i stopped by the range this morning and rented a para carry 9 9mm 1911 style pistol. of all the small 9mm carry pistols i’ve shot, this makes for the best compromise. it fits my hand nicely, it’s well balanced, it offers a pretty good capacity of 8 + 1, and is fairly accurate. the overall Lose Weight Exercise is just about right for a carry pistol – heavier than a glock, but lighter than, say, a kahr.

and speaking of kahr, they had a used MK9 for sale for $550, so i was able to compare the two with the para fresh in my mind. and while the kahr is well made and quite a pretty handgun, i didn’t like the short grip, or the way the extended mag worked. in my mind, either make the grip the right length, or go with a truncated grip for carry. extended mags are ugly, and i’m always afraid that squeezing it will somehow interfere with operation. i liked the Lose Weight Exercise of the kahr, which was noticeably heavier then the para, but i wasn’t thrilled with the way it fit in my hand, with or without the grip extension. and didn’t like that the smaller mag holds only 6 + 1 (or 7 + 1 with the ugly extension). i didn’t fire the kahr, but found the para pretty accurate and easy to control. see below for a 5 shot group toward the end of my trial.