Okay so here it is a little late and long
, but better than never right! I got out last Monday the 1st for a little range time with my new toy! I took my Kel-Tec PF9 and my S&W M&P9c to my local range, were I fire off 250 rounds out of the PF9 and about 100 rounds from the M&P for comparison purposes (both with CTC Lasers). To start I set the target out to 25 feet loaded up the (single
) mag the PF9 came with and was reasonably happy with the hits, the CTC Laser guard was right on, it needed no additional adjustment. Witch is a first for me; all my other CTC grips required some adjustment to hit to the point of aim. This is certainly not a snipers tool; my first group was about 4-5 inches offhand, but for the intended purpose it was quite adequate. I measured the trigger pull (with my Lyman Digital Trigger gage) to be an average of 6lb. 1oz. compared to the M&P’s 5lb. 11oz., witch is not bad for a inexpensive DAO pistol (at least it’s not 11-13lb. like most DAO’s). The first of several differences in the price tag of these two guns can be found in the quality of the trigger though. The PF9’s trigger has a very long pull and reset, and has a sharp break point at the end that was hard estimate verses the M&P’s trigger witch is much shorter with a reasonable reset and a good break. (I don’t have anything to actually measure this) I would liken it to the difference in driving a Kia Rio vs. Toyota Camry. They both get the job done but one is adequate the other is more a pleasure.
(Keep in mind the manual says not to dry fire this weapon, as it could damage the firing mechanism.) The trigger isn’t very thick and I found that I needed to insert my trigger finger into the first joint to get a decent pull on the trigger. If I used the pad of my finger I pulled my shots to the right about 5” at 25’.
The sights are small, and plastic (I think), the rear is adjustable for windage, they were doable but I’ll look around to see if I can find some better sights. (XS has some but they require a gunsmith for installation.) I would like a Big Dot though with the laser, sights are not as important. Fit and finish is a little rough, there are numerous though minor sharp edges on the pistol. After about 30 rounds the grip was starting to wear on me so I put on a shooting glove. That helped over the next couple hundred rounds but by the time I was done I was really done.
The recoil is rather sharp even with target loads. Kel-Tec says the PF9 will handle +P loads but not under continued use. So I ran a few +P’s and then a few more +P+’s through it to see how it would do and was happy to see it didn’t blow up in my face! As my preferred carry load is the 127gr +P+ from Winchester! The mag holds 7rds and is not 100% drop free. If the moon and the stars all line up it will pop right out
, but if not then you have to either shake the gun a little or reach up with your support hand and grasp the bottom of the mag (their isn’t much to grasp) and tug it a bit. The mag comes with a third finger extension, which I did try, but I found that my pinky finger still didn’t quite fit on the grip when installed (my hands are small-medium in size). It would probably work for my wife but not me. I found it better to wrap my pinky finger under the mag. As I said earlier the gun comes with only one mag
so I ordered 4 more from Kel-Tec with the extension witch showed up yesterday, witch of course I don’t need now, my mistake for ordering them before shooting the gun
, I could have gotten a 5th mag for the cost of 4 extensions.
The CTC laser guard does give you a nice spot for your support hand to rest the index finger on the end of the trigger guard but the activation switch does eat up a fraction of the front strap of the grip (maybe the mag extension would work better without the CTC’s). The PF9 weighed in at 19oz loaded with 8rds and the M&P weighed in at 31oz loaded with 13rds. The PF9 does have a small M1913 rail on the front but the CTC laser guard eats up too much of the little space available for it to be useful to me. Unlike it’s smaller predecessor the P3AT the PF9 does have a slide lock and remains open after the last round. To grade the pistol I’d give it an A+ for compactness
(.88” wide, 9mm), a C+ for Fit & Finish
(it’s not an attractive pistol), and a B- for shoot ability (50rds are okay 250rds = sore wrist
). This is a good gun to carry a lot and shoot some. With a cost of less than half that of Kahr, meaning you can get 2 for 1 including tax. I still would like to get a Kahr for the nicer fit and finish, though it’s hard justify the $400 for that alone unless you have cash to burn. Overall I give the PF9 a B+.
I hope yawl found this to be a good and helpful report!
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