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Well, I took the PMR out last friday afternoon to put the first three boxes of ammo through it and I have to say, I am a little bit disappointed.
First with the good: The pistol is LIGHT, even with a full mag I was amazed at how light it was. The size of the pistol was smaller than I expected as well. Compared to my S&W 22A pistol the PMR was about 3/4 the size and less than half the weight. The "feel" of the thing in the hand was very comfortable as well. For a double-stack mag holding an amazing 30 rounds of ammo the width of the grip was smaller than I'd expected.
Loading the mags was a bit of an exercise in frustration. The first few rounds loaded fairly easily but once past round 10 you REALLY had to pay attention to how the rounds fit or they would get skewed and cause the next round to be difficult if not impossible to load. To be fair, the manual does a good job of explaining how crucial proper loading of the mags is.
Once I had the mags loaded up with 25 rounds each (25 per mag seemed like a nice way to split the 50 round box of ammo) I was ready to start sending rounds down range.
The first three rounds fired off perfectly and I was pleased with how well the pistol handled the magnum ammo. Definitely louder than the .22LR rounds! The accuracy seemed to be pretty good at 50 yards, but frankly at that range I wasn't really focusing on accuracy. (I was forced to shoot paper at the 50 yard minimum distance at the "main range" at TR&RC since the pistol range was closed).
Round four though was the first of many FTFD rounds I was soon to experience. I manually cycled the mag and fired off the next three or four shots and then again had a FTFD. This time I had to eject the mag in order the re-set the round in it since, from what I could tell in trying to manually cycle the round, it seemed like the ammo may have been getting hung up on the front lip of the mag.
The next couple of magazines continued in this same frustrating fashion with every two or three rounds resulting in a FTFD problem. Then the strangest thing happened when manually cycling the next round. With the pistol pointed down range, trigger finger completely out of the trigger guard, AND the safety ON... the second I manually racked the slide, the gun discharged! (Definitely a teaching moment to explain to the wife the "WHY's" of the rules for gun safety and made me VERY glad that I am such a stickler for adhering to them!)
Needless to say, I ejected the mag and fully checked the pistol over for any obvious explanations for the sudden discharge. Seeing nothing apparent, I proceeded to load the next mag and sent a few more rounds down range. I must say that when the pistol was working correctly the thing was a BLAST to shoot!
The FTFD issues continued though through the next two mags, with another strange occurance midway through mag number four. It double fired two rounds! Immediately I ejected the mag and again inspected the pistol for any possible obvious issues that may have influenced the double-fire. Again, seeing nothing obvious I reinserted the mag and sent the rest of the rounds down range with the now "typical" FTFD every three or four rounds.
Mag five though was to be the last I would shoot...
First couple of rounds were fine, then a FTFD round requiring a mag eject and check. Upon reinserting the mag and cycling the round I pulled the trigger and... nothing. Again, I ejected the mag, locked the slide back (as always), carefully released the slide on the now empty gun and attemped to dry fire the pistol. Again, nothing. There was a slight "clicking" when pulling the trigger but the hammer would NOT drop.
Looks like I am now going to have to contact Kel-Tec and see how to go about having it looked at since it is completely non-functional now.
I am not sure if the trigger failure, double fire, accidental discharge (while the safety was on and no finger on the trigger), and the constant FTFD issues are all related or not but there is definitely something not quite right about my particular PMR-30.
All that being said though, I still enjoyed shooting it. The thing was fun to shoot, ergonomics were great, weight and feel in the hand were good and it was just plain fun. Hopefully my particular experience is not "typical" for the PMR-30 but are rather isolated to something specific to my pistol.
I'd be interested to hear from other folks who have spent some time with theirs.
First with the good: The pistol is LIGHT, even with a full mag I was amazed at how light it was. The size of the pistol was smaller than I expected as well. Compared to my S&W 22A pistol the PMR was about 3/4 the size and less than half the weight. The "feel" of the thing in the hand was very comfortable as well. For a double-stack mag holding an amazing 30 rounds of ammo the width of the grip was smaller than I'd expected.
Loading the mags was a bit of an exercise in frustration. The first few rounds loaded fairly easily but once past round 10 you REALLY had to pay attention to how the rounds fit or they would get skewed and cause the next round to be difficult if not impossible to load. To be fair, the manual does a good job of explaining how crucial proper loading of the mags is.
Once I had the mags loaded up with 25 rounds each (25 per mag seemed like a nice way to split the 50 round box of ammo) I was ready to start sending rounds down range.
The first three rounds fired off perfectly and I was pleased with how well the pistol handled the magnum ammo. Definitely louder than the .22LR rounds! The accuracy seemed to be pretty good at 50 yards, but frankly at that range I wasn't really focusing on accuracy. (I was forced to shoot paper at the 50 yard minimum distance at the "main range" at TR&RC since the pistol range was closed).
Round four though was the first of many FTFD rounds I was soon to experience. I manually cycled the mag and fired off the next three or four shots and then again had a FTFD. This time I had to eject the mag in order the re-set the round in it since, from what I could tell in trying to manually cycle the round, it seemed like the ammo may have been getting hung up on the front lip of the mag.
The next couple of magazines continued in this same frustrating fashion with every two or three rounds resulting in a FTFD problem. Then the strangest thing happened when manually cycling the next round. With the pistol pointed down range, trigger finger completely out of the trigger guard, AND the safety ON... the second I manually racked the slide, the gun discharged! (Definitely a teaching moment to explain to the wife the "WHY's" of the rules for gun safety and made me VERY glad that I am such a stickler for adhering to them!)
Needless to say, I ejected the mag and fully checked the pistol over for any obvious explanations for the sudden discharge. Seeing nothing apparent, I proceeded to load the next mag and sent a few more rounds down range. I must say that when the pistol was working correctly the thing was a BLAST to shoot!
The FTFD issues continued though through the next two mags, with another strange occurance midway through mag number four. It double fired two rounds! Immediately I ejected the mag and again inspected the pistol for any possible obvious issues that may have influenced the double-fire. Again, seeing nothing obvious I reinserted the mag and sent the rest of the rounds down range with the now "typical" FTFD every three or four rounds.
Mag five though was to be the last I would shoot...
First couple of rounds were fine, then a FTFD round requiring a mag eject and check. Upon reinserting the mag and cycling the round I pulled the trigger and... nothing. Again, I ejected the mag, locked the slide back (as always), carefully released the slide on the now empty gun and attemped to dry fire the pistol. Again, nothing. There was a slight "clicking" when pulling the trigger but the hammer would NOT drop.
Looks like I am now going to have to contact Kel-Tec and see how to go about having it looked at since it is completely non-functional now.
I am not sure if the trigger failure, double fire, accidental discharge (while the safety was on and no finger on the trigger), and the constant FTFD issues are all related or not but there is definitely something not quite right about my particular PMR-30.
All that being said though, I still enjoyed shooting it. The thing was fun to shoot, ergonomics were great, weight and feel in the hand were good and it was just plain fun. Hopefully my particular experience is not "typical" for the PMR-30 but are rather isolated to something specific to my pistol.
I'd be interested to hear from other folks who have spent some time with theirs.
