Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc., commonly referred to as KelTec, 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 semi-automatic pistols and expanding to rifles and then shotguns. Kel-Tec is a privately owned Florida corporation. George Kellgren, Kel-Tec owner and chief engineer, is a Swedish designer who also designed many earlier Husqvarna, Swedish Interdynamics AB (in Sweden), Intratec and Grendel 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 (9 mm); the P-32 pistol (32 ACP); the P-3AT pistol (.380 ACP); the P-40 (.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 5.56×45mm rifles known as the SU-16 series. November 2005 saw the introduction of the PLR-16, a long-range pistol design based on key design elements copied from the earlier SU-16 rifle design. In 2010 Kel Tec introduced the PMR30, a lightweight, full-size, .22 Magnum 30-shot semiautomatic pistol. 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 in 2006 touted as the thinnest and lightest 9 mm pistol ever mass-produced. The PF-9 was retired in 2022 and replaced with the P15.

"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." 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 a major drawback of bullpup 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

Shotguns

Rifles

Gallery