I recently tested Kahr's PM9 pocket pistol. I thought the pint-sized pistol had a few rough edges, but its reliability and compact size impressed me enough that I bought it. I was planning on working it over a bit myself until a friend of mine pointed me to Cylinder & Slide's website. There, he promised, I would find some packages that would make the little pistol just about perfect.

Clicking around on the website, I found a few Kahr packages. Any one of them would have worked, as all my gun needed was a trigger job and a minor carry bevel. But I didn't think the packages were all that expensive, and the wait reasonable, so I elected to go with the simply named Package 2, which sells for $600.

Reliability is key with any carry gun, so C&S started by throating and polishing the feed ramp to a mirror finish to ensure reliable feeding with even the most wide-mouthed hollowpoints. The gunsmiths also radiused the extractor and checked the extractor tension to make sure the little pistol would extract without a hiccup.

To make the PM9 more comfortable to carry, they broke all the sharp edges off the pistol. They also beveled the slide stop, which was a nice touch because the lever is a bit oversized on the Kahr. Beveling it keeps the bottom edge from rubbing my hand during rapid fire strings.

Though my Kahr shot great, C&S took a few steps to improve its accuracy. First, it re-cut the barrel crown to 11 degrees. Next, the gunsmiths radiused and polished the trigger and reduced the trigger pull to a smooth, easy-to-manage five pounds, two ounces.

Finally, they installed and zeroed a set of XS Sights' 24/7 night sights.

When the little polymer pistol came home, I was blown away with the quality of the improvements. Though subtle, they made an appreciable difference in the little pistol's accuracy and shootability. I fired more than 500 rounds through the C&S-customized Kahr over the next few months. In that time, I really came to appreciate all of C&S's modifications.

I was most impressed with the pistol's trigger. The polished trigger felt good, and the pull reminded me of a tuned PPC revolver, though it was noticeably shorter than my old K-frame's trigger stroke. It was, in my opinion, a big contributor to the pocket pistol's incredible accuracy.

I was also impressed with XS Sights 24/7 sights. Though I am long-accustomed to a classic express-style sight when tracking through thick brush in Africa, the idea of a big ivory bead front and shallow V rear sight on a pistol was hard for me to get used to.

But on the range, that brilliant bead stood out like a tie-dyed shirt at the Republican National Convention. My eyes were instantly drawn to it, making fast, accurate hits a snap, even on moving targets and in low light.

My PM9 was reliable out of the box, but it had a little hitch during reloads. Often, when changing magazines from slide lock, the slide would not close. This happened more often when I tried to slingshot the slide than it did when I used the slide release, but it shouldn't have happened at all.