kel-tec p-11

[lonehiker]

i drove 170 miles round trip to Clearfield today to purchase myself a B-day gift

considering i recently purchased a taurus pt-92 and a savage mark 2 fv and did not get yelled at buy the wife yet i figured i would push it a little

so i looked at alot of guns. i liked the size if the Kel-Tec p-11 and DA only and i figured the price would not cause too much conflict since i did not get pryor approval (i also have a bersa 380 on order) the S**t will hit the fan at that point i fear

so i took it home and took it apart and cleaned and lubed it. if stops snowing and raining up here in potter co. i will run some ammo through it in the next few days, some 115gr. 124 and fmj, jhp and some other odd ball stuff i have and see how it goes

i put a snap cap in it and dry fired it for as long as my finger could stand it (was not very long) but running alot of consecutive rounds through it is not what i purchased it for

it sort of looks like the AK-47 of the postola world, LOL, but as long as it is reliable when i need it

p.s. whats with the plastic recoil spring guide pin ?

[Pappy John]

I'll be curious to see if it works right the first time you try it. The P11 has been on the market for a long time now, so I would imagine they have all the bugs worked out of it.

I'm a fan of the KelTec line of pistols for their price and size/weight, and I bought two of them myself. I got a third generation P3at last year for my wife that worked perfectly right out of the box, and I recently bought a PF-9 for myself. It's their newly designed single stack mag 9mm....a little slimmer than the P11 and with a different trigger design. That one has taken a trip back to the factory for service and a good bit of work on my part to get it to 100% reliability, but it's a keeper now.

First I had some mag related misfeeds where the top round would nosedive into the front of the magazine, not even reaching the feed ramp. I fixed that myself with a little judicious Dremmeling, filing, and polishing. Then I noticed the primer strikes looked really strange and I had a few misfires, so I sent it back to the factory to let them have a look at that. They replaced the slide and also put in a new barrel with a re-designed feed ramp for improved reliability. It was back in my hands in one week's time....not bad customer service.

Well.... it would have been good customer service, if I wouldn't have had a new problem when I tried it out this time.

Now I had some jams where the live round would end up caught in the slide, sticking straight up....kinda like a stovepipe jam, but with the live round instead of the spent brass getting caught. I traced that to the extractor on the new slide being sharp enough to skin a buck with, and occasionally snagging the rim of the cartridge trying to feed, and keeping it from sliding across the breech face smoothly. Again, filing and polishing on the extractor took care of that and it's been a reliable gun since then.

If this was an expensive gun, I would've been pretty steamed. But when I consider that the only guns that approach this one in the size/weight to caliber ratio are the smallest Kahrs which are twice the price, or the Rohrbaugh that costs four times as much, the work that I put into making it 100% doesn't seem all that bad. I've heard that they both have their own problems too.

It's a new design and I was a beta tester. (Shrug) It works OK now.

[imashooter2]

My P-11 has never failed to feed, fire or extract except for a couple light strikes when I tried to lower the spring rates. I put the stock springs back in and it was right back to reliable as the day is long. I wear it on a factory belt clip and find it very comfortable, concealable and secure.

[Gkgas]

i have about 1000 rounds through my P 11 and has been 100%reliable.

[lonehiker]

well i took my new p-11 9mm to the range to day and ran through 44 rounds of different mfg's of 115 gr and 124 gr fmj's and 124gr jhp's without a problem except for the very first round

it bit me! i don't know how but i got a blister on my right thumb, i was not expecting such recoil

all groups good from 20 feet on center except the JHP, they were up and to the right a bit

just got done cleaning and lubing it......ready for carry again, carried it fishing earlier today with my two neighbors, they both carry