Should I get a Kel Tec?

[orangeninja]

I bought my girl a .380 Sig...thinking hey...when she's not looking I can use it as a backup weapon or somthing. Problem is...it bites..a lot. In fact I hate the accurate reliable little thing. I wish I could sell it but she won't hear of it. I have been debating over what to buy for a backup last ditch weapon.

I owned a Taurus P111 but did not like it. A pain to put back together and about as thick as a glock.

I don't like the Glock...too thick.

The Kahr is a little smaller than the glock but good Lord....are they proud of that gun or what? For that price I'll get a Glock 36 every time. However money is limited.

So I rented and fired a Kel Tec 9mm P11...expecting the worst, BUT, I was nailing head shots at 33 feet...not bad for a backup. With the pinky extension this may be a really nice little shooter. Also note, this will NEVER be a primary carry peice...only a secondary in a belly band underneath a uniform or suit. Maybe an ankle holster at church or somthing somewhere where I never normally carry. But it will always just about play second fiddle to either a 229 or 2340.

What do you guys think of the Kel Tec? Good secondary pistol? I like the idea of carrying a 9mm instead of a .380.

 

[P95Carry]

I only have the .380 so direct experience with the 9mm ... however ..... you will get good and bad comments .. overall I suspect in a ratio at least 66% for and 33% against . ... no, probably way better than that.

At least you've handled it and liked it ... and as BUG category it is something I would have on the ''for consideration'' list.

I am hoping to get a Rohbaugh in near future .... and that could well be approaching an ultimate small 9mm ... however .... way, way too expensive compared with a KT.

Let's see how the odds weigh up as the thread gets going!

 

[Denmark116]

I can tell you what I know about Kel-Tec however it is all second hand.

My brother in law just bought a Kel-Tec .380 as his on duty BUG and off duty carry piece. This was after his department range officer recommended a Kel-tec to replace his aging Walther.

He told him to look at the .380 or the 9mm.

I was thinking about getting the 9mm myself, however I have other guns on my want list before I get down to it.

Lots of good info at http://ktog.org/

I would have no problems buying this gun or recommending it...

Denmark.

 

[bradvanhorn]

I've posted on this subject a bunch of times lately. I have three Kel-Tecs, a P-11, a P-3AT, and a P-32. I bought the P-11 used when I was working at a gun store part time. I wasn't impressed with it, but it was the smallest, lightest 9mm I'd handled, so I figured why not? I've had it for about three years now, and I've never had any problems with it, except some failures to cycle with some 147gr something or another (I don't remember which company/load). The factory trigger pull isn't great, but this is a concealed carry piece, not a range gun (though I try to shoot it monthly just to remember the feel). I think it makes for a great concealed carry piece, but I will admit I sometimes miss my S&W 638 and want to switch back. Despite the superb trigger of the 638, I find 5 shots of 38spl just doesn't give me the same comfort as 10 shots of 9mm.

 

[9x19]

I've had excellent results with all three models of Kel-Tec pistols.

Great little guns at a very good price, in my experience.

 

[azrael]

for less than the cost of a Glock or a Kahr...you can buy BOTH the P3AT and the P-11...I carry and use both alot of the time...Well the P3AT...My new xd-9c has kinda been my carry fun for a while for about 2 months...

I have my p-11 in a pocket holster right now..SO NUH!!

I like the fact that I can still get High Caps for the P-11 as a reload...11 in the gun and 12 more on the belt are hard to beat in a 230.00 gun

 

[SSGAUTEN]

I've carried a Kel Tec P-11 as my main CCW and a Kel Tec P-32 as my BUG for the last two years. Each gun has over 800 rounds through it with no problems of any kind.

I also own and have carried at some time or other, Glock, S&W, Rossi. I carried S&W revolvers for many years because I didn't trust any of the self loaders to be reliable enough to bet my life on. I only fired my revolvers double action. The Kel Tec pistols with their DAO triggers felt natural to me.

As we get older (I'll never see 60 again), the weight of the weapon we carry all day seams to get heavier. The KT can be carried all day without worring about pulling your pants up every 15 minutes.

I look at my Kel Tec P-11 as a 10 shot revolver that I can reload really fast!

I think it is a LOT of gun for the money, and is backed by one of the best warrenties in the business.

 

[ChuckB]

P11? Bet $200+ I've spent on a firearm. Never fails, hits where I aim. Strongly recommend a magazine extension, and a Hogue HandAll grip- they help a whole lot!

Chuck

 

[bud45]

Love my P11!

It is the lightest of all my pistols, even with 12-rd. high-caps. Never had a failure, but it CAN be ammo-sensitive- it just didn't like Golden Sabers, but I shoot pretty much everything else. My latest fave is Silver Bear HPs.

You won't be dissappointed

 

[orangeninja]

Thanks for the quick replies fellas....I plan on getting one very soon.

 

[FunYet]

I know many people have had nothing but good luck with their Kel-Tecs. I’m not one of them. I reluctantly, finally gave up on Kel-Tecs. I’ve had several and all of them have had to make 1 or more trips back to the factory. Granted, they’re less expensive so the level of quality control may be diminished. I’m even willing to do the fluff-and-buff. However, jamming guns, breaking trigger pins, and getting smacked in the head by flying brass does not make me feel confident that the gun will work if/when needed. My problem is I REALLY want to like Kel-Tecs. There is nothing else like them in size, weight, and dimension.

 

[Craig M. Arnold]

KelTec Pistols

I had a KelTec P11 in the past and it was a totally reliable pistol. I currently carry a P3AT as a back up for my CZ PCR and love it. About 750 rounds through the little gun and it has been perfect! IMHO, KelTec makes some of the best guns for the money.

 

[orangeninja]

FunYet

"My problem is I REALLY want to like Kel-Tecs."

I had the same problem with Rugers...yet whenever I tell someone that I had an unreliable Ruger that Ruger the company simply could not/would not fix...they look at me like I'm crazy.

I guess every manufacturer has their bad days. I would like to hear more about your experience though.

 

[GigaBuist]

New Kel Tec owner myself.

I just bought one of these things (P3AT), 8 days ago to be exact. I bought a Dremel 7 days ago.

My first trip out was a really bad test of the gun -- I broke it down right after I bought it and did a cleaning of it. You know, getting all the metal filings and grease out of it. It wouldn't hurt to shoot 10-20 through it before the initial cleaning I hear but I do it anyway. I'm kinda anal.

Well, I wasn't paying attention when I reassembled it and forgot that 2nd recoil spring. None of my other pistols have two recoil springs so I just plain wasn't expecting it. Sure enough, failures to feed on all but the last round in the magazine on the first trip out -- and I only put 20 rounds through it. I'm VERY surprised that it would feed that last round though, what with the recoil springs being only at 30-40% capacity.

Not knowing what I did wrong I bought a Dremel so I could do some serious polishing on it on my way home. In going through the "Fluff and Buff" guide at KTOG I realized my error. I still did a pretty slick polishing job on it if I do say so myself. That barrel is actually SHINY looking now vs. that dull grey it had out of the box.

Next time out (Thursday, 2/19/2004) I brought 80 rnds of PMC and some Corbon, Hydrashock, and Gold Dot ammo just to see if it'd eat them. I ran through 30 rounds of the FMJ stuff w/ no failures to feed and one failure to extract. It wasn't a classic "stove pipe" as the back-end of the round was higher than the front... and it was still pretty much in the chamber. Enough that the gun wouldn't go into battery on the spent round but not far enough out for it to just "drop out" when I pulled the slide back.

While not a great test it succesfully ate 5 each of the JHPs I brought with me without a hitch. The Corbon's are noticeably hotter coming out of this thing. Much louder too compared to the rest. When it went off I did a double take and though "was that ME making that noise?!"

During the next 50 FMJ rounds I got one more failure to extract identical to the first one. So, 2 failures out of 115 rounds. Not good. If it's still doing this after 500 rounds I'm going to do some serious looking into the problem. If it starts happening more often I'm definately going to look into it more.

I hate the trigger, but the rest of my pistols (and anything else I monkey with) are all SA or "Glock Action". The "heavy" trigger pull (which wouldn't seem heavy if I had more practice with DAO) combined with the death-grip I was using on the little gun and going through 100 rounds in about 20 minutes fatigued my hand. The snap of the gun also rubbed a spot on my shooting hand's thumb raw. Got a nice tiny little scab from that still. I just need to adjust my grip I suppose -- but it's just natural for me to place my shooting hand's thumb nice and high like I do with my other pistols.

I -had- to take a break in the middle of that 20 minutes because my hand was shaking from fatigue. Given that I do office work it stands to reason that this wouldn't be a problem if your hands were stronger than mine.

Fondling it now I notice that there's really only enough room for my middle finger on the pistol grip. The ring finger doesn't get much of a hold on it so I'll be looking into magazine extensions very soon. The size of this thing makes for a very hard and awkward draw when using the supplied belt-clip worn IWB. Perhaps the magazine extension will help this out -- I sure hope so.

I'm going to make an effort to do 3-4 range sessions this week with it and hopefully get the total round count up to 1,000. A fellow shooter is also interested in the KT guns for concealed carry so he's anxious to see how my experiment turns out.

FWIW, the last guy to buy a P3AT from the same shop I did has had to send his back to the factory twice in a very short time for failures to feed. The shop's also interested in my experience with the thing.

 

[orangeninja]

Thanks for the help guys...I think I will strongly consider this....one last question...can you rapid fire yours?

 

[yzguy]

I rapid fire my P-11....

a whole lot of info here:
http://www.1bad69.com/keltec/index.htm

http://www.1bad69.com/keltec/newownerinfo.htm