Kahr CW9 or S&W M&P9 Shield

So after much inner debate about budget and family safety, it's past time for me to start arming my family. First I plan to buy a weapon that can be used for home defense then as a ccw for my wife when the funds allow for that process. I'll arm myself when budget allows.

We are stationed in CA, but I can purchase handguns as I'm in the military, but this limits my choices. With a budget of under $400, these two are my top picks. I have fired a CM9 and liked it, but never the CW9. They do get glowing reviews though, as does the 9mm Shield.

We're going to have a look at each of these soon, just wanted to know if fine gents have a helpful opinion.

Thanks!

Both of your initial choices are very good. As for the Shield, there's now a version without the manual safety, which is the one I'd get. I hate a manual safety on a carry gun. I'm not sure if you can get these in CA, but if you can up your budget to under $500:

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/.../85322/Springfield+XDS9339B+XD-S+7+1+9mm+3.3"

I use one of these as my daily carry. It's a really good shooter considering its size. Plus, the grip safety adds that extra measure of security when carrying. You can use the 7-round flush magazine for carry, then pop the 9-round extended mag in for when you use it for home defense.

I would like to know out of curiosity if the Mrs. can rack the slide on a semi-auto without any difficulties, or would a round be chambered? Especially with the heart pounding in her throat and the Adrenalin flowing. Not to hijack this thread, but was a revolver ever a consideration. To answer your question I really like the shield 9mm. Smooth trigger right out of the box. Comfortable grip, front and rear sights easy to acquire. The recoil from this 3.1" barrel from this 9MM is very mild mannered and minimal.......BTW: Thank you for your service. God bless.

Thanks for the replies fellas. I spoke to my uncle, who is a gunsmith, and he recommended the S&W hands down. I have found it on sale for $336, I'm thinking of just ordering it, but I want the wife to at least handle it first. She has handled an M&P40c but it's a good bit bigger than the 9 Shield.

She could carry with one chambered w/safety on. She did fine with the M9 we shot a few weeks ago, granted no one was attacking us save the wasps that call the range home. We looked at a few revolvers but she was interested in a semi auto.

Thank you too for your service. I'm honored to serve.

Take her to a range where she can try both. The best gun for her is the one she is comfortable shooting.

If you are buying one for her, buy something SHE is comfortable with. One she can manipulate easily, grip well, and has a grip angle that matches hers. Chances are in an instance she would need it she will never see the sights, so matching the grip angle of the handgun to her natural grip angle is important. Make sure sthe grip is long enough to allow all of her fingers to grip it easily and completely so she can control it. Follow your/her choice with some training and range time.

May she never NEED it, but hopefully enjoy it.

Ok, a few things to hit on. Before buying anything make sure whoever will be the primary user is comfortable with the gun. Make sure any weapon you buy will be legal in CA. Just because you are in the military and can buy it doesn't mean its legal to carry. CA has strict gun laws when it comes to carry.

I am going to assume you, with weapons that small, you are getting this for CCW. To be honest if you are not going to carry a round chambered, then there is not much point in carrying it. 95% of all self defense scenarios are within 10 feet. By the time you get the weapon out, chamber a round, remove the safety, the assailant will most likely be on top of you or (hopefully) gone.

I agree with the poster who mentioned a revolver. No safety. No feeding issues. No jamming. Point and shoot, and that's all there is to it. You can also get them in stopping calibers namely 357 mag (which you can also shoot 38 spl out of), and you they are light weight.

As far as the two you mentioned, both will serve you fine. But whatever you get, make you sure you and/or the operator gets a lot of range time with it before they begin carrying it. This will get them familiar with the mechanics of the gun, the ammo, and the recoil.

Good luck and stay safe!

9 Iron said:

Take her to a range where she can try both. The best gun for her is the one she is comfortable shooting.

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This , absolutely this.
My wife hates semi-auto's. She is intimdated by them and has a hard time racking the slide. I had her try my Shield, a Bodyguard and a G27 (just as far as slide action) and the smaller the gun the harder it was for her. She is a revolver type of women and ended up with a S&W 642

Good advice above. Since you are considering future CCW, take a look at the Kahr CM9 rather than the CW9. It's a bit more compact.

I flew with a guy who swore by his Kahr. He shot several mini-9s and chose it out of the bunch. I settled on the XDs when I was shopping, really just out of hand-feel and trigger preferences. I didn't care for the Shield when I shot it, but it performed perfectly. I just didn't love the way it felt in hand and didn't care for the trigger pull. I can't say anything bad about it, except that I don't like it. It's like mustard to me, I guess. I don't think you could go wrong with any of them, so long as she is comfortable with the one you pick.

If you start thinking about revolvers, but want to stay with 9mm to keep ammo buying simple, Ruger now makes their LCR in 9mm. It seems to be getting very good reviews, and the .38 version is well liked. I haven't shot it, but I did own a S&W 446, which is similar. It was a bit of a bear to learn to shoot, but it was accurate when I finally got it. I shot more accurately with any auto I tried than that revolver. My wife's sentiments were the same.

My wife and I both carry an XDs, in 9mm, or a Taurus TCP, in .380, depending on the day. She has no trouble with the slides on either, nor did she have to fight the Shield when we auditioned it. I think the TCP is a great little pocket gun, useful when you don't want the weight or bulk of a larger gun. .380 is a bit of a weak round, but something is better than nothing, and I don't want to be on the bad end of one.

Lastly, I'll echo the "check the laws" comments for CA. I believe CA is a 'may issue' state, making CCLs very hard to get. You're also limited on the guns you're allowed to buy to some degree. I'm not really familiar with them aside from knowing that they have a lot more laws on the books RE: guns than OK does. Even if they do hold you off on a CCL, there's nothing wrong with a (few) good home defense gun(s) and time at the range.

Thanks for the advice. Part of the reason we settled on the two models is they are the best two CA legal that are in our price range. I'd like to look into a.380 for her, but the only ones that are CA legal are out of our range. We are paying for our kids school and can't really afford a gun at all, but can't afford not to have one either.

CA just changed their may issue status. I believe that the practice was deemed unconstitutional. The application still asks why you feel you need to cc, but can't be a decision factor. I could be wrong.

Thanks for the advice. Part of the reason we settled on the two models is they are the best two CA legal that are in our price range. I'd like to look into a.380 for her, but the only ones that are CA legal are out of our range. We are paying for our kids school and can't really afford a gun at all, but can't afford not to have one either.

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Come to think of it, my XDs says it's not legal in CA on the box. I don't know if they have one that is, but mine can't be sold there. I'd say your choices are very good ones. It seems that the overall 'nice gun' head nod usually goes to the Kahr, but nobody badmouths the Shield. I'm actually one of the few that I've found that didn't like the grip and it wasn't BAD, just not right for me. I wonder why CA doesn't like .380s...capacity is always low, so it must be the ease of concealment of the micro guns. It's a shame because the TCP is a good CCW for the budget-minded.

If you're still in the Eglin area, check out their gun cabinet in the BX, if you haven't already. They had a good selection when I was there a few years ago. The pricing was good and the savings on tax was worth the drive from PCola for me.

Unfortunately I'm already in CA. If I had known we would be buying a gun I would have bought one in FL before I left. But the BX has a gun counter here that I may ask if they can order one for the same sale price.

My two cents:

It's not that I don't like autos but we are talking about home defense here. Keep It Simple.

An 870 Remington or a 1200 Winchester loaded with 00Buck.

An excellent small flishlight with an adjustable beam and good, well charged batteries.

A cell phone with a good, well charged battery having helpful numbers pre loaded, eg..911.

And for a pistol:

A revolver hands down. Smith or Ruger. A 357 can be loaded up or down to suit the person using it. They have fantastic accuracy, deadly stopping power, concealable, work well with smaller hands and simplicity of use is unquestionable. If it lies in a drawer for 15 years it will still shoot all five or six rounds it is loaded with. Try that with an auto. Should it go click instead of boom, immediate action is performed with the trigger finger by pulling again on the next fresh round in the cylinder. With a little instruction a person can put an amazing amount of rounds on target within a short time using speed loaders.

This is my opinion and it may not be for everyone.

Chasmo

Even if you were still at Eglin, you'd still have to get a CA legal gun. For some reason I seem to remember the CA guns always costing more, sadly...

Another thing to check is trigger pull requirements and magazine capacity requirements, as well as ammo requirements. Some places allow anything others, you cannot have modified the trigger in any way, some require a certain pounds of pull. Round requirements are usually the biggest issue. Many states have strict limits on number of rounds.

I wont repeat anything from my previous post, but I agree with the above post completely as far as the home defense gun goes. A pump shotgun cant be beat. If possible in CA, get one with a 10 round tube. Load it so as the first couple of shots will be nonlethal (rock salt, bean bags or foil packs). Then load a few rounds of bird shot, nothing too heavy. Then as an escalation load 00 buckshot, 15 pellet (which is pretty close to 15 .45 ACP FMJ balls fired at once). I'm willing to wager anyone who hears the racking of that pump in the dead of night will scatter. If not, the first shot will scare the bejesus out of anyone. With any amount of luck you will never make it to the lethal rounds, and that's really what you should be aiming for.

Visual/Audible deterrent and fear over use of force will always win out in my book.

Thanks for the advice, but this gun will be for my wife to carry, but will also be for home defense. We don't have the budget for multiple weapons, so this one will do double duty. The two handguns I originally mentioned are the two most affordable, best reviewed CA legal guns that I have researched.

I have since learned that you can receive a gift firearm from your parent or grandparent and that the CA restrictions don't apply to it. So I may go that route. And you can bring any handgun into CA and keep it, the restrictions apply to new handguns being purchased in CA.

Well, as always, something else has come up that is forcing us to swing our budget elsewhere from a firearm. Thanks for the advice.

Both the Kahr and S&W are solid choices. You specifically mentioned you are interested in these two particular firearms, so I will keep my response focused on only these two.

The S&W has an external thumb safety. I do not believe the Kahr does. This may be an important decision making factor in your selection. External safeties are a highly debatable topic, but one I believe is a very personal, subjective choice.

That being said, addressing only the two you provided, I would give the nod to the S&W. If you prefer not to have a safety, S&W released recently a safety-free version of the Shield as well. The Kahr is a fantastic piece. But what aided me in narrowing down my choice, and what eliminated the Kahr for me, was the fact that it has polymer guide rails. I didn't like the fact that the metal slide was directly contacting polymer. I know Kahrs are durable, but I wanted metal on metal. But, again, the Kahr is also a very solid choice. In any recommendation advice I give to prospective buyers, is try to shoot both if possible like others have said too.

Have u considered the beretta nano??

I have both and me and the Mrs always choose the shield