My favorite handguns are a couple of 1911's--a Dan Wesson CBOB and an STI Trojan. After doing a great deal of research on a new concealed carry pistol, I decided to try a PM9. I stripped it, scrubbed it down, lubed it well and took it to the ranch yesterday to get acquainted and fire a few break-in rounds. For the most part, I'm impressed:

At first, the sights and the trigger threw me for a loop. The dot-and-post sight arrangement seemed strange until I stopped thinking about it, then I found that it actually fell to my eye quite naturally. The long, heavy (comparatively) trigger pull took a bit more practice. After years of shooting 1911's, I had to make quite an adjustment to fire this pistol. Though I can't say that I'm fully comfortable with the setup, I did find that I settled in to a good rhythm within a few shots.

The Kahr manual recommends 200 rounds down the pipe for break-in, so I took enough ammo to do the trick. Give the small size of the grip and low weight of the pistol itself, I expected that my hand would be pretty well beat up before the 200 rounds were down range. I was pleasantly surprised; recoil was easily absorbed, especially with the larger 7-round magazine. The ammo box was empty before I knew it!

Not wanting to spend more for ammo than I did for the gun, I brought White Box 115-gr. ball ammo for break-in. During the initial cleaning I noticed that the little PM9 was very tight and stiff, so I anticipated that I might experience some malfunctions during the break-in period with the inexpensive ammo. I'm pleased to report that the little rascal performed flawlessly--not a single FTF or FTE the entire day!

There were a couple of things about the pistol that didn't impress me: First, the first shell can't be chambered by inserting a full magazine and racking the slide--it will jam every time. Hold the slide open with the slide stop, insert the loaded magazine, then release the slide with the stop and the first round slides into place perfectly. Not my usual [I]modus operandi.[I] The second issue was a head-scratcher. For the most part, I found the PM9 to be amazingly accurate. I am a decent-enough marksman, and I was able to get almost every shot into a nice, tight grouping. About every 20 shots or so, however, I'd get a flyer. Not an off-the-page flyer, but a shot that was 2-3 inches off. I'm inclined to think it was the cheap ammo or my learning a new trigger pull, but it was irritating.

Overall, I'm impressed as heck. It's not the cheapest alternative on the market, but it's a handy size, it reeks of good quality, and I believe that it's going to be reliable and accurate. It's a keeper!