Breaking in a CM9

[mrstimpson38]

I'll be breaking in my CM9 over the weekend and haven't purchased any ammo yet. I've read that breaking it in with a higher grain ammo gives better results than with a lower grain, is this advice commonly accepted?

I'd like to practice and carry the same ammo, and have heard good things about the CM9 using Federal HST 147 grain rounds. Would this be a good round to purchase for my break-in and subsequent use? I'll continue to search the internet on the subject, and will talk to my dealer, but I'd love to hear more on the subject from you guys.

Thanks in advance.

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[JMag]

Clean it, lube, run a couple hundred rounds of FMJ through it, then your quality JHP carry loads to see what works best.

Excellent CCW piece. Love mine. Congrats, and stay safe.


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The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.--Sir Winston Churchill

[OvalNut]

Federal HST is ex$pen$ive break in ammo.

Do the break-in in 2 different range trips. Get 100 rounds each of Speer Lawman TMJ 147gr and 124gr. Shoot 100 rounds in whatever mix of the grain weights you prefer. Test the pistol. Then, clean and lube it.

On the second trip shoot the other 100 rounds. Then, clean and lube it. Done.

I don't ascribe to the concept of racking the slide a gazillion times first. Just clean and lube it, shoot it, and repeat. Then clean and lube it before testing any carry ammo.

Using the above method with my PM9193, I have only ever had exactly one erroneous round in the thousands I have shot through this pistol. It was about the 70th round. It failed to feed. I ejected it and continued. Never a hiccup since then.

Then, get 2 boxes of Federal HST, either 124gr or 147gr, whichever weight you preferred shooting during the break in. Shoot the first box to confirm it cycles reliably, then clean and lube. Use the second box to load the magazine and pistol for carry use.

Congratulations!


Tim

[Amacro]

Great info, going to fire my PM 9 tomorrow for the 1st time needless to say I'm psyched!
Al

[Bills1873]

Great advice from Tim. The only problem after break in is, you can't justify shooting more ammo! It's fun becoming familiar with a new firearm. But then there's practice to keep your skills honed......

[mrstimpson38]

Thanks for the responses guys, and excellent breakdown, Tim. I'll definitely keep it in mind.

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[CJB]

After the fluff n buff - shoot the hottest ammo you can find and/or afford. It will hasten the break in.

Unlike firearms of years ago, where rough edges and surfaces needed to "wear in", the Kahr does not need that type of wear in breaking in.

Take a look at your Kahr. The machining on the surfaces are well executed. Run a disassembled slide on the frame. It runs smoothly.

Instead, the very specialized design of Kahr pistols needs the recoil spring to get to the point that its a bunch looser than it was when first made. It is made tighter, on purpose, because they knew it would "take a set" once it had RAPID and FULL compression. No, holding back the slide does not break in the spring appreciably. Hand racking does not break in the spring appreciably. SHOOTING does, and the higher the slide velocity, the better that spring is gonna be broken in, and the quicker it will be broken in.

So, clean it up, and shoot the hot stuff right from the get go. Its a disservice to shoot bargain ammo to break in the pistol

[mrstimpson38]

So I went though my first hundred rounds with my CM9. I had a couple failures to lock back, 1 failure to feed, and one failure to eject in the first 20 round or so. Everything afterwards was as smooth as silk.

I shot 50 ppj 115g, and 50 federal 147g. They both shot well, but I want to say that the 115 felt better. If that makes any sense.

Before I shot, I lubed up the whole thing quite extensively with a bottle of CLP, and ran a few cloths through the barrel. Afterwards, I broke it down and cleaned it like I was going to eat off it. With all that said and done, I'm going to put my next hundred down this weekend to see how she does.

This being my first experience with a handgun, I feel like I did well. My instructor (a gun enthusiast in the family) said he was surprised that he didn't need to correct my form and that I didn't have an issue with trigger jerk. I told him it was because I watched a lot of 90s action movies, but who knows. Overall I had a lot of fun and feel very comfortable with my Kahr. The trigger pull feels very comfortable, the gun feels right in my hands, and I feel like I can trust it to function when I need it to.

I did have an issue with the trigger, but that's for another post.

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[mrstimpson38]

Very nice. How'd your day at the range go, Amacro?

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