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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. :s0155:
 
That's your experience with this pistol and you're only a little bit disappointed? You must have the patience of Job. In any case, it's quite a shame your pistol performed that way and hopefully Kel-Tec makes it right; their reputation for customer service is pretty good. I had high hopes for the PMR-30 and generally like Kel-Tecs, but this seems to be a bit of a let-down.
 
I was really hoping to pick one of these up, and now hearing your range report, I'm not to sure the money spent right now would be worth it. Please keep us updated about the progress, if any is made, with the folks at Kel-Tec. If anyone else has any reports, it would be good to hear about them as well. :eek:
 
I guess on the positive side, Kel-Tec does have a reputation for making things right if there is a problem. However, it's a shame there should even be a problem in the first place...
 
Sorry zeroring :( that really blows. Please keep us posted on kel-tec's reply to your issues (especially the safety issues)

I personally want one of these pistols... but I think I'll wait until generation 18 before buying one based on your experiences.
 
Zero, that gun you have is from Davidson's. (You know this. I'm just saying for the other members on the site)
They are awesome at making things right.(As seen in another thread here) The owner of the company is a member of this site also.

They will replace it at no cost with a new one, and they will take your issues up with Kel-Tec.

I have one also, and will make it a point to get to the range and beat it up. I hope yours is a fluke.
 
What ammo(s) were you using?

I was using this:

And, while I haven't discounted the fact that my issues might be ammo related... I would be surprised if that were the case since Kel-Tec's website (and the pistol's manual) doesn't list specific ammo either by brand OR type that should NOT be used. :s0092:
 
Zero, that gun you have is from Davidson's. (You know this. I'm just saying for the other members on the site)
They are awesome at making things right.(As seen in another thread here) The owner of the company is a member of this site also.

They will replace it at no cost with a new one, and they will take your issues up with Kel-Tec.

Yep, I have no worries that things will be resolved one way or the other. My only hesitation to getting a replacement is the fact that I was quite happy with the very low serial number that I received and am reluctant to just toss it away for a whole new pistol.

I'm more interested in getting the one I have inspected, if for no other reason than to identify the possible reason(s) for the issues I was having in the first place, and then hopefully repaired and corrected.

If a replacement is my only course of action, then so be it. We'll see how it plays out. :s0155:

I have one also, and will make it a point to get to the range and beat it up. I hope yours is a fluke.

DEFINITELY interested in your results once you've done some "beating" on yours! Hopefully yours is flawless and mine was indeed a fluke (which is what I suspect).
 
From Kel-Tec

"One thing we’ve discovered since shipping is that the PMR-30 does NOT like ammunition made in the Philippines (Armscor/Fiocci). The brass is weak and blows out."
 
From Kel-Tec

"One thing we’ve discovered since shipping is that the PMR-30 does NOT like ammunition made in the Philippines (Armscor/Fiocci). The brass is weak and blows out."

can you post the link to this please.

Thanks

Reco

The "Official" PMR-30 Ammo Recommendation info can be found here: <broken link removed>

And for what it's worth, my PMR-30 is on its way to Kel-Tec for repairs. The customer service rep I spoke to a couple of days ago indicated that the trigger issues with the early serial number PMR's are a KNOWN item now and Kel-Tec has them on priority repair status.

When I asked her what she meant by early serial numbers she mentioned that those PMR-30's with serial numbers below W0172 were flagged as having possible trigger issues.

Oh, and the FTFD issues I was having are most likely related to the Fiocchi ammo I was using and not necessarily the flakey trigger in my PMR.
 
Didn't want to leave this thread hanging too much longer so I thought it was time to post an update on the status of my PMR-30.

When I contacted Kel-Tec and informed them of my issues they immediately were aware of what may have caused my problems and arranged for a priority repair ticket and emailed me a pre-paid shipping label.

The package went out to them on 09/08/10 and the repairs were completed on 09/16/10. They completed testing on the repairs (they ran 60 error-free rounds through it) and return shipped it to me on 09/21/10.

The work order outlined several items that were repaired (and which a Kel-Tec rep. had gone over with me on the phone on 09/17/10) and I must say, I am impressed with the extent to which Kel-Tec has gone to insure that my next trip to the range isn't what the first one was!

The fast turn around on the repair was a nice surprise as well!

I haven't had a chance yet to make another trip to the range but I didn't want this thread to sit idle for too long. :D

I'll post up my "second" impressions once I've put a few mags through my repaired PMR. :s0155:
 

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