P17 First Impressions
KelTec is rightfully one of the kings of polymer firearms, and the P17 clearly fits the bill. The gun is mostly made from a glass-reinforced nylon with minimal metal outside of the slide assembly, barrel, springs, and a host of screws that hold the entire thing together.
It’s simple and amazingly light when you get it into your hands. The gun just doesn’t feel quite like any other gun I’ve taken to the range. It’s strikingly lightweight yet offers a generous 16+1 capacity. Better yet, the gun comes with three magazines and is suppressor-ready.
The P17 is the kind of gun that I would expect to find in a lifeboat when stranded at sea or tucked into a survival kit. It’s affordable, but it offers capacity, weight, and cost benefits that make it an appealing option for a rainy “zombie apocalypse” kind of day.
Specs & Features
The first and most obvious characteristic of this gun for me was the weight. At well under a pound, the P17 is a minimalist design. The gun is hammer-fired with a simple blowback action. Basic disassembly is similar to many other blowback designs, despite all the screws in the frame of the gun. Just hold down the front disassembly tabs, rack the slide rearward, and lift to pull the slide free. The metal barrel is fixed, so no need to fuss with that. From a field-cleaning perspective, that only leaves you with two parts for basic maintenance.
Even with the gun’s unassuming weight, the recoil is barely noticeable with .22 LR ammo. I could shoot this gun all day with barely any fatigue. It feels almost like an airsoft pistol – to be completely honest – but it’s a joy to shoot. The front high-visibility fiber-optic green dot is easy to see in high sun or shade, and the rear is adjustable and cut to reduce glare.
The P17 falls into the compact size with a very lightweight design that offers just enough grip area for me to get a solid grasp with all fingers. I have somewhat larger hands, but the gun is still comfortable. I find the addition of Picatinny rail at the front a bit ambitious for a gun that falls well inside the budget category. Though, I guess there’s no real reason not to have the plastic molded for a rail anyway, right?
The handle has the classic KelTec “gator grip” paneling. It’s aesthetically pleasing but provides only a basic level of “grippiness” to the gun. Given the weight and the caliber, controlling the P17 was never an issue.
Here’s a list of the basic specs:
Weight (With Mag): 0.8 pounds
Length: 6.7 inches
Sight Radius: 5.14 inches
Barrel Length: 3.81 inches
Height: 5.25 inches
Width (widest point): 1.21 inches
Trigger Pull: 2.44 pounds
Capacity: 16+1
Thread: 1/2x28 TPI
The trigger pull has a light travel of 0.3 inches, some squish to the wall that is 0.16 inches, and what I would call a semi-crisp break. The reset is just 0.18 inches. It’s only slightly tactile and a bit quiet – no doubt thanks to all the polymer parts – but I never had a short stroke.
There’s a fully ambidextrous safety and magazine release. The slide stop/release is only on the left side, though I rarely used it because I prefer to rack the slide. The release is also rather small and awkwardly positioned high on the pistol’s frame. I figure it is more for manually locking the slide to the rear than anything else. As a hammer-fired gun, there is red paint on the rear of the hammer that acts as a cocked indicator. It’s visible through the rear channel on the slide assembly when shooting.
The mag release is a paddle-style one, and I find it is easiest to just use my trigger finger to operate it. I have to slightly adjust my grip if I want to release the magazine with my shooting-hand thumb. Paddle releases are not my favorite, but sometimes they are the better option. The pistol grip is thin enough that my entire hand covers the grip. If that paddle was a button, I would likely criticize it as something that’s easy to bump on the range.
KelTec’s polymer pride is on full display with the P17, and even the magazines are non-metallic. For what it’s worth, I didn’t notice any wear on the gun after my testing, and the ambi thumb safety remained positive and easy to use.
I think it's fair to call this a budget gun, but KelTec did open some interesting doors by offering it with a 1/2x28 TPI threaded barrel. The gun has that 16+1 capacity, is extremely lightweight, and .22 LR chambering could make it a great candidate for a suppressor.
There are lots of screws holding the entire thing together. That is what you should generally expect from KelTec. I never noticed any of them walking themselves loose during testing, but I still recommend checking them after high-volume shooting sessions. If you find one that is getting loose, the solution is simple. Add a drop of Loctite, tighten it, and move on.
Range Time & Accuracy
I’m sitting at a wide variety of .22 LR rounds through this KelTec without cleaning. I took it straight from my gun shop to the range, and I have been generally impressed with its performance. I have air-powered guns that “kick” more than the P17. But there are other features that I find even more appealing.
The sights are simple but fast to use in sunlight and dimmer indoor ranges. The magazines are easy to load, and the slide racks with very little effort. So far, I have experienced three malfunctions across 750 rounds. Two were light loads that failed to fully cycle the slide.
That ammo was from an old stash of .22 LR, and I could feel that the rounds were somewhat sluggish and underpowered. Those ended in easy-to-clear stovepipe jams. My third and final malfunction was a failure to extract. At that round count, I’m not unhappy with the reliability for budget bulk-pack .22 ammo. I also ran some CCI Velocitors, Federal Punch, and Aguila hollow-point rounds through the gun just to see how it handled non-target loads. Reliability remained solid.
The gun isn’t a bullseye shooter, but it has some accuracy chops. At just over 5 inches to the sight radius with a short barrel and lightweight design, it was never really meant to win any accuracy competitions. That said, most of my shots fell in the red at 25 feet, and I ran three mags through rapid-fire drills that provided decent accuracy and reliability for self-defense purposes.
Where Does It Fit In?
I have this crazy dream that my wife and I will become range buddies. She’s somewhat open to the idea, but she generally dislikes most of my handguns and suffers the common curse of being a left-handed shooter. Most guns, especially with manual safeties, just don’t work well for her hands.
The P17 breaks the mold for her. It’s almost the perfect trainer for inexperienced shooters – righties or lefties. There is barely any recoil, the sights are decent and easy to pick up in high sun or low light, and the gun is easy to load and operate.
The design is intentionally basic with just a simple blowback action. It breaks down into just two main parts – slide and barrel/lower – making this hammer-fired pistol quick to clean and simple to assemble and disassemble without tools. I personally never cleaned it during testing, but it kept chugging along. Since there are few metal parts, I had zero fear of corrosion issues as well.
Given its extremely lightweight design and affordability, the gun is also a clear candidate for a go-to plinker, backup, emergency, or survival handgun. I wouldn’t put it on my duty belt before going out on a patrol, but it would be a welcome companion in a pinch when weight, capacity, and simplicity are lifesaving qualities.
Pros & Cons
Here’s a quick list of my pros and cons for the P17.
Pros:
- Very lightweight design
- Light trigger pull
- Reliable
- Cheap to shoot
- Ambidextrous controls
- Threaded barrel with adapter
- Accurate
- 16+1 capacity with three mags
- Simple and easy to maintain
- Low recoil
- Mechanically interesting and fun
Cons:
- Some people dislike paddle mag releases
- Lots of screws
- Minimal metal parts
-
Small slide stop/release
Final Thoughts
I’ll caveat the following statement by acknowledging that I bought this gun with my own money already. It’s been hanging out in my safe just waiting for its chance to hit the range. It’s not my favorite to shoot, but I do shoot it pretty well. It’s fun. It’s very easy to control on the range for long shooting sessions, and it’s just as easy to clean.
For the price, I really like it. There are more solid .22 LR options out there for backup guns or tactical trainers. The Taurus TX22 comes to mind. But KelTec has hit the nail on the head when it comes to a survival/plinking gun that’s low maintenance, lightweight, easy to shoot, offers a large capacity, and is affordable to boot. The price hits that point where you can tuck it away for a rainy day or occasional range therapy with no guilt.
I have zero intentions of selling it, and I expect it will be a go-to option when it comes to teaching other people how to shoot handguns for the first time.
