Here's What You Need to Know: A lot of Kel-Tec’s designs are interesting, albeit flawed.

Who Is Kel-Tec?:

Kel-Tec is one of the most polarizing companies in the American gun industry, known for making exotic designs at cheap prices, but also with quality control issues. They are undoubtedly successful though, with an ever-increasing catalog of products and with demand for some of their products often outstripping their supply.

The current corporation, full name Kel-Tec CNC, Inc. was founded by George Kellgren in 1995 after some false starts earlier in the decade. When he founded Kel-Tec, Kellgren was an experienced gun designer, having worked for Husqvarna and Interdynamics in Sweden as well as firms in South Africa and Germany. Later he would move to the US, to work in the American arm of Interdynamics, Intratec, where he would participate in the design of the infamous TEC-9 pistol. The TEC-9 made extensive use of polymer, a trend that Kellgren would continue to utilize at Kel-Tec.

Kellgren has continued to participate in the design of every firearm at Kel-Tec, though the design team has since expanded past just him. Still, his underlying design principles remain the same. Firearms should be affordable, and they should strive to be smaller, lighter, and have more magazine capacity than the competition.

This clearly has been the philosophy behind the PMR-30, KSG, and the P3AT, which fulfill all of the requirements through extensive use of polymer. Another trend is Kel-Tec’s predilection for making bullpups, most of their full size rifles and all of their shotguns are bullpups.

Sometimes it feels as if Kellgren and Kel-Tec want to do takes on other designs to see if he could do it better and cheaper. A common “target” of this seems to be FN Herstal. The PMR-30 seems like a fully civilianized version of FN’s Five-seven pistol, down to the polymer-encased slide and double-feed magazine. The RFB is a weird mixup of the F2000 and the FAL. The KSG can be seen as a more conventional reimagining of the South African Neostead 2000 shotgun.

But Kel-Tec’s cheap, polymer heavy design philosophy has come back to bite it at times. Many of Kel-Tec’s QC and design issues can be traced to the heavy use of polymer in their firearms, which can crack or be molded out of spec. Reports of Kel-Tecs generating polymer shavings while being fired are fairly common, though they have becoming less common recently.

The immense demand for Kel-Tec products may be to blame for some of these issues as well, as firearms may be rushed out the door once they are considered to be safe and proofed without further testing being done for reliable feeding or cycling. However, their QC department is considered to be among one of the best in the business, to presumably placate those complaints and retain customers.

Kel-Tec has made some attempts to break out of the plastic-gun mold, such as the Kel-Tec M43, a variant of the RDB that featured steel replacing most of the plastic and wood replacing the rest, topped off with an AK-74 style flash hider. But unfortunately despite being showcased at SHOT Show 2014, and being “reconfirmed” at SHOW Show 2017, the M43 has yet to reach production, presumably because it would cost significantly more, and that would break the “cheap, light, small” mold Kel-Tec has carved out for itself.

This is kind of a shame, as it’s a common sentiment in some gun communities that a lot of Kel-Tec’s designs are interesting, albeit flawed. But that they could be a lot more interesting if better materials and QC were applied to them.

But in the end, Kel-Tec is very successful with their current formula, so it’s easy to see why company leadership might be skeptical of going outside of it. According to a TTAG article from 2014, the company’s leadership is very fiscally conservative, even refusing to take loans to expand production capacity, so it’s easy to see why they would afraid of branching into a market segment that could be far less profitable.

Some may lament the fact that we won’t be seeing better finished or wood and steel guns from Kel-Tec in the near future. But for some Kel-Tec fans, the plastic furniture and polish-it-yourself internals are part of what makes a Kel-Tec a Kel-Tec.

Kel Tec RDB:

The Kel-Tec RDB is a very mechanically interesting design, but has poor ergonomic qualities and a questionable ejection mechanism.

The Kel-Tec Rifle Forward-ejecting Bullpup (RFB) is one of the most interesting rifles released in current years. Designed to take common magazines, eject forwards, and be fully ambidextrous, the RDB mirrors the feature set of the earlier FN F2000 and the later Desert Tech MDR. However, unlike those two rifles, the RFB employs an entirely different mode of operation to lock up its chamber when firing. Is it better or worse?

The defining feature of the Kel-Tec RFB is its tilting bolt and extractors. In order to feed empty casings into the ejection chute above the barrel, the extractors are designed to tilt upwards from the bolt face during the rearward portion of the recoil cycle. When the bolt returns forward, the bolt strips a fresh cartridge from the magazine while simultaneously shoving the empty casing into the ejection chute. When the casing is pushed into the chute, the extractors pivot downwards to lock onto the rim of the fresh cartridge. As such, vertically tilting extractors would be hard to design into a rotating locking bolt, the entire bolt locks via tilting, a relatively uncommon feature in modern firearms.

While some firearms in the past used tilting bolts, notably the German Sturmgewehr 44, Soviet SKS, and Belgian FN FAL, most modern firearms use rotating bolts due to their stronger, more consistent lockup and simpler design. Tilting bolts also distribute the pressure of firing unevenly in the rifle, compared to the simple lug to recess contact that rotating locking systems provide.

This represents a potential weakness in the design, however, most RFBs have not been around for long enough or shot hard enough for this weakness to manifest. What has proven to be a consistent weakness is the RFB’s forward ejection chute. While the NRA’s American Rifleman magazine describes the RFB’s forward ejection as “one of the most impressive feats of firearms since FN’s downward ejecting P90,” it ignores that FN made a forward ejecting bullpup nearly seven years before in the FN F2000.

But FN’s F2000 design is arguably better, as it utilizes the same reliable rotating bolt system with a fixed extractor. Casings are simply directed into a chute on the receiver wall during the recoil cycle, and then additional parts eject the casings when a certain point is reached. The RFB is said to be inconsistent when it ejects; sometimes buildup of cartridges in the chute can cause jams. Conversely, the F2000 is designed to store five cartridges in the chute and then eject them all in one go. By most accounts, the FN system is more reliable.

The Desert Tech MDR uses a variation on the FN system, basically deleting the chute. A plate covering the ejection port catches cartridges and pushes them forward. While not as “forward ejecting” as the F2000 or RFB, the MDR’s is far simpler and allows for easier clearance of jams near the chamber, as well as for operation as a conventionally ejecting bullpup.

Ergonomically, the MDR also blows the RFB out of the water. The RFB uses FN FAL magazines, which are designed to rock and lock-in. But the RFB’s design allows them to be inserted straight in. This can lead to magazines being seated too low, causing feeding issues or issues with the bolt stop. They also can need to be kicked free or pulled out when the mag catch is depressed, slowing reloads.

On the other hand, the MDR uses AR-10/SR-25 pattern magazines, which are designed from the outset to be straight insert. This allows for faster reloads and manipulation.

Also, while the RFB is fully ambidextrous, one must choose which side the charging handle is on. The MDR has charging handles on both sides of the rifle, allowing for easy manipulation and reloads from the weak shoulder as well. The RFB charging handle also reciprocates, limiting what the feasible grips one can use on the rifle, while the MDRs folds flat and does not reciprocate.

Finally, the RFB’s bolt catch is a tiny lever near the mag well, that one must flick to release. The MDR’s is a large button, far easier to hit under stress.

While the Kel-Tec RDB is a very mechanically interesting design, its poor ergonomic qualities and questionable ejection mechanism have prevented anyone from adopting the design for serious use. In many ways, it can be seen as a true bullpup modernization of the FAL design, but the boat has sailed on most interest in the FAL for good reason.

Kel Tec PMR-30:

The PMR-30 is one of Kel-Tec’s newer guns. A 30-round single action only pistol chambered in .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, the pistol is meant to shoot fast and flat. It’s an eye-catching design, with Kel-Tec’s signature molded plastic externals, high-visibility sights, and a fairly steep grip. But it begs the question…what exactly is the point of the PMR-30?

Kel-Tec’s site lists “firepower” as a key selling point of the PMR-30, calling it perfect for “backpacking, camping, and range day plinking” While the PMR-30 could definitely be used to take small game during backpacking and camping, generally one wants to carry more heavy firepower than a .22 WMR when a gun is necessary for backpacking or camping to fend off larger predators. Shotguns, rifles, or magnum revolvers are generally the order of the day when it comes to defending against wildlife that could harm a person.

The PMR-30 can definitely be seen as a fun choice for plinking if one feels the need to step up from .22 LR. The .22 WMR is significantly more powerful, yet the PMR-30 by all accounts keeps the recoil low and the slide tracking fast for quick and easy shots on target. But the downside here is cost. The .22 WMR costs around the same as regular 9x19mm rounds. While 9x19mm rounds recoil more, training and plinking with them is far more practical as those skills can be easily transferred to defensive pistol usage. Well tuned 9mms also can run nearly as flat as the PMR-30, though they usually are more expensive.

However, after that Kel-Tec states that “the PMR30 can also play a role in home defense for the recoil shy among us.” This is a fairly disingenuous statement. While it’s true that a PMR-30 is better than nothing, there is a reason why practically no military or police department issues a pistol in .22 WMR. The closest analog to it in military or police service is the FN Five-seveN, but this pistol is specifically optimized to penetrate armor with the 5.7mm armor-piercing round. Even then, reports of the 5.7’s effectiveness against softer targets are mixed at best. The .22WMR wouldn’t fare much better.

While the PMR-30 is probably an accurate plinker and perhaps even a good choice for taking light game, it is not a gun that one should rely on to defend themselves in any situation. Kel-Tec is doing their customers a disservice by marketing it as such. If one is too recoil-shy to use a more effective handgun, then one should fix that by training more and becoming confident in more recoil-heavy guns, rather than buying a souped-up .22. When a good 9x19 pistol costs around the same amount to train with and buy, it’s hard to make a compelling argument for the PMR-30 as a home defense weapon.

However, if one wants a flat and fast shooting range toy that holds an insane amount of rounds in a flush fit package, the PMR-30 is a great pick. Not all guns have to be practical, some exist just to be fun to shoot and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Kel Tec SU-16:

Kel-tec’s Sport Utility 16 (SU-16) rifle is an odd compromise. 

Designed to compete with budget AR-15, the rifle features a highly similar layout to the AR, but an AK-like operating system that uses a long-stroke gas piston and a charging handle integrated on the bolt carrier group. The recoil spring is placed in front of the bolt carrier group on the gas piston itself, which allows the rifle to fold to be more compact. But are these design changes actually an improvement?

In short, no. While placing the recoil spring on the gas piston itself may seem like a good idea to shorten the rifle, it means that if the piston or its connection to the bolt carrier breaks in some way at any point along its length during the recoil stroke, the bolt carrier risks being shot back into the rear of the receiver with nothing slowing it down, possibly cracking the receiver and injuring the user. While Kel-tec made some changes to the design, such as staking the operating rod in the carrier, to fix this issue, it’s notable that in their next design, the RDB, they moved the recoil spring back behind the bolt carrier group as in almost every other military firearm.

Even under normal recoil, the SU-16 has issues with the bolt contacting the rear of the polymer receiver. While official statements suggest that the polymer the SU-16’s receiver is made of can take this abuse, most military rifles will include a rubber buffer at the rear of the receiver to dampen the shock on their metal receivers. There have been some reports of SU-16 receivers cracking at the rear due to these impacts, but these are largely individual issues and some SU-16s have run for thousands of rounds without this occurring.

The SU-16 also has many other questionable features. Similar to the Steyr Scout, it features a split handguard that can be folded down to act as a primitive bipod. However, unlike the Scout, when done so the barrel is completely exposed, requiring the handguard to be folded up again to be used normally.

The plastic and proprietary nature of the furniture means that upgrading the SU-16 isn’t easy. It also means replacement parts are more expensive and require sourcing from Kel-tec if they break. Comparatively, spare parts for an AR-style rifle are abundant.

Reloads and recoil are also worse on the SU-16 compared to a standard AR. While the rifle is marketed as a “utility” rifle rather than a tactical one, the simple “pull the charging handle to release” on the SU-16 slows down reloads compared to the AR. Likewise, the long-stroke piston gas system produces a more significant recoil impulse compared to most ARs on sensible gas settings.

Some may say the point of the SU-16 lies in being a “ban state” rifle, as the lack of a buffer tube means it can be configured with a traditional rifle grip-stock. But this concept has been done better by other designs. FightLite (formerly Ares Defense) makes the SCR, a rifle that features an AR-style lower receiver with a traditional rifle grip-stock that can take any standard AR-15 upper receiver. The standard AR controls and operating system are retained. As such, the SCR has lower recoil and is more ergonomic than the SU-16, while also taking a far greater range of accessories.

The SU-16 is an interesting design, but it fails to do anything better than most of its competitors. When priced at around $600, it compares poorly to entry-level ARs at the same price point. If one lives in a “ban state,” the SCR costs more, but bring a lot more customizability and practicality to the table versus the SU-16.

Kel-Tec Sub 2000:

Kel-Tec’s Sub 2000 is one of the only “folding” firearms on the U.S. market today. Designed to be a compact pistol-caliber carbine with a long barrel, the Sub 2000’s main selling point is that it folds in half for transit and storage, allowing it to easily fit into a backpack or similar storage case. But as other pistol caliber carbines get smaller and smaller, is the Sub2000 still relevant?

When the Sub 2000 was originally introduced in 2001, pistol caliber carbines (PCCs) were still an incredibly niche category of the American firearms consumer market. There were some reproductions of old open bolt submachine guns converted to closed bolt and restricted to semi-automatic mode, some modern submachine guns restricted to semi-auto mode. There were very few modern semi automatics, and even fewer still that shared mags with pistols, which the Sub 2000 did.

At the time, it was a very attractive option for those looking to get a cheap carbine that shot pistol ammo for plinking or for hunting small game. The shared mags with pistols and the various models and calibers the Sub 2000 meant that almost anyone with a common pistol could get a Sub 2000 model that also used the same magazines. The presence of long stick mags like the 33 round Glock “big stick” also meant that the Sub 2000 could compete with SMG-based PCCs in magazine capacity.

But around the turn of the decade, PCCs saw a slight renaissance in the industry. The CZ Scorpion EVO 3 and SIG MPX, along with a variety of AR-15 variants that took pistol or Colt 9mm SMG mags rekindled interest in PCCs. The addition of the PCC Division into the USPSA and IDPA competitive shooting circuits also garnered a ton of interest in this category of guns.

These new PCCs featured AR-style controls and layouts, their own special variety of mags, and shorter barrels. The non-AR-based designs often featured side-folding or collapsible stocks/braces as well, bringing them to the same level of compactness or making them smaller than the Sub 2000.

But the Sub 2000 retains the advantage of barrel length over this new generation of PCCs, as most of them have between 4 to 8-inch barrels while the Sub 2000 has a full 16-inch barrel. Unfortunately, this doesn’t matter much in a 9mm carbine. While around 200 fps of muzzle velocity is gained by the extra length over an 8-inch barrel, the 9mm round will still drop and be affected by range significantly due to the relatively rounded and “fat” nature, compared to spitzer rifle bullets.

But the other aspects of the Sub 2000 fell behind. The original Sub 2000 lacked any provision to mount accessories. Kel-Tec remedied this in their second-generation of the gun, which features an M-LOK rail and Picatinny upper handguard. But optics still are not readily mountable on the Sub 2000 due to the folding nature of the gun. Any optics placed on the upper handguard prevent the rifle from folding, eliminating the one unique aspect of its design.

The shooting characteristics, while not bad, also fell behind the latest generation of PCCs. The Sub 2000 is a simple blowback firearm, where a heavy bolt moves back and forth under the recoil of a cartridge, with no locking mechanism. This can result in substantial felt recoil, notably the Colt 9mm SMG, another 9mm simple blowback firearm is said to have similar recoil to the full-size M16, despite the M16 cartridge being far more powerful.

Modern PCCs take some steps to mitigate this. Some designs, like semi-auto versions of the MP5, CMMG’s Banshee, or Sig Sauer’s MPX use various delayed blowback or locking systems to lighten the weight of the bolt and decrease its velocity. Other designs like PSA’s AK-V, Grand Power’s Stribog, or B&T’s various PCCs use a weighted or hydraulic buffer to slow the rearward motion of the bolt down.

The Sub 2000 doesn’t use any of these systems, and thus features a worse recoil impulse than many other modern PCCs. While it may still be the best gun for the job if you need a 16-inch barrel and also a compact form factor, other new PCCs are as compact or more so and feature better ergonomics and shootability.

Kel-Tec KS7: 

In the summer of 2019, Kel-Tec released their KS7, a stripped-down version of their earlier KSG. Featuring a single magazine tube and an integrated carry handle, the KS7 is cheaper, slimmer, and lighter than its larger cousin. But in shedding the additional magazine tube, does the KS7 become a better or worse gun?

According to Kel-Tec themselves, the KS7 was built to ergonomically improve upon the KSG. This is pretty evident in the design of the pump itself, unlike the original flat surface of the KSG, the KS7 features a prominent flare at the front of the handle to prevent the hand from slipping in front of the barrel.

The single-tube also improves the ergonomics of the shotgun’s reload. While still kind of awkward due to the position in the rear of the stock, the narrower chute resembles traditional shotgun designs and is far easier to load shells into than the wide opening meant to feed both tubes in the KSG.

Kel-Tec also said that they wanted the shotgun to be ready to go “out of the box” unlike the KSG, which didn’t come with iron sights and only had a top Picatinny rail. They saw the carry handle as an easy way to add integrated sights to the shotgun.

This can be seen as a hit and a miss. While it’s good to include sights out of the box, and the integrated carry handle sight might be enough for most shooters, most advanced users will likely replace it with a Picatinny rail, which negates the “carry” benefit of the carry handle. Kel-Tec likely decided to go with building the handle as a separate module instead of a Picatinny attachment that fits right on the rail to add balance and reduce manufacturing cost, but it is one that the customer must field in the end. Also, the KS7 doesn’t feature a Picatinny rail under the grip, if one prefers to use a vertical grip for additional safety when racking the shotgun.

The KS7 also incorporates a variety of M-LOK slots all over the shotgun for the mounting of various accessories, a welcome modernization from the mostly Picatinny attachment KSG.

Altogether, these changes and the affordable MSRP of only $500 (which will likely translate into a street price of $400) means that the KS7 is a decent shotgun to mess around with if one wants a compact bullpup with futuristic looks.

However, conventional shotguns are still probably better for most consumers. The ability to rapidly load a shell through the side ejection port is something that the KS7 doesn’t provide with its bullpup layout, and that capability is one of the things that makes shotguns unique and useful.

All in all, the KS7 is probably one of the best bullpup shotguns on the market. But bullpup shotguns are incredibly niche because they aren’t all that useful in the end. Conventional shotguns dominate the hunting, sporting, and tactical use cases, and the KS7 is unlikely to change that.

Charlie Gao studied political and computer science at Grinnell College and is a frequent commentator on defense and national-security issues. This article originally appeared as multiple articles and is being packaged together for reader's convenience.

Image: Kel-Tec