Just recently for sale on the market, but checkin if anybody owns one yet? First impressions etc....
I've been intrigued by its design and its intended purpose years ago, so I decided place an order for one yesterday.

Well seeing one fail catstrophically after less than two mags kinda of made those useless to me. Hopefully yours actually works.

Great concept.

That front sight though,  

Uh oh, would like to get more details on this.  Link/pics etc.. Appreciated

Agreed... But being a survival type rifle looks aren't really it's priority??.  Have to admit though...they designed
It to fold or be removed if you choose to.  Seen a video guy hittin steel at 200y..not bad for a wonky lookin sight

Which would be what?  Everytime I see it I think "I dont get it" because I dont get it.

What are the pro of using this thing for "survival" vs a standard RDB for instance.

Everytime I see it it makes me think they made it for New York and California and then wanted to give it a cool name to sell elsewhere.  Which is fine I just dont get why its a survival rifle.

Nunfancy has one or two long winded reviews on Youtube.

Will check it out, thnx

Youtube brah. Many reviews about these being turds.

If they made it with their regular grip, I might be interested.  I love bullpups, but KT seems to be the only company that is even trying to make them lighter weight.

They will be offering the pistol grip section separately

If you click around you’ll see thread about thread about RDB problems. The number of issues is staggering, many guys have to send guns back multiple times.

Note most are old posts from 2017.  They seem to have worked things out.

I hope so. So far my only issues have stemmed from lazy QC and assembly at Keltec.

It’s a KelTec.....

I would never, EVER, place my survival in their hands. The handguns I’ve owned were unreliable, and the “folding rifles” failed miserably (unless you like parts breakages and parts falling off of them).

If someone asked me for advice on a “small survival gun” I’d recommend an AR pistol from BCM, Daniel Defense, or a Colt 6933 upper on a pistol lower.

Known and proven quality.

KelTec products are in the turd class of quality / durability.

Since this is the bull pup forum...

Steyr AUG with 16” QD barrel.  It’s a pretty small package and is a combat proven design.  Pull the barrel (15 seconds) and it’s pretty small too.

The thought of people spending money on KelTec products makes me sad.

I only paid $700 for my RDB. I still feel like I overpaid but I’m not paying $1,500+ for an aug or tavor. That being said this is just a range toy for me and most certainly not my SHTF weapon.

The main issue with the front sight is it's made from pretty flimsy sheet metal.  KT really should have done a Tavor-style flip up rail section sight instead.

Blame your fellow Arfcommers, not Kel Tec.  The NY/CA model is EXACTLY what it was, but there was this huge, inexplicable fascination by tools everywhere who thought a literal Planet of the Apes prop-rifle was something they just had to have.  The rest of the fascination was because the 'RDB-C' was initially introduced as having a 6.5 Grendel chambering, which I guess has been postponed for the time being while they suss out the accuracy concerns stemming from the thin barrel, optics rail, & non-floated handguard.

At its core, though, you have a min-barrel-length, min-overall-length, min-overall-height, pencil-barrel, lightweight autoloading rifle, with flat sides, and very few openings.  Except for the incredibly goofy stock ergonomics (I'm actually exaggerating; it's not terrible-terrible if you grip it with your thumb alongside your trigger finger) the concept isn't bad for a stowed & carried long gun.  With a scabbard, or scabbard-pack, it would be pretty unobtrusive but still quite usable as a rifle.

I'm gonna call BS then, brah; put up your actual sources.  Tossing it over to random YT tards isn't very useful (for any topic about anything, really)

I bought one over a year ago and have had my ear to the ground, and I've heard of issues with;
-Loose fasteners; KT likes screws, doesn't always care for loc-tite
-Doesn't like steel/AL magazines; the mag catch doesn't quite reach in far enough to always reliably grab the thinner-profile mags (but I've seen people tweak the catch so it does)
-Early guns had like a 1:9 twist that was kind of slow for some people.  I think they are all 1:7 now, so not an issue
-Some people find it doesn't like steel-case and KT recommends against it; wild guess, they have a tighter-than-military chamber that doesn't tolerate buildup as well (no other reason I can think of it would cause issues)
-One or two broken firing pin noses...which isn't super unusual for any gun, though a little worrisome since spare parts aren't readily available yet & require customer service calls
-One guy was missing a C-clip on a sling-swivel, and the part shifted & interfered with the hammer until it was corrected
-One guy had a hammer striking face pop off the hammer arm (I'm still watching to see if there's more of these, or if it was a true fluke; that hammer does have a very high-intensity job so it does give me pause)
-A handful of very early guns missed a weld that retains the recoil-spring thrust washer in the bolt carrier (this is the one "goddamn cheap-ass Kel Tec garbage QC" issue to complain about, but it was quickly corrected in production)
-The handguard isn't free floated and barrel is thin, so there are issues with thermal and pressure stringing
-The optics rail bridges the front & rear of the barrel, and is aluminum rather than steel, so it can cause thermal expansion issues if installed wrong
-People who don't understand how the gun or adjustable gas systems function, and complain when they run the gun too-undergassed & it malfunctions
-Fudd RO's that don't understand how weapon-clearing functions (If I drop the mag & rack out a round, no, you don't need to examine the chamber directly )

I mean, yeah, it'd be worth bitching about these things if this were an FN product you'd paid two grand for, but it's less than half that price, and these issues are infrequent or pretty minor.  "Turds" is a really inaccurate description this time, and Kel Tec hit this one out of the park.  I expect these guns to be fairly common within five years, and KT's reputation greatly improved.  I do wish they'd license the design to someone like FN who could execute the concept even better, but even as-is it's still the best bullpup platform that I've had the pleasure of messing with (Tavor/X95, AUG, PS90, FS2000, RFB, MDR).  All those other guns were either ludicrously expensive, heavy, ergonomically flawed, or some combination.  The Tavor was especially unimpressive as far as build quality, with loads of cheap plastics flimsier than anything on the RDB, and a really terrible gas system design (not to mention suppressor backpressure handling) all for the better part of two thousand dollars

Sorry I didn't video tape and sign an affadavit when I personally witnessed the shitty keltec RDB fail before finishing the second mag. It wasn't my gun. I didn't know the shooter. It was at Ben Avery, and a dude two lanes over made a show about how his bad ass keltec just shit the bed. I didn't read your whole post, something about cheap guns being "good enough" or something.

But yeah, you're right, your single opinion on the one Rdb that you actually own certainly trumps any other info out there on the web. You heard it here first guys, RDB's are better and best because barnbwt said so.

Fast forward to 17 minutes or so and see how kick ass this guy's RDB is.

Thank you.  No affadavit needed, just *something* for others to refer to before shitting all over a product.

That's the guy (singular) with the broken hammer I mentioned.  Only one I've heard of, so a mere "anecdote" by your own definition.  Now, the hammer in the gun is so odd, and so hard working in this design, that this failure does have my attention and I'm looking to see if/how many others occur.  Mine's easily over 1000 rounds now and a ton of dry-fires, without issues (I really wish I could practice more).

It's odd he can't get in contact with Kel Tec, no one's ever claimed their customer service wasn't good, I don't think.

Far more videos out there with the gun doing great, and even this poor reviewer was impressed until the failure.  We got a BREN 2 in with a factory-bent recoil guide rod; total turd of a weapon, right?

If you actually read my post, like I did yours, you'd see most of the issues are minor (loose screws) and the rest are rare (broken hammer, firing pin, recoil assy)

Accuracy issues from the flimsy non-floated barrel & rail are the real bottleneck, here.

I like how you dog on the poster about only having one gun experience and then go on to post one video from two years ago with an issue the poster already mentioned.  LOL

Do you have any recent ones?

Barnbwt...very much appreciate all the info.

But yikes, on the Bren 2 with a bent recoil rod....need to check mine, but been running flawlessly so far.

It seems like 90% of the RDB problems I’ve read about stem from the adjustable gas system, keltec would be smart to make it less adjustable.

I’m the guy missing the c clip, an easy fix. Easy fix or not it killed my confidence. Every damn screw was ready to fall out after 100 rounds also.

I want to like this rifle but I’ll probably never trust it.

Totally understand...er, I don't understand at all, but I do hear that a lot; to me it's like selling a car because the check-engine light comes on from a leaky gas cap
I'm one of those guys that can't take a product on faith out of the box; by fixing bugs I actually get more confident than if it simply 'worked' to start with.  By very thoroughly going over the RDB specifically because of the bad reputation, I have a fairly good idea what all is happening, and that makes me a happier shooter .  First thing I did was see how it worked, and make sure nothing looked hinky as it moved (like crooked hammers or binding)

Quick story about quality & premium brands;
FN Five Seven pistol; one of my first purchases, seeing as it's total movie-cool and everything.  Very expensive.  Very good reliability reputation.  Very high quality (though it practically levitates it is so light).  Very first outing, 'catastrophic' failure of the magazine catch spring.  FN had put a cheesy wire spring inside the magwell that looked like a piece of paper clip, and the bend was exposed such that it would snag on the sharp bullet point of the first round if it were not fully seated to the rear of the mag.  Sure enough, my very first mag had that round stick out a tiny bit too far, and when I slid it in, it caught the spring, and promptly uninstalled it from the gun; magazine fell out on the first shot, and the catch button then fell through the mag well.  Total dog shit of a design.  I learned from forums that FN had quickly redesigned this part to be a flat leaf spring cut by EDM as opposed to a paperclip, but never did a recall, and they sent it about two days after I asked (along with a new mag catch button).  Haven't had a single hiccup since.  Even the high-end boys have their share of issues and poor-practices, they just don't have a cadre of people who make a career of bitching about them (except for H&K, obviously)

The loose screws are legitimately crap and reflect very poorly on KT, though they are at least an easy fix if you know about it ahead of time.  I do not know why Kel Tec doesn't use loc-tite, but it's apparently an issue on everything they do.  Granted, it was also an issue on my Primary Arms scope mounts (all of them), so maybe it's just something you have to live with unless you pay someone out the asshole to do the simple task for you on a 'premium' brand.  The Kel Tec group has a running tally of issues people report on, and though it looks very intimidating at first, it's still only like a dozen people last I saw it (maybe you already tallied your hammer issue).  I think the RDBs are also selling at far higher volumes than other KT products, which may also be contributing; when you had a dozen scarce RFB's with broken gas blocks it meant a widespread problem, with the RDB it's a whole order of magnitude less common when there are twelve reports of problems.  There's over 100 of the things on Gunbroker; I think I saw ten RFBs at most in their hey-day.

The gas system does need some work; like the BREN 805 it's more complicated than it needs to be, plus it doesn't vent out the front like I prefer.  The main issue with the adjustment is that the knob detent is very weak, and that KT isn't putting them into a 'known good' setting before boxing them.  Naturally, many helpless customers then complain loudly.  The wide adjustment toward low-power-cycling is necessary so the gun can handle suppressor back pressure properly; practically none of the short stroke 5.56 guns can run suppressors without driving the bolt harder than needed.  SCAR still isn't warranted for suppressor use.  I think the AUG recently was tweaked to do better in this area.  Obviously that low-end range means the gun can short cycle without the suppressor; that's just the cost of doing business with a fully-adjustable gas system.  Like complaining about your car's poor starting acceleration in 6th gear.

Personally I don’t mind how adjustable the gas system is, it makes sense to me. That being said, the average fudd is going to screw it up pretty quickly. Four or five settings with a nice positive detent would be more intuitive to use, and cause less issues for the masses.

Understood. I guess I made the mistake of thinking the OP wanted a "survival" rifle. I must have misinterpreted that to mean a reliable weapon you would want to depend on when your "survival" is at stake. My bad. I'm out, didn't mean to disrupt the echo chamber.

Got mine yesterday.  It’s more of a PDW than anything survival related.

Nice, mine hopefully will arrive this week

Your first impressions handling the rifle/shouldering it?

It’s very light weight and shoulders comfortable for me.  I don’t like the front sight and how it’s mounted to the barrel, but it was placed there so the rifle is flat on top when the sights are folded.  Trigger is light and breaks cleanly, better than the regular RDB (I have one of those also).

I was going to sell my RDB because my hand kept bumping the mag release due to the close spacing between the pistol grip and the mag release, especially when moving around (running, going prone etc.).  But it is the least gassy bullpup I own when I shoot it suppressed and it feeds steel case wolf and tula by simply adjusting the gas.

Even with those positives, the RDB is no AUG or Tavor.

I almost forgot, the RDB-S is shorter than my 8.5” AR pistol, not that it makes it better just something I wanted to mention.

Since you don't like the front sight, you plan on removing it and adding after market irons?
Do you plan on running a magnified optic or red dot?

In regards to your Rdb bumping the mag release, the guys at In range tv were actually running the Rdb through a course,  out 4 guys shooting it..only one had the issue of bumping the mag release...but he was wearing gloves if i remember.
Got a text from my FFl dealer today that the rifle is in, just waiting for him to pick it up

Got to the range today.  The installed flip up sights are truly back-up sights.  Although they are cleverly designed, I experienced a lack of consistency at 50 yards.  The rear flip up does not lock into position and this might be the cause of the inconsistency. On the positive side, the sights were easy to adjust.   I was able to hit a metal mike at 200 yards several times and the same size steel target at 100 with the flip-ups with no problem.   I plan on getting a micro red dot, maybe a Romeo 04 or something that size as I will remove the front sight and maybe install a birdcage flash hider

So far, I still believe this rifle is a poor choice for “survival” but has potential for a nice PDW along the lines of a P90 (I’m not saying the RDB is of the same quality as an FN, just the concept of a PDW) and it uses common 5.56 and not the more expensive 5.7.

I’m wishing Keltec had installed rails on the side or bottom or at least had an M-lok compatible hand guard.

Appreciate your first impression/findings on the rifle.  Great shooting at 100/200 with irons, I agree on there are probably better choices for a survival rifle, but any rifle could be one...especially if It's the only rifle one owns.  Agree also on the pdw type potential this has, is one other reason I purchased it.  Being only 5lbs and 26" overall length and the only bullpup I know with an adjustable stock got me interested.  My ffl called and will be picking up tomorrow, will post some pics.

IIRC, the stock 'adjustment' was primarily to goose the overall measured length past the 26" legal threshold or whatever.  The LOP is definitely not on the short side as-is.

Picked up the rifle today, first impression looking at it, it's even more smaller seeing it in person almost comical how small this thing is in person.
Shouldering it is very natural feeling, with hand up front thing is very light and very quick to transition L-R with almost no effort at all.

The buttstock when fully collapsed does not lock, it only locks when fully extended, scratching head on this one.  I prefer it fully collapsed.
My rear flip up sight locks up solid....literally no movement at all.  But the front sight on mine when positions up and locked in place has
Little movement backwards...I know it's enough to move when shooting, may hinder accuracy using it..,at least on mine.

I may run some type of flip up back up irons, but I really like the rear peep site...may try out one of my front sight from another rifle first.

Side by side comparisons to some of my firearms




Rdbs laying on top of the x95, just to show how slim and shorter

Short range session today my findings...

According to the manual, it mentions that it's sighted in already....but maybe that's  just in General to get it on paper
At 25y I was hitting couple inches low and couple inches left. I decided to mount a reddot just to get it started in a rough sighting
In for now.  Here are 9" foam plates set at 50y, top plate shot using irons, 10 shot ea. Using ZQI 62gr ammo
Bottom plate I used my reddot, also 10 shots and same ammo
Forget to mention trigger is awesome

Ar671 - awesome! How much and where did you buy?

I reallllly want one

Midway and a few others have them for $1000

There are almost 100 on gun broker. I might wait to see if some prices drop

My Local ffl dealer found one for me from his source paid little bit more though at RSR Group..but

Buds gun shop $1005
Preppers gun shop $949

If I were you wait until prices really drop, and make sure it's the "S" you want/ pencil barrel
They have the Rdb-c its a 20" and dont think it's a pencil barrel, but still very compact for a 20"

Have an old aimpoint just lyin around so decided to use for now....until I really decide what optic to use.
But removed factory front sight and replaced with a flip up.  shorter sight radius, don't mind though as
It's back up only.

Yeah I think I'm gonna hold out for a bit on prices.

I like the C model too. The idea of a 20" barrel in a small package is pretty sweet. But at the end of the say, the compactness and light weight of the S model really seem to accentuate what I want out of a bullpup.

Sweet set up. I like the rail mounted front buis look a lot more.

So are you digging it so far? I have a few pretty sweet ARs but I'm much more excited about the S model, it does pretty much everything I want out of a carbine

I think I want one, but not at the $950 price point.

Thought I wanted one but it's a Kel-tec so they took 18 months to bring it to market (add another year before I see them available) and I now have second thoughts because it's a Kel-tec.

It's a neat design at the least. Interested to see how guys like them long term.

Picked one up yesterday and I think the factory sights have to go.  I am thinking low profile flip ups co witnessed with a micro dot.

Really liking it so far...but wanted to mention about the screws holding the polymer together, Sickmak90 posted here that on his Rdb tactical...every screw
was ready to fall out after 100 rounds.   shot more than 100 rounds through the Rdb-s I checked every screw all never showed signs of being loose, except for the 4 screws that hold the the  stock together eventually came loose, and needs to be checked they don't fall out.  gonna use some blue loc-tite on mine.
Emailed them about shooting cheap steel cased ammo, they recommend not to.

For me I noticed I wanted a bit more handguard length, buI got used to the compactness of the original.
Emailed kel-tec if the RDB-C handguard (longer) will fit the S, they said it will and won't be available til 1/19

I've shot Armscor 223 55gr, ZQI 5.56/m855, M193 all ran reliably

Nice

I really like the factory rear sight, which I'll be using
Decided also on a micro dot, but so many affordable choices/features nowadays it's hard to choose

I love the design. I'm definitely picking one up soon.

I like the factory rear when it is up, but when its down I feel like its in the way of my grip.  I want back up irons in case my optic fails, but I want to run the red dot unobstructed.  I hope I can take it off in a manor that will allow me to reinstall later.

Same, I do want one. They seem pretty darn neat, and should make for a very lightweight and small rifle without the NFA hassle or SBR ballistics. I think I’ll wait for them to come down a bit though. It seems to take Kel-Tec awhile to catch up with demand, but eventually their prices do settle down a good deal. The KSG comes to mind.

Gotcha

I tried to hold it that way also, but find it awkward and the angle puts strain on my wrist, holding more like a hunting rifle
Way more comfortable for me.

And if anyone is shooting suppressed, is there substantial vertical POI shift from the skinny barrel?