| Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc. | |
| Type: | Private |
| Industry: | Firearms |
| Founder: | George Kellgren |
| Hq Location City: | Cocoa, Florida |
| Hq Location Country: | United States |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Key People: | George Kellgren (President) |
| Products: | Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns |
| Homepage: | www.keltecweapons.com |
Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc., commonly referred to as Kel-Tec, is an American developer and manufacturer of firearms. Founded by George Kellgren in 1991 and based in Cocoa, Florida, the company has manufactured firearms since 1995, starting with semi-automatic pistols[1] and expanding to rifles and then shotguns. Kel-Tec is a privately owned Florida corporation. George Kellgren, Kel-Tec owner and chief engineer, is a Swedish designer who also designed many earlier Husqvarna, Swedish Interdynamics AB (in Sweden), Intratec and Grendel brand firearms. The company has been developing and manufacturing a wide variety of firearms, ranging from semi-automatic handguns, i.e. pistols, to semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
Weapons manufactured by Kel-Tec include the P-11 pistol (9 mm); the P-32 pistol (32 ACP); the P-3AT pistol (.380 ACP); the P-40 (.40 S&W)(discontinued); the SUB-9 and the later SUB-2000, both semi-automatic pistol caliber carbines that fold for storage. In addition, the company offers a family of 5.56×45mm rifles known as the SU-16 series.
November 2005 saw the introduction of the PLR-16, a long-range pistol design based on key design elements copied from the earlier SU-16 rifle design.
A new pistol design from Kel Tec in 2010, is a light weight, full-size, .22 Magnum 30 shot semiautomatic pistol, the PMR30.[2] In 2016, Kel-Tec introduced the CMR-30 carbine, based on the PMR30.[3]
The PF-9, a flat 9×19mm single-column magazine semi-automatic pistol based on the earlier P-11 and P-3AT designs, was upon its release touted as the thinnest and lightest 9 mm pistol ever mass-produced.[4] It was launched in 2006. The PF-9 was retired in 2022 and replaced with the P15.[5]
At the 2007 SHOT Show held in Orlando, Florida, Kel-Tec introduced a series of new "High-Efficiency Rifles" called the RFB, standing for "Rifle, Forward-ejection, Bull-pup."[6] The RFB is a gas-operated semi-automatic rifle with tilting breech block locking mechanism, loads the 7.62×51 NATO cartridge and uses metric FAL magazines; the RFB "family" consists in a series of bullpup rifles with three barrel lengths (18" barrel carbine, 24" sporter and 32" target versions), and a patented forward-ejection system via a tube placed over the barrel that ejects the spent case forwards, over the handguard of the rifle. This eliminates a major drawback of bullpup rifles, which is that they may not be readily usable by left-handed shooters.[7] Distribution of the RFB rifles in the USA was scheduled for February 2009; as of 2013, it has been publicly released for sale. As a further Revolution of the Bullpup, the RDB (Rifle Downward-ejecting Bullpup) was released in late 2015.[8]
Kel-Tec breaks down their product line into three main categories: pistols, shotguns and rifles.[9]