Kahr CM9 9mm Pocket Pistol Review

Hey guys. So today we're taking a look at the CAR CM9. Now this is brand new for 2011. The CAR is a 9mm, 6-shot automatic pistol. Now this little CAR is very similar, and very similar in size and features, to the PM9, which is its more expensive, bigger brother. Although it's just a little bit longer, the CM9 is about an eighth of an inch longer here on the front. All the other dimensions are the same. CAR saved money on the production of this pistol, and they've passed that savings along to you, the buyer. Where they saved some money is, first of all, they've staked the front sight versus having a dovetail. And it has just standard one dot in the front, one dot in the rear sights. And then they've done less machining on the slide. You'll notice that this slide looks pretty blocky. The PM9's more rounded and has more relief cuts. It's a little fancier. So they saved some cost there. Next, this barrel is a button rifle barrel. It's a traditional barrel, where the PM9 has a polygonal barrel. More expensive to produce, this button rifle barrel is better for lead reloads, and it also saves cost. They also only ship the pistol with one 6-shot magazine, versus the two that you would get with the PM9. All those things roll up into a pistol that you can buy for under $500. I paid $479 for this pistol at my local dealer, which is Blythe Sports in Valparaiso, Indiana, at iHuntIShoot.com. This little pistol can probably be had, once the market settles, probably in the $450, maybe less neighborhood. Full MSRP on this is over $500. So this pistol really competes with the LC9 that I reviewed just a few days ago. It's very similar in size, actually. This is a little bit smaller and a little bit lighter than the LC9. We're going to take a closer look at it today, do some more shooting with it, and let you know how this little pistol shoots. So we're shooting the CM9 today with 147 grain jacketed hollow points. These are reloads, and I replicate pretty much defensive carry loads I pick up commercially with these reloads. I shoot reloads, obviously, for cost savings. Now when you load the CM9, you want to remember on the car pistols to lock the slide to the rear when you insert a fresh magazine, and then you want to use the slide release, the slide stop, to chamber the round in the pistol. If you use your hand from the closed slide position, insert a full magazine, and pull it and let it go to the rear, sometimes that doesn't do it with the car, and it'll actually cause the bullet nose to go nose down when it tries to feed, and cause a malfunction. You'll never have a problem with loading the pistol the way I just showed you. Now the pistol's recoil, I would say, is somewhat sharp, but it's completely manageable. Given the size and weight of this pistol, which is about 15 ounces, this pistol doesn't really jump around too bad, as you can see. I find that it's pretty controllable for a handgun, its size, and it does have a polymer frame. Now my pinky does hang off the bottom of the pistol. But I still feel as though I have a fairly good grip on it. With these two fingers, I get a pretty good grip on the pistol. Also, the trigger I really like on this little handgun. I like the pull, the feel of it, the weight of the trigger, and I really like the wide shoe that is smooth. It feels almost like a matched trigger to the pad of your finger. The trigger pull is relatively short, and the distance between the front of the grip frame and the back is such that it doesn't feel like you're pulling the trigger too far to the rear to get it to fire. That's one of the problems I have with some of the other handguns that I've reviewed recently. So when the pistol fires, it's a nice smooth action. I can actually get pretty decent accuracy out of this pistol. I've been popping the head target on this little Swinger quite a bit with this little handgun from 7 and 10 yards really easily. So it's an accurate little pistol, it's small, it's light, fits nicely in your pocket, and it has a good trigger on it. I've had 100% reliability with this handgun. Shooting it today, I'm probably about 100 rounds in so far. So as you can see, the CM9 isn't my first or only car pistol. I also have the P380, which I've carried around quite a bit and I really like this little handgun. You can see how it stacks up size-wise to the CM9. I also have the CW9, which is the CM9's big brother, and it has many of the same cost-saving features, just a little bit bigger. It's also 9mm and it holds 7 rounds versus the 6 of the CM9. That's where the CM9 kind of lands in the car lineup size-wise. All these pistols are pocketable. The CW9 is kind of pushing things a little bit. The CM9 fits nicely in my pockets and the P380 is really a tiny little guy. So I'm shooting one of my favorite defensive loads for 9mm and these are the Winchester Rangers. They're 115 grain jacketed hollow points. No failures. Disassembly of the car CM9 is very simple and straightforward. First you'll want to check to make sure that the weapon's clear. You'll do that by releasing the magazine with your thumb and then locking the slide to the rear. I'm going to grab ahold of the slide and pull it to the rear while pushing up on the slide stop. That'll lock the slide open. Then you can look inside and make sure that the weapon's clear. Return the slide to the home position and here you'll see a little takedown hole. So you'll push this slightly to the rear and you'll see where the pin can be pushed out from this side with your index finger. So you're just going to push on this button when you line the holes up. Once you pop it out it'll actually hold the slide slightly pulled to the rear. Just pull the slide slightly to the rear and pull that pin out. And now you'll want to go ahead and pull the trigger on the handgun and hold it back and pull the slide off the frame. Now the slide has the recoil spring and barrel in it. This little recoil spring is under a lot of spring pressure so when you take this out you're going to want to be very careful that you don't let it go flying across the room. So I'm going to put my finger in the front of it here and pry it up gently and then let that spring uncompress. The barrel just sits in the slide like that. Just push it up and pull it out and you've disassembled the CAR CM9. Now inside the polymer frame of the CM9 you can see just how simple this design is. When you pull the trigger you can actually see the sear in here and then the trigger disconnector is right here. So it's very few parts and very simple. To reassemble you just take the slide, drop your barrel back in, take your recoil spring and, again, this is a lot of spring pressure. Put it in, compress it, and set it right there like that. Take your frame, put the slide on, draw it to the rear. I pull the trigger and it makes it just a little bit easier. You have to line everything up so you can see a hole straight through that little hole for the slide stop pin. I'm going to stick that in there. Then you just line up your takedown mark like that, push it in, and the handgun's reassembled. Function check. That's it. So some final thoughts on this CAR CM9 pistol. I really like this little handgun. For the money, you can't beat it. I really like the features of this handgun. I like the simple lines that the handgun has, which are supposedly a cost-saving feature. I really like the look of it. I also like how the gun shoots. This gun shoots wonderfully for a handgun its size with a polymer frame. It's tough to beat. I also like that trigger. That trigger's probably one of the best triggers I've felt in a pocket 9mm carry handgun. This handgun will wind up replacing my Ruger LC9 as my daily 9mm pocket carry pistol. Anyway, thanks for watching the channel, everybody. We really appreciate your subscriptions. Check us out on Facebook. You can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com forward slash military arms, and we'll talk to you guys soon.