Not long ago I did a review on the .22 Long Rifle versus the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire or WMR for self-defense. It was very important to point out that the comparison was only based on pistols for that review. The .22 WMR (.22 Mag) was not designed to be a pistol and you could see that in the review – it was very evident when we looked at the ballistics. That got me thinking that I need to get a .22 Mag rifle to review and then review it for a potential self-defense gun.
I saw an ad for KelTec CMR30 and as far as self-defense this really was, in my opinion, the perfect gun for this review. It is small, it’s compact, and we have the ability to extend out so we have a full rifle. And it is a rifle – we have a 16-inch barrel. We also have it small and compact and because it’s a rifle we get to put our vertical grip on it. Anyway, this is what I wanted to do the review on. Before I get to that review let’s just check out and do a review on the CMR30 and see if it’s even worthy of consideration for a self-defense gun. For that, we want solid reliability, function, accuracy, and performance. I’m going to put a big emphasis on reliability. Rimfire it’s kind of notorious. A lot of people can have issues. So, how’s this going to hold up?
Let’s just put the CMR30 to the test.
I’m Drew Case, and welcome to Beyond Seclusion where I only give you my honest opinion and it always is what it is. A lot of you are going to come to this review with an opinion on KelTec already. Many are fans, many are not, but let’s just take the CMR30 as it is. Let’s be objective and, as I say, it is what it is. Regardless of prior knowledge, it is an interesting gun that is for sure.
Take a look at the Specs and Tech before we get going.
KelTec CMR30 Specs & Tech
| CALIBER | .22 WMR |
| MAGAZINE CAPACITY | 30 |
| BARREL LENGTH | 16″ |
| OVERALL LENGTH | 29.9″ |
| LENGTH COLLAPSED | 22.5″ |
| WEIGHT UNLOADED | 3.8 lbs |
| TWIST RATE | 1:14″ |
| TRIGGER PULL | 5 lbs |
Unboxing The KelTec CMR30
I want to do a real quick out-of-the-box because I have an optic that I want to mount on this. All this stuff was actually stuffed in there – we’ve got our iron sights and the tool for adjusting them – we’ll get those on. We’ve got our paperwork, the manual, some stickers, we’ve got two mags. We’ve got non-reciprocating charging handles on both sides – the upper is metal, and the only part that’s polymer is this lower part here. The telescoping stock is nice, the finger right here and then it opens out, and we’ve got all the different settings.
We also have some loops for a sling attachment, safety – ambidextrous, both sides and the mag release is only on the left side. Maggie Jacked is simply down here on the bottom, like all their others, the breakdown and we’ll come back to that because I’ve got an optic that I want to review right away because I just keep finding it at crazy, stupid deals and it’s perfect for this. We’re going to push that pin but I’m going to come back to that. We’ve got a threaded muzzle. I want to get that optic on here and start having some fun.
Guys, if you do the 22 Win Mag, either in the pistol or the rifle, you’ve got to get one of these. It’s it’s going to save you a lot of time loading.
The Breakdown
I’m in between tests and some objects on this and I’m getting ready to put a scope on it so that we can test the accuracy. What I want to do here is show you the breakdown. The takedown pin is going to be on the right side – hopefully we can just push that out.
OK, that was not gonna come out with my thumb. It still not going to come out. So, there’s a takedown pin, and then the polymer part here comes off, and we can clean this. We’ve got kind of a little buffer back here, ok, we’re going to clean that up, and then our bolt is in here. So, we’re going to take the stock back so that the bolt slides out.
OK, and then you just have to turn this and that comes out. This is filthy, we’ve got over 250 rounds and quite a bit with the can. So gonna get this good and cleaned up, gonna scrub out the barrel in here, and then we’ll put it back together. The stock comes all the way off. Now we have easy access to the breech for cleaning.
OK, so we got everything clean. Let’s start putting this back together. When you put the stock back on there’s a little groove in there, and you just got to get that just right, there we go, so we got to get both those grooves and then this has got to fit back in here. And then we’re going to put this part back on, our pin back in, and we got to go from the other side – and there we go. OK, we’ll test everything. And there you go guys, that is pretty simple.
Testing the CMR30 with different optics
Yes, sir, it is interesting to say what really matters – how does it perform? Well, time to find out. I just happen to have several optics, that I needed to review, and that just worked out perfectly. Let’s take a look and see how it did with each of the optics.
Typically when I’m zeroing in I don’t video. It’s kind of long and it’s boring. But, I literally just simply put it on, I put the sights that came with it. Those are the MagPul pop-ups, and they’re really nice.
It was interesting because when you have pop-up sights and they line up, the Red Dot was actually perfectly aligned with the front sight post and the Red Dot, and I just fired three shots – you got to see this to believe it!
I really wish that I had the video going, but you’re just gonna have to take my word for it. That was the first three shots, just simply putting it on the gun. I expected I would have to dial it in, but yeah, there we go, I think. Let’s just do a click up, and we might be able to jump to steel really fast.
I just want to show you the field of view that I’ve got looking through here. This is the field of view that we’re getting at 50 yards. So we had our initial group and I did two clicks up. That’s awesome!
I think I’ll do one click to the left and then we’re just going to start banging on some steel. I’m gonna bang on these when I take the optic off, or maybe I’ll just turn it off and look through the optic, like if our battery fails and see what we get with the iron sights.
It did great with the Riton ARD. Let’s try it with the optic turned off and flipping up the Magpul iron sights that it comes with.
Because of my vision that front sight post for me is totally blurry. Be interested to see what we have got for groups. Before I show you those what I did was, I adjusted the iron sights so that they lined up perfectly with a Red Dot since we got an outstanding group with a Red Dot. Also, before I forget, special thanks to CCI for supplying all the ammo for this review. If you have not shot CCI when it comes to rimfire, in my experience, there is no better or more reliable.
Anyway, let’s fire off some now that I made these adjustments. That was all right, we did pretty good. That was with the optic. I forgot that I still got to do a click to the left, then that was my initial with just the iron sights and then what I did was that I moved the iron sights the best I could with the blurry front post so that the iron sights and the Red Dot were lined up, and that’s what I just got.
For me, with iron sights, that’s as good as it’s gonna get. I’m gonna do that click and then we’ll start having some real fun.
OK, so we’re getting ready to have some fun with this. We’ve got this zeroed. I tried my can on it and it kept the zero. I’ve got an A3 tactical vertical grip because this is a carbine – we have the 16-inch barrel, and we can do this without an SBR. If you are looking for a vertical grip, in my opinion, this is hands down the best vertical grip you can get. It’s going to be a little bit more coin but it’s all metal, this is the one that attaches to the Picatinny rail. They also have the M-Lock and you can swap out all of these. Check out the review on that. Anyway, I absolutely love this. Let’s see what we can do at a 100 yards.
Testing The KelTec CMR30 At The Range
OK, let’s just see what we can do here at a 100 yards. I took the can off because that’s how most people are going to be shooting it, and sometimes when that can heats up, like when you’re really firing off a lot, it changes to zero, so let’s see how it goes. I Love it!
OK, so next I have the brand new Primary Arms RD25 to review that was just being released, so check out some of the shootings that we did with that.
All right, now what I want to do, we’ll pop that off to the side and we’ll try it with just the Red Dot.
Nice. OK, let’s try 200. Let’s move the magnifier out of the way. I have to be honest, at this point, I am impressed. It does have a really high fun factor. It is simply fun to shoot and accurate. So, for all practical purposes, it has zero recoil. For those who have health conditions or physical conditions where recoil is an issue, this is definitely worth looking at.
Lastly, I wanted to show you what you could expect for accuracy using seven different types of self-defense rounds, that I’m going to use in another review. In that review, I will show feet per second, the foot-pounds, and the energy, do some gel tests with these rounds, and examine the .22 Mag and the CMR30 for a self-defense gun. For this review let’s just see what we can get for groups with this over here at 50 yards using a proper scope.
Testing the CMR30 at 50 Yards
This is the field of view that we’re getting looking through the optic. That’s what I’m seeing to get those groups. Let’s go take a closer look. All right, so there we go. What I’ve discovered is that it definitely likes a warm barrel. On almost every single one of these, the flyers are, at least the most extreme flyer was the first shot, and like here, they strung up and then they finish there. So, as the barrel warms they get more consistent. This one, actually I had a phone call and the barrel cooled a little bit more. That really is more the group but the hollow point did really good for kind of our cheapest, and the range ammo, the VNT, did really good. Like I said, the flyers there for the segmented hollow point the CCI. The TNT, I’m gonna call that the winner. That was the first shot and then the rest of the group up there, but the last of the shots was all in that one hole. I’m calling that the winner.
The Punch – same thing. We had a couple of flyers. Overall, it grouped well but had three flyers on that one. The Speer, the Gold Dot, like I said, it strung up and then a decent group, and then the Hornady, the Hornady was actually kind of the biggest group. It seems to like the lighter bullets, so that’s what would be my recommendation. The VNT and the TNT – those are two of the best. That’s awesome, I can’t wait to see what some of these do in gel, I’m not sure which ones I’m gonna shoot. I definitely wanna try the TNT in the gel, but we’re gonna base it on energy and speed.
So far, I have put 300 plus rounds through it. Easy! Without one single jam, failure to extract, or failure to fire. I did have two failures to feed but they were related to the mag – it was getting dirty, I had my can on it, and they are polymer mags.
M*Carbo just came out with some stainless steel mags and I’m gonna bet, OK, I would be willing to bet you will not have any feed issues whatsoever with the stainless steel sides on that. That were the only two issues that I had with 300 plus rounds.
There you have it guys, it is what it is, you decide what you think. I hope you enjoyed the video and found it helpful. If so, be sure and hit that subscribe button. That really does help the most. That helps support the channel.
Until next time, happy shooting, educate our young people to shooting and gun safety, and remember, every time that we’re out on the range, every time we’re shooting, everybody’s watching us. That means we’re ambassadors for the Second Amendment, so please be a good ambassador and be a safe and responsible gun owner.
