PMC 180gr FMJ. The pistol felt funny at first. It would fire but it felt odd like it was jamming on a round and not returning. I look and see that it indeed chambered a round. It was not until a few mags in that I realized what was happening. The pistol was not giving me that push forward after the slide returned. In ever pistol I have fired there was an obvious jump in the hand when the slide hit home. The difference was the incredibly smooth feeding of the Kahr. There is no resistance when the slide goes forward. The round is chambered while still in the back swing. There is no feeling of return in the slide. Each shot feels like the slide it still locked back. My old K40 was not like this at all but I also did not fine tune my old K40 like my new one. I'm still not used to the feeling yet but I'm sure it will grow on me :D
And now for the pics. I'd post pics of my target but the previous owner, Bubby, drifted the rear site to the left to suit his poor shooting skills. Idiot. I'll have to drift it back to center. Groups were in the 1 inch size at 10 yards. Pics are from my cell phone too, sorry.
The before pic. ....
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-11-29_18-33-22_332.jpg
And after....
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-03-12_237.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-05-19_734.jpg
K40 compaired to Bersa 380....
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-23-06_167.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-24-03_206.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-26-36_641.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/bugsplat/Kahr/2011-12-09_19-28-58_842.jpg