Kahr CW45 review, first time Kahr owner

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Review of Kahr CW45. CW45 vs XDs vs Shield vs G36 vs 1911.

Maybe this will pop up in search engines for others like me who are first-time owners of a Kahr.

So far I'm quite pleased with my CW45 pistol.

I am a first-time Kahr shooter/owner. I am also an avid 1911 and 45ACP fan-boy, as well as a .22 target pistols. I am concerned primarily with functionality and dependability, not with brand name.

I was initially interested in a light-weight CC option under $500, and the Springfield XDs caught my interest.

Researching the XDs I found a number of web-site and Youtube comparisons with M&P Shield. I also found comparisons with Kahr, but I never gave Kahr a second thought.

I was focusing on M&P Shield and looking through the local shops, when I stumbled upon a used Kahr CW45 along side a new Shield in a pawn shop. The lower price grabbed my attention.

I could not find an XDs. I found 2 brand new Shields, and 1 brand new (off brand) Compact 1911 . And I liked all of them. However, the much lower prices of the used Kahr required I take a more serious look. I then paid more attention to the online Kahr comparisons I had previously overlooked.

<snip>

So far I'm quite pleased with the dependable performance, as well as value.

Regards,
L.

I'm a noob here too and just wanted to say "Hi!". I'm also an XD9 (4") owner and I love it. I just picked up a CW9 for my wife and she loves it. You are absolutely right, the Kahr is the right tool for the right purpose.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Lawrence]

8 round magazines.

The 8 round CM mags work when I hand-wrack the slide. However, when shooting the follower sometimes tilts at an odd angle and causes a miss-feed/jamb. At about the 5th round the follower will sometimes catch the slide-stop and drop the slide while I'm shooting. And will rarely if never engage the slide-stop after the last round.

My 7 round mags with the government style followers feed fine and engage the slide stop on last round. I swapped a government follower into the CM magazines (effectively making them 7 rounders) and they work fine. Placed the CM follower/spring back in and the problems return.

I tried Wilson Military Style Follower/Spring kits in the mags. The design of the follower sticks out too far toward the front. This helps feed 1911s, but jams in the Kahr. Plastic Wilson followers can't really be sanded/ground down to make them work in the Kahr.

I'm trying out a Metalform magazine next, but I'm afraid it will have the same feed issues as the Wilson. The Metalform should be a metal follower, so there might be room to modify it a bit... one can always speculate, but I gotta experiment and prove it to myself.

Positive in all this between the CM mags and Wilson followers in some of my older mags, I now have 4 good/working 8rd mags for my 1911.

[Scott321]

8 round magazines.

The 8 round CM mags work when I hand-wrack the slide. However, when shooting the follower sometimes tilts at an odd angle and causes a miss-feed/jamb. At about the 5th round the follower will sometimes catch the slide-stop and drop the slide while I'm shooting. And will rarely if never engage the slide-stop after the last round.

My 7 round mags with the government style followers feed fine and engage the slide stop on last round. I swapped a government follower into the CM magazines (effectively making them 7 rounders) and they work fine. Placed the CM follower/spring back in and the problems return.

I tried Wilson Military Style Follower/Spring kits in the mags. The design of the follower sticks out too far toward the front. This helps feed 1911s, but jams in the Kahr. Plastic Wilson followers can't really be sanded/ground down to make them work in the Kahr.

I'm trying out a Metalform magazine next, but I'm afraid it will have the same feed issues as the Wilson. The Metalform should be a metal follower, so there might be room to modify it a bit... one can always speculate, but I gotta experiment and prove it to myself.

Positive in all this between the CM mags and Wilson followers in some of my older mags, I now have 4 good/working 8rd mags for my 1911.

There is a thread on this forum about modifications to 1911 magazines for the CW/P45. When I tried it with a Wilson (IIRC) the bullets sat high enough in the firearm that they would feed off of the top of the chamber instead of the feed ramp, not to mention the last round hold open problem... I don't want either issue in a CC. Although I could try to modify it for an extra round or an aesthetically pleasing flush mag bottom, I decided the money was better spent on just getting more factory Kahr magazines and living with the factory base plate and round count... although I also have a TP45 and use those magazines (7 rounds) and a 7 round CW45 magazine (has the extra plastic on the base) as reloads for the CW45... sometimes.

If you find a combination of mag and follower to work well in your CW45, we would all love to know the setup... it's kind of a unicorn around here without cutting/grinding things up.

[Lawrence]

If you find a combination of mag and follower to work well in your CW45, we would all love to know the setup... it's kind of a unicorn around here without cutting/grinding things up.

I'm very confident that the issue is the leading edge of the followers with regard to feed problems. A normal 1911 magazine follower 'sticks up' higher than the Kahr follower when magazine is empty. Considering the horizontal distance from the barrel to the magazine is less on the Kahr, we should not be surprised with problems using a 1911 mag in a Kahr.

The only outer-dimension difference between the Wilson 8rd followers and the government style 7rd followers I have is a higher leading edge on the Wilson. This is great for a 1911, but not for a Kahr. The nylon Wilson followers worked in the 1911, but didn't lock the slide back. It seemed the Wilson spring wouldn't push the follower up enough on the last round to engage. I now believe the Wilson option I chose is probably cheaply made (nylon) with inadequate springs. The expensive Wilson Pro series might be a different story.

The lower/shorter leading edge of a 'government style' 7rd follower seems to work with the Kahr, but it's still a 7rd follower. Is this worth the hassle for 1 extra round?. If so, just get a 7rd Kahr mag.

The CM shooting star followers are 'springier' on the feed ramp part, and generally feed okay, but after the last round we have the same slide-lock fails. Possibly filing down the front edge of these followers might do the trick, just depends how much money to spend on experimentation.

ACT brand followers have a very short feed ramp that should work great in a Kahr. However, finding an ACT magazine or follower kit to try out is proving a challenge.

Another option is getting a larger magazine with a removable base plate and replace follower with one from a Kahr mag. Don't know if that would get us to 8 or only to 7.

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I also believe the Springs I got with the Wilson follower kit are not strong enough to assure the follower engages the slide stop in both the 1911 and the Kahr. Better spring doesn't address the follower design issue, but it would contribute to slide-lock fails.