Monday, August 30, 2010

PMR-30: even more Squee!

The Keltec PMR-30 prototype has been modified since I last got to play with it in Tennessee - so I was really looking forward to trying it out at Blogorado. This gun is the one and only that changed my mind from a distaste and dislike of handguns to really having fun shooting. It's light enough that I can hold it up for as long as I want to, despite my injuries. Unlike most light guns, including a 38 snubby that I would like to take a plasma arc to, the PMR30 has very little recoil, and even I have no problem firing it. Despite its capacity, the grip is comfortably thin for my small hands, well-textured for grip without cutting into my skin, and I don't have to cut my fingernails off to fire it without hurting myself. This doesn't mean it's just for small-hand people; the people out firing on the Colorado plains included a large rancher who had just as much fun firing it as I did. I intend to carry this gun for self-defense from people; he was contemplating dropping coyotes, snakes, and prairie dogs.

It's now even better - instead of trying to get enough momentum in a damaged shoulder to rack the slide, it now has a half-cock position for the hammer that allows racking it in two motions instead of one, dividing the effort in half. The pistol also locks back on an empty magazine, so you don't have to rack it after a magazine change! This means very little racking the slide, which is awesome - I can go shoot, change the clip, and shoot more without grunting or whimpering, or having to go find somebody else!

I swear they did something to the slide, as well. When I was shooting some really old low-budget ammo and got an incredibly unsurprising failure to fire, pulling the slide back to clear the chamber was as easy as pulling a knife out of a knife block in the kitchen.

In short, I love this little gun. It's the only one I've handled that's both functional and fun for me!

Unfortunately, it's only going to available in limited quantities until they iron out some production issues - see Cheaper Than Dirt's blog post on that. Still, I look forward to getting one for concealed carry!

3 comments:

  1. Very cool!

    (And I imagine a fair sight cheaper to practice with to. :p )

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  2. I would have loved to fire it, but "somebody" kept monopolizing it... Just sayin... :-)

    Glad you are getting more comfortable with it, and hope you will have one of your own soon!

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  3. Hey, I shared! Our nearly-first-time shooter got to play with it, and TD, and FarmDad, and... uh...

    Well, not like I was firing that much inbetween hiding in the shade and trying to drink my own body weight in water!

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