750 rds
0 malfunctions, 0 stoppages, 0 parts breakage.
Three weeks in and another 200 rounds down range. The little pistol has now shot 750 trouble-free rounds, with no lubrication or other maintenance since round 1. As I said before, it is not my intention to torture this pistol, but frankly, I did not expect it to get this far without a little oil. Duty guns, sure. Tiny mousegun? No way. Yet it has.
This past week saw the P32 being shot under high desert conditions in Wyoming. 40 mile an hour gusts and several hard-shooting friends were unable to get the gun to do anything but go bang every time. JAG and I were at the Steamboat Challenge a 2 day State and Regional Action Pistol match held in Cheyenne every year. Some of the most accurate shooters in the country were there, and all who tried #68 were very impressed with how easy it was to shoot accurately.
The test will continue, but I will go on record at this point and say that I’m more impressed with the Keltec than I thought I would be. It is pleasant to shoot and impressively reliable so far. I doubt most P32 owners will ever shoot 750 rounds through their copy in a lifetime, but if they want to, it seems like the gun will handle it without issue. Let me know below what you think, but I’m inclined to let it keep going without adding any lube. Under normal circumstances, I would have already lubed it a couple of times at least. Every gun will eventually fail without lube and I do not hold it against my duty guns when they do. I try not to let them get that dirty and dry, but on the very rare occasion that it has happened that way, I cannot blame the gun at all.
So, if I let it run without lube, I will report the facts of the matter but I will not hold it against the gun if it malfunctions. That’s assuming that lubing the gun instantly makes it reliable again. I’m curious to see just how tough this little gun is. On the other hand, it is correct to lube your guns as needed, so let me know which way I should go with it.
The picture at the top is the end result of some PCP practice. Not very exciting to watch live fire, I shot the gun from about 2 feet to 5 feet, without using the sights. Each iteration was 1 or 2 shots, depending on what scenario I had going on in my head. For that role, this gun seems to be pretty ideal. I have another role for it that is perhaps more applicable to my lifestyle. I’m experimenting with it now and once I have convinced myself that it works well, I’ll report it here.
Finally, I ran the FAST test with it this week, just for practice. The gun is easy to draw and shoot, though reloading it is, no surprise, a little tough to do at speed. As I work through the techniques needed to accomplish a good FAST run, I’ll go into more detail. For now, lets just say that an expert run should be entirely possible. Obviously the P32 is not designed for a belt holster and duty gun standards, so the FAST is just for fun and to see what’s possible with it compared to a duty gun. Once that is done, I’ll try something else like El Pres. Stay tuned!
My vote is to oil it but don’t clean it and see what happens.
Let it run until it chokes…for science 🙂
These get carried a lot, and shot a little. Run it until it malfunctions, no lube/oil/grease.
Interested to hear your holster preferences so far.
Sorry for the late reply! I’m using a no name kydex pancake for much of the shooting. Not relevant to anything, just for testing purposes. As a PCP gun, I picked up one of the Recluse holsters for back pocket carry. Seems like a good rig so far. I was able to try Craig’s version out earlier this year, so based on that, I thought it would work well for me. Very high quality.