Ok, here is a brief preliminary range report.....
This gun really does require a breakin period. I ran about 125 rounds through it at DPC this afternoon. I was just shooting and reloading as fast as I could so that I could get it over with, so I was more concerned with function than really testing the accuracy. I was shooting mostly at standing steel plates of varying diameter, at a distance of roughly 7-10 yards (I wasn't really paying attention), and at a couple of cardboard silhouette targets left by the previous shooter, one of them a zombie Bart Simpson, also at the same distance.
Accuracy:
I spent part of the time just getting used to the sights, which are sort of "front white dot on top of a rear white vertical bar" kind of like Heinie sights. At first, the gun tended to shoot high, but on further shooting, that was due strictly to my not making the dot "squat down" right on top of that bar. Once I got the hang of the sights, it shot just a little bit lower than point of aim using 230 grain ball ammo of various manufactures. I will be carrying it with 185 grain +P JHPs, so I'm assuming (I still have to actually shoot some) that it will shoot to a point just a bit higher with the hotter loads powering lighter bullets. Deviations to the side were predictable based on a bad habit I have which causes me to sometimes push shots to the right just a bit. I did not shoot it as well as I can shoot my 3" Kimber (roughly the same size of gun), but unfamiliarity with the sights were, I think, the major reason for that. Otherwise, I would say that accuracy was plenty sufficient for self-defense use. The next time I go to Elm Fork, I'll set up a B27 at various distances and see what the gun's actual capability is.
Function:
I'm not going to lie. I had four malfunctions during the 125 round course of fire—all of which occured toward the end of the session. Three were all of the failure-to-feed variety which all seemed to be magazine related. Although the magazine followers are pretty slick polymer and seem well designed, the finish on the underside of the feed lips seems just a tad coarse, and cartridges don't seem to slip out of the magazine as smoothly as on some of my other pistols. This may just be a breakin issue, and I think that is what caused the failures because the rest of the pistol came already fairly well-lubricated with gun oil right out of the box, and I had field stripped it and added a little more along the slide rails just to make sure before taking it to the range; so the gun was plenty wet.
The other failure was that I discovered—fortunately before it became catastrophic—that the slide stop had started to back out of the frame on the left side. I think that one is my fault. I've had the very same thing happen to a 5" 1911 of mine caused by my inadvertent pressing on the end of the slide stop pin from the right side. I am left handed, and I tend to use a "both thumbs foreward" grip. If I'm not careful, my right thumb will press against the end of the pin as my thumb exerts pressure along the right side of the frame. I plainly saw it happen with my 1911. I wasn't paying attention when it happened to my Kahr, but I suspect that is what caused it.
Miscellaneous:
Perceived recoil was pretty much exactly the same as shooting my 3" Kimber—that is to say that it was stout, but not at all unpleasant and fairly easy to control. I was able to shoot it one handed without difficulty hanging on to it. The grip frame has a lot of quite pronounced checkering on the front and back straps, and the grip panels are nicely textured, so controlling the gun under recoil is fairly easy.
Kahr recoil springs are notoriously stiff toward maximum compression, and this gun is no exception.....so manually locking the slide back is a bit harder than with some other guns. The owners manual calls the lever a "slide stop," but it also specifically instructs you to use the slide stop to release the slide, with the warning that releasing it by pulling back on the slide may cause the slide to fail going into battery. I tried it both ways. There really isn't any "overtravel" in the slide movement....meaning that when it is locked open, it really is pretty much as far back as it can go. So trying to release the slide by pulling back on it is actually pretty difficult. OTH, the slide release lever (or slide stop or whatever you want to call it) seems to require a considerable amount of downward pressure to release the slide into battery. I am hopeful that further breakin will loosen the gun up a little bit in that regard.
In summation, the gun seems well made and is reasonably accurate, but it definitely requires some breakin—perhaps more so than some other semiautos. As I recall, my M&P45 required exactly 0 breakin. It ran like a champ from the first round with nary a hiccup since. My 3" Kimber required no breakin, and neither did my old USP Compact. My Kahr PM9 was purchased used and was well broken in when I bought it and it runs very smoothly. My wife's Kahr CW9 was purchased new in the box and has been perfect from the get go. I guess I was expecting the same for the CW45. I suppose that desiging a tiny gun around a big fat cartridge means that tolerances have to be pretty close to make it all work. I won't say that I am disappointed, but I guess that this is the first gun I've owned that really
needed to be broken in. Time will tell, and I think I'm going to want to run at least another 150-200 rounds through it before I travel with it. That means another trip to the range in the next 3 days. Dang it all.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
) Anyway, I've been wanting to pick one of these up for a while now, and it is a nifty little .45. I'm planning to break it in tomorrow, and I've already got the holster and a spare magazine on the way from Kahr Arms. Oh, and I also picked up a box of Corbon 185 Grain +P "flying ashcans" for it. This will be my carry gun on my trip to California next week.
ya.