New Kel-Tec P-11

D

Doug (PA)

Inactive
I picked up a Kel-Tec P-11 to go with my P-32 today. I'm very pleased with the P-32 and decided to try the P-11. I would appreciate hearing any opinions concerning the P-11. From what I've read on the forums, it doesn't sound too out of the ordinary to find a P-11 with some problems, but people sound happy with them overall. I hope I got one of the good ones. My serial # is in the 107XXX. I had some problems logging on today and had to re-register today. My old user name was Doug S. Thanks for any info.
 
I recently bought one used, in the 86XXX range. Been good so far.

Mechanical accuracy has been good. That is, when I use a rest and am very careful, I can get good groups. When I shoot offhand and rapid, I'm not so good because I'm used to my BHP's nice single-action trigger. But I see the groups tightening up as I learn to shoot double action. Some kind soul helped me out when he said "just pull the target toward you with your finger..."

Reliability has been perfect. About 10 kinds of ammo and no jams.

Best of all is ease of carry. It is a really nice carry pistol. Both comforting and comfortable.

Visit www.ktog.org

Many nice suggestions and reviews on accessories, holsters, ammo selection, maintenance tips, improving the trigger pull, etc.
 
You'll find the trigger is different from your P-32, longer and a bit heavier. Think of it as a revolver trigger. Grease the slide rails and hammer / slide interface and oil everywhere else.
Some find that the trigger shoe accessory helps, I do, but some don't like it. I also use the grip extender.
You might want to use a dremel or 400 grit sandpaper on the feedramp, hammer / slide interface & slide rails to accelerate the break-in process.
Mine has been 100% reliable. Good Luck!
 
I don't own one, but I've heard more than once that they're cheap plastic toys and make better paperweights. This is hearsay however.........
 
I got a P -11 and it is the most potent package availabe FOR THE WEIGHT.

It is 23 ounces fully loaded in holster. There are several competitors in this class, but most are 3 to 4 ounces heavier and/or don't have 10 +1 capacity. In my thinking, if I have to give up 3 to 4 ounces to shoot Kahr or Taurus Millenium, then I might as well jump to Glock 19 which has 15 +1 at 30 ounces fully loaded in holster.

The P-11 trigger is truly weird, but I found that I got used to it, and actually value the long heavy trigger as extra safety margin in piece that spends a lot of time close to my bod.

The only thing that really bothers me is that it is an easy trigger to short-stroke on followup shots, but I think I've trained through that.

Some have early functioning problems, but keep after them and Kel-Tec will make it good.
 
"The P-11 trigger is truly weird,"

I don't think it's weird...just more like a double-action revolver than the typical pistol.

The trigger shoe helps a lot; exactly doubles the width of the trigger and spreads the pressure on your finger...get the smooth version.:cool:
 
I have a P11 that works great. I'm very happy with it. It does have a long, heavy trigger pull, but I'm willing to live with it in order to get 11 rounds of 9mm in such a light and small package. I think it beats the Taurus and Kahr competition at a considerably lower price. I think the Taurus trigger is noticably worse than the Kel-tec. The Kahr seems like a little nicer gun with probably a better trigger pull, but I think designing it as a single-stack (lower capacity) magazine, while still being larger and heavier than the Kel-tec was dumb. Kel-tec designed a short, thin grip that still accomodates a 10-round magazine.

Doug
 
P11 does have a better magazine than Kahr. However, I upgraded to P9 from P11 and haven't looked back. The improvement in accuracy, thinness, reliability were impressive.
 
The flip side of Oleg's post is this...

I bought two stainless P-11s some time back, serial number on the first is under 9,000 and over 30,000 on the second.

I also bought three different Kahrs: an E9, a K9 Elite, and a P9.

Bottom line, I've still got both Kel-Tecs but the Kahrs are long gone. {shrug}

The Kahrs are thinner than the Kel-Tec, they have different trigger pulls (not necesarily better - the E9's was horrible), and they're about 2.3 times the price to boot (with magazines that are 1.5 times more). I wasn't any more accurate with the Kahr's than I am with the Kel-Tecs either, so...
 
I took the P-11 out today and put 100 rounds of Winchester White Box through it. I'm pretty satisfied overall. The trigger seemed fine, very much like a revolver. It was much nicer than the trigger on my Taurus PT-111 which I no longer own. It seemed pretty accurate. Functioning was 100% on the first box of 50. On the second box there were 4 or 5 failures. All of these happened when I purposely held the gun very loose. It never happened when I held the gun firmly. Each time I was able to pull back slightly on the slide and let go and it would push the round in without a problem. Does this sound odd? Has anyone else noticed any sensitivity to limpwristing with the P-11? Appreciate the responses.
 
At the risk of passing on second hand info, I saw another post where somebody said that the White Winchester stuff is a noticeably longer bullet, and poster said shorter bullets fed fine.

Others said they fed White Winchester fine.

I do believe that the P-11 has a significantly greater chance of short-stroking followup shots, but i think is is overall best CCW out there at the moment. LIGHTWEIGHT!!!!!
 
The slide guide isn't so great. It's plastic and after a while it tends to score and this makes the gun jam every 50 shots or so. I bought a metal replacement guide and was very disappointed to find that it doesn't work at all -- jams almost every time. Replaced the plastic guide.

Overall, the lightest 9X19 around and pretty accurate. Big recoil because of light weight and short barrel, but a good carry weapon.

Oh, yes. Once the slid lock pin jumped-out while I was shooting and the spring released the slide and barrel -- parts flew eveywhere. But Kel-Tec sent me a new lock pin and it didn't happen again.
 
I just put 50 more rounds through the Kel-Tec making sure that I held the gun firmly. I still had one failure though. I guess I'm off to visit the Kel-Tec fluff and buff site. I must admit that this irritates me just a little.
 
Your experience isn't out of the ordinary considering the problems at your first session happened when you deliberately held the gun very loosely. You're really looking at one problem in the first 150 rounds.
Lightweight & small guns need to be held firmly. The Seecamp owners manual cautions against limpwristing, it's not just a Kel-Tec thing.
Give your gun a good cleaning & polish the feedramp, lightly grease the hammer/slide interface and slide rails. You can also polish the hammer / slide interface and slide rails if you want to.
 
Well I cleaned and lubed my P-11 as directed according to the Golden Loki website. I then polished the feed ramp with 400 grit sandpaper. Today I went to the range and put 100 rounds of Reminton UMC through this gun without any problems whatsoever. I really like this pistol. I don't know if it was polishing the feedramp or switching ammo, but the gun was 100% reliable. If this keeps up I think I have another Kel-Tec keeper. I may have to try some hollowpoints soon. Again thanks for all the responses.
 
Doug, another good bit of fluff and buff is to polish the chamber walls. Be gentle! Some Kel-Tecs have failures to extract out of the box, that cures it.
 
Doug S...

I've owned Kel-Tecs and their ancestors for nearly ten years.

One thing they don't tolerate very well is ammo that is weak to moderate in recoil impulse...they just like to have a little hotter round to work the slide properly in such a really light pistol.

If yours is eating UMC without a problem, you're most likely going to have no further trouble with it. Enjoy...they are great pistols for the money.
 
I had a P-11 for almost two years and put about 1500 rounds thru it. I had a couple of extraction problems in the first 50 or so but it smoothed out and I carried it almost every day. I gave it to a friend who was in need of a home defense gun (had a Star PD .45 which really had some teeth and his wife couldn't shoot it).

Wish I still had it but I don't regret helping another family.
 
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