Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns That can get a guy killed.....

Montana Man has given you a good assessment--most likely you have a "light-strike" issue going on there.

WW primers are fairly soft, so even more likely it is so.

i usually recommend Federal primers for pocket rigs--due to their low hammer mass issues, smaller springs, etc., and ultra soft primers provide some degree of mitigation for those issues.

a tired hammer spring, or a tired firing pin spring are a couple of the potential gremlins in this situation.

(just as an aside, pocket rigs are prone to getting packed with lint, and they should be dismantled regularly, and wiped clean of debris).

i've used numerous Kel-Tecs over the years, and have a lot of experience with them--in my opinion and experience, they are not built nearly as well as the Rugers, but on the other hand, they are not the "poor quality, bottom of the barrel" rigs some would have you to believe...

bottom line--know your rig and work with it/use it often...

This is my normal MOA as well, but Buffalo Bore +P+ ammo is horribly expensive, hard to find, and REALLY HURTS my gout filled finger joints when fired! I do fire the guns I carry 'dirty asw carried' and my RIA 10mm never bobbles. P3AT has not failed to fire and function yet either, and I have made it a point to try and make it fail.

When I first boutght the little guy, I took it out to a rock quarry in 11 degree weather with a wind chill of much lower than that. Did not clean or lube it at all, jut took it out of the box, loaded it with about 6 different kinds of ammo through the morning and it ate them all up. Since that time it has fired everything else I have put through it. It fed and fired enough of the finger killin Buffalo Bore ammo that I have fiath it will go BANG when/if I need it to.

My experience with Kel Tecs is quite good. Our bedstand gun is an SU-16. Sherri's daily carry piece is a PF-9.

Never been a big KelTec Fan, but when I worked in the Wholesale Firearms Industry, I won a little KelTec P-32 that they made me with a silver slide & bright blue frame. I dubbed it my Dallas Cowboy Saturday Night Special.
Ive carried it for over 10 years, always loaded with the Corbon +P+ 32 acp ammo.
I generally shoot out my carry ammo every 6 months and clean out all the pocket lent. Fired over 300 rounds to check reliability before I ever carried it. It's been like the Energizer Bunny of 32acp's and has never failed to fire or feed once.
It's not a handgun that I would ever carry as my primary or ONLY CH gun, but gets carried a lot as a BUG when I wear my Sunday Go To Meeting clothes.

That being said, all of my buddies that bought KelTec P-3AT's all had several issues and some made multiple trips back to the factory for repair. I've never owned one in 380, but if I was buying a Micro .380, it would Definately be a Ruger LCP. I've had numerous students in my CHL Classes quailify with the little Ruger, and they seem to function flawlessly.

Would I buy Another KelTec. ? Probably not, unless I replaced my P-32 or my PMR-30. Both of those model KelTecs function flawlessly for me. Here's a pict of my little Dallas Cowboy Special.

The first Kel Tec I bought, a number of years back, failed to eject the first round I fired in it. The pistol was sent back, for what was called then a 'fluff and buff' job.
When I got the .380 back, I sold it that day, and have never trusted, or bought another from that company.

When a dead reliable (at least mine has been) Khar CW9can be had for $350 or less I cannot see why...

Weight and size are the why. I have carried the CW40 as a holster piece, but I find it and its twin CW9 much too much gun for easy "drop it into the pocket and forget about it until needed" carry. Prints through most pants pockets and even sticks out a little from the top of a back pocket. And it is much heavier so causes the pants to want to droop etc.

safariman,

You rather frequently comment on how petite your wife is, and how she carries a PF-9 (a very angular, easy-to-print, pistol) daily. If she can manage that, how is it that you can't manage to carry something a bit more robust than the P3AT due to difficulties of concealment and carry weight?

Yep

You would've had problems with a nice 1911 too. Don't blame the Kel-Tec until you're smart enough to troubleshoot one of them.

Really ???????????? And you know that how???????????

MM

There's nothing "special" about keeping a gun cleaned and lubricated well enough to insure it will function.

if you're going to bet your life on a mechanical device, it's foolish to not take good care of it

Not to bust balls, or anything, but it's my personal policy not to drop a handgun into a pocket that has dust and lint in it.

Can't do anything about the dust you pick up during the day, but if you turn your pockets inside out at bedtime and brush them with your hand, you've just performed some useful handgun maintenance.

I do keep my guns cleaned and lubricated "well enough to insure [they] will function." Dust does not interfere with functioning. Guns get dusty being carried IWB, on ankles, in pockets and even OWB. If I see a lot of dust I may blow some air over them. If I think a gun gets to the point where I need to do a full cleaning, I will do it. But, I buy guns and test them out so I know what they will do. I cannot ever recall a malfunction attributable to a previously cleaned gun that became fouled by dust. (I did have a Kel Tec that required frequent cleaning because it would begin to rust out after being carried in foul weather. That is a different story.)

tjm, I don't intentionally put a gun in a pocket that I believe to contain lint.