KelTec’s PR-5.7 Review: A Creative Top-Loading 5.7x28mm Pistol
KelTec’s PR-5.7 is one of the strangest and most practical new pistols to hit the market this year. It is a clip-fed, top-loading 5.7x28 that skips interchangeable magazines entirely, which lets it stay thin, light, and high capacity. On paper, it reads like a carry cheat code. In hand, it feels even weirder, and that is a compliment.
The PR-5.7 holds 20+1 rounds of 5.7x28, weighs about 14 ounces empty, measures roughly 0.94 inches at the widest point, and uses a rotating barrel with dual recoil springs. It is optic-ready for RMSc-footprint micro red dots. MSRP lands around 399 dollars. Size and weight stack up favorably next to popular 9 mm single stacks. Think Glock 19 tier height and Glock 43 thickness, but lighter than either and with much more onboard ammunition.
The PR-5.7 loads from stripper clips that slide in from the top. This will be a deal maker for some and a deal breaker for others. In the video, I time real top-offs and talk about when civilians actually need to reload. If you are skeptical, you should watch that segment before you write this system off.
Range time answered some of the obvious questions and raised a few new ones. Recoil is light, as you would expect from 5.7x28. Accuracy was perfectly serviceable for a small defensive pistol. Reliability was not a one-sentence story, and I walk through the ammo mix, the failure types, and what happened as the gun settled in. I also include gel and armor clips, including a segment on a bulletproof vest.
Should you carry it right now? That depends on your tolerance for new designs, your ammo choice, and whether your sample runs clean for you. In the video, I explain where I land on buy versus carry and what I am watching for as holster support and aftermarket options catch up.
If you want the full verdict, watch the complete PR-5.7 review. The clip-fed concept is not a gimmick here. It changes the size and weight math in a way that standard 5.7 pistols cannot match, and at this price, it puts a very odd, very clever gun within reach for a lot of shooters.
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Owner, Neutral Ground Gun Co. NRA/Louisiana State Police certified concealed weapons instructor, 2012-present Maxim Magazine's MAXIMum Warrior, 2011 TFBTV Executive Producer Champion, Key West Cinco De Mayo Taco Eating Competition Lawyer Instagram: gunshorts Twitter: @jjreeves
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Keltec is helping people in magazine capacity state with a “work around” of using stripper clips on these designs.
This video just reinforces that my only real disappointment with Peacemaker Season 2 so far is that they didn't hire James Reeves to play Keith Smith.
Thanks to Beardo for answering the question I've had about the PR57 since it was announced: what happens when you reflexively tap-rack-bang it after a failure to fire like you would a detachable magazine pistol; looks like it has about the same effect of jarring the recalcitrant cartridge out of its coma and sending it to the floor when aggressively racked, at least most of the time.
I only have an RDB (for now) but I know several people who carry Kel-Tec pistols on the regular, and it seems like a universal constant with the brand that you need to dump a hundred or two rounds of the cheap junk downrange before it'll function reliably ~every time, which isn't optimal for the kind of user who buys a carry gun and maybe shoots one or two mags a year, but honestly just blurs into the background for most of us around here. I really want to live in the timeline where Ruger or S&W hired George Kellgren to head a special projects R&D department and gave him his own Kel-Tec branded imprint using their CNC and milling/casting machines.