KelTec is a weird (probably cocaine fueled) company that will make some genuinely off the beaten path designs. On one hand they’re about the only marker out there that is actually innovating. But on the other hand, they don’t do very strict quality control and refinement. That said, I have 2 KelTecs, both have gone in for service and now both run perfectly and have some features that I really love.
In the case of this pistol though, you don’t have a removable magazine, you use stripper clips to load up the pistol. The first model was in a weird caliber (5.7) which isn’t very popular or useful, especially in a pistol. So now they made it in another more common, but not very popular caliber (.380 acp), which some argue is a very under powered caliber.
It’s not exactly a formula for great sales, but they do what they want and that’s kinda cool.
Ok so let’s back up. The bullet is a projectile that sits in a little brass case filled with the explodey powder. That entire thing is called a round. When the projectile is fired the casing gets discarded and then the next round goes in the barrel to wait for the explodey powder inside it to be set off and start the process again
For most modern guns you put these rounds in a little box called a magazine, it holds like 10-30 normally depending on the gun and the caliber (size of the projectile) and such. You fill up the magazine and then if you shoot 30 Nazis you just take out the empty magazine and put in a full one and now you’re ready to shoot 30 more Nazis.
Guns that are loaded with stripper clips have an internal magazine, you don’t swap them out. The clip is a little metal strip thing you can attach 30 rounds to in order to quickly load them into the magazine, so instead of swapping magazines, you have to slide 30 new rounds into your internal magazine to be ready to shoot 30 more Nazis.
They’re known for being quite fiddly and inconvenient.
keltec’s interest here is that the mechanisms can be slightly smaller, and reloading typically doesn’t happen in self-defense shootings. if you need more than ~5 shots you don’t need a hand gun you need comrades.
Makes sense for the people who like that kind of thing I guess, but I don’t want my gun to be small. Only thing a small gun is better at than a big gun is hurting your hands.
Concealability for sure, smaller guns allow “Deep Carry” which makes them almost completely undetectable in contrast to larger guns that print easily and require restricting your choice of clothing.
Rhett Neumayer (Demonstrated Concepts) and Tessa Booth have content about this topic on YouTube for those who are interested.
I have the survival version of the RDB. The BCG got all fucky, but they repaired it for free and now it runs flawlessly. I wouldn’t use it past 200 yards because the barrel isn’t free floated, but holy crap is it a nice gun!
If they free floated the barrel, put a thicker barrel profile in it, and made the trigger wall more defined it’d be perfection beyond the AUG or any other bullpup imo.
God can you imagine all the recoil if you popped off all those at once. There would be bullets everywhere. That sounds like an exhausting time at the range. I’d love to have it in a full sized 9mm, but it would be so heavy at that point, it would need to be spent fast so your arm wasn’t tired.
Can somebody explain to me why this is noteworthy? I know very little about guns.
KelTec is a weird (probably cocaine fueled) company that will make some genuinely off the beaten path designs. On one hand they’re about the only marker out there that is actually innovating. But on the other hand, they don’t do very strict quality control and refinement. That said, I have 2 KelTecs, both have gone in for service and now both run perfectly and have some features that I really love.
In the case of this pistol though, you don’t have a removable magazine, you use stripper clips to load up the pistol. The first model was in a weird caliber (5.7) which isn’t very popular or useful, especially in a pistol. So now they made it in another more common, but not very popular caliber (.380 acp), which some argue is a very under powered caliber.
It’s not exactly a formula for great sales, but they do what they want and that’s kinda cool.
What’s a stripper clip
Ok so let’s back up. The bullet is a projectile that sits in a little brass case filled with the explodey powder. That entire thing is called a round. When the projectile is fired the casing gets discarded and then the next round goes in the barrel to wait for the explodey powder inside it to be set off and start the process again
For most modern guns you put these rounds in a little box called a magazine, it holds like 10-30 normally depending on the gun and the caliber (size of the projectile) and such. You fill up the magazine and then if you shoot 30 Nazis you just take out the empty magazine and put in a full one and now you’re ready to shoot 30 more Nazis.
Guns that are loaded with stripper clips have an internal magazine, you don’t swap them out. The clip is a little metal strip thing you can attach 30 rounds to in order to quickly load them into the magazine, so instead of swapping magazines, you have to slide 30 new rounds into your internal magazine to be ready to shoot 30 more Nazis.
They’re known for being quite fiddly and inconvenient.
keltec’s interest here is that the mechanisms can be slightly smaller, and reloading typically doesn’t happen in self-defense shootings. if you need more than ~5 shots you don’t need a hand gun you need comrades.
Makes sense for the people who like that kind of thing I guess, but I don’t want my gun to be small. Only thing a small gun is better at than a big gun is hurting your hands.
yeah size and weight are carrying optimizations.
with my situation i think if a handgun is going to be beneficial i’m not so worried about it printing
Printing, you mean like showing under clothes or wearing a worn spot on pants?
yeah
Concealability and portability, no?
Especially with it being a .380
Concealability for sure, smaller guns allow “Deep Carry” which makes them almost completely undetectable in contrast to larger guns that print easily and require restricting your choice of clothing.
Rhett Neumayer (Demonstrated Concepts) and Tessa Booth have content about this topic on YouTube for those who are interested.
Tbh I think it was a way to skip the difficult process of designing a working detachable magazine
Kel-Tec is the mad scientist of gun companies and I love them for it. I have an RDB I’m very satisfied with.
I have the survival version of the RDB. The BCG got all fucky, but they repaired it for free and now it runs flawlessly. I wouldn’t use it past 200 yards because the barrel isn’t free floated, but holy crap is it a nice gun!
If they free floated the barrel, put a thicker barrel profile in it, and made the trigger wall more defined it’d be perfection beyond the AUG or any other bullpup imo.
God can you imagine all the recoil if you popped off all those at once. There would be bullets everywhere. That sounds like an exhausting time at the range. I’d love to have it in a full sized 9mm, but it would be so heavy at that point, it would need to be spent fast so your arm wasn’t tired.
Recoil of them going off all at once?
That’s just as likely as in any other gun, which is 0%.