Go see it on the Big Screen. Bigger the better. This weekend… Go.
Armchair Quarterbacking: Kel-Tec
It’s time for another Armchair Quarterbacking session of another Gun Maker. This time, I aim my sights on Kel-Tec.
Kel-Tec CNC, Inc. is a small gun maker out of Florida that specializes in building some very affordable little guns, and some guns that are just crazy enough to be absolutely brilliant. One thing I admire about Kel-Tec is that they are clever and not afraid of trying something completely different. And because of this some things are quite all there. Not every piece of pasta sticks to the wall. But over all, it’s really a home run. However, it’s time to take them down a peg, and then bring them up a few notches, if you know what I mean.
Let’s start with the Branding. From the perspective of a former 9 year Gun Dealer and dealing with the general gun buying American consumer, there is room for some work. I’m glad they took the US Flag out of the logo. I’m not saying that I’m tired of the Flag, but Old Glory shouldn’t be used in anyone’s marketing. The new logo however still has the red stripes, hinting at the flag that’s some place in negative space behind Kel-Tec. It even has some angle built in there to make it almost look like “action lines”. Moving forward… speed… That’s good. But the name in the logo is Kel-Tec. One of the most misspoken, misspelled names out there next to Burnelli. Let’s clean the name up, clean the logo up… and make it just “KT”. Maybe even with an angle. KT. Let’s try that in bold… KT. Solid. Simple. And hard to screw up. Throw in those red action lines behind that. HK, XD, FN… Those work, and KT works too. We want a new face for this brand once we are through… so KT is good to go. Moving on.
Let’s go down the list of guns. First one, the SUB-2000. Generally the public has a love it or hate it response to the Sub-2000. What does the “Sub” mean? Don’t answer that, no one cares… But people do ask that at the gun counter. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question, I’d take my wife out to a lobster dinner. In France. And I wasn’t even a stocking dealer. Here’s the thing… This is a clever little carbine with a lot of spunk. If it were a dog, it would be a Jack Russel. I mean that as a compliment. Let’s first fix the name. Call it the S2K. The KT S2K. Just typing that, the hard core Gun Guys are going to readily and automatically know what that is. Because that’s what a lot of us call it anyways. You know what? Let’s take this gun up a notch, and end up calling the new version the KT S3K. Let’s start by getting rid of the folding trick. It’s really costs more sales than it’s garnered because most guys just didn’t like it and ended up picking something else. Anything else. Even the Hi-Point Carbine. Sure, the Sub-2000 has it’s fans, but it’s got more detractors. Which is why you don’t see them in everyone’s gun vaults. Let’s make it a fixed receiver, with the barrel threaded securely into a beefy steel block for best accuracy, like your SU-16. A trunnion (that means on a pivot) mounted barrel just gives a lot of people the creeps. Give it a monolithic top rail. This gets rid of the rear sight wedge thing. You show a tubed fore-end on the site, so I know you can do it… but I’ve never seen one in real life. The new hotness is a tube that goes all the way out to the muzzle. Do that. Let people decide what flip up or fixed sights they want on this. That’s what the people with the money to burn are buying. You don’t really need a muzzle break, but do it anyway. Because that’s what people with money are buying. Not an A2 style, do something that looks high tech. And then recess that and make the fore-end deflect the blast back forward. They are doing this with AR’s, you can figure that out here. Now instead of rails, leave it round, but use pre-threaded holes and rail sections so the customer can do whatever he or she wants with it. Redesign the pistol grip to be more like an PF-9’s grip in appearance and feel. That’s a good grip. It works, so pass it along. The Sub-2000 – S3K carbine can really use that. Contour the receiver’s looks to bring it up to date as well. The old one looks terrible. The stock needs to look more up to date as well. More like the new Battlelink Minimalist stock, and let it have a little adjustment for length of pull. To simplify things, I’d drop the number of magazine options to one. Glock. If you have to have two, then Glock and Beretta. Because those mags are cheap and abundant. You can do all of this and keep the price low… MSRP can be 699 and guys would line up to buy it.
The SU-16. This is the Football Bat Rifle. You have the SU-16A, B, C, CA, and D, and they are all F, U, B, A, R. The Integral bi-pod is a pain in the membrane. Get rid of it. Any accuracy this thing can have is ruined with it, and if you grip it inconsistently. Give this the same free floating barrel treatment that we just discussed with the S3K. No more different versions, and get rid of the Grandpa’s Shotgun stock. Give it an AR Grip attachment point and sell it with a basic A2 grip on it. For the stock, give it something that looks like its off an ACR or SCAR or a G-36. Don’t do an AR stock here… you can Side Fold… Underfolding is a poor choice if you can Side Fold with some rigidity. Even Underfolding AK’s are less popular. Do this and the SU-16 will become quite popular very quickly. Also, the name… The Sucks 16? That’s what a lot of guys are calling it. Let’s get rid of that badge. Give it a good trigger pull, some nice looks on the receiver and call it KTR556. That sounds like it’s going to go out and kill shit. That’s not something that sounds like it sucks. Sounds more like it’s some Predator Murder Weapon. Now get rid of all the other versions, and only offer the one… The KTR556.
The RFB. Take every RFB you finish, and send it to Crusader Weaponry in SLC. There, Crusader can do the permanent Slipstream Treatment to the internals of every single RFB before it ships to customers. Better yet, buy Crusader Weaponry, move them to Florida lock stock and barrel and have them turn the RFB up to 11. That’s it. Done. Don’t touch anything else, unless Crusader wants to Cerakote them. Which is a great idea and should be done. So do that.
Okay, and now for the thing that is missing from your line up. The 5.56mm version of the RFB. Where is it? I’ve not seen that yet, and this is wrong. You need to fix this.
The KSG. I completely fell in love with the KSG at SHOT Show when I saw it and handled it. And then some time later, I finally had the chance to shoot one. Oh I was looking forward to that so much… and then I stepped up to the firing line. Imagine lusting after Scarlett Johansson, and then you finally get to slow dance with her… and you find that she has the body odor and breath of a 3 week dead trout. I’m not a mechanical engineer, but that gun needs more work than an 84 Audi Fox running on only 2 cylinders. The main problem from what I’ve seen in the guns I’ve dealt with… Things are binding up inside. My suggestion for the RFB should also be applied to the KSG.
The PF-9. Don’t touch it, it’s great.
The P-11. Make it look like a double stack PF-9.
The P-32. .32 Auto is useless. The only thing worse is the .25 Auto and the only thing worse than that, are the people who like .25 Auto. Change it to a .22 LR and call it the P-22. And make it look like a little PF-9.
The P3AT. Make it look like a little PF-9.
Okay, now that you’ve done that, rebuild them all into Striker Fired pistols because all of these triggers flat out suck. No, really. They do. They just do. Look, I love these little guns, seriously. But the triggers have been what has been holding these things back from being as awesome as they could be. The Double Action Only thing was fine for Kel-Tec, but for KT, it’s got to be next level. Knowing how you guys think outside of the box, I would be surprised if you didn’t already have a striker mechanism designed.
Now, there is a hole in this line up. Where is the full sized, duty worthy, double stacked auto? A PD-9 and a PD-40. You guys are more than capable of bringing out something new that can run with the big dogs. Something wild and different. I’d be surprised if it didn’t look like something off of that Oblivion sci-fi movie. I bet you guys have something up your sleeves. Throw it down. If not, do it. Soon. Very soon.
The PLR-16. Give it an A2 Grip, so people can swap that out for their favorites. The rest is good. Activate the Crusader Plan on these too, just for good measure. The .22LR version, consider the same things.
Okay, now the for big one. The PMR-30. First off, why in Hades Underworld do you not have a .22LR version of this? Whatever you are doing, drop it, and make a .22LR version. While we’re at that, forget the 4.2” Barrel, and roll it out to a full 5”. For both versions. But especially for the Magnum. Anything people are doing with the PMR-30, they can do better with that extra inch of barrel and sight radius. .22 Mag will also gain a good advantage from the longer runway. Same with the .22LR. So just do that. The rear of the slide is just so incredibly hideous that it causes the same madness as prolonged exposure to Cthulhu, or Congress Woman Fredrica Wilson. It just hurts to look at and you can’t really tell how to fix it other than to just scrap the whole thing and make one that looks like… oh… I don’t know… A GUN. Browning has this figured out on the Buckmark pretty well. Regular ridges and it has two nice “ears” that really help in charging. The barrel on the PMR-30 is a hot mess… Beef it up to keep some weight on the muzzle end, help accuracy, and help with the thermal dynamics. Or, contract with Tactical Solutions out of Idaho to do your barrels. They make some seriously accurate, tac-driving barrel. But still, the PMR-30 needs some beef there. Not a lot, but more than it has. By about 100%.
There is something about the polymers that you guys use that just look… like they are made from recycled AK Mags. I know the stuff is tough. I watched a P-11 take both axles of a Chevy 2500. It was my P-11 actually and it was on the back bumper when a helpful soul decided he was going to move my truck for me… He lurched forward, causing the gun to fall, and then backed over it. The gun was just fine. This was out in Utah Deserts at a super secret shooting location. Dirt, rocks, BFG A/T, didn’t even leave a mark. But it still looks lower level. Now the options are to change the polymers… which isn’t really necessary. Or coat the polymers. Which is a damn fine solution. Cerakote everything. Added Value. And add some profit. Cerakote the frames early on in a mass production method and there you go, cost effective and simple, and the guns are going to look so much better that everyone is going to want to shove one down their pants.
This brings us to the last problem. Actually two problems. First is your Production Capability. You don’t have any. The PMR-30, RFB, KSG… People have been waiting to get them. You are not making them fast enough. Now, while you could expand your factory and hire more people and invest in production capability… It might be better to subcontract production to a company that has capacity. Even if just for bottle-neck causing parts. Or even whole frame assemblies or slides. Whatever you do, you have got to get your Production numbers up. And your Quality Control. Ramp those up. And Secondly – Your Distributor Only sales model. Oh, it’s easy to go D.O. But D.O. is a No Go for many Dealers who stock guns. Remember when I said that I wasn’t stocking them? I wasn’t because there was no margin in them. I’d order them for customers on request, but I made nothing on those sales. So I had no incentive to sell them. I had more incentive to nudge the customer to something I had on the shelf. Distributor Only works for Ruger because there is enough nationwide demand to drive those sales. Kel-Tec doesn’t have that. Let’s look at FN. I was a full line stocking FN dealer. We had everything from pistols to bolt action rifles, FS2000’s and PS-90’s… We had all of them and loved selling them. And then FNH decided to drop the Direct to Dealer business model and go Distributor Only. Essentially giving their Dealers the Middle Finger. We stopped ordering FN. And were soon out of FN. The only FN gun we had requests for was for the Five-seveN pistol, so we kept getting those in… when we could. But everything else… those nice Patrol Bolt Rifles… Sorry. We sold Remington Tacticals instead. At that point we were #4 in the State of Utah. A dealer of that magnitude dropping your line? Ouch. And we were not the only ones. FN took a shot to the nuts because of that. You open up to Direct to Dealer Sales and push those dealer incentives… Your sales will increase. Your profits on those sales will increase. Because there are no smarmy middlemen to take all the margins.
Keep up the good work, KT. Keep pushing those new ideas. Keep being awesome. We love you guys and wish you balls to the walls success.
D&D
I want to play a game of D&D with Vin Diesel, Jack Black, Felicia Day and Rob Zombie. DM’d by Christopher Lee.
Who is your Celebrity D&D Party?
“Problems”
“One of the problems that we see…” – Anonymous Firearms Instructor.
I’ve heard that phrase a lot by different Instructors. (I’m not going to name names) What follows this is an explanation as to how everyone else in the world is wrong because they do something slightly different than the way this instructor teaches. It’s not a “Problem”. It’s just different from your Kung-Fu. There’s nothing wrong. Nothing dangerous. Nothing inherently slower. Different isn’t a Problem.
Some instructors seem to think that students are paying money to learn to be just like them, to learn their Trade Mark Visual Style. Yet they never seem to be able to explain why they are doing something a certain way or how their technique is an improvement over what you are already doing.
A good instructor should be able to Teach the Technique and Explain it from start to finish with their reasons and rational behind it. That’s the mark of a good instructor. Or at least one of them.
I’m going to throw out a couple names here. I could name a bunch, but I’ll pick just two. Travis Haley. Rob Pincus. These two guys are pushing the bleeding edge of Firearms Training, and both are very excellent at explaining a technique and the reasons for it. Now, both of these guys come from different backgrounds and have different techniques for doing things. So which one is right? They are both right, because neither one of them are wrong. Both offer exceptional training and education. Both are well worth listening to. And Both are who I consider the the best Trainers in the industry. Because they both look at problem from different perspectives, think them through based on experiences, and have come up with their own solutions for them. Neither have watched other people’s training videos and ape them like they are reciting ritual without understanding the reasons for the technique.
Sopranos Health Care
It started out as Free Health Care. That whipped the unwashed, low information masses into a frenzy. Got a lot of people in on this idea. Garnered a lot of support. Then they changed it bit by bit. “You can keep your old plan.” And “You can keep your same Doctor.” While never telling anyone that in fact, no, it’s not free.
Then it turned into something else… Like something out of the Sopranos. It’s more like, “So, you’re gunna buy this health care policy. You have until the end of the year. Or else.”
Unless your part of The Family. Then you get exemptions. It’s universal for everyone else.
This is like a Mafia style Protection Racket. It’s not lowering the cost of anything. In fact, for most everyone, it’s more expensive. A lot more expensive.
I fully expect to hear Joe Biden come out and say “That’s a nice Health Care Plan you have there… I’d hate to see anything happen to it.”
I hate Conspiracy Theories…
Some of the biggest and most asinine conspiracy theories out there are really getting on my nerves.
9-11-01. The Government was in on it.
No, It wasnt. 9-11 happened because everyone was asleep at the wheel. Flight Instructors to Federal Agents. All the signs were there and nobody said anything. Interagency communication wasnt happening. No one really cared because it was a different world at the time. No could actually imagine such a thing really happening.
The Colorado Theater Shooter was a false flag attack. No. The Government doesnt need to randomly kill people… unless they dont obey the Capitol Police in DC… That was an act of an individual who went crazy. Probably did some drugs. Lost his mind. Whatever happened to him, there was no Smoking Man behind it. It wasnt a False Flag Attack. That catch phrase has been used, forgive the pun, to death and its not been the case.
FEMA Rail Cars in Wyoming. If you’ve not heard this one…. FEMA has prison rail cars to tranport prisoners to concentration camps, and they keep them hidden in Wyoming. Or Montana. Ive heard both. They often show a picture of an automobile transport railcar, which is unusual looking. They say the railcar is full of shackles welded inside. This is ludicrous. While FEMA does have refugee camps ready for use in the next Katrina Incident, they are not planning on Red Dawn Like Prison Camps for those of different opinions. They would have to imprison half the population. If such rail cars existed… as described… the people of Wyoming would burn them down to the tracks.
FEMA Coffins. Only partially right. They are grave liners that coffins go into. But its not FEMA behind these , its Morticians. And its not a conspiracy, its commercial business. Go ask a Mortician. Or not… because one day you will see for yourself. But it’s a nice conspiracy… The Government is going to bury everyone in nice sealed coffins now instead of the common mass graves. Thats American Exceptionalism at work right there.
Why Spam this?
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Submitted on 2013/10/06 at 8:48 am
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A lot of spam is out there to sell something… I got this spam this morning.
Oh, I deleted it as spam, because that’s just what I do, but I am also fond of the GTI, so I took a look. 1 Thread, 1 Post. This is the most useless spam I’ve ever seen. I just had to laugh. This is spam, just for the sake of spam.
Revolution or Civil War?
There is a difference between a Revolution and a Civil War in America. And I’ve heard a lot of Civil War talk being thrown out. Civil War is something that we absolutely do not want. It’s the ugliest of conflicts on ever level. However a Revolution is something that can actually have a positive outcome if done correctly.
Let’s look at a couple Revolutions that were deemed a success… The American Revolution and the French Revolution.
The French Revolution, was successful in it’s goal, was an absolute disaster for the country. The public beheadings was a horror show that should never be repeated in a civilized nation. They decapitated those that knew how to take care of institutions and infrastructure that basically set France back when they should have been stepping forward.
The American Revolution, is a good example of how to conduct as clean and efficient of a revolution as possible. When the political ties were broken, the replacements were already in place or planned. And time was taken to properly establish the new Government. This was not without resistance, and conflict quickly arose. In fact, the conflict had already started before a Revolution was declared. The famous “Shot heard round the World” was the unofficial start of it, and after that, it was debated weather or not it was a revolution or “An Isolated Incident”.
Right now, millions of people are waiting for another Shot heard round the World. The tension is in the air. The lines are drawn. However some people have not picked which side of those lines they are on.
To all members of the Military and Federal Law Enforcement.
Consider his is an Open Letter to all members of the Military and Federal Law Enforcement at every level.
What we are seeing is blatant tyranny by the Federal Government over The People. One National Park Service Officer said that he found the orders to be “Disgusting”. I agree. But I also found it to be even more disgusting that while this man knew what he was doing was wrong, that his orders were wrong, that he carried them out regardless. That is disgusting. Shameful.
You are serving as the tools of Tyranny. Never before has our nations very symbols of freedom been closed to the public. Never before has the government sought to hurt the American People so directly. The Lincoln Memorial is but a symbol. So is our Nation’s Flag. The Flag sewn to the shoulders of your uniforms, the flag that you salute, and the flat that you pledged your allegiance to… What does it mean to you? Anything at all anymore? Or is it just a source of your Pay Check while you say to yourself, “better them than I”?
Throw down the Barricades at the National Monuments. Refuse to follow these outrageous orders. Let The People enter the Capitol and let their grievances be heard.
Remember your Oaths.
Open the Barricades.
Essential.
They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
The Government is Shut Down. The biggest problem that I have with this is that they will eventually Re-Open. And that’s regrettable, however inevitable. Many things have shut down. Parks and Panda-Cams. Monuments and Mountains. Everything that they deem as Non-Essential. Essential things are of course still working. Soldier’s are still getting paid, and other things too important to stop. That’s fine. But this gives us an opportunity. We now have a Water Line for Government Services.
I submit that everything that is Shut Down should be examined. Is it really something that serves a valuable and necessary function or service? If not, and no one is really missing it, then why have it at all? And is this something that should be apart of the Federal Government?
Or should it be rolled back to a State Government?
Or should it be Privatized?
The Panda-Cam at the National Zoo. Privatize that Zoo. Privatize the Department of Education? No… That should be on the shoulders of the States. Grand Canyon? State. Dinosaur National Monument? States? Colorado and Utah working together? That’s not going to happen… they can’t even join Highway 40 together right – PRIVATIZE that shit.
I’m of the opinion that anything the Government can’t do better – should be done Privately. I’m also of the opinion that everything that is Not Essential – Should be Privatized. If it couldn’t be sustain through a Private firm’s management, then contract Halliburton or something to operate it. Freaking Girls Scouts can run a business better than The Feds.
Just look at the SNAFU that is Obamacare on the first day of operation. The Feds should stay out of it. We’ll all be riding horses if they get their tentacles into Auto Insurance as they have Health Insurance. (No need to mention how they have fucked up Flood Insurance too)