Steelheart said:
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Steelheart
Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm, $335
This was the shortest gun in the test, with an OAL of 5.9 inches with a 3.0-inch barrel and a sight radius of 4.6 inches. It stood 4.75 inches tall and weighed 12.7 ounces with an empty magazine. It came in a box with one magazines and a lock.
It carried 7+1 rounds in its magazine, and was only 1 inch wide across the slide, 0.9 inch wide across the grip, and 5.0 inches around at the thickest part of the grip. The frontstrap was 1.9 inches long and the backstrap was 3.1 inches long, measured from the bottom of the beavertail, along the frame, to the bottom of the magazine. There were no finish problems.
Other Kel-Tec pistols we have tested have usually had a good combination of low price and good quality, but we couldn’t recommend this one at any price.
This harsh initial assessment comes despite our recognition of the PF-9’s qualities. For instance, the PF-9 easily fit in a pants or jacket pocket and was the lightest pistol tested. Offsetting this size advantage, however, is its 7+1 capacity, but we didn’t dock the gun for that—some compromises have to be made for carry comfort.
Elsewhere, the rear two-dot sights were the same size as the CZ’s (a little on the small side), but the front white dot sight was larger, which most shooters preferred. Only the rear sight was dovetailed.
It was the only pistol in the test that had a rail, but felt the rail was not needed on a pistol of this size. The pistol only came with one magazine, but it did come with an optional extended magazine floor plate. Even with the extended magazine floor plate installed, the grip was the shortest and least comfortable of the guns tested, we thought.
What we couldn’t tolerate was the trigger function. The trigger was the longest and heaviest of those tested, but we could have gotten used to it, if it were not for what we consider to be a design flaw. We believe in properly resetting the trigger after each shot to increase accuracy. After we fire a pistol we hold the trigger to the rear of the trigger guard and then release it forward until a click is heard, and then we apply steady pressure for the next shot. If you try that with this pistol, you will only hear a click instead of a bang.
According to the Kel-Tec manual on page 12 under the subhead "Malfunctioning," a misfire is most likely the result of faulty ammunition. Then, the manual continues, "Another potential cause is that the trigger was not allowed to fully reset after firing. The hammer is then dropped from the hammer block, which will not fire the cartridge."
Once that happens the only thing you can do is rack the slide, chambering a new round (if there is one left in the magazine) and pull the trigger again. To avoid the problem, when you are resetting the trigger you must continue to release the trigger past the first click and listen for the second click, then you can pull the trigger again and the gun will fire.
In practice, this adds a sluggishness to the gun that we simply can’t recommend to GT readers. We tried some rapid-fire strings with all the pistols tested. The HK was the fastest with the CZ not far behind, but the Kel-Tec was much slower, and in at least one in three strings we experienced a misfire because of the poor trigger design and the 7.9-pound double action trigger pull.
We invited many shooters to try out the pistol without warning them about the trigger design, and half of them experienced misfires. We also had one failure to feed, but did not experience any failures on the other two pistols tested.
This pistol had the most felt recoil and was the least accurate—we suspect because of the heavy trigger.
Above is the article; sorry about the link. Yes, Gun Tests has a lot of retractors but remember they are evaluating handguns for mostly defensive purposes and if that firearm does not perform they won't recommend it. Granted, guns are like cars--you're going to get a lemon once in a while. I'm not denouncing the PF-9 or Kel-Tec---I think they're great pocket guns. I was only putting a little info out there.