I’ve had the opportunity to try more than the proverbial handful of handguns. Kahr separates themselves from the crowd in a couple of ways. First and foremost they are an American company manufacturing in the USA. The manufacturing process is an impressive one. Barrels start out as a special blend of steel three inches in diameter and then milled and cut in the Lothar Walther factory. That’s right, Walther, the same folks who make some of the most accurate handguns available. Also unique about Kahr handguns is their longer barrels.
Through some clever engineering Kahr’s handguns have longer barrels than their competition. This is not done by lengthening the slide, in fact the Kahr K9 is nearly half an inch shorter in overall length than the popular Glock 43 and yet the barrel is almost 2/10″ longer! This adds valuable velocity which translates to increased terminal performance. They’ve done some impressive things without making as much noise about it as perhaps they should have. If you want to see the numbers comparing Kahr against Smith & Wesson and Glock check out their data here.
The K9 is also refreshingly all steel. Though this adds some weight to the gun it also makes for a single-stack that is pleasant to shoot. One of the biggest issue with tiny polymer guns is that they can be unpleasant to shoot. If you haven’t experienced that to an extreme just give the Diamondback DB9 a try. The DB9 is as small as it gets and a wonderful pocket gun, but I wouldn’t want to spend a range day with it.
To see the Kahr K9 by the numbers you can find product information here on Kahr’s website.
