Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc., commonly referred to as KelTec,[1] is an American developer and manufacturer of firearms. Founded by George Kellgren in 1991 and based in Cocoa, Florida, the company has manufactured firearms since 1995, starting with semi-automatic pistols[2] and expanding to rifles and then shotguns. Kel-Tec is a privately owned Florida corporation. George Kellgren, Kel-Tec owner and chief engineer, is a Swedish designer who also designed many earlier Husqvarna, Swedish Interdynamics AB (in Sweden), Intratec and Grendel brand firearms. The company has been developing and manufacturing a wide variety of firearms, ranging from semi-automatic handguns, i.e. pistols, to semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
Kel-Tec has a reputation in the firearms industry for releasing innovative, and often radically disruptive new designs for firearms, such as the KSG shotgun and SUB-2000, as well as inexpensive, reliable and easily concealable firearms such as the pocket pistol Kel-Tec P32.
History
Some Firearms manufactured by Kel-Tec include the following: P-11 pistol (9 mm); the P-32 pistol, chambered in .32 ACP (7.65mm Browning) and one of the smallest and lightest pocketable pistols still in production weighing only 6.6 ounces (190g); the P-3AT pistol chambered in .380 ACP (9mm Short) since discontinued; the P-40 chambered in .40 S&W which has also been discontinued; the SUB-9 and the later very popular Kel-Tec SUB-2000, both semi-automatic pistol caliber carbines that readily fold into themselves for easy storage. In addition, the company offers a family of 5.56×45mm rifles known as the SU-16 series.
In November 2005 the PLR-16 was released. The PLR-16 is a long-range pistol design based on key design elements copied from the earlier SU-16 rifle design.
In 2010 Kel-Tec introduced the PMR30, a lightweight, full-size, .22 Magnum 30-shot semiautomatic pistol.[3] In 2016, Kel-Tec introduced the CMR-30 carbine, based on the PMR30.[4]
Additionally, in 2016 Kel-Tec released the Kel-Tec KSG and permanently changed the firearms industry by releasing the highest capacity mass produced shotgun, with a capability of holding 14 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun shells.
Lightest, thinnest semi-automatic 9 mm pistol
Kel-Tec PF-9
The PF-9, a flat 9×19mm single-column magazine semi-automatic pistol based on the earlier P-11 and P-3AT designs, was upon its release in 2006 touted as the thinnest and lightest 9mm pistol ever mass-produced.[5] The PF-9 was retired in 2022 and replaced with the P15.[6]
"High-Efficiency Rifles"
At the 2007 SHOT Show held in Orlando, Florida, Kel-Tec introduced a series of new "High-Efficiency Rifles" called the RFB, standing for "Rifle, Forward-ejection, Bull-pup."[7] The RFB is a gas-operatedsemi-automatic rifle with tilting breech block locking mechanism, loads the 7.62×51 NATO cartridge and uses metric FAL magazines; the RFB "family" consists in a series of bullpup rifles with three barrel lengths (18" barrel carbine, 24" sporter and 32" target versions), and a patented forward-ejection system via a tube placed over the barrel that ejects the spent case forwards, over the handguard of the rifle. This eliminates a major drawback of bullpup rifles, which is that they may not be readily usable by left-handed shooters.[8] Distribution of the RFB rifles in the USA was scheduled for February 2009; as of 2013, it has been publicly released for sale. As a further Revolution of the Bullpup, the RDB (Rifle Downward-ejecting Bullpup) was released in late 2015.[9]
Products
Kel-Tec breaks down their product line into three main categories: pistols, shotguns and rifles.[10]
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