It is a common assumption that the features of new guns are shaped primarily by technological advances along with customer demands. But there is a third, powerful and sometimes overlooked influence: government regulations. Handguns like the Taurus Judge revolver, and cartridges such as the 360 Buckhammer, exist not because they are the very best at what they do. Instead, they meet customer needs while operating within the parameters of federal and state regulations.
This year, KelTec released a new pistol called the PR-57, which is specifically designed for concealed carry in states with restricted ammunition capacities. It incorporates an old semi-automatic pistol design concept that addresses the regulatory requirements while leaving some folks flummoxed. Is the PR-57 a useful solution to the problem? Would it be a good fit for your needs? Let’s look this pistol over and you can decide for yourself.
The subcompact PR-57 pistol holds an impressive 20+1 rounds of FN 5.7 ammunition.
The PR-57's Blind Magazine
At the end of the 19th century, when semi-automatic pistols were in their infancy, designers were working hard to figure out the best ways to store and feed the pistol’s ammunition. Some designs, including the famous “Broomhandle” Mauser C96, were outfitted with fixed, or “blind,” magazines. A hollow inside of the receiver was fitted with a spring and a follower.
With the pistol's action open, rounds were pressed down on to the follower through the ejection port. To speed up the loading process, the ammunition was stored in a metal strap called a stripper clip. The clip was fitted into the receiver and allowed five or 10. rounds to be pressed into the internal magazine at the same time. The clip was removed, the bolt closed and the pistol was ready to fire.
Fully loaded and fitted with an optic, this pistol weighs 19.9 oz.
Although the semi-automatics that employed stripper clips were faster to reload than a revolver, Hugo Borchardt developed an even faster option in 1893. His pistol, dubbed the Borchardt C-93, was the first use the device commonly known today as a removable box magazine, or magazine for short. He moved the ammunition feeding spring and follower into a metallic sleeve that dropped out of the bottom of the pistol's grip. Although this pistol was not particularly successful, a removable magazine stored in the pistol's grip would eventually become a standard feature for semi-automatic handguns.
Let’s fast forward to the 21st century. Today, some states have instituted regulations limiting the number of rounds a pistol magazine can contain. The most common restriction is 10 rounds per magazine (the limits vary in some states). Meanwhile, other legislators are vigorously striving to label any pistol capable of using a larger than 10-round magazine an “assault pistol” so as to wedge them into assault weapon bans right alongside with AR-15 rifles.
The blind magazine is loaded through the slide using stripper clips.
However, these regulations apply to semi-automatics that employ removable box magazines. The verbiage does not apply to guns with fixed magazines that are loaded through the slide using stripper clips. In other words, there are no restrictions on pistols that hold more than 10 rounds if they use a fixed magazine that cannot be removed from the gun.
This brings us to the recently released KelTec PR-57. Swedish gun designer and inventor George Kellgren designed the polymer-framed PR-57 with a 20-round blind magazine inside of the grip frame. The pistol I worked with will take up to 21 rounds for a 20+1 ammunition capacity when the slide is closed. That's an impressive number of rounds in such a compact platform. But what are the trade-offs?
An aluminum RMSc footprint optic mounting plate is provided.
Reloading With (or Without) Stripper Clips
The PR-57 is not the first Kellgren pistol design to use a blind magazine. Back in 1988, he released the polymer-framed Grendel P10 chambered in .380 ACP. It was a basic, pocket-sized pistol roughly the same size as a Ruger LCP that held up to 10 rounds of ammunition. Much like the PR-57, it was loaded by locking back the slide and pressing rounds into the internal magazine through the ejection port.
The PR-57 can be loaded two ways. The internal magazine is loaded much like an AR-15 magazine, meaning rounds are pressed straight down into it instead of sliding into the feeding lips from front to back like most 9 mm pistol magazines. This allows rounds to be pressed in one at a time. It's not a particularly quick process but it does allow the gun to be loaded without any accessories.
This semi-automatic’s profile is similar to popular "micro nine" pistols.
The other, faster method is the use of KelTec's proprietary 10-round stripper clips. Made of lightweight polymer, these 10-round clips wrap around the cartridge base and the tips of the bullets. This makes them much easier to extract from a pocket or range bag. With the clip locked into the PR-57's ejection port, a small polymer tab, or plunger, is used to press the rounds into the pistol. Although using two clips to load 20 rounds is notably faster than pressing in each cartridge one at a time, this too is not the fastest way to reload a handgun (more on this in a minute).
Up-To-Date Concealed Carry Features
Some folks are going to dismiss the PR-57 as a concealed-carry gun right off the bat because of the stripper clip reloading process. However, for those who understand why it is clip fed, or live in regions where this model is a good fit, the PR-57 has more to offer other than just its magazine configuration. This recoil-operated, single-action pistol has an overall length of 7.13", which is similar to many of today's popular “micro nine” 9 mm pistols. It's also a lightweight pistol. Unloaded, it tips the scales at just 14-ozs. When it is dressed up with a light-weight red-dot optic and fully loaded with 20+1 rounds of 40-gr. ammunition, it weighs in at just 19.9 oz. The optics-compatible Rounded Gear brand inside-the-waistband (IWB) holster, shown in some of the photos, is just another 2.6 ozs.
The PR-57’s trigger also serves as the takedown lever.
Although the rotary barrel is listed as being 4" long, a set of digital calipers measured it at 3.87". The rounded 0.95" wide slide is topped with a set of simple but useful polymer white-dot sights. The slide ships optics ready with an aluminum mounting plate provided. This plate is sized for RMSc footprint optics, including the Burris Fastfire C 6MOA red-dot ($276) installed for the range test.
The frame's dust cover features a molded-in, 2" long accessory rail and the front of the trigger guard is flattened and textured to serve as a finger rest. The single-action trigger of the gun I worked with was smooth, creep-free and broke cleanly with 4 lbs. 7.9 oz. of trigger pull. The grip frame is also a slim 0.95" wide, long enough to support the little finger of the shooting hand and treated with KelTec's signature waffle-pattern texturing. The PR-57 arrives with two polymer 10-round stripper clips. Additional clips are available from KelTec in two-packs ($5.95), four-packs ($9.95) and 10-packs ($25.95).
KelTec provides optics, holsters and replacement stripper clips on their website.
Pistol and Cartridge Performance
At the shooting range, the PR-57 proved to be utterly reliable with all of the ammunition tested. It did not exhibit any ammunition or gun-related malfunctions or issues. The trigger was smooth and light. The slide is easy to rack and the recoil was comparable to the .22 Mag. pistols I've tested, which is to say, impressively soft shooting for a center-fire pistol.
From left: .22 LR, .22 Mag., 5.7x28 mm, .32 ACP, .380 ACP and 9 mm.
With a bit of practice, the time it took to insert 10 rounds using the polymer clips was on par with inserting five or six rounds into a double-action revolver using a twist-knob speedloader. However, the clips can be a bit more tricky to use. I would want plenty of practice with them before having to use them under the duress of a defensive situation.
It should also be noted that the small, sliding plunger tabs can fall out and skitter away as an empty clip is pulled out the slide. KelTec has addressed this issue not by changing the clip's design but by offering 4-packs of replacement plungers on their website (PR57-501 4pk; $2.50). It's more of an inconvenience than a technical issue but should be mentioned.
The PR57 is shown here next to the folding KelTec SUB2000 which is also chambered in FN 5.7.
An important question I wanted to answer with this evaluation has to do with this pistol and ammunition combination's performance potential. The FN 5.7 cartridge uses a low mass bullet launched at high velocities, much like the .223 Remington/5.56 NATO rifle round favored for AR-15 rifles. Just how much velocity the bullet develops or drops can be affected by barrel length. In most cases, a shorter barrel will contribute to slower bullet velocities. This in turn reduces bullet impact energy levels. With rifles, we see changes in ammunition performance measured by inches (16" barrel versus 18" or 20").
However, when it comes to handguns, the performance of a given cartridge can vary depending on barrel lengths that differ by fractions of inches. The PR-57 has one of the shortest barrels, if not the shortest, for a semi-automatic pistol chambered in FN 5.7. First, let's look at the range results for the pistol using Federal, Fiocchi USA and Speer Gold Dot loads with a Garmin Xero C1 Pro chronograph used to average bullet muzzle velocities for 10-shot strings:
Now, let's see how the bullet muzzle energy levels of the PR-57 compare to FN 5.7 pistols with longer barrels and common concealed carry calibers fired from pistols with barrel lengths of around 4":
Caliber Barrel Length Muzzle Energy Test Gun
9 mm 4.00" Barrel: 282 to 355 ft.-lbs. (Girsan MC28)
5.7x28 mm 5.20" Barrel: 247 to 321 ft.-lbs. (PSA 5.7 Rock)
5.7x28 mm 4.70" Barrel: 230 to 300 ft.-lbs. (PSA 5.7 Rock)
5.7x28 mm 4.30" Barrel: 230 to 248 ft.-lbs. (PSA 5.7 Rock Compact)
5.7x28 mm 3.87" Barrel: 196 to 242 ft.-lbs. (KelTec PR-57 - See Table Above)
.380 ACP 3.54" Barrel: 140 to 180 ft.-lbs. (Walther CCP M2)
.32 ACP 3.82" Barrel: 136 to 179 ft.-lbs. (Beretta 81 Cheetah)
.22 Mag. 4.35" Barrel: 152 to 178 ft.-lbs. (S&W M&P 22 Mag.)
.22 LR 4.00" Barrel: 79 to 113 ft.-lbs. (Taurus TX22)
In regard to FN 5.7 pistol performance, the PR-57's 3.87" barrel's energy range just barely overlaps with the 4.3" and 4.7" barrels. This means that with the right ammo, the PR-57 will generate performance comparable to slightly longer pistols in this caliber. However, the 3.87" barrel's highest velocity is slightly lower than the 5.2" barrel's slowest velocity. This means the PR-57's bullet energy levels are not going to be comparable to those of a similarly sized 9 mm pistol. However, the PR-57 out performs a similarly sized .380 ACP pistol while producing less recoil, exhibiting better accuracy and providing about double the ammunition capacity. Based on the performance numbers, is the PR-57 a concealed carry contender? Yes, it is. But performance numbers are only one facet of a defensive pistol's features.
Parting Shots
The KelTec PR-57 answers the need for increased ammunition capacity in a carry pistol for folks who live in states that restrict removable magazine capacities. A 20+1 capacity pistol that is soft shooting, accurate and up to date is a whole lot of fight in a compact package if you live in a restricted state. But the pistol achieves this goal with notable tradeoffs including slow reloading and even slower unloading. For those who live in restrictive states this could be an ideal option. But for others, who can pack pistols with 12-, 15- or 17-round magazines, not so much.
I would like to see KelTec to develop a version of the PR-57 that accepts a removable magazine designed to preserve the slim grip profile. Even if they had to sacrifice some ammunition capacity, or add an ounce or two to the gun's weight, it would be a more attractive package for folks who want to carry an extra magazine or two instead of stripper clips. It will be interesting to see how this controversial pistol fairs in the market place. The PR-57 is available for a suggested retail price of $399. For more information, visit keltecweapons.com.
