Not long ago I saw a video on a Kel-Tec P17 as a possible concealed carry and self-defense gun, and I have done many videos using the 22 Long Rifle, as you know a possible concealed carry for those that will not carry a heavy or bulky gun or simply can’t handle or don’t like to recoil of a smaller 380 Auto or a 9mm. Regardless of your thoughts on if the 22 Long Rifle is suitable for a concealed carry gun everyone agrees on these points, and I will quote many of the comments that I’ve received over the years on this subject: “It’s better than a sharp stick!”,” It is certainly better than nothing”, “22 Long Rifle in the right hands can be very effective!”, “Nobody cares what caliber you’re using when you’re getting shot at!”. Bottom line: If it means carrying or not carrying it then it becomes the best option. Right!? Argue that. We all can agree on that much.
The question is how does the Kel-Tec P17 perform, is it reliable enough to consider for this purpose? CCI sent me 2,000 rounds of quality ammo to test this out. Special thanks to CCI for sending me that ammo. I have a few fun accessories to include along with this Kel-Tec P17 review that would be I think of interest for concealed carry or self-defense. One is the Primary Arms Micro Red Dot Optic and the other is the Green Laser here from Holosun, the RML. Let’s just see what we can do with the Kel-Tec P17.
I’m Drew Case, welcome to Beyond Seclusion where I’ll only give you my honest opinion, and it is what it is. Recently I have released a very long and comprehensive review on the 22 Long Rifle cartridge as a possible concealed carry and self-defense gun. You will definitely want to check that out, you might just be shocked! I put very specific rounds through everything from ballistic gel, water, hams, melons, chickens, and even a cow. Before we get going check out the specs and tech in an up close on the Kel-Tec P17.
Kel-Tec P17 Specs & Tech
| CALIBER | 22 LR |
| WEIGHT UNLOADED | 0.7 lbs |
| CAPACITY | 16 Rds |
| BARREL | 3.8″ w/ 1/2 – 28 thread |
| TRIGGER PULL | 3 lbs |
| MAG RELEASE | Ambidextrous |
| SAFETY | Ambidextrous |
| FRONT SIGHT | Fiber Optic |
| REAR SIGHT | Adjustable |
Kel-Tec P17 22 LR Unboxing
60 seconds or less here we’re going to do the out-of-the-box because a lot of folks like to see what comes in the box or how it’s packaged. Instruction manual, they’ve always had their little piece of paper here, we have the pistol, I took this out.
Comes with another two extra mags, we have a total of three mags and stickers. Does anybody use stickers? I don’t. I’ve got a big box of stickers if anybody’s looking for them. We’ve got the tools here then we’ve also got the threaded barrel that we can attach that with and basically a lock. There you go! Let’s take an up-close look at it.
Kel-Tec P17 Disassembly
Real quick here, just how to break it down, I’ve got my Holosun laser on here, all the way back we make sure that it’s unloaded, and then we just simply pull this down and this part comes up and off. Before we do that we’ve got a thread protector here, I broke it free with the tool, and this is actually all done here. The thread protector comes off, pull those down, and this comes up and over. Spring in there make, sure that doesn’t fly, that comes out, there’s also a little piece in here, make sure that you do not lose that, that’s where the spring goes on.
Now we have access for cleaning, I just did 600 rounds through here so it needs to be cleaned and put it back together. We just simply reverse that, line up right if you don’t have the thread protector on, so we got to get the thread protector back on or the threaded barrel, that adapter comes with it. Put that down, there you go.
Kel-Tec P17 Features
For the ergonomics really does feel pretty good in the hands, we’ve got an ambidextrous mag release here, and I do like that, it drops out nice and easy from either side. We have a safety also ambidextrous, so lefties we have a good choice here. It does not have the slide release on the right side, but I almost never encounter that.
Our sights are fully adjustable for windage and elevation, gives us the Allen wrench to make that, and then we also have the ability to put optics on this, even though we’ve got some really nice sights, we’ve got a fiber optic sight, good sight picture. We’ve got three slots on our Picatinny rail here.
Trigger
As far as the trigger, let’s see what we got for the trigger, keep looking for the button. Got a lot of travel, it is a plastic trigger, got some mush, got quite a bit of mush, quite a bit of travel.
There’s the re-engage! So, you definitely do not have a match trigger here, but if you were expecting that I think you had unrealistic expectations.
Trigger Pull
Let’s just see what we got for a trigger pull here, four pounds, that’s actually what it feels like, I mean it’s a light trigger pull.
Just under four! It’s actually a very enjoyable trigger pull despite having creep travel and a mushy break.
KelTec P17 Magazine
I want to make sure and not forget, one of the things with the Kel-Tec P17 that I really don’t like that they should change, it really should have been addressed I think, there’s no mag loader, and there’s no way if there was a whole. A lot of the times the 22s they’ve got something you can grab and pull down and that would be great, if you don’t have that you really need a mag loader or something, I had to go and find one, and to get that 16-round, in in fact even just really if you’ve loaded very many 22 mags, that round, it really doesn’t work very well, so that would be a huge suggestion, fix the mags.Let’s try it out!
I have seen some good things with the Kel-Tec P17, let’s just put it to the test. I’ve also been finding it on sale for 219 so if it does perform, well, that’s an even better deal. Again special thanks to CCI for donating the 2000 rounds of quality ammo for this. It’s important to do a test like this with quality ammo, and I have yet to find anyone that does not agree that CCI is top-notch, if one of the best out there, for Quality 22 ammo. out
I was able to put the red dot on this Kel-Tec P17 thanks to Tanner Machined Products, I found him on eBay, the owner really nice guy, talked to him, and he’s just getting started makes some really quality metal mounts for red dots on things like the Kel-Tec P17 the PMR. Anyway, I’ve got the thing here you can check that, out and check him out on eBay.
Getting Red Dot Zeroed
Check out that last group!
I like that, I really like that! That’s 15 shots! You know what, it’s just a little bit high, but I think I’m not gonna mess with it, I’m gonna leave it right there. Guys, that rocks! Now it’s time to start having some fun there on the steel. I’m going to double-check, I’m gonna make sure my laser is in the exact same spot and then we’re good to go.
After 2000+ Rounds without a red dot
So, in the last couple hundred rounds here I wanted to see what kind of accuracy we could get just using the iron sights and following the directions, really, really pleasantly surprised, really happy with this. Started off, this is where it came from the factory, and then just reading the directions, you know, turning clockwise and bringing it down and to the right.
And that was the last group I got, so I’m gonna do just ever so slight and see if we can get it up here, and then we’ll just finish off and have a little fun and test the accuracy of the iron sights.
Accuracy and speed at up to 33 feet
I think I got the iron sights pretty much zeroed in, let’s see what we can do here at 33 feet. This is way beyond concealed carry or anything, but I just want to see what we can do as far as accuracy and speed.
That’s not bad, that’s not bad at all! Let’s try again on the bottom right! That works for me, let’s go take a look!
Alright, that was the first group that I shot, that was the second group that I shot, and that was the third group that I shot at 33 feet.
I would say that that’s accurate. Let’s have a little fun, okay, let’s see what we can do on the little spinners here at about 10 yards.
Little variety here, some Federal, and see how that does! Let’s just see how fast here at 18 feet, what kind of group we can get, and what kind of speed.
Shooting just a little bit low! You know, I’d say that works!
Kel-Tec P17 with a Suppressor
I don’t know how I could forget, I needed to test it suppress, so, I’ve got some Federal, special thanks here to Federal for some suppressed. Let’s find out, not gonna wear the hearing protection, hopefully, that doesn’t bite me, we’re going up to about 2 400 rounds, and then we will be done. Let’s just make sure that this works okay. Got my little green laser, there we go, we’ll turn that on there.
I like that, that’s awesome! I wish suppressed ammo were a lot cheaper! There you go, guys, that is the end!
Holosun Green Laser for P17
I almost forgot, when it comes to concealed carry, especially with the 22 or really anything, I absolutely think that a laser is critical, it makes it so easy, especially if you can’t have a red dot or you don’t want a red dot, and Holosun’s laser here, we just did, I lost count, 2700, 2600, 2300, well, over 2 000 rounds. This thing is charred on the end and it works great all the way through, the zero did not budge after over 2,000 rounds through this. I cannot recommend this enough, and it actually has a pretty decent price point, so there you go, guys!
KelTec P17 Torture test – 2000+ rounds
I just want to get started, we’ve got a lot of ammo to go through. I did go through about 200 rounds, getting my Holosun laser and the optic zeroed in, and just kind of testing and having some initial fun, and testing the optic and making sure everything’s cycled all right. Out of all that so far I had, and I’m just going to kind of keep track, I had two that failed to eject so far out of about 200. Anyway, let’s get to shooting.
We’re making our way through here, we’re heading into the 500, we’re 430 or so, we’re just going to keep going here.
We just finished off the 500 and I think we’re up to about 10 jams where it’s coming out the bottles, or whatever they call them, where we’ve got the casing in there, and it is interesting, it kind of goes sideways. I think what I want to do now is we’re going to break it down and we’re going to clean it and then get back to banging and see if that makes a difference.
back at the CQB range
Guys, I’m back here at the CQB range again, we did the 500 rounds, the first go. I have my beautiful assistant, AKA my wife Didi back here with me, and for actually good reasons. We’re reviewing the 22 Long Rifle here, I mean I’m just reviewing the Kel-Tec P17, but also sort of a follow-up as a potential concealed carry and self-defense.
Working and talking with Didi is a very viable option. One of the reasons is cycling, jogging, and hiking, all of which Didi loves to do. She’s a great shooter, no stranger to the 9mm.
– Drew: Are you comfortable with the 9mm?
– Didi: Yeah!
– Drew: And she shoots expertly with a 9mm. Would you take the 9mm jogging?
– Didi: Never, too heavy!
– Drew: Okay! Biking?
– Didi: No, probably not!
– Drew: Okay! Not because of recoil?
– Didi: No, because of size and weight! For with running especially, you want to be very minimal, you just don’t want to carry a lot of weight, you know, you’re careful with your water, you’re careful with whatever else you’re carrying with you, and so a 9mm just weight and size alone, I would not carry it.
There are times when I’m out running remotely and here where we live out on the gravel roads, and then I’ve been on trails on mountainsides and I’ve been completely alone, and so there have been times when I felt very unsettled by a word of mountain lion activity, early in season bears coming out of hibernation, and then, of course, there’s always the two-legged threat when you’re a woman alone. So, there have been times that I was running, didn’t feel like I could really have any substantial protection with me because of that, but something as small as a 22 would be ideal actually for taking in those instances.
22 Long Rifle – Ideal for various scenarios
It’s definitely for a two-legged, gonna ruin your day for four-legged, black bears, mountain lions, dogs, and stuff, and simply the noise is going to be a huge deterrent, but then also getting hit, especially with a fragmenting round, yeah, that’s a big deterrent. Anyway, we’ve got a great day, we got to get through some ammo here, I’m gonna let Didi do most of the shooting so you can see just how fast and on target she can get these downrange.
Overcoming issues and back to the test
Our party’s getting cut short here because we’re up to like a dozen at least jams, I’ve got the shells, and what’s happening is it’s getting stuck in there. I got it cleaned and we’re back out here actually. Didi is not able to join me today, unfortunately.
That’s using the laser!
Yeah, there’s a light primer strike!
Cleaning did the trick
It’s the last of the 250 rounds after the cleaning and have not had a single jam!
Nice! 250 rounds after the cleaning, not one single jam, really happy with that! I was a little worried when we got to that 500 rounds and then started having a bunch of jams, but just needed cleaning.
just a few jams
I almost forgot, these are all the jams, I know we’ve had at least 18 maybe a few more, my bad, I’m gonna keep better track of them now.
Most of those came in that 500 to 750 and getting dirty because if you remember I think I only had like four or five in the first 500, so hopefully I fixed the problem and got it thoroughly cleaned, we will find out.
We’re getting close to 300, probably at 300 after the cleaning, and we’ve got our first jam, and this is pretty much every kind of jam that we’ve had, basically, we just dropped the mag out, I cleared it and we’ll continue on.
Just 400 rounds to go
Just did the second thorough cleaning, and we’ve got 400 rounds left. I don’t know, I’d have to count, that still doesn’t put us at 2000 but it’s getting us pretty close, let’s see if we can get through 400 rounds or how far we can get through or how many jams we have after a thorough cleaning. Right now we’re at 20.
We’re down the last 300 rounds. I thought maybe it’s the red dot, now I hadn’t considered that because the way the first 500 rounds went, it went really well, but as we’re getting to the end here, and we’re having more and more issues, I just wanted to double check that that is not the cause, so we’re back to the original configuration, we’ve got a little over 300 rounds, let’s see how that does.
The last 300 rounds
We’re getting into the last 300 rounds with the red dot off, I took it off, I’m about 150 in and it has been performing absolutely flawlessly. To be honest with you I actually prefer without the red dot, the fiber optic sight on this thing is awesome.
I can actually get them on target I think faster, and transition quicker without the red dot, and it seems that, at least we will find out, that that really was kind of the issue. The reason I didn’t take it off sooner was when I was zeroing the laser in the red dot wasn’t having any issues.
You saw with the first 500 rounds that really went pretty well. It wasn’t until we got it broke in and maybe starting to get dirty, that we were having the issue. Anyway, well let’s finish off the last 300 rounds, you come with me on these 300 rounds, and you can see so far into the 300 rounds, about 150 haven’t had a single jam or issue.
There’s one! We spoke too soon.
That’s what we’re running into before!
2,000 rounds! That last 300 rounds I think, unfortunately, we found the problem, it wasn’t like in the optic because at the end of 2,000 rounds the last 300 with that optic we had two. I actually found some more so we can push it up to 500 rounds without the red dot, we’ve got two jams so far. Let’s keep going because I want to show what it could do as it came, without the effects or the influence of the red dot.
Final Results
What is the final result? Here are the first 1500 rounds, and that is all the jams that we had. If you remember, with the first 500 rounds we had like five, and that was with a red top, but then we started running into issues and kind of having some constant jams.
I showed you some of those, and then I decided let’s take the red dot off, and we were about 200 in here, but then the last 600-700 rounds we had two with the red dot off. As far as accuracy, I was very impressed with the iron sights and really happy with this overall.
I kind of feel bad that I went through all this having some of the issues, but a lot of people like red dots, my wife loves the red dot. Unfortunately, this seems that it does not like having the red dot on. Anyway, as far as accuracy and shots on target, if you look at the review that I did with the CCI fragmenting round, it does give one pause as far as a viable concealed carry self-defense, you know, the accuracy. Anyway, we’ve got 2300 rounds.
So, what’s my overall impression of the Kel-Tec P17? I absolutely love it, guys, it really is a good shooter and comes in often on sale at 219, and especially just with that last 500 rounds of almost no jams it fired, we did another 50 rounds of just the cheapest Federal that I could use, and it is what it is.
