KelTec PLR16 review: 1,000 rounds through the 5.56 pistol

Key points: KelTec PLR16 review 1

• The tested gun is a $889 package bought with the channel's own money: KelTec red dot, Magpul angled foregrip, pistol brace and a Picatinny rear stock adapter — priced against a Glock-plus-red-dot setup, and explicitly a sample size of one.
• Reliability over roughly 1,000 rounds of 55-grain plinking ammunition came to one or two malfunctions, with one of those in the suppressed string of fire.
• KelTec advises against suppressing the PLR16; the host ran a HUXWRX flow-through can on the 9.2-inch barrel anyway, reasoning that back pressure is the real objection, and found the gun heated fast and the recoil turned punchier.
• Controls are the weak spot: a bolt hold-open on the magazine with no bolt release to pair with it, a single-side magazine catch, and no ambidexterity — his workaround is reaching over the receiver with a middle finger to run the charging handle.
• The trigger surprised him for a KelTec, with a quick reset and better split times than the SDP he also owns, and he would run the low-mounted rear peep sight over any optic.
• Zytel is the whole trade: it is why the gun is so light and why it breaks — he snapped the pistol brace torquing a suppressor off, and while takedown on the captive rear pin is simple, reassembly is fussy enough that he would not want to do it under pressure.
• The verdict is a cheap, light 5.56 for a truck, a side-by-side or a hiking pack — run slick with brace and irons — and not a firearm to bank your life on; released in late 2005 by KelTec founder George Kellgren, it has almost no screen history beyond Gamer in 2009.

About this Gun Review video

KelTec PLR16 review after roughly 1,000 rounds of 55-grain 5.56: Administrative Results bought the $889 package — KelTec red dot, Magpul angled foregrip, pistol brace and Picatinny rear adapter — and reports one or two malfunctions, a trigger and reset better than expected from KelTec, a magazine-mounted bolt hold-open with no bolt release to match, simple takedown that is fussy to reassemble, and a Zytel brace he snapped himself. The verdict lands on a light, cheap truck-and-backpack 5.56 rather than a gun to stake your life on.

Transcript: KelTec PLR16 review