Kahr PM9 test has been completed, details follow

cowboychuck asked me to go ahead and post his fine report. From his results we see that locked breech pistols might do a smiley in calibers other than .380. However, with the PM9 it was so minor that he had to use a magnifier to see it. Since the PM9 uses a novel design where the cartridge does not load straight into the chamber like other pistols, it would appear that the new P380, when it is available will perform the same way and smilies, if any, will be barely visible with the most important feature....no setback!! So here is his report as he sent it to me by pm....

oldgranpa,
you probably remember when you had that kahr pm9 that they tell you in the manual not to hand cycle the slide for chambering a round. instead they tell you to lock your slide back using the slide stop and release the slide stop to chamber a round. i never have been annoyed by this since the slide locks open after your last round anyway. i just insert a full mag, trip the slide stop down and your back in business. i suspect it has a lot to do with the short slide stroke and the heavy double spring set-up required to function a 9mm cartridge. with that short slide and heavy spring it's very difficult to manually cycle without riding the slide. i have read a few post where guys have said they could do it after the required 200 round break in kahr reccommends with no problems. i have shot 500-600 rounds through this gun and i can tell you it's still very difficult to do that, so i just use the slide stop as reccommended and don't have any problems. i did the test with both federal hst 124g and speer gold dot 124g+p short barrel ammo. since hand cycling does not work well, i did not do #1 on your test list and went right on to #2 at the firing range, better known as my backyard. i took length measurements of all rounds. federal hst have a slightly wider hollow point opening, making them approx. .030" shorter than speer gold dots. all federal hst's were 1.102" to 1.104" lg. i marked their exact measurement on their respective casing with a sharpie pen before testing. after firing (2), i removed magazine and examined the top round to see how much, if any forward movement could be detected. using some feeler gauges i was able to detect about .018" to .020" play between the back of the casing and the mag with the federal hst's. with mag still removed i now manually ejected the round that was previously chambered during the last firing cycle. at first glance i didn't notice anything different with the hst hollow point nose, but with closer inspection wearing my fly fishing knot tying 2x glasses, i could see a very small indentation. it's nothing like the smileys that you had photos of from your previous tests, where the dent went across the whole dia. of the bullet, from one side to the other. i would describe it as a very small dented line measuring about .060" only in one spot, along the most forward edge of the hollow point cavity. you could miss it very easily with the naked eye, since it is also not very deep. i can tell you the length measurement on that exact cartridge was 1.102" lg before firing test and was exactly 1.102" after firing. so the small dent apparently was not sufficient enough to cause any bullet set back. i repeated test using my cartridge choice of carry, the speer gold dot 124g+p short barrel. this cartridge length measured in at 1.130" to 1.133" lg. after firing (2) and removing mag i noticed very little movement of the top cartridge in magazine. the movement was almost imperceivable, but it looks like .003" to .005" forward. when i ejected that chambered round and measured i got 1.130" which again was exactly what i had measured for that particular cartridge before firing. on inspection of same said cartridge bullet, it was almost identicle to the hst dent, maybe .005" less in length, about .055" lg. total. this seems to make sense since the speer cartridge is .030" longer than the federal hst cartridge. i can tell you after carrying this gun for almost a full year now, i have many times unloaded chambered rounds and rechambered probably some of the same rounds again. i try to rotate as much as possible so only fresh rounds get chambered once, but you know how expensive these premium rounds are. i practice with 124g speer lawman, 10-15 rds per week at 5-30 ft. range, just to stay sharp. i shoot 6-10 gold dots monthly just to keep the feel of that slightly sharper kick, which is very manageable, not a problem. my point of aim is very close to standard ammo, the bad guys won't know the difference. i practice everything as real as possible, no bullseye shooting, i practice drawing at speed out of the front right pocket holster, up close on single and multiple targets. following up shots even with the +p is not much trouble. i'll give you some quick data from a wetpack test with this gun from june 2008 using three different cartridges. rem gs 124g(gs9mmb), federal hst 124g(p9hst1) and speer gold short barrel 124g +p(23611). this was a bare wetpack test (no denim, plywood,etc.) i soaked newspaper only for 24 hours. i shot (3) rounds each for a total of only (9) rounds in this wetpack to get good results without overlap. i'll give you my average of each depth and diameter expansion of each brand. i'll give you my actual depth average followed by my 2/3 calc for ballistic gelatin comparison, if i'm following the conversion correctly(multiply by 3 and then divide by 2)? rem gs was 10.29" (15.44"), dia. exp. .628", federal hst was 9.77" (14.66"), dia. exp. .653", speer gold dot short barrel +p was 10 .85" (16.28") dia. exp. .631" all bullets/ jackets were intact with no fragmenting. i thought these were impressive numbers for a pocket gun. i'll talk to you again on some denim and plywood tests with same gun and same cartridges. as somewhat expected the rem gs loses jacket on plywood. the hst does do very well due to the crimp design to hold jacket to bullet at a lesser cost to manufacture versus the chemical bonding process used with the gold dots. i will say though that i don't like the seemingly rough edge the hst's have at the cavity edge. it just doesn't seem good to me, although they are every bit as accurate and reliable as gold dots in my testing. they would seem like they would chew up your feed ramp or jam often, but they haven't in my testing, as long as you follow kahr procedure to use slide stop for chambering rounds. i do recall some guys having barrel peening issues on some of the earlier guns, my serial number is a #vd series and i've had zero problems after 500-600 rds. on close inspection of the feed ramp there are no visible marks at all and still smooth polished. i have done nothing to it other than clean it occasionally. i'm not sure if this is true but it seems to me that the gun does not get as dirty as my sigs did firing about as many rounds. i think it may be the polygonal rifling of the barrel that kahr has, and i think the glocks do also. so far i only have good things to say about this gun, i loved my sigs but i needed something smaller and lighter to carry. i was able to go from a sig 230 (.380) to something as small, if not smaller and more powerfull. plus i had and older sig that had issues with certain ammo. i've had zero ftf's or fte's using many brands of ammo with this kahr pm9. you can use my name in you posts and i'll try and help out when i can.
Best regards,
cowboychuck