PM9 initial range report

[jhokie]

So I finally got a chance to take my new PM9 to the range. Ran about 160 rounds through the gun total.

How I cleaned it first: Slide soaked in mineral spirits. Allowed that to dry for a while, cleaned and wiped most of the gun with CLP. Cleaned out the barrel with hoppes solvent.

Used tetra gun grease on the metal rails in the frame, and also on the pickup rail. Lubricated other surfaces including entire barrel exterior with hoppes 9 lubricant.

The gun was difficult to learn to field strip the first time, I think the key is to find something good to tap the slide stop out with.

The gun did well at the range. The only malfunctions that I encountered were a few early failures to chamber a round using the slingshot racking method (everytime I chambered a round using the slide stop I had no problem). Even if the round did fail to chamber, a brisk hit on the bottom of the magazine quickly chambered the round and closed the slide. Towards the end of my range session I was having no problems chambering a round using the slingshot method (possibly due to practice of not riding the slide). No failures to fire of a chambered round nor any failures to eject were encountered.

Accuracy was definitely better than I expected. I did almost as well as with my compact glock, just quite not as consistent. Rapid fire was fairly accurate as well. WWB ran fine through the gun, and +p GDHP also worked great for the 6 rounds that I tested it (I'll run some more once I pickup some more). The recoil increase was noticable.

Not a very scientific report, but enough to know that I'm satisfied with the reliability so far! Hopefully I lucked out with a good one. I'll post a report after I do a cleaning later on tonight. Looking forward to a second range session soon as well!

[TommyTomTom]

I've had inconsistent results with the sling shot method. I use the slide stop to chamber a round as a result. My P9 has never had a shooting failure in 2.5 years, however, I wished I could sling shot from a closed slide. As another GT member pointed out in a private message, it seems like a design problem if you can't sling shot. *IF* striker fired pistols like the Kahr and Glock have a first round ammo problem (click, no bang), you need to extract and eject the bad round out of the pipe and chamber a fresh one. With a Glock, it's no problem whatsoever. With my P9 and most Kahrs from what I've been reading, the sling shot method may not work. That's not good in a life threatening situation.

Now, since I'm carrying my P9 with fresh and expensive personal defense ammo already chambered, the chances of a first round click are extremely low. Given that I've never had a first round click (ever), I feel comfortable with the system. But, it's a design issue that does bug me a little now that I've pondered it a bit.

[jhokie]

Post shooting cleaning done. Cleaned the feed ramp well and lubed it. Now seem to have no problem chambering a round with slingshot method.

One thing is bugging me though... my kahr seems to do much more damage to brass by chambering and ejecting rounds then my glock ever did. After a few ejectings of the same round there are quite a few pronounced vertical scratches on it. I doubt this is a problem, but I'm wondering if it's typical. This is with WWB btw.

My PM9 is dripping wet now... hope I didn't overlube. Since this isn't mentioned on the lube diagram... should any lube or CLP solution be sprayed down in the "trigger spring" area?

I'll see how it shoots again in a few days.

[craig_o]

I spray CLP on every single part of the gun for its protective properties. That is lubes at the same time is simply a bonus, in my mind.

The lube diagram is something I adhere to as well, though I use grease on a few more points rather than oil... like everywhere the barrel touches (then again, I already have CLP all over the gun so I guess it doubles up).

[jhokie]

Shot the PM9 again, running about 75 rounds through it. The only malfunction I continue to encounter is failure of initial round to chamber while using the slingshot method. Otherwise, the PM9 has fired every time I've pulled the trigger and chambered the next round.

The gun definitely feels nicer since I've gotten it broken in a bit. I'm not too concerned about the failure to chamber using slingshot method, since I'll have one in the pipe. Even if I'm forced to chamber this way in a situation, a quick rap of the magazine fixes this problem every time. Also, if I execute the rack really fast and don't ride the slide at all, it seems to work fine.

[Dandapani]

What is the alpha prefix and first numeric digit of your serial number, like "VC2"? Thanks.

[jhokie]

It's a VC4... manufactured sept 06.

[Dandapani]

Originally posted by jhokie
It's a VC4... manufactured sept 06.

:thumbsup:

[Jitterbug]

What about the "mineral spirits" soak and night sites? Will this damage the sites?

[jhokie]

I did the mineral spirits soak as per a recomendation from some posters here. Soaked the slide with the sites just above the solvent level. I'm sure they got a lil' on em, but kept them from being submerged in it.

Honestly though, I didn't get that much stuff out of my kahr when I soaked it. If I got another kahr, I probably wouldn't bother with it. A good clean with with CLP and extra lubrication for the break in period should be good.