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I am new to CHL, but have been a shooter for 35 + years. I am considering the Kahr CW45 for a carry gun as it is lighter than my 1911's. Thoughts?

Welcome to the Forum. I am a fan of Kahrs. I've never shot the CW 45 but I carry a PM 40. It is not uncomfortable to shoot, but it's definitely different than the 9mm Kahrs I have shot. It is very accurate for a small pistol and I've never had any issues with it, though others have had prblems with Kahrs. Kahr recommends shooting 200 rounds to break in their pistols.

I hear great things about them. I'm a Glock fan, so not my cup of tea. I'm sure TAM will be along shortly to respond, he picked one up a year or so ago and is constantly going on and on about the daggum' thing

I own a Kimber Ultra Carry II that has a 3" barrel. I love the gun but it ain't easy to conceal. The Kahr is a good gun.

swap71 wrote:I am new to CHL, but have been a shooter for 35 + years. I am considering the Kahr CW45 for a carry gun as it is lighter than my 1911's. Thoughts?

snatchel wrote:I hear great things about them. I'm a Glock fan, so not my cup of tea. I'm sure TAM will be along shortly to respond, he picked one up a year or so ago and is constantly going on and on about the daggum' thing

.....and so here we go.....

CW45 is my ECD. I really like the gun. The sights are a little cheesier than what I'm used to, but they're quite serviceable. It is otherwise light and reliable.......although it really did require the recommended 200 round breakin to achieve that reliability.

BTW, I've even pocket carried it. It is our 3rd Kahr, the other two being a PM9, and a CW9 which is my wife's EDC. I recently sold a Kimber Stainless Ultra Carry II, and the perceived recoil on the CW45 was about the same as on the Kimber—which is to say that it manages recoil pretty well.

Edited to ad: The other gun I was looking at when I bought the CW45 was a Glock 36, but I've just never been able to get comfortable with either the grip shape, or the grip angle on Glock pistols. They're perfectly good pistols, and my wife owns one....a G19....and I even occasionally carry it. But as a rule, they're not the most comfortable guns for me. The Kahr pistols duplicate the grip angle of the 1911 pattern pistols which I love so much. And BTW, so do the XD/XDm pistol lines. Given the new XDs 45, I would certainly recommend giving it a look too. I recently purchased a XDm-45 Compact 3.8, and I like the grip angle and shape quite a bit, although is a different class of pistol (double stack compact .45 with higher capacity magazines). However, the CW series of pistols are really affordable which is a huge advantage in the single stack lightweight .45 class. I believe that I paid $399 for my CW45, when the Glock 36 in the same store at the same time was selling for around $569.

Like TAM, my EDC is a CW45. Before I bought one, I went to the range and rented every compact .45 they had and always came back to the CW. It was the one with the least perceiveded recoil and I was more accurate with it. I prefer the long, smooth, and stagable trigger for EDC for safety reasons.
I got mine NIB for about the same price as TAM and it was 100% with full power factory FMJ and remington GS defense ammo. Not so much with target level reloads until after about 300 rds. Now that it is broken in, it is good with the gold standard target load of 200 gr. LSWC and 4.0 to 5.0 grs. of Bullseye. It likes 4.5 grs best.

I also use a 6 rd. re-engineered 1911 magazine in the gun for concealment purposes as it give a flat bottom as opposed to the Kahr "bump". There are plenty of instructions over on Kahrtalk and it is relatively easy.

I did have one issue with a cracked factory mag, but Kahr replaced it with a minimum of fuss.

Mine's not for sale.