Kahr PM45 Review

The Kahr PM45 pistols are designed to offer shooters a premium match grade shooting experience. In brief, the PM45 is a lightweight polymer pistol with match grade, polygonal rifled barrel, housed inside a stainless steel forged and engraved slide, a machined stop level, dovetailed front sights, and extensive cosmetic rounding.

It is meant to act as a light weight conceal carry sidearm for civilians and as a backup handgun for law enforcement agencies.

The PM45 retains the Kahr legacy of having complete utilitarian no-nonsense design features.

The Kahr PM45 is a hammerless, striker fired, locked-breach semi-auto that relies on a short recoil operating system and a "Browning Type" recoil lug. The firing mechanism utilizes a passive striker block without any magazine disconnect and chambers a round neatly before the 3.5" polygonal riffling barrel.

The firing mechanism is housed inside a stainless slide (brushed or blackened tungsten DLC) that smoothly rides on steel inserts designed to reduce direct contact between the slides and plastic and prevent wear.

The trigger system has a fully enclosed trigger draw bar and allows smooth and consistent trigger pulls and hence rapid firing at moment's notice. With a moderately weighted long and smooth trigger, the PM45 breaks crisply. The reset is subtle with no noticeable stacking - reminiscent of early HK LEM triggers. As a result, rapid second shots are as accurate as the first.

Though designed for conceal carry, the PM45 fits neatly into normal hands. The pistol has a natural pointing angle that does not require angling your wrist prior to shooting. With its slim design of only 1.01 inches wide, and the slide housing sitting low in the hand - thanks to the Kahr patented offset feed-ramp that prevents the bar from sliding under the feed-ramp, and instead ride next to it. This not only reduces the height of the gun and brings the bore axis closer to the hand, and hence the net torque supplied during recoil, but also contributes to the shootability of the gun.

Additionally, the PM45 offers secure firing grip in the form of a grenade-style checkering on the front and rear straps. As a result, instead of "grippy" panels the sides of the polymer frame are textured. This provides just enough friction for a firm grip and does not cause your hands to fatigue.

The Kahr PM45 offers functional controls only. None of the usual manual safety features found in other conceal carry guns are to be found, making it a truly "gun for fire". To overcome any problems in states where such features are mandatory, Kahr offers variants for the PM45 with manual safety and loaded chamber indicators, and also include Kahr's enhanced trigger with reduced travel but the same weight.

Some variants also include physical indication such as a marked lever atop the slide to indicate a loaded chamber. These variants have external safety levers to manually lock the firearm and prevent it from accidental misfires.

Additionally, the Kahr PM45 offers customizability in form of attaching aiming lasers, flashlight, tritium night sights, and grips.

Model: PM45

Action: DAO

Caliber: 45 ACP

Overall Length: 5.67"

Overall Height: 4.49"

Overall Width: 1.01"

Barrel Length: 3.14"

Sights: 3-Dot

Capacity: 5 + 1

Weight: 17.30 oz.