Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Does size really matter? (Warning - lots and lots of pictures)

Made ya look. Probably not what you were thinking of nor what your wives and girlfriends were really hoping for, but I started out taking a picture of the relative sizes of the grips of a Kahr CM9, CW9 and CW45 and got a little carried away.

For your perusal here is a comparison of the relative sizes of various handguns from pocket pistols up to full size battle worthy handguns. No message here, just thought you might find it interesting.

The original idea. L to R - CM9, CW9 and CW45.



Showing the relative sizes side by side from small to large. Biggest is on the left in each picture in case that's not obvious.

A Kahr CM9 relative to a Kel-Tec P32



CW9 - CM9



CW45 - CW9



A full size Springfield XDm .45 - Kahr CW45. You'd think the "little" Kahr would recoil a lot more but it actually feels like a bit less subjective recoil than the larger and heavier XDm.



An XDm .45 against a similar XDm 9mm. Not much difference in footprint but you can see that the grip of the 9mm is definitely more slender.



A Beretta 92 and a Kahr CW45. That CW45 is a big can of whoop-ass in a relatively compact package.

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/B92_CW45.JPG[/img]

The Beretta 92 against the even smaller CW9.

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/B92_CW9.JPG[/img]

Getting even more esoteric here.

A S&W Model 15 .38 Special side by side with a Kahr CW45. Which one looks easiest to hide?



The Smith next to something more in its weight class, the Kahr CW9



An interesting comparison, I thought. A Kahr CW45 is very close in size to a Ruger SR22.



One shot stoppers! A GP-100 .357 and a Kahr CW45. I love me some GP-100, but I'd take the Kahr with me and leave the GP home.



An awkward pic showing the CW45 overlaid on the GP-100. The bottom back edge of the butts are lined up with each other.

Finally, some pics of how the Kahrs fit my hand.

As a base line since I don't have a 12" ruler in these pictures, I was going to show my hand gripping something it's quite often found gripping, but a) this is a family site and b) I didn't want to shame any of you guys.

The CM9 showing how many fingers I can get on the grip.



CM9 held in shooting position.



Next series is same same - the CW9 with hand open for reference and then gripping the pistol.



It looks like a tight fit here on the CW9 but the grip is just the right size to get a full hand on it without spilling over. You can get a grip without that mag floorplate but it does add just a touch more surface to grab onto.



And finally the CW45 - this one is just right.

Wow, that CM9 is really tiny! Thanks for the pics.

That was great. Thanks for all the pics.

Reno

One thing I hadn't really noticed until looking at these comparisons is how clean the Kahrs are versus how "busy" the other pistols are. It is especially noticeable with the Beretta against the Kahr.

Nothing on the Kahrs to snag, no safeties to take off or inadvertently put on, no projections except the very small sights, and very compact and lightweight - I'm appreciating the design of these things more and more as pure personal defense firearms.

That was great. Thanks for all of the effort. Do you have a XDs to compare? I sure would like to see the difference. Thanks again.

Nice pics. I have a CW 9 and really like it.

Don't have an XDs but I was down at Sportsman's Warehouse this morning and happened to look at one. The upper portion is the same as the XDm with a shorter barrel but I could only get two fingers on the grip. It is almost as short from the trigger guard to the butt as the CM9 but a lot bigger around, though obviously not as big around as the XDm.

There is a picure in another thread here that I believe does show an XDs side by side with another handgun but I forget which one it is. It is fairly recent though so you might quickly browse through each thread in Handguns that had activity in the past week. That picture is where I got the idea of putting each one of these lined up back to back like this.

I was surprised how easy to conceal my Model 15 was when I stuck it in my Milt Sparks VM II that I usually use for my three inch model 13. I had it made for a four inch barrel K-Frame for increased versatility.