Kor
February 25, 2003, 03:30 PM
...and I apologize if someone else had the idea previously, but this came to me in a burst of inspiration:
A 9mm Makarov conversion kit for the upcoming Kel-Tec P3AT!
Imagine - a sub-10 ounce, backup pocket-rocket that's thinner, flatter, lighter AND more powerful than any other mousegun on the market! Ammo compatibility/commonality for all the guys that CCW Makarovs already! Hey - if Kel-Tec wanted to design a complete gun dedicated to 9mmMak, they might could even engineer it around Makarov magazines! But, ideally, this should be a slide/barrel/recoil spring kit that could retro-fit to the existing P3AT so that I can buy it from Kel-Tec mail-order, without 4473 paperwork, and install it on the P3AT that I WILL be getting as soon as I put my sweaty paws on one...
I'm pretty sure that you'd need to beef up the slide, both to accomodate a wider(.365 cal bullet) cartridge and to provide slide-slowing mass. A heftier recoil spring also seems like a good idea, to help keep the slide in battery and to keep the slide from beating the frame to death - there's precious little room in the gun as it is for a Shok-Buff or anything of the sort. Were I engineering this, I'd fatten the slide along its whole length so that it overhangs the frame a bit, run serrations along the whole left and right sides, and spring the gun with a recoil spring on the order of 20-24lbs. Optionally, I might have a small slot milled crosswise in the slide so that one could stick a key, screwdriver or pin punch in as a handle to muscle the slide back for administrative loading - speed reloads from slide-lock on a gun like this, meant for deep-concealment back-up duty, are a pipe dream as far as I'm concerned, if you absolutely require this capability in a pocket pistol, stick with the P32.
The realities of the firearms industry dictate that IF Kel-Tec decides to do this, we ain't gonna see it for at least a year - gotta have a chance to sell some of the regular P3AT's, after all - but I think this is something I'd stand in line to buy...
A 9mm Makarov conversion kit for the upcoming Kel-Tec P3AT!
Imagine - a sub-10 ounce, backup pocket-rocket that's thinner, flatter, lighter AND more powerful than any other mousegun on the market! Ammo compatibility/commonality for all the guys that CCW Makarovs already! Hey - if Kel-Tec wanted to design a complete gun dedicated to 9mmMak, they might could even engineer it around Makarov magazines! But, ideally, this should be a slide/barrel/recoil spring kit that could retro-fit to the existing P3AT so that I can buy it from Kel-Tec mail-order, without 4473 paperwork, and install it on the P3AT that I WILL be getting as soon as I put my sweaty paws on one...
I'm pretty sure that you'd need to beef up the slide, both to accomodate a wider(.365 cal bullet) cartridge and to provide slide-slowing mass. A heftier recoil spring also seems like a good idea, to help keep the slide in battery and to keep the slide from beating the frame to death - there's precious little room in the gun as it is for a Shok-Buff or anything of the sort. Were I engineering this, I'd fatten the slide along its whole length so that it overhangs the frame a bit, run serrations along the whole left and right sides, and spring the gun with a recoil spring on the order of 20-24lbs. Optionally, I might have a small slot milled crosswise in the slide so that one could stick a key, screwdriver or pin punch in as a handle to muscle the slide back for administrative loading - speed reloads from slide-lock on a gun like this, meant for deep-concealment back-up duty, are a pipe dream as far as I'm concerned, if you absolutely require this capability in a pocket pistol, stick with the P32.
The realities of the firearms industry dictate that IF Kel-Tec decides to do this, we ain't gonna see it for at least a year - gotta have a chance to sell some of the regular P3AT's, after all - but I think this is something I'd stand in line to buy...