So after a lengthy period of fever pitch anticipation over what new toys Kel-Tec would be bringing to Vegas, last week the gun-makers released some footage of the guys at the shop test firing a new bullpup model shotgun. It’s called the KSG. Guess what that stands for? The Kel-Tec Shot Gun (pretty clever, huh?).
The KSG will be Kel-Tec’s first crack at the shotgun market, and the compact, polymer-component heavy, pump gun looks like it will have civilian sheepdog and nervous home-owners lining up around the block to get a taste. The gun is as sawed-off as you can legally make it: 26.1″ overall length and an 18.5″ cylinder bore barrel. It’s also marvelously light at about 7 pounds, so it’s maybe something to consider for a short-range member of your tactical militia. And you can’t ignore that it’s just a slick-as-shit, spooky looking gun—like something you’d reach for if you were planning a high-society, European bank robbery—that, when racked a couple of steps from an intruder, is likely to make it’s point on sight and sound alone.
Twin internal tube magazines hold seven 12 gauge (2.75”) rounds a piece for a total of 14 shots. This allows for sustained firepower at shorter distances and a manually operated level on the trigger guard allows you the toggle between left and right tubes. A center position on this lever offers an easy clear option, which quickly dumps both tubes. The KSG comes equipped with both over and under Picatinny rails for the mounting of a forward vertical grip, or a light or laser and a menagerie of optic sights.
It’s clear to us from the clip that the KSG looks like Christmas to operate, but the first time we watched it we couldn’t shake the nagging feeling there was something hinky about the whole affair. So we watched it again, which succeeded in explaining nothing; however, the third time we caught it: there aren’t any spent shells bowing through the air.
Dig this— The KSG doesn’t deviate much in size and design from the super lightweight carbine the Kel-Tec RFB rifle. That gun craps out its spent casings in the front of the gun near the nose of the barrel. The KSG on the other hand ejects empties downwards, not forwards and definitely not up (you can catch a glimpse of them sailing down over the shooters left elbow with each pump). Thing is, we’re still totally confused as to how it works. It appears the action opens somewhere on the left side, which is strange for us righties. Looks like they got it so that as the elbow bends to work the action, the shell has enough room to sail over it. Perhaps our reporter will swing by the Kel-Tec booth at the SHOT show and clear this one up for us.
A price hasn’t been chiseled in stone yet but we’re thinking it will be around $800.
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