Generation 2 - Kel-Tec P3AT Range Report

[FunYet]

I recently bought a 2nd generation Kel-Tec P3AT. Finally got a chance to take it to the range again today.

I've made it through 100 rounds of Winchester White Box without any trouble. After that I started to have problems with failure to eject. Most often this happened on the first round. I also had this problem with Winchester Silvertips. The problem seemed to get worse and happen more frequently the more I shot. All in all I put 160 rounds through the gun today.

My assumption at this point; little guns get dirty quickly. Build up of gunk can cause failures. I'm guessing 100 rounds is enough to gum things up. I'm going to give the gun a thorough cleaning and will try it again.

The gun is an accurate point-shooter. Recoil isn't too bad, though after 160 rounds my hand started to hurt a bit (which I'd expect). Most notable, I wasn't pelted in the face with spent brass as I was with a previous P3AT.

I keep giving up on Kel-Tecs, then give in and try again. I really want to like Kel-Tecs. Maybe this one will be a winner. I'll post results once I get back to the range with my squeaky clean gun.

I'd be interested in hearing feedback from anyone else who'd seeing similar behavior from their G2 P3AT.

Thanks

 

[alamo]

I would say your diagnosis is correct. These little pistols need to be well lubed and clean. AT 100+ rounds, you're losing lubrication and gunk is building up. These aren't plinkers to shoot all day.

I generally shoot 50 rounds at a time and maybe a mag or 2 of carry ammo.

 

[mod12]

my 1st gen p3at has been flawless thru 300+ rnds. i have not fired more than 50 rnds at a session and clean and lube it after every use. i also polished the ramp and chamber prior to first use. extended firing may cause grip to tire and some limp wristing may occur. i think a magazine finger rest is a must along with a hogue jr. slip on. mine is quite comfortable to shoot. yesterday i added a strip of a mouse pad to the grip backstrap. i contoured it to the top and bottom of the grip and glued it to the gun. the added depth aids in the hogue fitting tightly and since i have long bony fingers gives me a better finger placement.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

I have not had any jams with my P3AT whatsoever. I estimate it to be around the 300-400 round mark at this point.

I can't imagine why you would want to shoot 100 rounds through one of these in one session, unless you were "torture testing".

 

[edison]

FunYet,

You must have hands of stone. I think four mags is about the most I've put through my wee beastie at any one time. Mine, too, is a second generation with the "Frankenbolt" on the extractor. I'm surprised how accurate it is at 7 yards with the miniscule sights. Although I didn't need it at the range, I'm still going to put a little white paint on the front sight. I still want to shoot it a few more times to have reasonable confidence in it, but other than a couple of failure to go into battery occurrences it has worked okay. A smack on the rear of the slide and it chambered the rounds okay. I figure it's still breaking in.

It fits in just about any coat pocket, and in my pants pocket on a couple of occasions. It's definitely in the carry much, shoot little category. I carry it in a cheap generic holster now, but I intend to get a better fitted holster soon. No way would I carry this in any pocket without a holster.

edison

 

[Lennyjoe]

I must of gotten one of the good ones cause I havent had any problems with mine that weren't my fault.

By that I mean the only problem I had was when I lost the ejector at a range in Texas. The gun still functioned fine.

Kel-Tec sent me a new one free of charge. Since then, no problems whatsoever.

 

[goon]

I don't have a P3AT but I do have a P-32 that is in for repairs right now. I was having failures to extract about 5 times per box of ammo with everything I tried in it other than Winchester 71 gr FMJ. I hope they can get it fixed because I really like that little gun. I'd hate to have to give up on it.

 

[seed]

Check the boards at www.ktog.org . It may be helpful to you.

 

[Wilson 17&26]

I find that a finger extension is a great addition to your extra P-3AT magazines, especially during break-in. I prefer the NAA (requires nail clippers & 10 seconds) but a Bersa will fit without alteration. Both are shown below.

 

[FunYet]

Bersa extension

Where can the Bersa extensions be purchased?
I assume the NAA extension is for the NAA Guardian 380? Is NAA the ony source for these?

Thanks

 

[Rick Blaine]

I have one or two of just about every pistol Kel-Tec has made. I agree that you have to keep them clean and well lubed. One hundred rounds at one sessoin with my P-3AT would be too much for me. I can do that with my P-11 because the grip is larger and my Hogue Handall Jr. helps a lot. You should also check out KTrange.com It's like KTOG light, without all the bickering. Rick

 

[Newton]

I can manage about 80 rounds with shooting gloves and about 12 rounds without.

If you run 160 rounds per session thru a P-3AT I don't know if you'll need a new gun or a new hand first

 

[Bart Noir]

Cheap holster, you betcha

I use about the cheapest pocket holster you can buy. Uncle Mikes, in size 2, I think it was. I trimmed the holster to let my stinky-finger snuggle up against the bottom of the trigger guard so I get a full firing grip right away. Except for the trigger, 'cause the trigger is still covered. I used a soldering pencil to melt the material so it would not unravel where I cut it, and backed this up with stitching at a couple of the corners.

Works fine.

Bart Noir
is Frankenbolt the official net name for the new P-3AT? It gets my vote.

 

[FunYet]

Follow-up report

Gave the gun a very thorough cleaning and lube. Went back to the range today with great optimism. Jammed on the first round, jammed on the second, etc. I asked someone else to give the gun a try, just in case I might be limp-wristing or gripping incorrectly, same results. I guess it's back to Kel-Tec. I hate to add $$$ in shipping to the cost of the gun but the alternative is to hang onto if and use it for a Christmas tree ornament (which might not be a half-bad idea!). It's totally useless as is.

I realize putting 160 rounds through the gun may have been a bit excessive. I was trying to work my way up that magic number of 200 break-in rounds and intended to shoot around 100 rounds that day. Guess I got carried away. However, I would hope that the gun isn't so fragile that 160 rounds would damage it or wear it out. I did swab it out a few times with a bore snake during the original trip to the range. I also was shooting several other guns so the Kel-Tec spent a lot of time sitting and "resting" between magazines.

 

[mod12]

when you say "jammed" what exactly did it do?

 

[Wilson 17&26]

Links to purchase NAA, Bersa or the less attractive 1+ finger extensions can be found on this web page. http://1bad69.com/keltec/p3at-fingerrest.htm

 

[FunYet]

>when you say "jammed" what exactly did it do?

Mod12. I guess "jammed" is a bit generic/vague. Here's specificly what's happening.

I had 1 round in the tube and 6 in the magazine. I fired the first shot, the slide seemed to stop about half way on the way back to the closed position. I seems to hang up on the following round that's trying to push its way up to the chamber. The spent brass did not eject but was not all of the way in the chamber, either. Looked like it started to eject then stopped. The spent brass was also angled just a bit with the front pointing down and the rear pointed up, again, as though it may have started to eject and is pushed up by the following round. I dropped the magazine and ejected the spent brass. The next shot fired but the one after that got stuck as described above. After that every shot jammed.

I tried 1 in the tube and 5 in the magazine on a hunch that there was too much pressure from the magazine spring but got the same results.

Today I tried American Eagle FMJ, Winchester flat-tip FMJ and a few Silvertips. I though I might see some differences in performance based on the bullet shapes but the malfunction seemed pretty consitant among all 3.

If these symptoms had occured from the start I'd be less confused, but they started at around the 100 round count.

Thanks!

 

[Bart Noir]

I think you are telling us that the failure-to-extract problem is suddenly as bad in your 2nd Gen as in any of the original ones. And that's what the Frankenbolt is supposed to fix, I believe.

Since you cleaned it there should not be gunk under the extractor "tooth". Is it possible that that external bolt loosened up? Perhaps it can be tightened, to apply more force to the extractor gripping the rim of the empty so it can go on ripping that rascal right of the chamber.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Bart Noir

 

[GlenJ]

This is why I got a second P-32 and not the AT. Do a good Fluff and Buff and try different ammo.

 

[wally]

Make sure the ejector didn't fall out unnoticed while cleaning.

I'm lucky, I got a good original P3AT, although I did have to send it back for rebuild after the assembly pin walked out while shooting and boogered up the frame.

I've over 800 rounds on the rebuilt gun with no failures as long as I use brass cased ammo or aluminum Blazer. Wolf or any other steel cased ammo suffers extraction failures despite my best efforts at polishing the chamber and modifying the extractor hook (Kel-Tec sent me two spares to play with).

Bummer, I hoped the frankenbolt extractor would let me shoot cheap Wolf for practice, and was thinking about getting a second to try -- seems no point based on your experience.

--wally.

 

[FunYet]

>Make sure the ejector didn't fall out unnoticed while cleaning

Am I correct that the ejector is the little piece that fits into the slide track at the left rear? It's about 1/4 inch in width. If so, it's still there, though I did manage to drop it the first time I cleaned the gun.

 

[mod12]

if it were mine, i'd give the chamber a good polish with #600 wet/dry emery cloth. wrap a piece of the emery around the barrel of a bic pen and vigorously polish in the direction of operation. also polish the ramp while you're at ir. if you have a dremel, jewelers rouge on a felt tip to finish the job. on www.ktrange.com in the mods section there is also a "chamber hood" mod by "flyer" that eases the extraction angle of the spent cartridge and facilitates extraction. ktrange is a must for anyone that fancies these little wonders. i'm really not familiar with the gen. 2 p3at but i've performed the aforementioned mods on my gen. 1 and it works flawlessly. might save the time, trouble and expense of sending it back to kel-tec. not difficult to do. i also field stripped mine and blew out every nook and cranny with compressed air. one caveat, the gen.1 ejector can drop out and go un-noticed. i don't know if this is true of the gen. 2. a drop of clp in strategic spots and you should be good to go. where in ohio are you?

 

[wally]

Am I correct that the ejector is the little piece that fits into the slide track at the left rear? It's about 1/4 inch in width. If so, it's still there, though I did manage to drop it the first time I cleaned the gun.

Yes that is correct. It was a long shot. Mine never liked steel case ammo from day one (its not the only .380 I have that doesn't, but my wife's Beretta 85 which has no extractor at all loves the stuff!) and has never had trouble with any of the brass cased ammo I've tried.

--wally.

 

[GlenJ]

Be carefull before doing any mods to Kel-Tecs I think they have a new policy that they void your warranty. Check out Ktog.org for this info and other stuff. As for the other Kel Tec site they have good info but they have very anal retentive rules such as members can't say anything about Republicans or the censorship minister will harrass you and ban you.

 

[mod12]

wow i didn't realize that free psychological evaluations were available. do you do it for a living or is it just sort of off the cuff glen?