Kahr Arms Mk 9 review

[Goldor]

For anyone interested in concealable firearms for EDC, I can recommend the Khar Arms MK series, in 9mm, which I just recently got.

I had recently had an incident, during warmer weather, when I thought I might have needed something more than the pocket gun I was carrying, (which is all of a Beretta Bobcat in .22 LR), which had me reviewing my carrying priorities. Up here, we had a hot Summer, and the reasonable clothing choices precluded carrying my Px4 Storm, and even my Star BM some days, and so I was stuck with carrying a pocket gun, if I were to carry a firearm at all.

I'd carried my bobcat for a couple of years, as a back-up that was easily concealable regardless of wardrobe, but I had never carried it alone, and so I didn't think too much about having to rely on it as my sole insurance. Like I wrote above, an incident happened where I seriously thought I might have to rely on it, and so afterward I began putting aside money to have something capable of pocket carry, but in a more reliable self-defense cartridge. I did some research, and Kahr arms had a reputation for making a sterling product, and I also had a chance to talk to a couple of friends who owned one, etc, so I settled on it, although is is by no means inexpensive.

My local dealer, when I inquired, said Kahr was running a special on them this quarter, so I jumped on getting one and saved myself a couple of hundred dollars. I just picked it up this morning, and went to the range, runing a few hundred rounds through it, including some hollowpoint before putting it into my EDC battery. The thing is built like a tank, is just a little bigger than my .22 (it is noticeably heavier, but it is easily smaller than a Sig 232). I went with the all steel frame, as one of my buddies has the polymer in .40, and that thing barks a bit much, akin to the old 2" barreled .357 magnum snubbies, so I went down to 9mm, and to all stainless steel construction.

The model I got has the regular sights, is matte stainless, and is not the elite series, which has tweaking out of the box. I didn't get the tritium sights, nor polished stainless, or an elite series, as I wanted to put the money that would have cost towards a set of crimson trace laser grips.

Out of the box, at self-defense ranges (between 5-10 yards), it is capable of very good groups. I was capable of cloverleafing rounds in a Weaver or Isocelese stance all in the black, firing one handed strong side the groups opened up to three inches, offside one handed 4-5 inches. I even hip shot two mags at just outside arms length (but the gun against my hip), and kept all the rounds in the black, in what would have been center of mass or between nose and nipples on the target. It fed Blazer aluminum FMJ, Whitebox FMJ, and Hornady TAP hollowpoint, without a single failure to feed or eject.

I let my girlfriend try it, and she found it had less felt recoil than her Sig 232 (.380), and now she wants one.

Fit and finish were fantastic, the only complaint I had was none of the grip screws had been tightened, and I lost a screw during testing, which I did not discover until after the shooting test was completed. I tightened the remaining screws when I got home, and am putting some spares on order, along with a stainless steel recoil rod replacement, and a couple more mags. The thing is as concealable as hell,, being very flat, as well as thin in the vaunted "thin is sexy" photos they plaster in ads across the gun mags.

The bad side is the owner of Kahr Arms is the son pf the Reverend Sun Young Moon - head of the "Moonies" - although the son does not seem to be heavily conected to the cult. I hope that my money did not go to enrich their coffers, I know people who had been taken in by the Moonies, undergoing typical cult 'brainwashing; by lack of sleep, lack of food, etc - fortunately, they were gotten out of the cult. I did a bit of soul-searching before finally purchasing the gun, but eventually did so, as the company does not seem to be directly connected to the Moonies.

So, I give the gun 5 out of 5 stars. It has a 3.08" barrel, is DAO, is under 6" in length, and about 4" in height with the short 5 round mag (it holds 5, +1 in the chamber, with a longer extra mag that holds 6). It is as flat as a pancake in cross section, and only 1" wide, extremely concealable. Hell, if it did jam, you could pistolwhip someone to death with the thing, it is so sturdily built. If you think 9mm is whimpy, you can get it in .40, and given that the all steel model had little felt recoil with 9mm, it would be a-OK in .40, although I found the polymer frame version to be barely manageable to borderline in .40.

[Meikle641]

Sounds pretty nice, dude. Been thinking about getting a .22 rifle and pistol sometime. Been leaning toward Ruger for both, but maybe I'll look into this as well.

Naturally, concealed carry isn't really as doable (if at all?) in Canada.

[Goldor]

Unfortunately I don't know much about the gun laws in Canada, only that a concealed carry license is only issued around 50 times a year, and that it is for being in fear for your life only. I do know that Ontario, is rather more strict than most provinces though.

The 10/22 is an excellent starter rifle that you can continue enjoying no matter how into guns you get. It is easy to shoot, easy to maintain and fairly cheap at around 250$ for wood stock and 200$ for synthetic stock, though the price may be higher due to living in Canada, I'm not sure on that point, you'll have to check for your self (Note that these prices are with scope so it may be slightly cheaper with out). The magazine that comes with the rifle are the standard 10 round mags, if you are going to do a lot of shooting, or just don't want to do a lot of reloading I'd suggest either getting a few extra, or getting the 30 round magazines, they generally sell for 20-30$, again, the price may vary for you.

As far as .22 pistols go, I've no real preference really, I've heard good things about the Ruger Mark III Target (though expensive at around 700$) and the Ruger 22/45 Mark III (Much cheaper at 325$). If I was buying one of those just to go plinking with I'd probably pick up the 22/45, as it's cheaper and I've heard nothing bad about it.

Keep in mind that Ruger rifles/pistols at times have trouble with American Eagle and Remington brand ammo, I'm not sure why, and keep in mind that it is common to get misfires in any bulk box of ammo, I tend to get 5-7 in a box of 550, of course rimfire is not as dependable as centerfire, that's why centerfire has taken over the cartridge world ;0).

Oh and as a final note, the pistol I reviewed earlier is $650, the model I purchased has an MSRP of $855. I got a deal on it ;0).

Edit: Fixed some typos

[Meikle641]

So wait, only 43 working bullets or only 43 misfires? I hope it's the latter, even with .22 being cheap as hell.

[Goldor]

I apologize for that! I meant 5-7, not 507! I 'd just stop buying rounds and just load my own if there where nearly that many. Once again, sorry!