For accuracy work from the bench, 50 feet was the maximum distance possible at the indoor range on which I was shooting, and, in any event, I felt the traditional 25 yards might be a bit much for a gun of this type... So 50 feet it was! Best accuracy here came from Remington's 115-grain JHP with a group of two inches even. With the Federal 9BPs, it was 29/16 inches, and the Federal 124-grain Hydra Shok +P+ was right in there with a group of 211/16 inches. Most of the rest of the ammo fell into the three- to four -inch range, which at 50 feet is, as the old cliche goes, "perfectly combat adequate" but not much good for anything else. But come to think of it, the Kahr Micro K9 isn't built for anything else, is it?

When examining fired cases, I did notice that I was getting serious primer smears with the MK9. This occurs when there is still pressure inside the cartridge casing, and the firing pin is still in contact with the primer, while the action is starting to unlock. This is generally seen as a sign you're firing a round too powerful for the gun containing it. With the hot +P and +P+ stuff, primer smears went almost totally off the primer and into the brass! However, I'm seeing this sort of thing on all the new breed of service caliber sub-compacts, so you can hardly single out the MK9 for criticism in this regard.

Oh, by the way, in case I forgot to mention it, the MK9 worked perfectly with everything I put through it. About the only negative comment I can make regarding the gun's functionality is that, when firing it with a straight thumb grip, if the thumb touched the slide stop even lightly during recoil, the action would fail to lock open on an empty magazine. Even when slowly hand cycling the action, the slide often wouldn't lock to the rear on an empty magazine. It didn't matter which of the two six round magazines supplied with the gun I used, the results were the same. This only happened once when firing the gun with a locked-down, thumb over-thumb hold, and that was with generates some pretty impressive slide velocity.

The sheet metal follower in the MK9 magazine proved less reliable in locking the empty gun open than the plastic follower/metal stud arrangement in the earlier K9 magazine.

These failures to lock open when empty occurred only with the shorty six-round MK9 mags and never with the seven-round K9ers. The follower in the MK9 magazine is formed from thin sheet metal (to save room and allow the magazine to be as short as it is, I'm sure) and it doesn't do nearly as good a job of engaging the slide stop as the thick plastic follower/metal stud arrangement in the standard K9 magazine. Of course, we might also ponder the fact that this is not the sort of gun for which one carries around spare magazines in a belt pouch for those lightnin' fast speed reloads. It is rather the sort of gun you drop into your front pants pocket and forget about.

To start with, I didn't really care for the two-finger grip necessitated by the MK9's ultra-chopped butt. I'm not usually recoil sensitive, but I must confess the little MK9's backbite seemed at first to me, not exactly heavy, but hard to control because of the short grip, especially compared to the standard K9, which is astonishingly easy to control for its small size. As my shooting progressed, however, I found the little piece coming under control surprisingly swiftly. With only minimal familiarization. I was able to fire double taps from the MK9 with two good hits on a paper plate circa four yards in .30 second shot-to-shot. The MK9 is not a gun I'd recommend for a novice shooter; however, with practice, I believer it can be brought under control.

As with all new guns, it will be awhile before most major holster manufacturers come on line with scabbards for the MK9. One maker that has gotten the jump on the competition is DeSantis. I was sent two DeSantis holsters for the MK9 to examine. One of these is a rendition of the familiar DeSantis Speed Scabbard, a pancake-style holster, built around the MK9. The other is an inside-the-waistband design called (and I think this is the cleverest name for a holster I've heard in a loooong time) the "Inner Piece."

In summary, obviously what will attract most Kahr Micro K9 purchasers to this gun is its minuscule size envelope for a gun chambering a service caliber. I mean this thing is small. We're not quite down to the size of an AMT .380 Backup here... But we're gettin' there! The Kahr MK9 carries seven shots of full-strength 9mm Parabellum ammunition in a size package heretofore unheard of for a gun of its power. My sample piece worked perfectly with every make and model of defense-type hollowpoint I put through it, including the ultra-hot, extra-pressure, super-high velocity stuff. This is damn impressive. That Kahr could build a 9mm this tiny is really not that amazing-the amazing thing is they've built a 9mm this tiny that works!