Glock 36 And Kahr P9: Slim, Light And Powerful

Shooting Industry, August, 2000 by Massad Ayoob

Some guns come along that are so well thought out and advertised that they'll sell themselves. However, the difference between a "seller" and a "best seller" is the salesman.

Glock's new G36 slimline .45 and Kahr's new polymer-framed P9 9mm are guaranteed sellers. However, they're guaranteed to be best sellers for those who know how to call attention to these guns' finer points.

Let's look at these two fine defense-type handguns and their subtleties to be better prepared for predictable questions from informed customers.

Glock 36 Slimline

Glock's long-awaited slimline .45 was one of the final nominees for this year's Academy of Excellence's Handgun of the Year award.

It's living up to its publicity, even though it took Glock a while to get the magazines to work right. Your informed buyers know this. (My test gun, so far, feeds everything. I haven't discovered a G36 released for sale -- as opposed to an early, non-shooting "gun-press prototype" -- that jams on any factory-produced defensive .45 load.

Buyers will comment, "It's not that much slimmer than the Glock 30 compact and it carries only 60 percent as many rounds in the magazine."

The answers? For some, that small margin of added slimness is enough to make the difference in concealability based on their build and wardrobe. The G36 holds seven rounds with one in the chamber. This is the number of rounds in the empty-chambered GI 1911 .45 auto, which over 70 years established itself as the ultimate combat pistol for actual military battle. This reminder solves a lot of arguments.

If the customer presses the point, you can always do the logical thing, sell him a 10-plus-one Glock 30.

Another advantage of the G36 is a shorter reach to the trigger. The G30 is my favorite Glock, but I can't quite reach the trigger with the distal joint of my index finger, and have to use the pad of the finger to activate the trigger. You have customers also who find the regular Glock's trigger reach just too much for their fingers, but otherwise love the Glock concept. The Glock 36 was made to fit that customer!

Yes, customers who've heard about the Glock 36 may be standing in line to buy them. But mentioning these features will have many more of your customers filling out a 4473 form to transform Glock 36s from "inventory" to "profit."

Polymer-Framed Kahr

Kahr handguns have earned an excellent reputation for accuracy, reliability and compactness. The one complaint, however, (from my students, readers and probably your customers) is that Kahrs are heavy for their size. With all-steel construction, these small, flat autoloaders weigh about 1 1 1/2 pounds out of the box.

Kahr Arms listened. They tried titanium, but weren't satisfied. Then aluminum alloy -- nope. Next came polymer frames. Bingo!

Customers who hefted the Kahr at your showcase and said, "It just seems awfully heavy," are the ones you want handling the new P9. At barely over 16 ounces unloaded, it's only a couple of ounces more than an aluminum-framed lightweight snubby, but with eight full-power 9mm Parabellum rounds on board instead of five .38 Specials. It's smaller than many 380s and lighter than many more. It should handle P just fine.

Anticipate the questions. "Won't it kick a lot more being so light?" The answer, surprisingly, is "no!" I can barely feel the difference shooting it next to my all-steel K9 with the same ammo. Apparently, the double-recoil spring mechanism, a concept the Kahr people responsibly licensed from Seecamp, has more to do with the Kahr's mild recoil than its weight. Frankly, I always figured the steel frame handled the recoil. I was (choke) wrong.

"Will it still have the famous accuracy of the steel Kahrs?" Not to worry. Mine does about 4 inches with nearly every brand of ammo at 25 yards. It gave me about 2 1/2 inches for five shots at that distance with Winchester's 147 grain subsonic 9mm hollowpoints. I fired the gun with a two-hand hold on a hard bench, similar to shooting over the hood of an automobile. The Kahr is accurate.

The new gun has another great selling point. It's flatter than the Hogue-gripped standard-sized guns it imitates in silhouette. I found a number of women who liked it better than the regular Kahr.

Ultimate Questions

The big question, of course, is, "will it work?" The answer for the Glock 36 and Kahr P9 seems to be yes. I'm only into my first few hundred rounds of testing with each, but neither has malfunctioned.

What about the human engineering" test of "shootability under pressure"? I shot both guns on the same day at a toughly-contested local IDPA match. I came in second in Stock Service Pistol class shooting for the record with the Kahr P9. I turned in a slightly faster time in a "not for the record" rerun with the Glock 36 that would have been a slightly higher second place. Each score beat a lot of good shooters with full-size, sometimes-customized service guns. Yes, they both shoot!

"What bad stuff do I need to know about?" Not much.

The slide-stop lever is so flat to the frame on the slimline Glock 36 that it's tough to drop the slide with it. Many customers will do better to release the slide for a speed-reload by simply tugging the slide to the rear. That's what Glock suggests with all their guns, anyway.