Posted: 12/26/2009 5:50:00 AM EDT
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Done. Just plain done fooling around. If it doesn’t say Glock on an auto or S&W on a revolver, it isn’t coming into the house. Having both, I was looking around for something to play with last summer and fall. Cool gun, barbeque gun, potting around plaything gun, pocket gun, just for fun something different gun. Raided momma’s cookie jar and was ready to participate in the economy.
Bought a SIG. Could not fire 10 rounds in a row without failing to feed, fire, or extract 2 or 3 times. Repaired by SIG and resold unfired. Bought a KelTec PF-9. Primer flow from standard 9mm 147 grain HydraShocks welded the firing pin hole shut in addition to magazines not entering the grip, dropping the loaded mag on the first shot, and keyholing. The gun fired a total of 3 (three) rounds before packing up totally. Dealer 100% refund. So I looked at Taurus PT1911 pistols. The prices have risen to within $20 of other makers entry level guns and are no longer a bargain. Priced out of their own market. There seem to be a lot of issues with them, the finish wears off rapidly, and you have to buy new mags for any sort of reliability. So I looked at a Taurus PT132. Cannot find a dealer with one to sell, cannot find anyone who has one who will admit it, and no info on reliability other that a G&A story with about zero details like the guy never even saw the real gun. So I looked at Kimber II pistols. Seemed nice, but slippery grip with no checkering and hard to see black only sights, no white dots. Nice trigger. Some people liked them and others had problems with them. This one feeds X ammo but not Y ammo. A different gun feeds Y ammo but not X. Give me a break. Sounds like the old story, which of the half dozen Kimber companies over the years made this one. Same story with STI entry level gun. Genuine Phillipines Armscor frame and slide with an STI trigger and hammer set. Whoop Te Do. The metal work was so bad I thought the frame was plastic, and I don’t mean Glock polymer. So I quit. I have been reading and learning for a month or two. Most of these auto pistols are randomly dependable. Some or many of them work of a particular model. For no obvious reason, some or a lot don’t work of the same exact model. Cheap 1911s don’t seem like a reliable item. Cheap plastic and steel guns seem even less reliable from the off brand makers. The more power someone pours into a smaller package, the less reliable the product seems. And that doesn’t speak to good or poor designs or good or poor quality control. Or to good or poor customer service. Every web site has its buffs whose personal guns always work after they have polished them up. Good on them. It seems like a personal challenge for them to make a substandard product perform as they wish. Or send it back until it does. Granted, web sites catch a lot of bad stories and skip the good ones. The web sites also miss the mass of sillies who buy a gun, load it, and never fire it knowing it will work since it is new. If you carry a gun, you carry it to shoot if needed every single time. Most of these won’t unless you fiddle with them, polish them, send them back for refitting and fixing, and you shoot $200 of each ammo type per brand to see if it “likes” that ammo brand and bullet style. Breaking them in costs as much as the gun ammo price wise. If a factory cartridge fits into the magazine of a Glock 9mm, 40S&W, or .45acp and is of remotely normal power for the caliber, it will feed, fire, and eject. Bet your life on it out of the box. Save the frustration of off brand toys. They work. I think the main reason is the super quality magazines from Glock and the straight into the chamber feeding angle from the magazine. The slide pushes the round forward into the big hole, not up a half inch ramp. And if you can see at all, you can put the big white dot into the big white three sided box and pull the trigger. Perfect holster guns and a M26 is manageable in a pocket, if you must. Ditto with the S&W M&P340 Scandium .357 with a Big Dot Tritium front sight. If you put it into the chambers and pull the trigger, it fires to hit where ever you put the front sight. Perfect pocket gun. No frustration. It is reliable to bet your life on. If a lightweight J frame is too brutal, even with .38 or .38 +P ammo, buy virtually any K frame Smith .38 and be well armed. Having finally figured out I already possess the Holy Grail, I quit looking around. |
that's good advice. i always find myself looking for the "next"- "new"- "cheap" pistol. and just about always get burned. having a g26 and a very used hi-power i am spoiled  when it comes to reliability.
right now i have 11 windows open on my computer trying to decide if i should buy a kel-tec p11 for $250 or a p32 for $237. i just sold my last 3 pistol purchases, 2 for a loss  !!!
i'm with you brother 2D2C |
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http://www.ktog.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1261358864;start=all
On the KelTec Owners Group forum. If you want to read my complete experience with a new production new in box PF-9 Keltec, feel free. The thread is locked there now. In a word, run. The really interesting part is not my sample of one story, but the lists of defects in the PF-9s you will see posted by the KelTec buffs on the site. They surely didn't like my thread but added more to it than I ever knew could be wrong. It is a shame. With some decent manufacturing and finish work, the PF-9 would be a neat concept. |
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The SIG was one of their Mosquito's. It was bought exactly because of their reputation and a P220 I carried at work for four years that worked unless Federal Cartridge let the OAL of 230 grain HydraShocks .45acp rounds get a millimicron too long or too short. Then it would not feed.
SIG should not put their name on those Mosquitos. The one I had came back from the factory with about 10 things done to it that amounted to replacing all the small parts to correct non extracting, non ejecting, and a really fouled up trigger system. You were actually pulling the trigger against a stop and bending something to get it to fire. |
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Quoted:
The SIG was one of their Mosquito's. It was bought exactly because of their reputation and a P220 I carried at work for four years that worked unless Federal Cartridge let the OAL of 230 grain HydraShocks .45acp rounds get a millimicron too long or too short. Then it would not feed. SIG should not put their name on those Mosquitos. The one I had came back from the factory with about 10 things done to it that amounted to replacing all the small parts to correct non extracting, non ejecting, and a really fouled up trigger system. You were actually pulling the trigger against a stop and bending something to get it to fire. Aaahhhh, the Mosquito.....I should've guessed. |
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I have a Kel Tec P11 with two cracks in the side and a peened slide and chamber hood. I bought this gun from a dealer at the Tipton show. I guess the low light got my old eyes.I am not passing judgement until I send it in and hear from KelTec.
I don't know if they will fix it, but I will say something the next time I see that merchant. (hell he may not have seen them either) Ist crack is on the top of the slide in front of the ejection port and to left of center of port (about 3/4 inch long clear through slide 2nd crack runs the entire length of the extractor channel clearly viseable from the bottom of the slide The tip of the extractor also appears to be chipped. I dont know if it is poor quality or abuse. 
Bye the way it is the factory chrome slide. The barrel seems fine except for the peened hood ( no bulges or distortions, and the breech face look fine) Terry |