I picked up a new carry gun today. After much experimentation, and deliberation, I wanted one carry piece that could be carried comfortably and concealed in multiple ways (pocket, IWB, ankle), and yet be powerful, accurate, reliable.
My answer to all of this was a Kahr PM45 with the Diamond Black stainless slide. I ordered it through my dealer with standard sights, and had them install XS Big Dot 24/7 Night Sights on it (ordered from Kahr) when it came in. It feels very good in my hand, and I really like the size of it. It really is very versatile.
Wanting to quickly start breaking it in, I went down the street to my local indoor range with 100 rounds of Federal American Eagle 230gr FMJ.
I shot all 100 rounds at 7 yards, and was immediately impressed with the accuracy of this pistol. ALL 100 rounds went into one ragged 3-4 inch hole at the center of the target, pretty impressive to me for only a 3 inch barrel. It definitely has some recoil to it, but it's also definitely manageable and not uncomfortable.
In these 100 rounds, I had 3 FTF and 1 FTE, which were easily fed/cleared/fired. To me that's no big deal, it's still in the break-in period, and I'll forgive those instances.
On to the bad news... the gun ejected the hot flying brass directly at my face. Every single shot. Thank goodness I was wearing eye protection. I caught a couple right in the goggles, but most hit my forehead, the top of my head, or my ear. Determined to suffer through it, I put all my rounds downrange and then packed up to go home. I was pretty disappointed in this development - there's no way in hell I'd ever shoot that gun without eye protection. So, thinking to myself on the way home, I'd probably have to go back to my dealer, or call Kahr and try to get some resolution to this, none of which is pleasing.
So, I get home and strip the pistol for cleaning. Here's where I notice several other very interesting details. The right hand bottom corner of the feed ramp appears to be broken off. The line is not even, and there's absolutely a broken edge to it. Going further, on the top side of the barrel, where it interacts with the extractor, there's another small broken edge. Thirdly, looking at the inside of the slide, the center piece of material running up to the barrel, is a very slanted different height - maybe this is supposed to be that way, I don't know.
I do know that it shouldn't extract/eject brass into my head, and there's definitely a broken edge on the feedramp of the gun.
As happy as I am with the size, feel, accuracy, and versatility of this pistol - it's going to have to go back. I don't know what will fix this, a new barrel? Additional slide/ejection port machining? But it's got to get fixed.
Here's some pictures - some of them aren't that good, sorry.
Thoughts, advice, comments are all welcome.
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