Kel-Tec P50 loading mag experience

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DaleA

New member
I have a friend around my own age (later 60s) who is getting into 'unconventional' firearms. Says he's always shot regular guns and figures if he doesn't do it now he never will.

Anyway, his first foray is the Kel-Tec P50, the 5.7x28 space-agey pistol that holds 50 rounds.

https://www.keltecweapons.com/firearm/pistols/p50/

I was around when he brought it home and helped him load up the two magazines that came with the gun.

Good Golly!!!

We got a little over half a box loaded between the two mags and gave up. About 15 rounds in each magazine. We had sore thumbs and broken thumb nails.

We've since gone online and found a guy that makes a loader for the magazines but it's $175.
https://bakertacticalplatform.com/store

There's also a YouTube video showing a guy using a thin ink pen to press rounds down into the magazine (which might help with the broken finger nails).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHbARoZpGME

He says after leaving the mags loaded for a couple of days they are easier to load (or maybe he's just getting the hang of doing it).

Still hasn't shot the thing and since I helped load the mags I'm angling to be asked along when he does take it out.

Overall I'd say if he wanted a new and different experience I'd say he's getting it.
 
While something like the Nest loader (22 rimfire) would be great, I bought one of these to save my fingers. My 5.7 range toy is a PS90 in the fitted case that holds five mags. There are few options currently for the 50rd mags.
 
Thanks bbqncigars! That $175 loader is just too absurd but $35 (I think) is well worth the wear and tear on the thumbs.

That magazine is hands down the hardest thing I've ever come up against. I really believed my buddy was doing something wrong or the directions were wrong or we were missing some critical point. Nope. They're just a bear. I can't possibly imagine someone doing this in the field unless they get easier to load as they get broken in.
 
Thanks redlightrich. For $3 a set I think we will give them a try. The video made loading the mags seem relatively painless. If we would have video taped our first try loading the mags I'm pretty sure we could have sold the video to Man Kave as the 'before' video with great effect.
 
Rewarded!

I got to shoot the space agey Kel-Tec P50 semi-auto handgun the other day! In short, it was the proverbial 'hoot to shoot'. Little recoil, very accurate and out of the box, with just a cursory cleaning, it gobbled up all the rounds we had painstakingly loaded into two magazines. (The gun comes with two mags.)

The owner first dialed in the integrated iron sights and me, with a case of 'old eyes', hadn't at first realized the gun even had sights. But there's an adjustable front sight pin that can be screwed up and down (kind of like an M16 front sight) and a notch rear sight that can be moved left or right if you have a 2.5mm allen wrench. There's allen head screws on the left and right sides of the gun, loosen one side then tighten the other to move the rear sight left or right. Kind of an odd system but it works fine as long as you have a 2.5mm allen wrench and remember to loosen the one side first before you try to tighten the screw on the other side.

Again, with a case of old eyes I had problems with the iron sights but the owner had brought along a cheap, ahem AFFORDABLE, red dot sight:
https://www.truglo.com/tru-brite-open-dot-sight/
and then I had no problems. With the low recoil of the gun I don't see why the TruGlo can't remain on the gun for good. Maybe, in the long run it might not be as rugged as other sights costing much more but, for myself, I couldn't have asked for a better sight.

A fun shooting session. I was amazed at how accurate the gun was and how easy it was to put rounds on the target. All in all about 70 rounds were put through the gun.

IMhO the pistol longs for a vertical fore grip but, as I was told, putting one on it would violate the law.

The Kel-Tec P50 is a goofy gun, expensive and with incredibly hard to load magazines but I surely did have fun. I'd volunteer to load mags for it for another chance to shoot it any time and there have been several helpful suggestions here on how to make loading those mags easier.
 
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