Question about Kahr?

[podxvost]

Hello everyone! I'm in the procces of buying a Kahr K9 elite from a local gunshop, i've alrerady put down some money on it. The price is $475, its brand new, so comes with everything it would come with from kahr's website. But at kahr.com they price it at almost $800, and some other places have it for $600 and that is the cheapest i could find online. So why am i getting one so cheap? Maybe a stupid question but please explain this to me.
Thanks, Ted.

 

[Glockman17366]

Are you sure it's new?
Sounds like a used price to me... I would investigate a bit further before you buy.

I've got a Kahr MK9. Nice shooter and very concealable. The only down side is it's rather heavy for the size of the gun.

 

[podxvost]

Well, the sticker said new and the gun seemed in exelent condition, although i am by no means an expert. There where some other Kahrs in about the same price range as mine. I've only heard good things about the place i'm buying it from: Bulls Eye shooting range in St Louis, MO

How can i check more into it? I have the serial number of the gun, would that help?

I liked the k9 because of the longer grip, and the added weight of the gun would be beneficial as i'm a novice shooter.

 

[elprofeloco]

New????

Ya either got a GREAT deal on a new, unfired Kahr....

OR......

....the shooting range may define "new" as not previously sold or owned (BUT rented or otherwise fired frequently at the range - i.e. NOT "unfired")....

OR.....

....the seller is either flat-out lying about new-unfired.

"If it SOUNDS too good to be true, it IS (too good to be true)"

(Hope it is just a good deal.....BUT.....)

 

[RNB65]

My guess is that it's either a slightly used gun they're trying to pass off as new or it's been sitting in their display case forever without moving and they've discounted the price just to get rid of it. Kahrs are not high volume sellers and most gunshops rely on volume to generate profits. The biggest gunstore around here completely dropped the Kahr line because they sold so few.

Ask them why they're selling it as such a low price and see what they say. If it's really new, $475 is a great price.

Also, get the SN and call Kahr and see if they can tell you anything about it. Maybe they can tell you if its ever been returned for service or repair.

 

[Zundfolge]

Field strip it and look it over. If it's had any heavy use it will be obvious.

 

[obiwan1]

+1. If it really is new then that is an excellent price. Jump on it. In a good holster you'll never notice the weight. Recoil is minimal. K9s are very reliable.

 

[the naked prophet]

Are you sure it wasn't the CW9? It's their "budget" version, with simple engraved letters instead of rollmarked, only comes with one magazine, and has a few MIM parts instead of the milled parts (slide stop, etc.).

 

[orionengnr]

CW9 is polymer frame, K and MK are steel frame.
Shouldn't be hard to tell the two apart.
CW9s can be had around here for $399 or so.
I rarely see a steel framed Kahr new, only the occasional used one.

 

[podxvost]

I am 100% sure its a k9, but now i'm starting to have doubts about it being new or used. That would be very stupid if i bought a gun thinking its new and its used. :banghead:
I going to solve this mystery, i'm picking up the gun tomorrow.
This is my first one so i'm very exited and probobly won't have the patience to take it home and strip it first, most likely i'll go through a box of ammo while i'm down there.
I'll post an update tomorrow and let you guys know, and maybe some pics.
Thank you all for the help.
Ted.

 

[possum]

podxvost,
first welcome to THR, if that is an excellent condition kahr k-9 elite, i would buy it for that price if it was used or not. they are sweet pistols and sweet shooter, even in rapid fire drills. i love my k-40 but the k-9's are on a whole new level.

even if it is used thopugh if it is in excellent shape, then it couldn't have been used that much. if you do find out it is used, change out the recoil spring and you will be good to go, unless you figure out exactly how many rds have been through it but since you don't know if it is used or not there probally isn't any way to know the rd count. good luck and i can't wait to here back from you.

 

[El Tejon]

New or used, it's a solid deal.

I run P9s as bugs. Have been very happy with them.

 

[ktd]

CW9 is polymer frame, K and MK are steel frame.
Shouldn't be hard to tell the two apart.

I think the guy before you meant E9, which was an economy steel frame K9.

Pricing is a weird thing, and in a big enough shop, stuff gets mispriced or loss-leaded, or priced to move all the time. I have not know Kahrs to ever be a distributor special, but you never know I guess. It could have been a pawnbroker style buy, someone bought it, never fired it, needed money, sold it to the shop for cheap, and the shop was nice enough to markup only a reasonable profit. Even if it is used, it passed your first inspection and as long as it works it should be fine.

or maybe the shop does not know the difference between a K9 and a K9 elite.

 

[podxvost]

Ok, i picked up the gun today and it is a k9 elite 2003, but you guys were right, it was testfired, and only came with one magazine.
I did not see any wear on the outside or inside so i guess they only fired couple rounds like they said.

Even though i didnt get that good of a deal i really like the gun. feels good in my hand and i like the way it shoots, specially the triger pull .

I went through 150 rounds today. Within the first 100 it failed to feed 1 time, and one time to eject.
The rest went without a problem, hopefully it will get smoothed out after another 100 rounds, because there is recommended 200 round break in period.

Can anyone please tell me what would be a good practice ammo for this gun, or should i just buy the cheapest 9mm i find at walmart or something?

Any advice from people who had some experience with kahrs would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ted.

 

[RNB65]

My P9 works with anything I feed it. I recommend cheap ammo for practice and high quality JHP for carry.

Be sure to practice a bit with the JHP to make sure it feeds it ok. Some guns are picky about hollow-point ammo.

 

[ktd]

I notice mine does not like reloads too much, Kahrs are known to have tight chambers. Just shoot what works. Walmart typically has WWB (winchester white box) and the Remington bulk packs and either should work fine, its not premium ammo, but I would not consider it substandard either. If you wanna shoot the remanufactured stuff, buy a box and see if it works. Just make sure you lube it correctly.

According to the website, it should have come with two mags, but the standard may have been different at the time it was made, or the mag got "lost" along the way, that happened a lot during the magazine ban days. Back in the old days, we had to store mags seperately from the gun to keep them from getting lifted, and that often resulted in unintentional short changing people on mags. If you had brought that up during the transaction, the shop might have done right by you on it, or that might be one of the reasons for the discount. One of my used kahrs came with the wrong caliber mag, I just sold it and bought the right ones.

You still got an excellent deal, just not as great a deal as you thought. I would not worry about it. Lots of people pay MSRP on stuff and are quite happy.

 

[Mr. S]

Sounds like you got a good deal on a sweet weapon.
The factory test fire models do only come with one magazine,so keep your eyes open as factory ones show up on ebay from time to time and also in the classified sections of the various handgun related forums.

Where are the pictures anyway??

 

[possum]

my kahr like wwb, and my dad's k-9 elite is shot with reloads only, no problems of any kind with either on of them.

 

[ktd]

The factory test fire models do only come with one magazine,

huh? are you talking about factory demo guns? Many pistols are test fired (and usually not cleaned) before shipment. Also, it was tradition to proof fire guns, though in this country I do not think it is a requirement. I think the original poster was talking about the standard test fire before shipment. Given Kahr's philosophy, I would figure they would test fire them such.

Where did you see factory demo guns? I doubt they would be sold on ebay.

 

[dogtown tom]

He saw magazines on Ebay.

 

[Mr. S]

I know the guns are test fired at the factory, I was talking about something different.
I was going to purchase a test fire gun from an online dealer because they were a good bit cheaper than a new gun but they only come with one magazine and they had a different warranty.
Based on the price for the gun and the one magazine I think this maybe what he has.
I know there is a way to tell I just can't remember what it is.

 

[fatelk]

It look like everyone here is pretty happy with their Kahr pistols. The only one I ever shot must have been a bad one, a P9. A friend bought it for his wife. I went with them to the range for the "break in period". Is this normal? I had never heard of a break in period before. After 300+ rounds of various factory ammo, it still malfunctioned at least once every magazine full. The slide would not close all the way reliably.
I called Kahr for them and the customer service guy I spoke to thought it might be one of a couple things, said I could return it for repairs or he could send parts. I told him I was pretty sure that the problem was that the extractor had too much tension and that I could fix it myself but didn't want to void the warranty. He said go ahead, that won't void the warranty and if I mess up the extractor he could send me another one. I carefully filed and shaped the extractor a little and it now works perfectly, though not the most accurate pistol I've ever shot.

 

[El Tejon]

There were teething problems reported with the P9s. I own several P9s, all function flawlessly.