Breaking in a 3AT
I recently purchased a Kel-Tec 3AT and am curious if my results are typical. I have shot it on three occasions. First time out, I put 50 rounds of Remington UMC FMJ through it. I had two instances where the round didn't feed fully and the slide was open about 1/4". All I had to do was bump the back of the slide with the palm of my hand and it was good to go. On the second session, I had the same issue on four rounds with the same ammo. I also put 15 rounds of Hornady XTP through it with no problem. Yesterday, I put 50 more of the Remingtons through it and had six of the misfeeds and also had three instances of the empty casing not ejecting and the gun jamming. I've cleaned and oiled the gun after each use. I know that after only 165 rounds, the gun isn't close to being broken in and I've basically only tried one brand of ammo, but it seems like the gun's performance is getting worse each time instead of better. I'd be interested in any thoughts or suggestions on the issue.
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Sounds like you may be leaving a little oily residue near the chamber/breech, and it is filling up with fired powder and other crud.
While shooting just before the "jam", are you relaxing your grip?
When clearing the jam, did you eject the round, reload into the mag, and try again, or did you just stuff it back into the chamber and fire?
Are the "bad" rounds the last ones in the mag?
Do you 1-hand it or use 2 hands and a secure grip?0 -
The Remington ammo is probably a major part of the problem. Try other brands, specially the higher quality stuff like the Hornady you used previously. 0 -
To clear it, I've been able to drop the magazine and have all the unfired rounds come with it. Then I work the slide to get the empty casing to fall out. There isn't any unfired bullet to reload. The bad rounds are usually the third or fourth in the magazine. I am using a two hand grip and have a slip on rubber grip cover, so I don't think I'm having a "limp wrist" problem. I figured the cheap ammo was part of the problem, but I was curious why it handled the first box fairly well then had so much trouble with the last box. 0 -
Not atypical.
I've seen that exact same problem with a different Kel-Tec 3AT pistol.
Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to figure out what was going wrong, but the suggestion about it being ammo dependent seems plausible to me.0 -
Try different ammo. When I got mine I put 50rounds of lead ball through it to polish the feed ramp. Then 50 FMJ.
Mine feeds Fiocchi XTP-HP good.
My feed ramp needs some work to feed WW Silvertip.0 -
The feed ramp has to be polished bright with rubber bonded abrasive wheels (Cratex) for reliability.
The chamber can also be polished with emphasis on the upper surface where a chambering bullet first contacts it.
Even though polished, the ramp gets smoked up in short order and bullets hang up on the ramp.
Wolf has more powerful slide springs, I'd recommend these.
I use powerful SantaBarbara TC ammo and stiff handloads along with Wolf's strongest springs in mine.0 -
My PD is about to prohibit secondary and off-duty use of all Kel-Tec guns due to a large number of malfunctions on the range. 0 -
I bought early models of their P3AT, P11 and p2000. Of the three the P2000 was the one that functioned flawlessly with any ammunition and any Glock magazine.
I had to do a lot of abrasive polishing and spring adjustment to get reasonable reliability from the pistols.
They're not Glocks, 1911s or Browning HiPowers you can shoot forever without cleaning.
I suspect these pistols would be most reliable using Powerball ammo.
The plastic ball imbedded in the bullet nose should give least friction going up their steep barrel ramps.0 -
My P3AT stopped having feeding issues once I performed a "fluff & buff". Take a look at the KTOG message boards for all the info you will need. It isn't hard to do and doesn't take a lot of time. I think it'll help, but it does sound like your ammo is a big part of the problem. 0 -
Thank you for all the responses. 0
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