Low Budget Shooter
05-21-2013, 03:08 PM
Dear Boolit Shooters,
Yesterday I traded for a Kahr CM9. Today, before the rain came back, I shot it at the very nice little Edhube Gun Club (Edhube, TX) - thanks Ron Clayton! For comparison, I was also shooting my oldest daughter's EMP and my second oldest daughter's M&P9.
Bullet was Mihec 9mm solid, cast pretty soft out of range scrap, 135 grains, sized .357 and lubed with Carnauba Red, seated so that just a teenie bit of the front driving band showed above the case mouth.
Case mouth was expanded using the Lee .38 S&W insert in place of the 9mm insert in the powder-through expander die. I forget which member here put me on to that, but thanks, because it works great. Bullets go in .357 and when pulled to check are still .357! If you get it adjusted just right, the bullet base will rest right on the un-expanded line inside the case and will strongly resist set-back.
I shot standing, one-handed from the 7-yard line and two-handed from the 15-yard line.
-CM9 functioned and shot fine with two different 115-grain factory FMJ. Accuracy fine, nothing to write home about.
-First hand load, 3.1 gr W231, was too light. The CM9 would not function. The EMP functioned but would not lock back.
-Second hand load was 3.3-3.4 grains W231. This load functioned and locked back the slide in all three guns. Accuracy was very good, better than with factory FMJ.
-Third handload was 5.1 grains W231 (in this case, actually HP38, which is the same) under 115-grain Hornady XTP, seated to 1.125". Accuracy was even better with this load, as it should be, this being a known recipe for accurate 9mm loads.
-CM9 functioned with 115 Speer Gold Dot, and accuracy was about as good as the boolit load.
-CM9 functioned with the kinda funky-shaped 124-grain Remington Golden Sabre, and accuracy was about the same again.
CM9 sights were on as to windage, but low with all loads as to elevation. It was necessary both to aim at base of bullseye and to depress front dot about halfway in rear sight notch to hit bullseye. To my surprise, I did not see measurable difference in POI between 900 fps 135-grain boolit loads and 1100 fps 115-grain jacketed loads. I guess I did not shoot from far enough back to see the difference. POI was high compared to POA with both heavy and light bullets.
Inspection of barrel after about 50 rounds of boolits interspersed with about 50 rounds of j-word showed a nice, shiny bore with zero, I mean ZERO leading!
So, to sum up, my Kahr CM9 checks out with FMJ, factory JHP, handloaded JHP, and, best of all, cast lead boolits! When you see me, I'll have this nice little gun along!
Thanks for reading this report!
Low Budget Shooter
Yesterday I traded for a Kahr CM9. Today, before the rain came back, I shot it at the very nice little Edhube Gun Club (Edhube, TX) - thanks Ron Clayton! For comparison, I was also shooting my oldest daughter's EMP and my second oldest daughter's M&P9.
Bullet was Mihec 9mm solid, cast pretty soft out of range scrap, 135 grains, sized .357 and lubed with Carnauba Red, seated so that just a teenie bit of the front driving band showed above the case mouth.
Case mouth was expanded using the Lee .38 S&W insert in place of the 9mm insert in the powder-through expander die. I forget which member here put me on to that, but thanks, because it works great. Bullets go in .357 and when pulled to check are still .357! If you get it adjusted just right, the bullet base will rest right on the un-expanded line inside the case and will strongly resist set-back.
I shot standing, one-handed from the 7-yard line and two-handed from the 15-yard line.
-CM9 functioned and shot fine with two different 115-grain factory FMJ. Accuracy fine, nothing to write home about.
-First hand load, 3.1 gr W231, was too light. The CM9 would not function. The EMP functioned but would not lock back.
-Second hand load was 3.3-3.4 grains W231. This load functioned and locked back the slide in all three guns. Accuracy was very good, better than with factory FMJ.
-Third handload was 5.1 grains W231 (in this case, actually HP38, which is the same) under 115-grain Hornady XTP, seated to 1.125". Accuracy was even better with this load, as it should be, this being a known recipe for accurate 9mm loads.
-CM9 functioned with 115 Speer Gold Dot, and accuracy was about as good as the boolit load.
-CM9 functioned with the kinda funky-shaped 124-grain Remington Golden Sabre, and accuracy was about the same again.
CM9 sights were on as to windage, but low with all loads as to elevation. It was necessary both to aim at base of bullseye and to depress front dot about halfway in rear sight notch to hit bullseye. To my surprise, I did not see measurable difference in POI between 900 fps 135-grain boolit loads and 1100 fps 115-grain jacketed loads. I guess I did not shoot from far enough back to see the difference. POI was high compared to POA with both heavy and light bullets.
Inspection of barrel after about 50 rounds of boolits interspersed with about 50 rounds of j-word showed a nice, shiny bore with zero, I mean ZERO leading!
So, to sum up, my Kahr CM9 checks out with FMJ, factory JHP, handloaded JHP, and, best of all, cast lead boolits! When you see me, I'll have this nice little gun along!
Thanks for reading this report!
Low Budget Shooter