Kel-Tec

Infobox_Company
company_name = Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc.
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = 1991
location = Cocoa, Florida
key_people = George Kellgren, Owner & Chief Engineer
industry = Firearms
homepage = [http://www.kel-tec-cnc.com/ www.kel-tec-cnc.com]

Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc. is a United States manufacturer of firearms. Founded in 1991 and based in Cocoa, Florida, the company has manufactured firearms since 1995, starting with small, affordable semi-automatic pistols [Johnston, Phil W. "Little Kel-Tec P-11 Pistol Features New, Practical Design." "GunWeek". 2001. [http://www.gunweek.com/2001/feature1010.html] ] and expanding to rifles. Kel-Tec is a privately-owned Florida corporation. George Kellgren is an owner and Chief Engineer. He is the Swedish designer who also designed many earlier Husqvarna (in Sweden), Swedish Interdynamics AB (in Sweden), Intratec, and Grendel brand firearms. According to the ATF [ANNUAL FIREARMS MANUFACTURING AND EXPORT REPORT (PDF) [http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/stats/afmer/afmer2006.pdf] ] , Kel-Tec is the third largest handgun maker in the U.S.

Product line

Weapons manufactured by Kel-Tec include the P-11 pistol (caliber 9 mm); the P-32 pistol (Caliber 32 ACP); the P-3AT pistol (Caliber .380 ACP); the P-40 (Caliber .40 S&W)(discontinued); the SUB-9 and the later SUB-2000, both semi-automatic pistol caliber carbines that fold for storage. In addition, the company offers a family of 5.56mm caliber rifles known as the SU-16 series. November 2005 saw the introduction of the PLR-16, an long-range pistol design based on key design elements copied from the earlier SU-16 rifle design. ["Products." Kel-Tec. "Kel-Tec-CNC.com". [http://www.kel-tec-cnc.com/products.html] ]

Lightest, flattest semi-automatic 9 mm pistol

The PF-9, a flat 9 mm single column magazine semi-automatic pistol based on the earlier P-11 and P-3AT designs, is claimed to be the flattest and lightest 9 mm pistol ever mass-produced. ["PF-9." Kel-Tec. "Kel-Tec-CNC.com". [http://kel-tec-cnc.com/pf9.html] ] It was announced on February 9, 2006, and was released into production in the fall of 2006.

"High-Efficiency Rifles"

At the 2007 SHOT Show held in Orlando, Florida, Kel-Tec introduced a series of new "High-Efficiency Rifles" called the RFB, standing for "Rifle, Forward-ejection, Bull-pup." ["News." Kel-Tec. "Kel-Tec-CNC.com". [http://kel-tec-cnc.com/news.html] ] The RFB is a gas-operated semi-automatic rifle with tilting breech block locking mechanism, loads the 7.62×51 NATO cartridge and uses metric FAL magazines; the RFB "family" consists in a series of Bullpup rifles with three barrel lengths (18" barrel carbine, 24" sporter and 32" target versions), and a patented forward-ejection system via a tube placed over the barrel that ejects the spent case forwards, over the handguard of the rifle. This eliminates the major drawbacks of Bull-pup rifles, which may not be readily usable by left-handed shooters and cannot be fired from the hip. ["Brochure: Kel-Tec RFB High-Efficiency Rifle." Kel-Tec. SHOT Show 2007. [http://kel-tec-cnc.com/images/downloads/RFB_Flyer_SHOT_2007_web.pdf] ] Full-scale production and marketing of the RFB rifles is scheduled for late 2008.

ee also

*Kel-Tec RFB High Efficiency Rifle (7.62 NATO) Battle Rifle
*Kel-Tec P-11 (9 mm Parabellum) Pistol
*Kel-Tec P-32 (.32 ACP) Pistol
*Kel-Tec P-3AT (.380 ACP) Pistol
*Kel-Tec SUB-2000 (9 mm Parabellum, .40 S&W) Pistol Cartridge Carbine Rifle
*Kel-Tec SU-16 (5.56 mm) Series of rifles and carbines
*Kel-Tec PLR-16 (5.56 mm) Pistol, Long Range

Gallery

Notes

External links

* [http://www.kel-tec-cnc.com Kel-Tec CNC]
* [http://www.kel-tec-cnc.com/images/downloads/RFB_Flyer_SHOT_2007_web.pdf Kel-Tec RFB forward-ejection bull-pup rifles flyer as seen at the 2007 SHOT Show]
* [http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/ktog/ Kel-Tec Owner's Group on Yahoo! Groups]
* [http://www.ktog.org KTOG -- The Kel-Tec Owners Group and forum]
* [http://www.mouseguns.com/pf9rev/pf9rev.htm PF-9 Review and Photos]
* [http://www.ktrange.org Keysbear's Tec Range -- A Kel-Tec discussion forum]
* [http://www.usrange.org Urban Survival Range -- A Kel-Tec discussion and general discussion forum]