[Pistolkitty]

A couple of months ago I received my dads pmr 30. He bought it new august of 2016 and it was his preferred carry. Unfortunately I never got to talk about it or fire it with him before he passed. I took it to the range last week and fired 100 rounds of cci 40 grain maxi mag- ran into a few glitches that didn't concern me much- until I found this forum and have been reading all the horror stories on here the last 2 hours, lol.
First mag I rapid fired all 30 rounds, no problem. Put in the second mag and after a few rounds I ran into ftf/fte. I cleared it, slowed down a little and continued to fire. Happened 1 more time with that mag before I emptied it.
Now I am not remotely a gun expert at all, but this pistol packing mama can hold her own. But I assumed it was a heat thing, or maybe a spring tension thing. I reloaded my mags and let the gun sit and cool while I fired other pistols for a while. When I returned to the pmr 30, first mag, same problem- 3 or 4 of 30 rounds ftf/fte. Second mag only had ten rounds in it and I fired those off as fast as I could, with no problems. Now typing this out, could it be the mag? Maybe a spring tension thing? I didn't have the foresight at the time to pay attention to which mag it happened with or if it indeed happened on the same mag. And since I was firing other pistols that day idk if those mags stayed in the same order. Maybe next trip to range, pay more attention to what happens with each mag? That is as soon as I can budget in more ammo, lol.
This problem seems totally miniscule compared to the issues I've been reading about in this forum, but it seems that this gun has problems that are all over the board.
Also, I'm lost on the serial numbers. I know the pistol was purchased new in 2016 because dad usually kept the receipts, manuals, etc with the case, so I've got that, but how can I tell when this was manufactured? Serial starts with WW. I noticed a large portion of the posts with serious problems with this model were from 2011 or so. If mine is a much newer manufacture and it's still have ftf/fte problems after they have supposedly worked out the kinks.... Idk.

Any thoughts?

That hopefully does not include sending it back to kel-tec? Because tbh, that's not likely. It will end up sitting in my gun safe. Which is sad, because when functioning, this 30 round flame thrower is some of the most fun I've had at the range!

 

[Toakey45036]

Kitty, Sorry to hear about your Dad.

I don't own a PMR 30 but I've certainly had a lot of guns that experienced repeated failures of one kind or another. To help trouble shoot problems with pistols I always mark the magazines. I either use the point of my knife to scratch a "I" or "II" in the base plate of the mag, or use fingernail polish. I also keep a range record of ammo used, rounds fired (in each mag) and failures experienced. After each range trip I enter this data into a spreadsheet and use it to help determine if the problem is related to a particular mag, or ammo. Another thing I've done with a bad acting gun is do a fluff and buff. There are usually videos available for "How To". Lastly, don't be hesitant to send it back. It has usually been easy to deal with customer service groups and I've almost always been pleased with the results.

 

[poppo]

I took it to the range last week and fired 100 rounds of cci 40 grain maxi mag...
....
Any thoughts?

Try a different brand of ammo. Since this thread below, I have shot probably 12 rounds of the Armscor and Hornady and have had zero failures. I believe that the minor work I did on the barrel chamber also has helped.

https://www.thektog.org/threads/first-real-range-report-mixed-results.267738/

Also, something I noted in a different thread, is if you have a nose up feed problem, best to drop the mag and remove the next round too, because most likely it will have a big dent in it from the round that nosed up. This can cause a cascade effect of continued failures because that next dented round may not feed properly either.

 

[Pistolkitty]

That totally makes sense, it was nose up feed after a failure to eject.
Thanks guys.

I certainly need to clean it before I do anything else. Honestly I don't have a lot of experience field stripping and cleaning semi autos- just shooting them. I have more revolvers and long guns than anything else and this is my first time owning anything quite like this. But I've been practicing on my browning .25 acp- much less intimidating to field strip. But it's kind of a crap little gun and not near as fun to shoot.

I will hit the sales and build up a stock of different ammo. Even reading all the results here with different types of ammo, I am hesitant because of what the manual says about it. Although I don't think I need to be concerned about the warranty stuff because as I'm not the original purchaser it's likely moot.

 

[Pistolkitty]

Another question- please forgive my ignorance- you guys all know so much! This is my first plastic gun that doesn't shoot bb's, lol. It says in the manual to make sure any solvents used won't damage the polymer- do I need to get something other than the hoppes I use on everything else, or is that okay?

 

[poppo]

I use Hoppes without issue. Not just the PMR-30, but on other polymer framed guns too.

 

[Pistolkitty]

Thank you!

 

[wanderson]

Best advice I can give is to try different brands of ammo and keep it clean, doesn't take much crud to create problems and misfire ammo is dirty by nature.

There are several brands of self defense ammo that use fast burning powder that seem to run cleaner. Most .22wmr is designed for rifle length barrels and will dump a lot of unburned powder behind. I stopped using Armscor cause it seemed to leave more unburned powder than other brands. CCI seems to work best for mine. Also keep track of your bullet weight, Kel Tec recommends 40 grain ammo although it's not as common as 30 grain.

Also make sure you're loading the mags correctly, it's easy to do it wrong since it's a rimmed cartridge in a double stack mag. I use a speed loader specifically made for the pmr 30. Not sure who makes it, got it from Amazon, made of white plastic. They make a 'basic' and 'enhanced' version, I have the enhanced. Keeps me from 'misloading' my mags.

 

[poppo]

I stopped using Armscor cause it seemed to leave more unburned powder than other brands.

I do not notice that much more unburnt power, and not really enough to warrant spending more for other ammo. I have had zero issues with Armscor (USA made).

 

[Pistolkitty]

I have not seen admire at any of my local stores. I checked midwayUSA and they didn't carry it. I checked their website and it looks as though the .22 mag rimfire ammo they have is made in the Philippines. Regardless, they're about $.10 more per round than cci, so I'm not rushing to try it. I'll keep watching the sales locally.

 

[poppo]

Good price here with no tax and free shipping.

http://www.surplusammo.com/22-magnum-wmr-ammo/

 

[Pistolkitty]

Great price!

 

[joestorm]

It's a good pistol & I haven't had any problem with mine. That being said, a rimfire semi would be way down on my list of carry pistols.

Also check the barrel. If it's fluted, then you have an older model and Keltec should replace some parts for you.

Loading mag can be tricky. I never load more than 25 rounds in a mag and there is a pmr30 mag loader on amazon that works well. Don't forget to tap the back of the mag every 4 or 5 rounds as well.

 

[Pistolkitty]

I don't have the fluted barrel, so that's good. I'm going to get that mag loader as well as try some different ammo. I do kind of feel like if you have a 30 round mag, you should be able the put 30 rounds in it though...

 

[joestorm]

I do kind of feel like if you have a 30 round mag, you should be able the put 30 rounds in it though...

Personally, and I'm sure opinions vary, I don't like to fully compress the springs. Just remember that you're firing rimfire and they're not as robust as centerfire shells. A full 30 puts a lot of crushing power on those thin cases.

Palmetto State Armory often has .22 WMR on sale. Plus they usually have a deal on their "on sale" ammo that if you buy 10 or more boxes you get free shipping.

 

[Pistolkitty]

Last range trip, ran another couple 100 rounds through it. This time I didn't have any failure to eject issues, and no nose up failure to feed issues, but I did have several failure to feeds, where I had to manually pull the slide back and chamber the next round. I would say 3 or so times per magazine. So, still had issues, but better than previous range trip. I used the same ammo- cci 40 grain maxi mag- because I'm sitting on a fair amount of it and am in the middle of house hunting now so pinching pennies at the moment and buying much ammo is not in the budget at present. I stripped and completely cleaned and oiled the gun both before and after- the guy behind the counter at the range was sure my problem was due to a dirty gun, but it was absolutely NOT. In fact, when I stripped it the next day I was surprised at how clean it still was after firing a couple hundred rounds. The only thing I did differently this time was make sure I was loading the mags exactly the way the owners manual says to, and I rapid fired all 4 mags one after the other, without allowing any resting time, other than the time it took to reload (just have 2 mags.) So at this time I guess I will wait and get some different ammo when I can and see what happens then.

 

[poppo]

...but I did have several failure to feeds, where I had to manually pull the slide back and chamber the next round.

I had that problem with one type of ammo not cycling the slide enough to strip the next round. While CCI is usually good stuff, keep in mind that most .22 WMR is designed for rifles and have burn rates best suited for longer barrels. So some higher velocity rounds do poorly in short barrels.

While lubing is important, don't overlube either as it can create a hydraulic effect and slow the slide also causing short stroking of the slide. Since you have more of the same ammo, I would just keep doing what you are doing and it should also break in a bit. Sounds like overall it is doing better.