PM 9 Incoming!!

[boscobarbell]

Thought I'd post a quick update.

I finally got the PM9 home. Dissassembled it to look it over, and I was SHOCKED at the condition this pistol was in. Mechanically everything appears to be sound, but I can't believe that someone owned a pistol this dirty and neglected. Crud and carbon everywhere, and it was bone dry in all the places where a Kahr would like a bit of lubrication.

It struck me that this is precisely the kind of situation where someone neglects a pistol and then goes on the internet to complain what a POS his little micro 9mm is. It also struck me how curious it is that people buy something to literally save their lives or the lives of their loved ones and then treat that item with abject neglect.

SMH....

[BirdsThaWord]

I bet it runs like a scalded dog now that you got it cleaned and lubed. Happy New Year! Now go get it dirty!
BTW, I’ve bought multiple guns, at almost too good to be true prices, that did not run. After just a simple break down, cleaning and lubing they ran great. You are correct. Some just don’t take care of them, then wonder why they fail. Oh well, their loss is my gain!

[boscobarbell]

So, I've got some good news to report.

Got the little pistol out today. My intention was to get 100 rounds or so through it, with the ultimate goal of 200 rounds over a couple of range days to ensure reliability. I was going to run it with a couple of other micro 9s for the sake of comparison, but the New England weather conspired against me: a mild drizzle turned into an intermittent deluge while I was setting up, so I scrapped that plan and decided to just run a quick 100 through the PM9 and call it a day.

I wasn't shooting for accuracy...it was too wet for paper targets anyway, so I just shot a steel plate from 7-9 yards. I used all three magazines, and ran a variety of loose rounds through the Kahr, usually mixing ammos within each magazine.

Happy to report that the gun was 100%, with the exception of ARX Inceptor rounds. Those are apparently a bit too weak/light to consistently cycle the stiff recoil springs, and I got a couple of FTE on those. (I like that ammo a lot, and in my tiny Diamondback DB9 they feel like your average 380 ammo. But there are plenty of good 9mm choices out there, so this is no great loss.) Anyway, with the other ammos (all hot SD commercial loads, some of them +P) the little pistol ran like a sewing machine. And it was a real pleasure to shoot, with that characteristically butter-smooth Kahr trigger (which has seemed to really smooth out with the TLC I've given the gun so far).

So, weather permitting, I'll put another 100 or so rounds through it in the next week or so, at which point--fingers crossed--I should have myself a nice little EDC option.

[Bawanna]

Is shooting at steel plates at 7 yards safe. I'm sure it must be, or you wouldn't be doing it. Are they the knock over kind or swinging or hanging or what? Just curious more than anything.
So glad the PM9 is running as it should. That's a win right there.

[dao]

It's not entirely safe. But if the angle is downward from shooter to plate it helps.

[boscobarbell]

It's not entirely safe. But if the angle is downward from shooter to plate it helps.

Yeah. Downward angle, the plate is hanging on chains and moves a bit when shot, and I don't shoot it straight on...I'm probably 30 degrees or so off to the side. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've been shooting this way for over 10 years without incident. <knocks woood>

[djd100]

Congrats...

Regarding break-in, I did near 500 dry fire cycles with snap caps on mine during the pandemic when the ranges were closed around here, as well as a generous lube via the factory chart, and a little feed-ramp polishing, and mine too was 100% with real ammo out of the gate (1 FTF during the first mag due to my learning how to grip the little thing, and perfection since for roughly 1000 rounds plus).

The one thing I did notice was additional smoothing of everything including trigger at about the 200 round mark or so, so you might as well?

[boscobarbell]

Thanks...that's my hope as this moves forward, although I'm already quite pleased with how the break-in is going. I'm not sure how many rounds the first owner put through the gun, but I would suspect that it wasn't too many, so I am treating this as a brand new gun break-in.

I'll report back after the next 100 rounds are downrange.....

[boscobarbell]

Got the PM9 out to the range again today, with a bit of mixed results.

The good news is that I put another 100-120 rounds through the Kahr today without much drama. Everything cycled, and I'm liking shooting it more and more as I become reacquainted with the design.

The only bad taste I have in my mouth is that the little gun dropped its mag a 1/4" or so three times early in the shoot, all of it while shooting Speer Gold Dots in +P. It didn't happen when shooting some Underwood XTP rounds, nor with a good amount of Critical Defense ammo. And, yes, I am 100% certain that I didn't engage the mag release while shooting. I shoot a LOT of micros, and have never had this problem with any of them because I have fairly small hands, and even in the tiny guns have plenty of real estate...in fact, I consciously TRIED to engage the mag release my holding my standard pistol grip and couldn't do it.

So my assumption is that maybe the mag release needs more tension AND the relatively hot Speer ammo combined to shake the mag loose? I came away feeling better when it didn't happen with the other ammo choices, but it may be something to look at.

[BirdsThaWord]

Well that’s a bit scary. In a defense situation that could be really bad. Of course you would not want to carry with that ammo knowing that. Hope you can get it sorted out. Do you smack the bottom of the mag upward after insertion? Could need a different mag release spring, alteration of the mag window, or even a new mag release button. Something is allowing the mag window to disengage away from the mag release button.