Was looking at this pistol for a high capacity, less expensive per round, range gun etc. Seems like there is a ton of demand for these and the price is drastically inflated. Any thoughts on quality, dependability, other similar options, etc? I currently have my Smithfield xdm 40 s&w, but the wife refuses to shoot what she calls a cannon. (and my only daughter showing interest in shooting sports needs something to get used to before going full 9mm etc). Thanks for any suggestions and input.
Kel tec PMR 30 thoughts?
- Thread starter Bantz
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Good luck finding one for less than silly money. Most of the PMR-30s on Gunbroker are going for more than $100 over MSRP. Unfortunately Kel-Tec has a reputation for designing inovative firearms that people want, but then under-producing them. I searched for a KT Sub-2000 in 40S&W (Beretta 96) for 2 years before getting one on Gunbroker for ~$50 over list price.
For all the info you want, check out the PMR-30 forum on the Kel-Tec Owners' Group : http://www.thektog.org/forum/f90/
For all the info you want, check out the PMR-30 forum on the Kel-Tec Owners' Group : http://www.thektog.org/forum/f90/
It is definitely an interesting gun. 30 rounds of .22 Magnum is a pretty potent mix. It is generally accepted that .22 Magnum is ballistically similar to the well regarded FN5.7 round. I checked prices on .22 Magnum ammo recently and they seemed pretty similar to 9mm; about $0.25 per round. Like others have pointed out, these pistols are in demand, and hard to find. If you do find one, expect to pay a premium. I agree that Kel-Tec makes some very interesting and innovative guns, however I still feel like their quality is questionable. It seems like some people get good ones and have no problems at all, while others get bad ones and have nothing but problems. If you do buy a Kel-Tec, definitely put it through its paces with a variety of ammo before deciding to carry it. If it will only be a range gun, that is less of a concern.
Just a heads up for you. I have shot one of these pretty extensively with my wife and she doesn't like the muzzle blast of the .22 Mag in a Pistol. But my 10 year old daughter liked shooting the pistol. But she also loves shooting my Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt so she ain't your typical 10 year old girl.
I was lucky and got a brand new one well below msrp a few years back. I stockpiled about 5k rounds before the latest ammo shortage. Bottom line I wouldn't probably buy one now unless I found one at a reasonable price which probably won't happen anytime soon.
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- #7
Wow Dan-O great steal on that one. Gratz. Have you had any performance issues with yours?
Around here .22 wmr is the same deal as .22 lr, none to found anywhere. Same with the PMR, never seen one in person at any of my dealers.
Slightly inaccurate: it's is generally accepted that .22 wmr rounds out of a rifle are ballistically similar to 5.7 rounds out of a pistol. equal barrel lengths you will find that the 5.7 outpaces the .22wmr by about the same margin by which .22wmr outpaces .22lr
That's very interesting. I'll have to look into it more.
Usually people debate based on the difference in energy produced by each cartridge at their given velocities, but there are other factors that contribute to a bullets effectiveness.
The Military Arms Channel did a really good test comparing the FN5.7 pistol with the Kel-Tec PMR 30, and found the level of penetration between the two to be nearly identical. They didn't do a side by side rifle comparison though. That would be interesting to see. I'd definitely believe that the FN5.7 round would have the upper hand there.
Anyway, it's a good video, and since this discussion is specifically about the PMR 30, I think it is worth watching. See the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmhmtJvLZQU
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Pretty straightforward wrt energy. here
Penetration depth is hardly the end all be-all in a discussion about very small diameter rounds. Ironically the early PMR-30's were knocked for keyholing rounds, whereas that same effect is touted on contact with the 5.7 round. The premise of the five seven is that the wound channel ends up drastically larger than the essentially .22 round because of tumbling and fragmentation, which is directly tied to the much higher muzzle energy generated by the five seven.
Hmm, that is ironic. Very interesting though. Still the OP is looking for an affordable round to shoot, so that pretty much knocks the FN5.7 out of the running in spite of its impressive performance. Personally, for carry, I would trust the centerfire 5.7 round over the rimfire .22 Magnum, but for a range gun, I think the PMR30 is a good alternative to the FN5.7, especially when economy is a factor. Since his requirements are for an economical range gun with high capacity, I think the PMR30 fits the bill, but so would nearly any high capacity 9mm, and I think a 9mm pistol is probably a smarter buy than a rimfire .22 magnum. Those are just my thoughts though.
Oh, and I guess I should clarify, when I said that the FN5.7 round had similar ballistics to the .22 Magnum, I intended to refer only to the penetration depth from the two similar pistols since that was what the discussion was surrounding. I know the 5.7 round is higher velocity, so "ballistics" was probably the wrong choice of word since there are lots of factors to take into account besides just velocity and penetration depth. I over-simplified.
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