New to me Kel-Tec P11

Tallball

No experience with the PF11 but had a PF9 a few years ago. Was looking for a subcompact 9mm. that could be pocket carried in the warmer months. Trigger pull was horrendous, checkering on the grip frame could have doubled as a cheese grater, and the recoil was to be expected in such a lightweight package. Didn't have it for long as I ended up trading it for another KelTec: a P3AT.

I like mine and it is dependable. Nothing but 124gr. FMJ full power re-loads.

It is the only smokeless gun I own that I clean after every time out however.
I found that to not do so with my gun would result in a failure to fire the first round chambered when shooting it again a week or so later.
I've never experienced any problems if the barrel and face of the slide had been cleaned of residue prior to firing. Go figure.

With a two hand hold it's not been a chore to keep them all in the center of a silhouette target a 20 yds.
One handed, I just better get that target much closer!
My buddy put a small wooden thumb rest on the left grip of his to allow his thumb to compensate for the trigger pull when shooting one handed.

The P11 does fit in a back pocket pretty well.
I ground the magazine release down so that it requires more conscious effort to push it, but it keeps the magazine from releasing when sitting on the gun.
Rather uncomfortable this way if much sitting is in the works though.

So my preferred method, since I live where it is 'two shirt' country for 10 months of the year, is to simply drop it down between the two.
I do the same if carrying a Colt Cobra instead.
Not the fastest draw, but it works for me.

LOL on the cheese grater analogy! I took coarse grit sandpaper to mine after the first time I dropped down the front of my shirt only to find
the gun had made it halfway down.

JT

Ive owned a p11 and couldn’t warm up to it. Very heavy trigger and just rough finish.

My rear sight came flying out during recoil and must have went into the 7th circle because I never did find that thing. Kel-Tec was quick to send a replacement at no cost though.

Your experience may be totally different but that is mine. Hope you enjoy it!

I've owned mine since 1995 when they first came out. been back to Florida twice once for a hammer pin and once for an ejector. Have shot well over 5000 rounds thru it and it's just as tight and a good shooter as the day I bought it.

I had a P-11. Yes the trigger on mine was horrible. Once I got used to the trigger I could group pretty well with it. The one I had did not like aluminum cased ammunition (it would stick in the chamber). As long as I used brass cased ammunition it did fine. Also the one I had when I got it the magazine wouldn't drop free when released. I sanded the inside of the magwell to make it where it would (if you do this remove the magcatch first so you don't damage it). There used to be a guy on KTOG that milled out stainless magazine catches & sold them for a reasonable price. I wound up buying another inexpensive double stack & the P-11 wasn't really being used. I wound up giving it to a friend. He likes it.

There are some good tips available on KTOG....like bending the hammer spring retaining pin to reduce the pull. Simple and it works well. The trigger tip on mine tended to dig into the finger so it got ground down until it stopped, and other than the normal 'fluff-n-buff' a set of Wolff springs to make it happy with 147's and it was good to go. Don't enjoy shooting it very much but it's mostly for carrying and not great as a range gun. There are aftermarket triggers available that people say work well...but I've not seen the need for one.

One thing to watch on them.....the pin that holds the trigger to the cross pin can work its' way out...which then makes it no shootee. Keep that pin up and in where it belongs and the P-11's tend to be pretty reliable.

I’ve got one, size and feel I like, trigger ain’t that bad but my shoots low. At 7 yards I have to aim at the top of a 12” plate to hit the bottom, tried adjusting my grip and sight picture but to no avail. Hope yours works for you but I believe this brand is a crap shoot when it comes to quality.

Owned and carried a P11 for 5 years as my EDC, here are my observations. #1, no aluminum ammo! KT states so in the manual, too. #2, mine didn't like 147s at any level and they beat up my hand. 124s are it in a platform that small.
I carried mine in an Uncle Mikes #12 inside the waistband at the small of my back. Only place I have to hide a piece without printing. I know they're about the cheapest thing out there, but the work for me, comfortable and very good retention as long as you don't go nuts with physical activity. Anything that fits a G23 works in a pinch, though.
Get another finger rest extension, they help keeping it on target. The low profile mag bases let the weapon rotate too much under recoil. The extra leverage helps, trust me.
Since you state it was not shot as much as it appeared, if it's fussy at first feeding/extracting, don't fret, the P11 is one of those guns that needs to be shot in and it will let you know what it likes.
Mine loved Federal LE 115 & 124s, as well as Magtech. Stay away from the steel-cased stuff, too, I had a lot of sticky cases with that stuff. Brass cases only, if you please. If you use handloads , make sure they're sized properly too, mine was sensitive to that all the time I owned it.
I'd still have mine, but frankly, I needed one that carried flatter, so I got my PF9 you see in my avatar to replace it.

Handholds = handloads. Auto-correct is a pain sometimes.

I had a P-11 years ago. I had no problem getting adapted to the long pull but the overtravel was distracting. I found a mod on a KT site about installing an overtavel screw. That fixed my issue and made the gun easier to shoot well. My son claimed it as his so I no longer have it.

I've owned two of the P-11s, still have one. I gave the reliable one to a daughter in law. The other resides in it's case somewhere in the back of the safe. It was plagued with light strikes from the day I bought it. (Used) I'm pretty sure a new hammer spring will fix it, the light strike issue anyway. It wasn't all that great to begin with, terrible trigger and not so great accuracy. I also picked up a PF9 somewhere, it suffers from the looooong heavy trigger pull of the P11, but has been stone reliable, and reasonably accurate. My wife actually likes it! She carries it appendix with the belt clip. I have two P3ATs, the first one destroyed the frame due to the "Walking" assembly pin so common in the early models. KT rebuilt it for me and hard chromed the slide. It was reliable after the rebuild, and it spent a lot of years clipped to by body armor as a backup. Before the P3ATs I bought two of the P32s. One for myself, the other for the wife, great little pistols! I let a deputy beat me out of mine, my wife still has the other. I guess you could say I've had more good KelTecs than bad ones. Good luck with yours, hope you love it.
str1

shooter1 said:

. It was plagued with light strikes from the day I bought it. (Used) I'm pretty sure a new hammer spring will fix it, the light strike issue anyway.
str1

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Some of them had a rough firing pin channel and the pin that retains the firing pin itself could rub on the pin enough to rob it of energy. The hammer smacks the living crap out of it and proved to be reliable even when reduced spring tension was used to lighten the trigger pull....so if light strikes are happening, I'd wager that attention to the channel (along with the breech opening) and polishing the retaining pin and recess would give you the reliability you need.

Had one for a while but it was very low shooter. Even changed the sights. Hated the trigger. Traded in for a Ruger sr9c.

RecoilRob said:

Some of them had a rough firing pin channel and the pin that retains the firing pin itself could rub on the pin enough to rob it of energy. The hammer smacks the living crap out of it and proved to be reliable even when reduced spring tension was used to lighten the trigger pull....so if light strikes are happening, I'd wager that attention to the channel (along with the breech opening) and polishing the retaining pin and recess would give you the reliability you need.

Click to expand...

Thanks Rob. I hadn't considered that. I haven't touched the gun in years. Perhaps I'll dig it out of the safe and check that out. Even if I don't use the gun, it would be nice to have it function reliably.
str1

Had one the trigger was terrible, the worst thing was it would not go bang all the time, if it didn;t fire you could pull the trigger again and it would fire, not an option for a carry piece for me so I sold it.
JD

I had one for my first dedicated carry gun, or fifteen or so years ago. I like it, but if I went past 50 rounds or so at the range, the recoil would make my arm tingle for a day or two. Keep it around 50 rounds or so, and no problem. It was reasonably accurate, and reliable. I remember I had a couple of malfunctions, but they were with "range reloads" so they may have been ammo as much as the gun. With fresh factory ammo, no problems.

I eventually moved on to other guns, and sold it, but have come close to buying another one a time or two.

I’ve owned several, sold them & moved to “better” guns, and recently bought another since it’s the smallest, lightest 10 rd semiauto (even smaller than the “game changing” SIG P365).

I’m fine with the trigger, and am able to practice enough to be accurate for self defense distances (10 to 30 feet, longer if I take my time on that trigger press). It’s a 24 year old established design; Kel Tecs may need a little more care & maintenance but they are good tools.

Currently mine is in the pocket carry rotation in an Uncle Mike’s.