Interesting breakage

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Onward Allusion

New member
I've been shooting for a little over 30 years and never before have I broke a barrel. The pic is from a Kel Tec PF-9 that has around 600 rounds through it. Mostly shot range ammo. Maybe 100 or so rounds of JHP. Never +P.

I just went out and picked up a Beretta Pico to replace the P3AT or P32 that I carry in my back pocket.
 

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If a barrel were going to break, that's about where I would expect it to let go. That's where the stress of unlocking is focused.

That said, 600 rounds seems a bit on the low side for the barrel lug to break.

I'd be inclined to take some closeups of the actual fracture area and send them to Kel Tec. Maybe they will do something for you, maybe they won't, but that kind of failure is probably something they would like to know about.
 
KelTec will send you another barrel. I'm curious though - how old is the pistol?

I ask because I seem to remember a rash of lug breakages about a decade ago.
 
Being a known issue, it seems KelTec was content to manage the defect through attrition rather than recall and fix them all. That does not reflect a deep concern over quality.
 
My dad has a PF9 that I'm sure has no more than maybe 100 rounds through it and it hasn't been problematic, but it sure feels like a junky little pistol.
 
AgedWarrior said:
Being a known issue, it seems KelTec was content to manage the defect through attrition rather than recall and fix them all. That does not reflect a deep concern over quality.
Click to expand...

Pretty much what Sig did with the P365 - let the customer discover that the firing pins would break.

KelTec had no way to know which barrels went into which pistol - they're not serial numbered.

I'm not defending KelTec, but 600 rounds is a lot for this type of weapon, so I can see why a pistol built in 2012 runs fine until 2019. I don't know how KelTec manages their heat treatment, but I don't hear of lugs breaking anymore.
 
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I'll come to attack Kel Tec just fine.

PF-9 has 3 (I think) known major changes.
-One distinction in first gen (plastic mag release causing earlier failure to hold mag) vs beginning gen2 metal mag release.
After that Kel Tec updated the extractor screw was changed and feed ramp updates.

While cosmetics changed too, the extractor screw and feed ramp changes were fixes. No generation distinction.

Now my Ruger LCP gen1 and LCP gen2 which copied the P3AT? I know by the by dash in the gen1 vs no dash in gen2. And I'm not a huge fan of Ruger for this same lack of generation distinction. Who does identify major changes is Walther and Glock (ie M1, M2, Gen4, Gen5) right there for anyone to see.

Easy.
 
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Onward Allusion said:
Er...600 rounds is like 2 trips with my regular guns. It takes at least a couple of hundred rounds to test a gun to the point where I'm trusting my life to it.
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Do you have much range time with an 12oz empty(18oz fully loaded) 9mm pistol?

I've been shooting handguns for 40+ years. I own and shoot an S&W329pd 44mag. The KelTec PF-9 isn't something I shoot a box of ammo through every range trip - not a comfortable shooter IMO. But it is a comforting weapon as it is easy to have with you always. Shoot a little, carry a lot.
 
No, I would never shoot 300 rounds per trip with a PF9. Like I'd said, it takes a couple/few hundred rounds to trust bottom feeders, even Glocks. Another 300 on top of a gun that I've owned for 4 years is a drop in the bucket.

I used to be a die hard Kel Tec guy. I'd carried a P11 with a P32. These days I still carry a P3AT or P32 as backup to my Glock. However, the KT's will be replaced with the PICO as soon as I pick it up from my FFL.

I still own 3 P11's, 2 P32's, a P3AT, and this busted PF9. I've always believed that these guns were meant to be carried a lot and shot a little, but damn ~600 rounds??? Even 1,000 rounds is less than "shot a little", IMO. Dunno, maybe I do shoot a lot.
 
Yup. Purchased new. Never really carried it. So, it became a quasi range toy, though not pleasant to shoot.

Never ran right with target ammo due to OAL of rounds. Ran fine with JHP or truncated cone.
 
Isn't anyone else looking at that and seeing what is probably a cast steel barrel? some other form of metal that isn't machined from a billet? That has no machine marks and it has a strange mottling.

There is something wrong with that. seriously wrong.
 
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