Couple of months ago one of the fellows I regularly shoot with bought himself a Kel-Tec P40, and brought it out to one of our regularly scheduled Sunday services, where I had the chance to run several mags of ammo through it.  While the gun has (imo) some shortcomings, I was reasonably impressed, and decided that I'd pick one up, with the idea that it might become a second or backup gun, mainly for times that I'd otherwise carry the Mustang.

As it happened, a couple of weeks ago I ran into a fellow who wanted to sell his P11, which is the same gun, except in the 9mm.  Price was in reason, so we did a deal.  I took delivery last week, and took it out Sunday a.m. to see if it works.  Couldn't give it a proper test, as I was involved in a class, but I did run about 100 rounds of fmj through it.

The P11 and P40 are locked breech, double action semi-auto pistols.  The P11 is represented by CNC Industries, the manufacturer, as being the smallest and lightest 9mm semi-auto available.  I don't know if this is  true, but it could very well be.  It's 1/2" longer than my Mustang, same height, and slightly wider.  The barrel and slide are steel, the "frame" -- a rectangular box holding the action -- is aluminum, and the grip (which houses the frame) is polymer.  The P11 holds 10+1, the 40 holds 8+1, in double-stack mags.

Originally the P11 trigger broke at about 10 1/2#, later production lightened that to 8 1/2#.  I haven't measured trigger let-off, but it feels as if it's in the range ofÖmaybe 27#.  What can I say, I'm spoiled, I normally carry a Kimber.  OTOH, I learned to live with an AMT Backup DAO as a back-up gun.  My gun's serial number indicates it should have the lighter trigger.  The travel is  l o o o n g.  Okay, it's long, it's hard, and it's not particularly smooth.  The Kel-Tec Owners Group home page has a number of tips and tricks that can be accomplished to smooth out the trigger pull, but I suspect even those tricks won't turn it into something comparable to a finely tuned Smith trigger pull.

Oh, well, it isn't a target gun.

Anyway, my plinking experience showed the gun is capable of reasonable accuracy.  Slow fire at 5-7 yards either hit or scared heck out of several shotgun hulls.  Rapid fire, things seemed to open up a bit, but didn't appear unreasonable.  Function was 100%.

I'll have to put some groups on paper the next time I'm out, to see how poi relates to poa, and to get a better handle on its accuracy.

This is a very light gun, but the double stack mag requires a grip frame of sufficient width that the recoil is spread over a wider area of the web of the hand than would be the case with a single stack design.  As a result, recoil, while brisk, wasn't painful, and follow-up shots were not a problem.

So, overall, this is not a Sig, but it's not an $800 gun, either.  Locally new ones are running in the range of $219-289.

For a person on a tight budget, who is looking for a simple, fairly easy to shoot back up or easily concealed gun, and doesn't want to go under the .38Spl/9mm floor, The Kel-Tec may be an appropriate choice.  The trigger will take some getting used to, in order to be effective, but then the same could be said of the .38Spl snubbie revolver that might be that person's choice otherwise.

Both Kel-Tec (CNC Industries) and the Kel-Tec Owners Group (KTOG)(an emerging cult <G>) have web sites, both sites have more detailed information than I've given above, and are worth a look if you're considering a P-11 or -40.

I'll report on accuracy results after more thorough testing.

The above was written about three years ago.  I never did get around to doing any meaningful accuracy testing.  My P-11 will put holes in a paper plate at 5-7 yards consistently, and that's really all I care about, for this type of gun.

This gun is now four or five years old, having been in my possession now for about three years.  For the first year I shot it fairly often, although I didn't ever bother to keep a count of the rounds through it.  The previous owner didn't shoot it much, as he found it uncomfortable.  A realistic estimate of its history is probably about 1500 rounds, based on my memory of component purchases.

In that time, it has never failed to function reliably, for me, using factory ammo.  On two separate occasions, with separate shooters, it has failed to cycle.  (I don't recall the exact nature of the failures)  In both cases, factory ball was used.

I developed a load using a 122 gr. truncated cone bullet, which initially gave me a few fits.  It was somewhat finicky about the overall length of the cartridge.  Once that issue was worked out, that cartridge has been 100% reliable.

Given that history, I consider the gun to be as close to reliable as needs be.

Based on comments from other owners, my experience apparently is not universal.  I've had two acquaintances who have had major problems getting their P-11's to function reliably.  This, to me, is unacceptable in a self-defense tool, which is what I consider this gun to be.

Acquaintance number one chose the do-it-yer-ownself method of problem solving, and after numerous conversations with the factory eventually worked out his problems.  Not trusting the gun, he swapped it off, as soon as he had been able to get 100 rounds to go through it with no failures.  Acquaintance number two had his gun back to the factory.  That gun came back within a reasonable time, and has worked 100% since its return.

It's still my opinion that the Kel-Tec can be a good choice for a person who wants an inexpensive gun for self-defense.  With one caveat: a person must thoroughly test his gun with the ammunition he intends to carry in the gun.  While there seems to be a significant percentage of the guns that come out of the factory which are less than totally reliable, every one I've heard from, who has reported having to send their gun back for adjustment has gotten it back quickly, with no further problems.

To read another review of the P-11, click here.