KAHR Pistols

These Pistols were first introduced in 1994. It is a single stack Double Action Only (DAO) pistol made by Kahr Arms with their main factory in Worcester, Mass., their Corporate Headquarters is in Blauvelt, New York. This company is owned by Justin Moon, who is the son of Rev. Moon.

I have owned a full size Kahr in the past and I have worked on many of these handguns. I do not own a Kahr pistol at this time. The Double Action pull is approx. 8 lbs. At this point in time they make quite a few models, and the larger model feels very good in your hand. I personally believe the full size Stainless Steel Elite 98 model is the best they offer and my second choice would be the full size Polymer P9.

I do not like some of the other models because they have a slow trigger return system. The Elite 98 and the full size polymer P9 does not have any trigger return problems that I have seen. If you want to see what I am talking about, take your Kahr pistol and be sure its unloaded and hold it sideways and you can still manually push your trigger forward about 1/4 of an inch.

They use a trigger bar spring that is wrapped around the trigger bar which restricts it. If they had used a trigger bar spring system like the Beretta 92F, I think it would be more responsive and less restrictive and a better design. This is strictly my opinion only. Most all of my customers like these pistols. Most of the internal parts are nickel plated, and the barrel is also poorly nickel plated. I always clean up the nickel plated barrels, so they are smooth and I make them work and look better.

The Mechanism in the slide is a striker system with a firing pin block safety system. The weight of the full size all steel version is approx. 25 ounces unloaded, length is 6 inches.
The polymer model is much lighter in weight, and the ones I have seen have a poor frame to slide fit. When the polymer P9 first came out, there was a problem with the trigger pin walking out while firing this pistol. The factory has corrected this problem in current production P9 polymer models.

These Kahr DAO pistols are available in 9mm, and 40 s&w calibers. It comes with rubber grips and the larger full size models feel much better in your hand. There are after market guide rods that are available for the micro size Kahr pistols and I do not like them and I do not recommend them, stay with the factory guide rod in the smaller Kahr pistols.

The pistols come with a white dot on the front sight and the rear sight has a white square. I always paint these with fluorescent paint, usually orange in the front dot and yellow on the rear white square. I have been able to achieve a DAO trigger pull of approx. 6 lbs. on the steel version, but on the polymer version I can get the DAO trigger closer to 5 lbs. NO SPRINGS ARE EVER CUT OR REPLACED. I DO NOT PLAY THAT GAME.

Night sights are available for these Kahr pistols, although I personally prefer the fluorescent colored paint. Its not easy to remove the original fixed sights as they are pressed in very tight. The front sight blade usually breaks while removing it.

You may like this pistol once you put it in your hand, most people do. I can only present my opinions and different options for you, but in the end its your choice to make. One of the major complaints I hear from my customers is that its very difficult to remove the slide stop during field stripping the pistol for cleaning. The Kahr is a very reliable carry pistol if you can live with the DAO trigger pull. There are no problems in finding holsters for these Kahr pistols.

Authors Personal Notation: As with this commentary and all previous commentaries all this information is based on my opinion only. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say.

Teddy Jacobson / Pistolsmith
www.actionsbyt.com
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tjacobson@houston.rr.com
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