Kahr MK9 Front Sight Loose: DOHH!!!

[EW3]

I bought a LNIB Kahr MK9 from another forum I frequent and had XS Big Dot sights installed by a gunsmith recommended to me. 2 weeks ago I fired 200 rounds and found the gun to be very nice, accurate and enjoyable to shoot.

Yesterday I went and put another 200 rounds and every round was going LEFT 3-4 inches. I was beginning to wonder of my trigger finger or stance was to blame. Today I take it apart to clean it and the darn front sight is loose! It had slid all the way to the right of the dovetail if you look at the slide, muzzle forward.

I just read that early Kahrs had problems with loose sights, and it appears that mine is an early model. Please tell me that my gunsmith can make this right! Right now I'm waiting to hear back from him.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[bluesteel]

Perhaps the smith can drill the front sight and install a small retaining pin to keep it from moving sideways. I have several guns that came from the factory with pinned front sights.

[roadsiderob]

Or maybe some stud grade loctite to fix it in place.

[SIXTO]

Check out Kahrs website; there are specific sights for early models and later models. I'm willing to bet you have the wrong sights installed.

[Gideon]

you mentioned that a "gunsmith" installed your sights when the other person owned it? If that's correct I would suggest it's more likely what the gunsmith did, not the Kahr. Either way, a good gunsmith should be able to fix this but a poor gunsmith might do it in a way you wouldn't want them to. Hope you get it fixed. I too have the MK9 and it's one of my favorites!

[SIXTO]

It would be hard for a 'smith to screw it up, its just a matter of pressing the old sights out and new ones into the dovetail. The problem is that Kahr changed the style of dovetails, so there are two styles of sights and you need to have the correct ones for your gun, otherwise you'll have issues like the OP is talking about.

Have a look here;

KAHR ARMS ONLINE SHOP

Click on the yellow notice box and it explains everything with pictures.

[jeephipwr]

You can also remove the front sight, then using a center punch, punch several indentations in the bottom of the dovetail. This will raise some metal and create pressure against the bottom of the sight. The sight can then be installed and use some lock tight.

One word of caution, if you remove the sight over and over, after a few times the raised metal will have been "ironed out" and you will be back to being loose again

[EW3]

My gunsmith did get back to me about it and told me to bring it in and he'd make it right ASAP. I did some research and it looks like I have an early model that had the loose sight issues. I'm sure he will fix it to my satisfaction. I looked at the package for the XS sights and it did state for "early model Kahr", so the guy knows what he is doing.

It's a relief, since I was going crazy trying to figure out why I was hitting the left side of the target consistently! I never thought to check the sights, but will do that in the future with all my guns.

[pirate]

My gunsmith did get back to me about it and told me to bring it in and he'd make it right ASAP. .

Good answer!