I just bought my wife a Kahr P9 about a month ago and just shot it for the first time today.  We put about 75 rounds through it today.  I shot the first 7 rounds and had to pull the slide back on 2 or 3 of those rounds to chamber the bullet that had misfed and was stuck below the chamber holding the slide open.  I guess this is a misfeed and not a jam?  Anyway, I shot 2 or 3 more rounds of 7 shots with different ammunition and I'll guarantee you that 12 or 13 rounds out of the 20 or so that I shot had to be rechambered because of misfeeding.  Granted I was using cheap loads (CCI Blazer, Wolf, Sellier & Bellot) but to me this should have never happened.  Also, when you load the magazine with 7 rounds and push the magazine into place, if you don't pull the slide back hard and forcefully, the top bullet in the magazine will also misfeed.  Here's the strange part.  My wife shot about 50 rounds through the gun and only had 1 misfeed.  What is the problem?  What is the usual return policy from gun stores?  Or should I take up the matter directly with Kahr?

Don't panic yet.  A lot of new guns don't work perfectly right out of the box.  My advice would be to clean it well, lubricate it, and shoot at least another 100 to 200 rounds through it just to make sure everything is broken in well.  If you still have problems after that contact Kahr.  I haven't heard any negatives about their customer service, so I am sure they will take care of any problems.

Aggie1

I did clean and lube it well before I shot it.  I guess I will try some more rounds through it.  I also shot my Sig Pro 2340 for the first time today (about 50 rounds) and didn't have the least hint of any problems.

I have several Sig pistols and I love them but even some of them were "tight" out of the box.  Also, after engaging my brain, I realized that your problem is most likely a magazine problem.  Try different mags and see if your problem dissapears.  If you have a couple on hand look at the feed lips carefully and make sure they are not bent.

Good Luck,
Aggie1

I did try both of the magazines that came with the gun with no luck.  It does seem awfully hard to load the magazine though compared to my Sig and Glock pistols. When you get to 5 or so loaded into the magazine you have to push kind of hard on the bullet part of the bullet to get it to slide toward the back of the magazine where it should be.  In trying to do this sometimes one or two of the bullets already loaded into the magazine will pop out again.  The slide also seems to be extra stiff and hard to pull back compared to Sig and Glock.  On the positive side, it was very accurate.

I suspect your Kahr needs to go back to the factory.

I fired several early versions of the Kahr in the early 90’s and had the same problem, especially with +P+ ammo.  These “nosedives” appeared to be caused by the slide velocity being a little too fast, which didn’t give the round in the magazine time to fully rise to the magazine feed lips before being pushed forward by the slide.  (However, this won’t explain your misfeeds when manually loading it.)

Possibly your wife is having less of a problem because she’s holding the pistol less firmly, letting the whole pistol recoil in her hand a bit more than you do.  This could be slowing the slide velocity down a little.  Just out of curiosity, you might try holding the pistol less firm and see what happens.  Obviously, this would not be a long-term solution to the problem.

The Kahr gives you a light weight but powerful pistol.  The trade off is that it requires very strong springs, to include the magazine springs.  I hate to admit it, but I wore my fingers raw loading the magazines and finally bought a SKS (I think) magazine loader.

I sent an email to the customer service at Kahr.  I hope they can enlighten me on what I need to do.

My Khar manual recommends up to +P just like Glocks. Don't shoot Blazer, for some reason the aluminum cases and Glock type actions don't work very well together. I had to pound out a stuck aluminum case ounce after it lodged in the breach and the extractor ripped a hole in the case. Just about any cheap brass FMJ's will work fine. I shoot the weak ass range crap all the time.

One thing to check for. I thought that I was getting occasional feed jams until I noticed that my thumb was pushing up the slide release. The slide was just locking instead of misfeeding. KP-9s are really small guns, you have to watch where your thumbs and fingers overlap. I had to adopt a new "thumbs out" grip when shooting my Khar.

The mag well fit is tight when new, make sure that you slap the mag in. They will loosen up with use.

I will try the "thumb out" method. This may explain why my wife didn't really have that problem.  If that doesn't fix it I'll have to call Kahr.  Thanks!

If your wife had no misfeeds, I have to wonder if it's you.  If it's you, it is a grip problem.  My wife limp wristed our Glock 17 when we first got it, resulting in misfeeds.  Once identified, it's never been a problem since.

As mentioned, the first couple hundred rounds are really break-in, so give it a little time.

Typically firearms are repaired by the factories directly.

I really don't think that any gun should be that finicky.  As long as the trigger is pulled, I think the gun and action should perform normally.  I would hate to trust my life to a gun that may not function properly.