copaup
Member
I have a confession to make. I am not fond of the .380 as a caliber. I have derided it as insufficient. I've called it a mouse gun. I've said why would I want one when I can get a 9mm in almost the same size package. Then I saw the Keltec P3AT. It was like a little mechanical gizmo that I just had to handle. Given the price I decided what the heck and bought it. I figured I would play with it at the range a bit just for the neatness factor. Certainly not a serious gun though. Then I shot it. I started at 5 yards with unsighted fire. Just point and shoot, as if the bovine residue had hit the fan. The whole magazine got dumped into a space about the size of an orange. Hey, not too bad. Lets move back. 10 yards rapid fire I was able to keep all rounds fired in the torso of a standard qual target, again just bringing the gun up to eye level and using the slide itself as a crude sight. And by rapid, I mean rapid. Well pleased and suprised so far I move back to 20 yards. Even with the keltec's crude "sight," which consists of a dot on the rear of the slide and a second on a small bump near the muzzle I was able to keep all shots in the scoring zone. Head shots were doable provided I took my time and did everything right. Given the size of the peice and the lack of real sights I was very pleased by this performance. Better was the lack of jams, even in the first hundred rounds. In firing 200 rounds I had 3 FTF, all of which I am willing to blame on my failure to keep my wrist locked and all of which occured in the first 50 rounds. What was a problem was the protruding and lightly sprung mag release, which was right where my thumb wanted to rest. I managed to inadvertantly drop the mag several times due to my thumb pressing the release during recoil. This is one pistol that I actually wish had a heel release, as I don't see speed reloads being a real priority with this type of pistol. Judicious use of sandpaper to bring the button almost flush with the frame fixed this problem nicely. Now a deliberate press on the almost flush release will drop the mag, but I don't trip it by accident. In the last 4 days I have put 100 rounds of PMC ball, 100 winchester silvertip, and 50 rounds of Golden Sabre through the little blaster with only the 3 ftf, all with the ball.
So I started thinking, here I have a tiny, and even better very flat, pistol that I can point shoot with excellent accuracy and very rapidly at close range. The Golden Sabres seem to be going about 8-10 inches in gel and expanding to .50 in the tests I've seen. That may not be awe inspiring, but its not too shabby either. I've found myself dropping the little 3AT into my pocket instead of my 342pd as my BUG. I'm still not real enamored with the ability of a single .380 to stop an attacker, but I bet a burst of 3 or 4 in rapid sucession would certainly screw up their day. I still won't consider the .380 to be sufficient for a primary weapon, but as a BUG or deep concealment peice I've decided that the little Kel Tec is in fact the bee's knees.
Pros:
Tiny
Suprisingly accurate
points well
comfortable to shoot
cons:
marginal caliber
nearly useless sights
no slide lock
a true pain to strip for cleaning
overall:
best $250 I've spent on a gun I thought I'd hate.
So I started thinking, here I have a tiny, and even better very flat, pistol that I can point shoot with excellent accuracy and very rapidly at close range. The Golden Sabres seem to be going about 8-10 inches in gel and expanding to .50 in the tests I've seen. That may not be awe inspiring, but its not too shabby either. I've found myself dropping the little 3AT into my pocket instead of my 342pd as my BUG. I'm still not real enamored with the ability of a single .380 to stop an attacker, but I bet a burst of 3 or 4 in rapid sucession would certainly screw up their day. I still won't consider the .380 to be sufficient for a primary weapon, but as a BUG or deep concealment peice I've decided that the little Kel Tec is in fact the bee's knees.
Pros:
Tiny
Suprisingly accurate
points well
comfortable to shoot
cons:
marginal caliber
nearly useless sights
no slide lock
a true pain to strip for cleaning
overall:
best $250 I've spent on a gun I thought I'd hate.
