Opinions on Kel-Tech

[gunman42782]

I would like to hear pro and con the opinions on Kel Tech pistols. I am considering one of their 9mm pistols for concealed carry.

[ponyexpress]

While I do have a P32 which seems to work fine, I not sure if I would use one as my main carry gun. A friend of mine, who is a police officer and CCW instructor posted the following which recently happened at one of his CCW classes:

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Just a word of warning on any one owning or picking up a Keltec PF9. We had a lady with a new one in class the other day. Maybe 50 rounds thru the gun. During the range exercise the trigger broke in half, just inside the frame above the trigger guard, (it is a plastic trigger) The gun also failed to extract the round in the chamber. When the owner notified my instructor there was a problem, my instructor ran the slide back, saw the round in the chamber and also saw that the trigger was fully / locked back on the gun. As she ran the slide forward / manually- to rack the slide to remove the chambered round, the round fired when the slide hit home. The gun was pointed down range in the stall so there was no problem and the trigger was still stuck at the rear of the trigger guard. Apparently when it broke the sear / striker was ready to go as the gun went into battery. Just a word of caution for future reference. The gun has been returned to Keltec and at this time I have been unable to locate any other similiar problems from any owners on the web

While any gun can break and malfunction, I don't know that I would carry one until I had 500 to 1000 rounds through it. Just my $.02 worth. YMMV

[kdroop]

I like my P11 but buy the trigger shoe it is an angry gun with a device on the trigger that will eat a hole in your finger in a heavy round count range session.I have 2500+ rounds through mine no hiccups pretty cool for a 250 buck gun.

[DonWorsham]

From my son, a reserve police officer...

"The gun will jam and fail to extract for the first 50 to 100 rounds. Just use a lot of gun oil and work out the failures. After my 50 or so rounds I have no problems or complaints about the gun. I use my P11 as my back up gun on duty. The P11 is a great gun after you work out the problems".

[storm1911]

I just sold off a Kel-Tec P3AT. I really tried to like this little pistol. Great idea, poor execution. Over 200 rouinds, three magazines, and three shooters, it refused to keep a magazine in it for an entire magazine. We had several failures to hit the primer hard enough to set one off. If Kel-Tec can address the QC issues, this has the potentail to be a great gun.

[Sponsor]

[Bidah]

I have had a P-11 for quite a while and have about 2000 rounds through mine.  I have kept mine stock, except for a buff of the barrel ramp to help HP feeding.  The pistol has never failed to go bang or feed what I have put through it so far.  Yes, it does have a bite, and the trigger is long and hard.  It does conceal pretty good, is light weight, and at 7yds does the job for me.  You can shoot it a lot, but not a lot at once..   About 100 rounds at a time is gobs for me.

-Bidah

[norfdet]

I have a 2G P3AT with close to 1,000 rounds through it. I have had ZERO problems with mine. I did opt to buy a hard chromed version when I bought mine. I have had other Kel-Tec's in the past and I have found that the HC models seem to run better right out of the box. I think that when the slide is chromed that it smooths out some of the rough spots left on the slides when they are milled (just my opinion!). While I am not a big fan of their other pistols any more, I do think that the P3AT serves a deep concealment purpose that no other pistol of similar caliber does. You have to shoot these pistols to break them in and keep in mind that these are not range guns, in that they are shoot a little/carry a lot pistols. Three friends of mine each have 2G/HC P3AT's; each of us when we bought our pistols took them to the range and shot 200 rounds through them without cleaning or oiling them. Each of the AT's ran flawlessly through the 200 rounds and while each of us have varying amounts of ammo through our AT's, I have heard of no reported problems, such is not the case with everyone.

[storm1911]

I am glad your Kel-Tecs work. Like I said I really wanted that little pistol to work. Maybe after I finish my current project  I'll get another P 3AT and shoot it into submission.

[gunman42782]

Well, after reading Jeff Quinn's write up on the Kel-Tech PF-9 9mm on gunblast.com I decided I would go ahead and buy one.  I needed something smaller than my SP101, and P89 and P90 that I normally pack around.   I was finding myself more and more just leaving my gun in the truck rather than pack the big things around.  Seeing as how Ruger does not make anything that small, I thought I would give the Kel-Tech a try.  First of all, this is not a target gun, that is for sure, but I ran 100 rounds of 115 JHP reloads through it today and it went bang each time with no stoppages.  It throws the brass well clear of the gun.  The trigger is gonna take some getting used to.  It makes my SP101 trigger seem light, and I never thought I would say that about any gun!  The accuracy was not too awful, once I got a little more used to the trigger.  Anyway, all that being said, this gun is one I wont leave in the truck.  It weighs next to nothing! 

[norfdet]

I needed something smaller than my SP101

Is your SP101 a 2" or 3"? And was it really that much lighter and smaller to give up the reliability of the SP101?