I'm sure glad I did..."No Internet Research"...prior to purchasing my Keltec PMR-30 "Titanium" last week cause if I had?...chances are I'd of left the gun shop/range with the two pistols I went there with...my Ruger LCP .380 and my Ruger SP101 .357 mag...
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But I would've most certainly left the PMR-30 on it's perch in the case and my cash in my wallet and all because of all the bad social media press that Keltec's PMR-30 initially received and to a degree?...understandably so...and what I mean by that is....
Had I bought into the frenzied pricing that was the initial release of Keltecs PMR-30 and?....had I happily paid upwards of a cool grand because I was...
"Just Happy To Find One"?
Only to experience a long painful journey of issues including....
Key Holing
Non-Stop FTF's
Assy Pin Breakage
FTE's
and I paid $1,000 to experience this?...I'd be more than just "A Bit Miffed" as well...I might even get stupid enough to make the 100 mile drive north too Cocoa, FL to vent to someone where it counted but thankfully?...
As much as I wanted one of Keltecs full size, lightweight, .22mag auto pistols that stoked up an insane amount of 30rds per mag?...I found the demand driven street price exceedingly prohibitive to the point that I just wrote them off the top of my shortlist all these years and as a result?...also missed the inter-net's worth of of www bad press they were getting...as in?..I had no clue how bad they were..."WHEN"...they first came out...and now in hindsight?...and catching up with all things PMR and what went down?...(and until recently I missed it all)...I can't help but to sit here grinning like a cat...pleased that I missed the nightmare but thrilled it's over and that I now own a new and very refined version of Keltecs PMR-30.
So now that my personal gloating is over...let's get too the meat of the matter and the reason I sit here pecking this post out on a Sunday Morning and that reason is...
I'm Blown Away at Keltec's...
LEVEL OF PERSEVERANCE!
and here's why...
Being a lifelong gun buff, machinist and kitchen table gun-smith?...I feel like I can almost read the mind of the design engineer who fatefully elected to go with an initial barrel twist rate of 1:19...which would see velocities (of certain .22mag ammo) hot on the heels of FN's FiveseveN...but alas?...resulted in Key-Holing Issues. (that have since been corrected with a faster 1:11 twist ratio)
Then Keltec upgraded the Zytel Frame to resolve the slide-frame issues.
And somewhere in between?...They flat out...."Halted Production"...to remedy issues yet?....kept moving forward with their increasingly refined PMR-30.
THE FEED ISSUES: Where the .22WMR is concerned?...I could write a short novel on this topic...where Chapter 1 would review and remind everyone of the nightmarish scene encountered by "Desert Eagle" owners where they purchased some of the first auto pistols chambered for ammunition originally designed for revolvers (such as .357mag and .44mag) and were among the first to have suffered incurable rim-lock jamming out of their single stack mags and only then realized that there's a reason why every cartridge ever designed for an auto pistol has a "Rebated Rim"...and Chapter 2 would include how I've encountered feed issues even with my old .22 Mag Marlin Bolt Rifle where if I didn't pay close attention to cycling the bolt?...it wasn't uncommon for me to fold a few rounds in 1/2 on range outings because the .22WMR cartridge IS disproportionately long in length as compared too it's diameter and are like trying to automatically feed wooden match sticks out of a magazine and the fact that Keltec was bold enough take on this herculean task of getting an auto pistol to reliably gobble them up?...and release such as commercially available to John Q?...(where it's rumored some small percentage could somehow screw up a steel ball)...and do so successfully?...
KELTEC?...I SALUTE YOU!
and I take the time to write this because...had I read or viewed all the bad reviews and "spoof level" video's of folks throwing themselves a class "A" pity party at Keltecs expense?...I wouldn't even be here right now posting this...and my new PMR-30 Titanium would still be sitting in my local gun shops show case...but I happy to report it's not...
![]()
it's home here safe with me...with 1,000 rds of Hornady VMax and a speed-loader headed my way and after all the spoof videos and bad reports Keltec suffered from the initial release and highly disgruntled early model owners (yet soldiered on)?...I just felt Keltec not only deserved..."BUT EARNED"...
a few kind words.
Thanks for reading and L8R, Bill.
But I would've most certainly left the PMR-30 on it's perch in the case and my cash in my wallet and all because of all the bad social media press that Keltec's PMR-30 initially received and to a degree?...understandably so...and what I mean by that is....
Had I bought into the frenzied pricing that was the initial release of Keltecs PMR-30 and?....had I happily paid upwards of a cool grand because I was...
"Just Happy To Find One"?
Only to experience a long painful journey of issues including....
Key Holing
Non-Stop FTF's
Assy Pin Breakage
FTE's
and I paid $1,000 to experience this?...I'd be more than just "A Bit Miffed" as well...I might even get stupid enough to make the 100 mile drive north too Cocoa, FL to vent to someone where it counted but thankfully?...
As much as I wanted one of Keltecs full size, lightweight, .22mag auto pistols that stoked up an insane amount of 30rds per mag?...I found the demand driven street price exceedingly prohibitive to the point that I just wrote them off the top of my shortlist all these years and as a result?...also missed the inter-net's worth of of www bad press they were getting...as in?..I had no clue how bad they were..."WHEN"...they first came out...and now in hindsight?...and catching up with all things PMR and what went down?...(and until recently I missed it all)...I can't help but to sit here grinning like a cat...pleased that I missed the nightmare but thrilled it's over and that I now own a new and very refined version of Keltecs PMR-30.
So now that my personal gloating is over...let's get too the meat of the matter and the reason I sit here pecking this post out on a Sunday Morning and that reason is...
I'm Blown Away at Keltec's...
LEVEL OF PERSEVERANCE!
and here's why...
Being a lifelong gun buff, machinist and kitchen table gun-smith?...I feel like I can almost read the mind of the design engineer who fatefully elected to go with an initial barrel twist rate of 1:19...which would see velocities (of certain .22mag ammo) hot on the heels of FN's FiveseveN...but alas?...resulted in Key-Holing Issues. (that have since been corrected with a faster 1:11 twist ratio)
Then Keltec upgraded the Zytel Frame to resolve the slide-frame issues.
And somewhere in between?...They flat out...."Halted Production"...to remedy issues yet?....kept moving forward with their increasingly refined PMR-30.
THE FEED ISSUES: Where the .22WMR is concerned?...I could write a short novel on this topic...where Chapter 1 would review and remind everyone of the nightmarish scene encountered by "Desert Eagle" owners where they purchased some of the first auto pistols chambered for ammunition originally designed for revolvers (such as .357mag and .44mag) and were among the first to have suffered incurable rim-lock jamming out of their single stack mags and only then realized that there's a reason why every cartridge ever designed for an auto pistol has a "Rebated Rim"...and Chapter 2 would include how I've encountered feed issues even with my old .22 Mag Marlin Bolt Rifle where if I didn't pay close attention to cycling the bolt?...it wasn't uncommon for me to fold a few rounds in 1/2 on range outings because the .22WMR cartridge IS disproportionately long in length as compared too it's diameter and are like trying to automatically feed wooden match sticks out of a magazine and the fact that Keltec was bold enough take on this herculean task of getting an auto pistol to reliably gobble them up?...and release such as commercially available to John Q?...(where it's rumored some small percentage could somehow screw up a steel ball)...and do so successfully?...
KELTEC?...I SALUTE YOU!
and I take the time to write this because...had I read or viewed all the bad reviews and "spoof level" video's of folks throwing themselves a class "A" pity party at Keltecs expense?...I wouldn't even be here right now posting this...and my new PMR-30 Titanium would still be sitting in my local gun shops show case...but I happy to report it's not...
it's home here safe with me...with 1,000 rds of Hornady VMax and a speed-loader headed my way and after all the spoof videos and bad reports Keltec suffered from the initial release and highly disgruntled early model owners (yet soldiered on)?...I just felt Keltec not only deserved..."BUT EARNED"...
a few kind words.
Thanks for reading and L8R, Bill.
