New P40 DLC... Black!

[wyntrout]

I ordered my pistol Saturday and CDNN shipped it Monday by FedEx and it arrived this afternoon. I hope to shoot it tomorrow before I change anything.

I checked the trigger pull: min. 6 lbs 5.3 oz. Max 7-5.0 with an average of 6-11.8 for 13 pulls. The first was 7-5.0 and I should have dropped it.

My old P40 with the 5-lb Wolff striker spring comes in at Min. 4-15.0 and Max 5-6.9 with an average of 5-4.5. A previous test gave 5-3.0 for 11 pulls.

My P9 with the 5-lb Wolff spring gave 6-6.4 average for comparison.

The case is different from all of the other 7 or so Kahrs I've owned. It's lockable and has slots for 3 mags besides one in the pistol. This pistol came with only two mags... one 6-round and one 7-round, but I'll get another 6-rounder with the promotion from Kahr.

Both pistols are shown with my 6-round mags with the Black metal bases and the necessary 3/32"x3/4" O-rings to preclude pinching!

I already have 14 or 15 mags, so no biggy. I took 4 sixes and 4 sevens apart and cleaned and sanded the followers to hopefully stop the feed problems I had last trip to the range. I had replaced all of the followers, but not smoothed them.

I have a new NcStar Sight Pusher on order and should get it shortly. I'll do a review of that when it arrives. It was less than $50 shipped, so I hope the aluminum frame is sturdy enough. I haven't quite decided what sights I want... maybe the TruGlo FTX Pros like my wife's G43 has. I will put the rear Big Dot's Tritium V-notch on the old pistol and sell it with the XS Big Dot set when I get it reliable.

Funds are tight and I've really gone overboard with spending... 4,000+ rounds of ammo and several new pistols and new holsters (CrossBreed, too!), so redundant pistols must go.

I will wait and see how this new P40 shoots before I get a ported barrel for it, but that's one thing I had intended to do... as I did for my P9... originally thinking of my wife.

If I see a similar deal on a new P45 DLC, I'll leap on that, too! It may happen!

Now some pictures because it did happen!

Wynn

[kenemoore]

I prefer the all black pistols. I don't want something flashy as a concealed pistol.

[CJB]

As long as it goes bang....any color fer me

Nice grab from CDNN

[berettabone]

I have never had the opportunity to handle a P series Kahr. I did see one at an LGS, where you can't handle any firearms unless your a member(yeah I know). It looked like the perfect size handgun.

[wyntrout]

The P-series is very much like the K9/K40, but weighs half a pound less. It's beautiful and just right size-wise.

If I had the money I would have a black CT-380 and the P45 DLC.

Kahr named the P380, but it's more of a PM380.

If I get going, I'll go fire both P40's and check them out... keep the black one and sell the SS Mag-na-ported one with Big Dot sights.

[wyntrout]

Well, I went to the range today and accomplished what I wanted. I took one Winchester Value Pack 100x 165-gr FMJ, 2 boxes of PPU 180-gr TMJ, and one box of Fiocchi 170-gr FMJTC for a total of 250 rounds between the two P40's... my old Mag-na-ported SS slide P40 with the Big Dot front sight and rear two-dot Trijicons and the new P40 DLC (KP4044A). The older one has a bike tube grip cover. The new one will get one shortly! Ouch! I actually taped the grip with some masking tape about halfway through this range trip.

I found that the new P40 did NOT like the Fiocchi and became a jammamatic with it. Near the end I loaded 5 of the remaining best mags with the rest of the Fiocchi to get rid of that box. It would not load cleanly or cycle for the next shot. So, after round one and round two with each of those mags, I dropped the mags and then refilled them with the ejected rounds. I tried them in the old P40 and all chambered and fired with no problem, so I think the Mag-na-ported older P40 is good for carry again.

I probably still have half a case of the 170-gr Fiocchi and don't look forward to shooting it. I think that it works fine in my Glock 23C, though, so I can use it with that. The Glocks always work unless I add an aftermarket "improvement" as with the G43 and the Vickers Extended Slide Lock Lever. I sold the lever and will mainly rack the slide to chamber a round. The stock lever is hard to release.

I don't think the Winchester is very hot ammo and I know the PPU is lower recoil and flash, so I still need to try some stouter stuff as my aluminum-cased Blazer 180-gr FMJ... bright flash and powerful... before deciding on getting a Kahr ported barrel.

I do need to consider sights and get some ordered. My NcSTAR sight pusher came in today and I don't know how that's going to work out. It does not offer you the capability of pushing the sights at the lowest part of the base. It doesn't go below the top of the slide. I'll do a post on the sight pusher since it's a brand new product. It cost me $49.99 shipped and seems nice and strong... except for the pusher part.

I didn't use the two new mags that came with the P40, but I did order the free one from the Kahr promotion.

There is a bit of adjustment necessary when switching between the two pistols... the stock one's sights line up normally while the old one's mismatched ones require a higher front sight hold over the rear... kind of touching the upper inside of the rear posts. To sell the pistol, I will put the original V-sight with Tritium bar back on the pistol for a matched set.

Some pictures:

[musser15]

I just don't get the ammo thing. IMO, a 40 should shoot 40 ammo. Period. I have one Kahr and if I had a problem with it shooting only certain types of ammo, I'd get it fixed or get rid of it. This is all new to me. My Glock and all my CZ pistols, they shoot whatever I shove in the mags.

[wyntrout]

I haven't run across much ammo that wouldn't feed and go bang. I did try this stuff out... bought some to sell at gun shows... and didn't sell much of it, so I was trying to use it at the range. All ammo doesn't work for all guns, which is why we advise shooting a lot of your carry ammo to make sure it works and is reliable with your pistol. Your life could depend on it working.

My Glocks will shoot anything, but the Kahrs are very compact and tight-toleranced, so there could be ammo that doesn't really work with some pistols.

The loaded mags that wouldn't feed and chamber fully with my new P40, worked fine in the older one that has been smoothed and polished quite a bit, especially in the chamber.

I don't always believe reports of ammo not working, but I did personally have problems with this ammo in a new pistol.

We try different kinds of ammo based on reports, prices, accuracy, and reliability before invest a lot of money in ammo that doesn't fit our requirements.

With all of the choices of ammo out there, it should be easy to find something that works and fills your requirements. That's one of the many good things about this chat room and others such as GlockTalk. We share finds and opinions on stuff and try to help anyone with difficulties when we can. You do have to consider the source and the values or veracity of "helpful" hints, etc., that might cause harm to you or your prized possessions. Everybody has an opinion, though some might not be well founded or safe practices.

Wynn

[wyntrout]

I used masking tape on the new P40 at the range (shown here). It now has a bike tube grip cover. This tube has made a lot of those. It's a new tube but probably at least 12 years old, not sure. The price tag say $1.99.

The slide has a scrape where the slide lock lever rubs it... too late to prevent that, but the slide mostly black now.

Wynn

[wyntrout]

Well, I got my new Wheeler Engineering Handgun Sight Tool Monday and tested it... just breaking the rear sight loose and moving it a bit then back. It works. I think that I did make a tiny bit of contact with the slide... tiny burr, but no scrapes.

The slide was already being scraped by the too fat slide stop lever and after installing the three-dot Trijicon sights that I had on hand, I touched everything up with a Birchwood Casey Super Black Instant touch-up pen... not perfect, but black again. I did use a file on the inside of the offending part of the Slide Stop Lever first.

I took the 2-dot night sight off my Mag-na-ported P40 and put the rear V sight on that pistol for a future sale. I had a 2013 front sight for a PM9 and with the rear 2012 vintage 2-dot, I had a complete set of Trijicons for the new pistol at no additional cost. I've bought stuff like that when I found good deals in our Marketplace!

I can't get HD's for the Kahrs, and I tried looking and sighting with the TruGlo FTX Pro sights on my wife's G43. I decided that I had better wait on those, having spent so much on the new pistol and several sight pushers... and 4,050 rounds of ammo, not including what I now need in the way of .40, since I decided to go with the black P40 instead of another G43. I really wanted a single-stack .40... a black Kahr one!

Things went pretty well with taking off and installing the sights. The rear XS Vee sight has two set screws... one blocked by a cheap hex bit that broke off in it, but not leaving the set screw protruding. The Vee was a slide in and use the set screw to hold it in place job, but I added Permatex Red Thread Locker to keep it in place. It takes some oomph and there's a pop when you break that loose, as I had to do several times for a minor adjustment. I finally cleaned the old red off and used some more and eye-balled the sight in place before it set up, which seems to happen too quickly!

The rear two-dot sight had already been sized for the old P40 so it was easy, and I did add some red stuff to it, too.

The front Trijicon needed some work, though. I got a file and put it on anti-skip matting/shelf liner, and slid the sight on it with long strokes trying to keep the removal even. It became obvious that I needed to take down the side, too, both while trying to keep a decent angle. I used various files and stones while trying to keep from undercutting the upper part of the sight too much... holds the glass Tritium vial. It took many tries and when it finally would go in, it would slide freely by hand... oops... was shooting for halfway in, before using the pusher. No problem... just some more red stuff and centering it visually. Looks good and it would take a BIG hit to loosen it, from my experience. So the new P40 is ready to go... even put a bike tube grip cover on it. Now I need to test it again for sight alignment and finish the break in, to include some of my Speer 180-grain Gold Dots Short Barrel version.

I'll do a separate review of the Wheeler Sight Pusher, but here are some pictures of the new P40.

I'm still considering getting the Kahr 4" ported barrel to hold down recoil for fast shooting... without loss of velocity as the Mag-na-ported does... however small the amount.

Wynn

[wyntrout]

More pictures. First the method of moving the slide and holding it back to push out the slide stop lever pin... Works! Added some more pix at the end with a modified mag inserted... black metal base and O-ring to prevent pinches... slightly easier to CC.

Wynn

[wyntrout]

I'm looking forward to trying this pistol out now. I don't know if I'll bother with the 5-lb Wolff striker spring until I check it out at the range again. I want to shoot some of my Speer 124-gr +P Gold Dot Short Barrel ammo.

I put my LaserLyte cartridge in the pistol and was pleasantly surprised that it's like a bore site in this pistol with this chambering! Usually it can be off several inches in almost random directions.

I checked with Kahr and the ported barrel will work with this one without modification of the pistol, so I'm still thinking about that... another 1/2+ inch of barrel and a little help with keeping the barrel down... maybe worth the sale price of $129 + shipping.

Wynn

[Preacher Dave]

I used masking tape on the new P40 at the range (shown here). It now has a bike tube grip cover. This tube has made a lot of those. It's a new tube but probably at least 12 years old, not sure. The price tag say $1.99.

The slide has a scrape where the slide lock lever rubs it... too late to prevent that, but the slide mostly black now.

Wynn

Picked up a P40 DLC like yours from CDNN while they had them on mark down. Have not made it to the range yet and enjoyed reading of your experiences. Did notice that I also have the slide release rub on the frame from racking the slide while doing break in procedure prior to shooting. Bummer.

[wyntrout]

I used a file to remove just a little of the rubbing area on the back of the slide stop lever. Just a few strokes worked. I didn't fix mine until after a trip to the range. I touched it up and it's not too bad, but not a perfect finish. I love the pistol, though. I was shooting it with the LaserLyte cartridge again tonight. I seem to have the "new" night sights set up pretty well. I need to test the pistol again and try my defense ammo. I want to carry it instead of my P9.

[JohnR]

FWIW, Wynn if you're interested, Shooters has two black P40s in the used case.