Bottom Line Up Front
BLUF: The clever rotary barrel and internal magazine set the PR57 apart from the competition, but the reliability and weight savings in a gun that can hold 21 rounds of 5.7x28mm NATO ammo are stellar.
I intend to add this flyweight 5.7mm to my collection. I need a 5.7mm gun in the safe anyway, but the fact is that this gun runs reliably, recoils controllably, and has great 25-yard accuracy that can even stretch out to 100 yards based on my testing.
Reloading is slower and a tad finicky until you get accustomed to the stripper clips. So, I wouldn’t take it to a mag-dumping tactical pistol course, but it will cut the mustard for practical concealed carry use at a reasonable price compared to other 5.7mm pistols.
First Impressions
Released in January 2025, the rotary-barrel PR57 turned a lot of heads when it arrived on the market.
KelTec markets the clip-fed PR57 as the everyman’s EDC gun that keeps things minimalist and simple in every way, except for the clever internal mechanics. I’ll cover those mechanics in the specs section.
Guns chambered for the zippy 5.7x28mm NATO cartridge are happily on the rise lately after years of limited options. Two of the round’s most notable features are its small diameter and high velocities. Those characteristics open lots of doors for cross-compatibility with handguns, PDWs, and carbines.
Update: 500+ Hour Long-Term Report
The PR-5.7 is one of the most unique pistols we've ever reviewed, but how does it hold up to daily wear and high-volume shooting? We carried this Kel-Tec for over 500 hours to see if the innovation matches the long-term reliability.
SEE THE LONG-TERM TEST
That small size is on full display with the double-stack PR57, which is still under an inch wide despite a 21-round capacity. There are a lot of interesting mechanics at play when it comes to making that slim physique possible, with a weight of just 0.87 pounds unloaded.
KelTec kept the grip relatively long but under an inch wide. That makes this flyweight design still feel substantial in the hand. However, the rotating barrel made it possible to run a very lightweight slide as well.
Related: 5.7x28mm – History or Zippy Future?
Other features, or lack thereof, help make this gun feel incredibly simple to operate. The squared three-dot sights are large and easy to pick up, and the only two controls are the trigger and non-ambidextrous slide release.
Since this gun hosts an internal magazine, there is no mag ejection button. It very much gives the gun a minimalist feel that is essentially a simplified carry package that just needs a holster to enter your EDC roster.
Light and nimble, the mostly polymer design still hosts KelTec’s improved and very positive Gator Grip textured scales. These connect the gun to the palm of my hand without irritating my fingers as they wrap around the front of the grip.
All in all, it still feels like a self-defense tool in the hand, despite its diminutive weight.
Specs & Features
Featuring a rotary barrel and internal magazine that make it unlike any other modern handgun on the market, the KelTec PR57 is hilariously cool from a mechanical perspective. Still, it proved to have some great shooting chops, thanks to the rotary design.
To handle the zippy 5.7x28mm NATO cartridge and keep the gun exceptionally thin and light, KelTec used a rotary locking/unlocking system for the barrel. This allowed the company to trim the slide down to a scant 0.93 inches wide.
It’s a feat of engineering that uses a clever operating system instead of focusing on an overbuilt breach, barrel, and slide. As a result, the company boasts that the PR57 is nearly 40 percent lighter than any other 5.7mm NATO pistol on the market.
Related: KelTec Sub2000 Gen3 Folding Carbine in 5.7x28 Review
It’s hard to argue with that claim. Once I got this gun in my hand, I couldn’t imagine a way to shave off even a single additional ounce. You couldn’t make this gun lighter if you converted it to feed on Ozempic and celery.
Even the weight when loaded with 21 rounds of 40-grain FN Gunr 5.7mm NATO ammo and topped with the Vortex Defender-ST 3-MOA ret dot is still only 1.29 pounds. You can compare that to the miniaturized 9mm Glock 26 with a 10-round capacity and an unloaded weight of 1.38 pounds without any accessories.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the basic specs for the KelTec PR57:
This is a single-action, hammer-fired gun, but the trigger and hammer work together very much like a double-action trigger. Pulling the trigger draws the hammer back to its fully cocked position before tripping the sear and releasing the hammer. Unlike a double-action trigger, the slide must cycle back to the rear and return to battery to reset the trigger.
There is some decent trigger travel before you can break your shot, which comes to a total pull distance of 0.68 inches on my gauge. The reset is similarly long. Still, I only caught myself short-stroking the trigger when I was attempting to run the gun as fast as possible and much faster than I can accurately aim and shoot, regardless of the long reset.
Here's a closer look at that trigger.
Such a long trigger pull impacts the gun’s long-range accuracy, but that was only when shooting beyond 25 yards. Within 25 yards, this gun-dot combo is surprisingly precise and allows for repeatable accuracy. Out to 100 yards, it can still do some tactical work with wide but on-target accuracy.
Spare clips are cheap, with a recent scan of available options coming up with two clips for $5.95, four for $9.95, and 10 for just $25.95. You will not find that with any other gun featuring removable magazines. Plus, with an onboard capacity of 21 rounds, the PR57 comes stocked with more ammo than most concealed carriers have on hand on a daily basis anyway.
Concealed Carry
Since this is a gun intended for daily concealed carry, I grabbed a holster the day it arrived. I’ve been carrying it on and off for the last three months.
The gun is light enough to go almost unnoticed on my beltline. The overall profile is somewhat larger than a Glock 19 at the grip. That would be an issue if the gun were just as thick as a Glock 19. It is not.
While the PR57’s large grip is broader than the Glock 19’s, the thinner profile keeps it snug against my body, even if I’m just rocking a medium-sized tank top.
Related: KelTec P15 Review – Featherweight 15+1 9mm Carry Pistol
The boxy shape at the end of the grip will print if I wear a tight shirt without the holster claw. With a claw, that grip gets tilted into my side and runs better along the profile of my stomach. The only time I notice it is when I go to sit down in a tiled bucket-style seat, like you’ll find in some low-riding cars.
On a scale of one to 10, I’d give the PR57 a solid seven for carryability. That is where I put my compact Glock 19, but above my full-size Glock 17. Its larger profile also puts it just a bit under the extremely easy-to-carry SIG P365. Though, the PR57 weighs nearly 0.25 pounds less than the micro P365.
Reliability & Accuracy
You might think that an extremely lightweight pistol chambered for 5.7mm would have some snap to it, but that’s not the case. The PR57’s rotary barrel and larger grip make it a very controllable gun.
The fixed, non-adjustable iron sights are easy to pick up, but I put a Vortex Defender-ST 3-MOA dot on the slim slide for most of my testing. Accuracy with that dot within self-defense distances has been fantastic, even with the long trigger pull.
Since this is a hammer-fired gun, that trigger pull includes some extra pull weight dedicated to fully cocking the hammer before firing. Even with the non-refined trigger, here’s what I was able to pull off at 25 yards when doing slow-fire accuracy testing with the Vortex Defender-ST:
My more practical off-hand shooting was done at 20 and 35 feet.
I find that accuracy to be fantastic for self-defense needs from a lightweight gun that comes with an onboard capacity of 21 rounds and a rather long trigger pull. Shooting those groups was also rather easy.
Shooting at truly long ranges was messier, but still effective. Here’s what I got with the PR57 at 100 yards using the flat-flying 5.7mm:
I’ve got 800 rounds through this KelTec PR57. That includes 500 rounds of FN Gunr 40-grain FMJ and 300 rounds of FN Gunr polymer-tipped 40-grain sporting ammo topped with Hornady V-Max bullets.
The only real issues I have had so far were mostly user-induced during the loading/unloading process. Since there is no magazine, you must either load one round at a time into the internal magazine or push in stripper clips holding 10 rounds each. There are only two ways to unload it: shoot all the ammo or manually cycle the slide until it is empty. There is a pin you can push out to remove the magazine base and spring, but it is not field expedient.
Near the end of testing, as I nudged past 800 rounds with no real cleaning in between range trips, I had a few hang-ups where the gun failed to fully strip and chamber a round. To my surprise, there was no real break-in period, with the first several hundred rounds running through the gun without issue. Obviously, if you were to consider this your self-defense firearm, it would be wise to give it at least an occasional cleaning. Regardless, overall reliability was solid and above average when compared to the last several carry guns I've tested
On a few occasions, early in the testing, I found that a misaligned polymer-tipped bullet would get jammed with a bent tip while loading. Similarly, when manually ejecting live rounds, you have to be careful not to cover the ejection port or half-rack the slide. Both mistakes can cause double feeds inside the gun.
Once loaded, the PR57 could be relied upon to go bang for me. My advice is to practice loading with the stripper clips, but don’t treat them exactly like spare mags in your pocket. They need a bit more attention from you during the loading process.
Luckily, the 21-round total capacity makes combat reloads rather unlikely in a typical self-defense situation. I do not have any issue trusting this gun’s reliability as a normal EDC carry gun if it isn’t being abused by the user daily.
Pros & Cons
Here’s my shortlist of the pros and cons for the KelTec PR57:
Final Thoughts
It’s not a tank, and it was never meant to be. However, the PR57 is a lightweight companion that comes with the comfort of an extremely thin profile backed by 21 rounds of the potent little 5.7mm NATO.
Just designing that kind of capacity into a gun this light and thin is impressive. But the fact that it also runs reliably and shoots with surprising precision deserves a tip of the hat. Mechanically interesting, long-range capable, and reliable are all reasons I intend to keep this feather-light pistol on hand for future use.
Ready to Buy?
The Kel-Tec PR-5.7 is currently in stock at Guns.com. Get the lightweight, 20-round 5.7x28mm power we tested in this review delivered to your local FFL.
