Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc., commonly referred to as Kel-Tec, is an American developer and manufacturer of firearms. Founded by

George Kellgren George Kellgren (b. May 23, 1943) is a Swedish-born firearms designer, inventor and founder of the gun manufacturer Kel-Tec. His designs include the Intratec TEC-9, Kel-Tec P-11, Kel-Tec KSG, Kel-Tec SUB-2000 carbine and Grendel Inc., Grendel .380 ...

in 1991 and based in

Cocoa, Florida Cocoa is a city in Brevard County, Florida, Brevard County, Florida. The population was 19,041 at the 2020 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay, Florida, Palm Bay–Melbourne, Florida, Melbourne–Titusville, Florida, Titusvil ...

, the company has manufactured firearms since 1995, starting with

semi-automatic pistols A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single- chamber handgun ( pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actu ...

and expanding to rifles and then shotguns. Kel-Tec is a privately owned

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

corporation. George Kellgren, Kel-Tec owner and chief engineer, is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

designer who also designed many earlier Husqvarna, Swedish Interdynamics AB (in Sweden),

Intratec Intratec was a firearm company based in Miami, Florida. The company's most famous product was the Intratec TEC-DC9, TEC-9. History Intratec began as Interdynamic USA, an offshoot of Swedish firearms manufacturer Interdynamic AB. As a result of ...

and

Grendel Grendel is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem '' Beowulf'' (700–1000). He is one of the poem's three antagonists (along with his mother and the dragon), all aligned in opposition against the protagonist Beowulf. Grendel is feared by a ...

brand firearms. The company has been developing and manufacturing a wide variety of firearms, ranging from semi-automatic handguns, i.e. pistols, to semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.

History

Weapons manufactured by Kel-Tec include the P-11 pistol (caliber

9 mm 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

); the P-32 pistol (Caliber

32 ACP .32 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol, also known as .32 Automatic) is a centerfire pistol cartridge. It is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning, initially for use in the FN M1900 semi-automatic pistol ...

); the P-3AT pistol (Caliber

.380 ACP The .380 ACP (9×17mm) ( Automatic Colt Pistol) is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case.Wilson, R. K. ''Textbook of Automatic Pisto ...

); the P-40 (Caliber .40 S&W)(discontinued); the SUB-9 and the later SUB-2000, both semi-automatic pistol caliber

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and lighter ...

s that fold for storage. In addition, the company offers a family of 5.56×45mm rifles known as the SU-16 series. November 2005 saw the introduction of the

PLR-16 The Kel-Tec PLR-16 is a gas-operated, semi-automatic pistol version of the SU-16, chambered in 5.56 NATO, manufactured by Kel-Tec Industries of Florida. The PLR (''Pistol, Long Range'') was designed for recreational target shooting, and small g ...

, a long-range pistol design based on key design elements copied from the earlier SU-16 rifle design. A new pistol design from Kel Tec in 2010, is a light weight, full-size,

.22 Magnum The .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, also called .22 WMR, .22 Magnum, .22 WMRF, .22 MRF, or .22 Mag, is a rimfire cartridge. Originally loaded with a bullet weight of delivering velocities in the range from a rifle barrel, .22 WMR is now loaded ...

30 shot semiautomatic pistol, the

PMR30 The Kel-Tec PMR-30 is a full-size semi-automatic pistol manufactured by Kel-Tec of the United States. It was made available in 2011. It has a single action trigger pull of and a manual safety device. It is chambered in .22 Winchester Magnum Rimf ...

. In 2016, Kel-Tec introduced the CMR-30 carbine, based on the PMR30.

Lightest, thinnest semi-automatic 9 mm pistol

The PF-9, a flat 9×19mm single-column magazine semi-automatic pistol based on the earlier P-11 and P-3AT designs, was upon its release touted as the thinnest and lightest 9 mm pistol ever mass-produced. It was launched in 2006.

"High-Efficiency Rifles"

At the 2007

SHOT Show The SHOT Show , which is an acronym for "Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show", is an American annual trade show for the shooting sports, hunting, outdoor recreations and firearm manufacturing industries. The show is owned and sponsored by ...

held in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

, Kel-Tec introduced a series of new "High-Efficiency Rifles" called the

RFB RFB or RfB may refer to: * Radio Free Brooklyn, a community freeform Internet radio station in Brooklyn, NY * Redox Flow battery, a kind of battery that uses a liquid electrolyte that flows through tanks, unlike Dry Cells with solid electrolytes, ...

, standing for "Rifle, Forward-ejection, Bull-pup." The RFB is a

gas-operated Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to dispose of the spent ...

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger, and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. For comparison, a bolt-act ...

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 A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the Chamber (firearms), breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, ...

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 a major drawback of Bull-pup rifles, which is that they may not be readily usable by left-handed shooters. Distribution of the RFB rifles in the USA was scheduled for February 2009; as of 2013, it has been publicly released for sale. As a further Revolution of the Bullpup, the RDB (Rifle Downward-ejecting Bullpup) was released in late 2015.

Products

Kel-Tec breaks down their product line into three main categories: pistols, shotguns and rifles.

Pistols

* Kel-Tec PF9 * Kel-Tec P11 *Kel-Tec P15 *Kel-Tec P17 * Kel-Tec P32 * Kel-Tec P3AT *

Kel-Tec P50 The Kel-Tec P50 is a FN 5.7×28mm semi-automatic pistol designed in the United States by Kel-Tec in 2021. History In December 2020, an image of a magazine cover showcasing the P50 was leaked on KTOG, an online forum dedicated to Kel-Tec. The i ...

* Kel-Tec PLR16 * Kel-Tec PLR22 * Kel-Tec PMR30 * Kel-Tec CP33

Shotguns

Kel-Tec KSG The Kel-Tec KSG is a bullpup 12-gauge pump-action shotgun designed by Kel-Tec. It has two tube magazines which the user of the gun can switch between manually. Each tube holds up to seven 12-gauge shotshells or six shotshells. Kel-Tec has also ...

** Kel-Tec KSG-25 **Kel-Tec KSG Tactical **Kel-Tec KSG Compact *

Kel-Tec KS7 Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc., commonly referred to as Kel-Tec, is an American developer and manufacturer of firearms. Founded by George Kellgren in 1991 and based in Cocoa, Florida, the company has manufactured firearms since 1995, starting with ...

Rifles

Kel-Tec SUB-2000 The SUB-2000 is a pistol-caliber carbine manufactured by Kel-Tec CNC Industries of Cocoa, Florida, United States. The rifle is a blowback operated, semi-automatic firearm with its operating spring located in the tubular stock. The weapon feeds ...

*Kel-Tec SUB CQB *

Kel-Tec SU-16 SU-16 refers to a series of semi-automatic rifles and carbines manufactured by Kel-Tec CNC Industries, Inc. of Cocoa, Florida, referred to in Kel-Tec's marketing as "Sport Utility rifles". The SU-16 series is notable for its compact, lightweight ...

*Kel-Tec SU-22 *

Kel-Tec RFB The Kel-Tec RFB (Rifle, Forward-ejection, Bullpup) is a gas-operated bullpup type semi-automatic rifle, manufactured by Kel-Tec Industries of Florida. At the 2008 SHOT Show held from February 2 to 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada it was declared by Kel-Tec ...

*Kel-Tec CMR-30 *

Kel-Tec RDB __NOTOC__ The Kel-Tec RDB (Rifle, Downward-ejection, Bullpup) is a bullpup carbine offered in 5.56×45mm NATO semi-automatic rifle, manufactured by Kel-Tec Industries of Florida. It uses a rotary bolt with a spring loaded ejector and an extractor ...

Gallery

Image:Kel-Tec-P-11.jpg, P-11 9 mm with loaded magazine Image:Kel-Tec P-32 (Yaf).jpg, P-32 .32 ACP Image:KTP3AT.JPG, P-3AT .380 ACP Image:Kel-Tec PF-9.png, PF-9 9mm blued finish with gray grip File:Kel-Tec SUB-2000.jpg, SUB-2000 9 mm with 15-round

Beretta Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapon Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and militar ...

magazine File:Kel-Tec SUB-2000 folded.jpg, SUB-2000 9 mm, folded Image:Kel-Tec PLR-16.jpg, PLR-16 5.56×45mm with compact forend and Levang linear

recoil compensator A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted ...

Image:Su-16.jpg, SU-16A 5.56×45mm Image:Kel-Tec SU-16C fixed.jpg, SU-16C 5.56×45mm, with stock in fixed position Image:Kel-Tec SU-16C folded.jpg, SU-16C 5.56×45mm, with stock in folded position Image:SU16-PistolGrip-SideExtendedA.jpg, SU-16C 5.56×45mm, with after-market collapsible stock, pistol grip, and

telescopic sight A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a ''reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate po ...

File:Keltecrfb.jpg, RFB 7.62×51mm, with

holographic weapon sight A holographic weapon sight or holographic diffraction sight is a non- magnifying gunsight that allows the user to look through a glass optical window and see a holographic reticle image superimposed at a distance on the field of view. The hologram ...

and sling File:Ksg.jpg, KSG 12 Gauge

References

External links

Official Kel-Tec firearms siteHi-res photos of Keltec firearms
{{Kel-Tec firearms Companies based in Brevard County, Florida Manufacturing companies established in 1991 Firearm manufacturers of the United States Cocoa, Florida 1991 establishments in Florida