[Dickwholliday]

I don’t own a 7 yet but I do own an RDB..... I’m excited about this Gun and as soon as the reports get better I’m sure I’ll own one......

When I get any pump shotgun and I’ve done it with just about all the major brands..... I give it what I call the Blackhawk Down treatment......

1.... fill the action full of your favorite lubricant .....

2.....Put on the movie....

3..... for every shot fired in the movie you pump and dry fire the shotgun 10 times......

4..... add more oil as needed

By the end of the movie it will be broken in or wii fallen all to pieces ....

This has worked for me for years..... d i c k

 

[CoronetRTguy]

Interesting. Keep us posted. I wonder how slick the action is right out of the box.

 

[Sam The Eagle]

Interesting. Keep us posted. I wonder how slick the action is right out of the box.

I like the original poster's philosophy, as a design that cannot handle prolonged dry firing is either suffering from bad materials / manufacturing and/or bad design for self-defense and mil use.

Period.

For decades people have adopted this fact of not being able to dry fire as the law of physics and people who do that being idiots.

I will state that it is the opposite and the reasons should be very obvious. If they are not, please restraint yourself from giving people advise when they are looking for a self-defense tool...

That said, the action is quite good straight out of the box, but do not expect the heavy, solid action of a Rem 870.

Referring to my earlier comment, every tool is its own beast and KS7 is not an exception; however, in its own way it is slick, but in a light way as it is a tool that weighs about the same as an overweight Hummingbird... that's capable of pooping 5/8oz payloads at or faster than 1,200fps... It shouldn't even be compared to KSG for that matter, as every tool has its own unique purpose and characteristics.

End statement: you should be satisfied with the action straight out of the box. It might get ever better with use, but I'll save that comment for later as I have only 200 minis and 100 2 3/4" shells through mine after the complete overhaul at Kel Tec warranty repair.

 

[CoronetRTguy]

I can't wait to get mine. I feel this shotgun will fill the role of home defense nicely. Its shorter. It fits the role of where the KSG lost me. The KSG is bigger and heavier than I wanted to have in a home defense shotgun. The KS7 is right there with the 870's and 500's. It fits that role and I think it will fit it much better. Its a home run from Kel-Tec.

 

[Sam The Eagle]

I can't wait to get mine. I feel this shotgun will fill the role of home defense nicely. Its shorter. It fits the role of where the KSG lost me. The KSG is bigger and heavier than I wanted to have in a home defense shotgun. The KS7 is right there with the 870's and 500's. It fits that role and I think it will fit it much better. Its a home run from Kel-Tec.

I couldn't agree more.

I have both 500A and Rem 870, but maneuvering with top-folding stock 500, even, is a chore w/o shouldering as an option. Also, the 500 is still longer than KS7 and 870 is a big stick. I don't want to use full sized 12g, even with low recoil loads, in the house.

All roads lead to KS7 in my books as minis were somewhat unreliable in KSG. I have not tested KS7 in more unconventional shooting stances and see if the feeding is affected or not, so that verdict is still out.

BUT the 300 shells I shot last weekend gave me a good baseline for sure and trust that when needed, it'll go bang.

 

[CoronetRTguy]

I couldn't agree more.

I have both 500A and Rem 870, but maneuvering with top-folding stock 500, even, is a chore w/o shouldering as an option. Also, the 500 is still longer than KS7 and 870 is a big stick. I don't want to use full sized 12g, even with low recoil loads, in the house.

All roads lead to KS7 in my books as minis were somewhat unreliable in KSG. I have not tested KS7 in more unconventional shooting stances and see if the feeding is affected or not, so that verdict is still out.

BUT the 300 shells I shot last weekend gave me a good baseline for sure and trust that when needed, it'll go bang.

I thought the KSG was one of the few that didn't have issues with the minis. The KS7 with the minis and being able to chamber 2 1/2 and 3" shells, that's a home run. That is a combination that most other shotguns fail at.

I wonder how many minis can be mixed into the tube with other shells? Three mini shells and five regular shells? It would be interesting to know that one.

 

[Sam The Eagle]

I thought the KSG was one of the few that didn't have issues with the minis. The KS7 with the minis and being able to chamber 2 1/2 and 3" shells, that's a home run. That is a combination that most other shotguns fail at.

I wonder how many minis can be mixed into the tube with other shells? Three mini shells and five regular shells? It would be interesting to know that one.

The total space is pretty close to 21", as minis are 1.75" each and I get almost exactly 12 in there with negligible amount of slack left. You'll notice that you can get almost 8 2 3/4" shells in the tube, but about an inch sticks out. So there is a lot of slack (~1.75") with seven 2 3/4" shells. I need to actually try and top off the tube with one mini after putting in seven 2 3/4" shells...

Anyway, 5 x 2.75" = 13.75" and 3 x 1.75" = 5.25" for a total 19", so in theory you should get 5 x 2 3/4" and 4 x 1 3/4" for total of 20.75". I'll try it when I get home tonight.

 

[CoronetRTguy]

The total space is pretty close to 21", as minis are 1.75" each and I get almost exactly 12 in there with negligible amount of slack left. You'll notice that you can get almost 8 2 3/4" shells in the tube, but about an inch sticks out. So there is a lot of slack (~1.75") with seven 2 3/4" shells. I need to actually try and top off the tube with one mini after putting in seven 2 3/4" shells...

Anyway, 5 x 2.75" = 13.75" and 3 x 1.75" = 5.25" for a total 19", so in theory you should get 5 x 2 3/4" and 4 x 1 3/4" for total of 20.75". I'll try it when I get home tonight.

Sounds good. Keep us posted. It would be interesting to see how it can be mixed with different sizes.

 

[luminaughty]

The total space is pretty close to 21", as minis are 1.75" each and I get almost exactly 12 in there with negligible amount of slack left. You'll notice that you can get almost 8 2 3/4" shells in the tube, but about an inch sticks out. So there is a lot of slack (~1.75") with seven 2 3/4" shells. I need to actually try and top off the tube with one mini after putting in seven 2 3/4" shells...

Anyway, 5 x 2.75" = 13.75" and 3 x 1.75" = 5.25" for a total 19", so in theory you should get 5 x 2 3/4" and 4 x 1 3/4" for total of 20.75". I'll try it when I get home tonight.

Not all 2 3/4" shells are the same length so the capacity may vary depending on brand and type. My Monarch 2 3/4" 00 buck is much longer than the Winchester 2 3/4" 00 buck while my Federal 2 3/4" foster slugs are even shorter than the Winchester. A thread that compares different brands and loads of 2 3/4" shells may be interesting to start.

 

[dfariswheel]

Simply using a gun will smooth the action out by wearing in parts and reducing machine marks or rough surfaces.
A SMART "fluff & buff" will speed that up significantly.
The trick is doing it correctly so as not to cause improper wear that can take years of service life off or cause damage.

There's directions in the Fluff & Buff/Tech Works section on the proper way to do a KS7 fluff & buff and a link to a tutorial on exactly what "polishing" gun parts actually is, plus the tools to do it correctly.

The Kel-Tec shotguns will "usually" function with the mini shells, but not ALL of them will do so reliably.
Most guns work well with them, some will have irregular stoppages, and some just won't work with them at all.
This is why you need to do enough actual test firing to determine whether an individual gun is reliable or can't be fully trusted.
How much actual shooting depends on how lucky do you feel, and of course these days, on how much ammo you can get.

In a properly operating shotgun mixing lengths of shells in the magazine should have no effect on reliable feed cycling.
The length of the shell has no effect on staging and feed timing from the magazine, but short shells may not reliably feed into the chamber.
If a specific gun will reliably feed mini shells, mixing them in the magazine with standard length shells should not cause unreliable operation since the length of the shell has no affect on this part of the cycle.

One factor with reliability is that if a gun requires being operated in "just the right way" in order to work correctly, it's not working properly.
If it requires being held in a specific way, or having the action operated in a certain way, the gun is not to be trusted.
In a bad situation failing to operate it in a particular way will result in failures under stress.

 

[Charlie Bravo]

I got 12 mini's or 7 "2 3/4" shells in the tube. As mentioned, not all shells are alike. Some are just long enough to make last shell just sneak in, with seemingly little wiggle room (spring under max compression).

Crimped vs rolled front edge makes a slight difference. All aligned at bottom: crimped "vintage" SuperSpeed #8 on left vs new rolled.

Even mini's can have a slight variance that may make 12th shell a squeeze. I read 11 was the limit, then someone posted 12 loaded and I went back and squeezed #12 in. YMMV.

To address how many of mixed will vary entirely on the mix.
12 x 1.75" = 21.00"
7 x 2.75" = 19.25"

so 1 mini + 7 2-3/4 = 1.75" + 19.25" = 21.0" should fit
or 7 minis + 3 2-3/4 = 12.25" + 8.25" = 20.5" should fit
or 6 minis + 4 2-3/4 = 10.50" + 11.00" = 21.5" probably not going to fit

but I'm not sure why you would load any shotgun with a mix except torture test or range day which kind of boils down to a torture test. I'd have a hard time in a HD fight tracking what was chambered. I have read some have 1st round as a special load and all follow up shots of a different load. My KS7 doesn't cycle mini's consistantly. So maybe chamber mini slug and load normal 2 3/4 #4 or #00 in tube for follow up. But I am not that elite to bother.

I bought KS7 hoping mini's would work and am bummed they don't enough to bother, but is great with 2 3/4s and is setup that way for HD.

 

[Charlie Bravo]

Ok call me nerdy, but I just happen have some shells and a ruler and scale. Despite my math above, picture worth 1000 math equations. To wit:

You can see the 12 mini's are almost same length as 7 Fiocchi shells which are a tight fit in tube.

furthermore, full tube +1 in chamber yields:
Winchester #8 ……………. 10.1oz
Fiocchi #00 …..……………. 11.8oz
Sellier&Bellot #00 ………. 12.5oz
Aguila Mini #1/#4 Buck .. 13.2oz
Aguila Mini Slugs ……….. 15.6oz (not pictured, assumes 12 fit in tube, not verified)
Federal Shorty's #8 ……. 18.2oz (not pictured, assumes 12 fit in tube, not verified)

It is strange that a Fed Shorty at 1.4oz is heavier by a lot than 2-3/4" Winchester SuperSpeed #8 (although these are vintage... as in probably 80's!)
So to keep apples to apples (ignoring target shooting #8 loads) there is just a slight weight penalty to carry more minis and get 5 more shots.