Kel-Tec Magazine Alterations

I told you before Buy-A-Gun Day that I had done my new-gun shopping early, and I found a Kel-Tec P3AT with a single standard 6-round magazine. It worked just fine.

But I was vaguely dissatisfied because the pistol is so small that it's difficult to hang onto it when shooting, and I would rather have another round or two loaded in the gun.




I want more ammo, and a better grip on the gun.




I decided that my single six-round magazine didn't meet my needs.

The six-round magazine had two flaws:

1. too few rounds in the magazine;
2. the pistol is so small, it's hard to control (because only two fingers actually gripped the butt of the pistol.

The solutions:



Buy a magazine extension (extended base pad) to increase the magazine capacity, and buy a Grip Extension base-pad to provide a leveraged gripping surface for a third finger.



Of course, because I only owned the one magazine (the one that came with the pistol), I needed to buy at least one more magazine for the extended magazine capacity.

And because I wanted to have one magazine in the original configuration, I bought a second magazine for the Grip Extension base-pad.

So I bought 2 new magazines from Kel-Tec, plus the magazine extension, plus the grip extension.


When I put the magazine extension on, I found I couldn't get the seventh round in the magazine.


And when I put the grip extension in, I found that the six-round magazine capacity was compromised. The top two rounds wouldn't chamber. Instead, the slide would lock back. I had to take two rounds out before the slide could chamber a round, essentially reducing the magazine capacity from six rounds to four rounds.


(I have to admit, though, that the grip extension allowed me to grip the pistol with three fingers, and the pinky finger reseted upon the point of the horn, perhaps providing more support to the grip. I'll have to try it on the range to determine whether this actually improves shooting.)

Here's what I know about magazines:

When I bought my Kimber Custom, I also bought some 10-round magazines (Chip McCormick). I could only load 9 rounds in them. The guy I was shooting with decided that was unacceptable, which it was, and he 'muscled' the 10th round into the magazines.

After that, they worked like true gentlemen and I never had another problem with them.

My hope is that the magazines just need a period of breaking in, and after that they'll work as advertised.

I note in passing that the magazines feel like they have burrs all over them. When I load them, there's the sensation that they are gritty. I'm sure there aren't burrs on the springs, and I cannot now account for this feeling.

I'll work them in the gun (as I have done a few times so far) until the magazines smooth out.

One more thing:

When I loaded the standard and the "Extended Capacity" magazines into the pistol, they seated close to the base of the grip.

But when I seated the "Extended Grip" into the pistol, three was a significantly greater gap between the top of the magazine base and the bottom of the grip.

Again, this may matter. We'll know more when I've shot the gun for a while.

If you're buying a Kel-Tec P3AT, you may want to delay buying 'special purpose' magazines until we know that the problems I've described may be resolved.

UPDATE: 01-MAY-2008
When Reader Don asked where I got the grip extension, I realized that I had failed to provide the links to the page on the Kel-Tec website where they can be found. The grip extension is a P-32 & P-3AT accessory, while the rest are strictly P-3AT accessories.

Don, thanks for the reminder. I just hadn't been doing my job.