The vast majority of concealed carry firearms nowadays shoot 9mm parabellum and feed from detachable box magazines located in the grip. They operate using the time-tested short recoil system pioneered by John Browning and Dieudonné Saive in the Browning Hi-Power.
These guns come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and hues, but they are all, at their heart, really about the same. By contrast, the KelTec PR-5.7 is something entirely different. It's no surprise given KelTec's history of unconventional designs.
- You want a light, high-capacity carry pistol
- You prefer soft recoil and an optics-ready slide
- It loads from the top with stripper clips, not magazines
- Light 27-grain ammunition may struggle with an optic fitted
KelTec PR-5.7 Features and Design
Nowadays, it seems anybody can identify as pretty much anything. Folks declare themselves to be mythical beings, fictional characters, dogs, cats, and birds. As curious as that might sound to a traditionalist like me, the KelTec PR-5.7 is sort of a rifle that identifies as a handgun.
The PR-5.7 is chambered for the zippy little 5.7x28mm bottlenecked round developed for the FN Five-seveN pistol and the P90 submachine gun.
Despite the diminutive 4-inch barrel, this gun will still push those adorable little 27-grain bullets to around 2,000 feet per second. The 40-grain sort move at around 1,600 fps.
The PR-5.7 packs twenty of those hyperactive rascals into the grip. To keep the gun ridiculously thin, it actually eschews a removable magazine. You load the PR-5.7 via a pair of 10-round stripper clips from the top.
The gun’s sole external control is a left-sided catch that locks the slide open for loading. That’s it.
The PR-5.7 orbits around a novel short-recoil mechanism that uses a rotating barrel to effect lockup. There is the neatest star-shaped lug system milled into the far end of the barrel that corresponds with slots cut into the inside of the slide. The end result is reliable while taking up very little space.
The gun fires via an enclosed hammer system that offers a consistent long 4.5-pound trigger pull from the first round to the last. The sights have three bright white dots, and the slide takes a micro red-dot optic.
There is a length of Picatinny rail for accessories, and the frame is nicely textured for reliable purchase even when you might not be at your best.
That’s all kind of boilerplate. Anybody with a functional Internet connection can harvest that stuff off of the KelTec website.
What really sets this gun apart is its intrinsic carry-ability. While I appreciate that’s not technically a real word, it gets the point across all the same.
KelTec PR-5.7 Size and Weight vs. a Glock 19
The PR-5.7 is just a hair over seven inches long. By comparison, a Glock 19 is about 1 inch longer. A standard GI M1911 is 1/2 inch longer than that.
The KelTec gun is only 5 inches tall. Its width at its widest point is 0.937 inches. In the world of modern concealed carry iron, that’s positively anorexic.
What will absolutely rock your world, however, is the gun’s weight. Unloaded, the PR-5.7 weighs 13.86 ounces. Now, let’s put that in perspective. A GI M1911 pistol weighs fully three times that.
The PR-5.7 weighs the same as four standard gerbils. When first I started packing this thing for real, I had to keep reaching back to make sure it was still there. Be forewarned, if you are a daily concealed carrier, this gun will spoil you rotten.
Carrying the PR-5.7 Every Day
Sloth is one of Christendom’s Seven Deadly Sins. The Latin term is acedia. Loosely translated, it means a habitual disinclination to exertion or rank laziness. I always thought of myself as kind of the fundamental opposite of that.
I am seldom the smartest guy in the room, but I have an exquisite work ethic. I have always prided myself on seeking out challenges. If I am faced with a binary choice and cannot make up my mind, I will always pick the harder of the two options. And then I met this thing.
I carry a gun whenever I’m not asleep or in the shower. I like to say that the safest place in any crowd is standing right behind me. The particulars have helped fuel a modestly successful career as a gun writer.
My pocket carry gun is one of those adorable North American Arms mini-revolvers chambered in .22 Win Mag.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have successfully packed a Smith & Wesson Model 66 .357 Magnum as well as a vast array of full-figured M1911 automatics concealed underneath baggy clothes.
I started carrying a PR-5.7 some months ago, and, truth among us, I am really struggling to go back. This is the first serious concealed carry handgun I have ever used that I can honestly say is actually comfortable.
Life is forever a compromise. I get it. The assumption is that anything lightweight and easy to carry is going to be miserable to shoot or ineffective downrange. Well, I thought that, too, until I met the PR-5.7.
How to Load the PR-5.7 Stripper Clips
The PR-5.7 comes with two reusable polymer 10-round stripper clips and a pair of corresponding thumb pushers. Loading the stripper clips is stupid-proof. If you can make your own toast, then you are lyrically overqualified to run this gun.
Lock the slide to the rear via the handy slide lock. This is easy to find as it is, literally, the gun’s sole external control. Then rock the stripper clip into the built-in stripper clip guide and shove the round stack down from the top.
Snatch out the empty clip and do it one more time, and you can be done. For the overachievers among us, you can manually feed one more cartridge if you hold the follow-on round down with your thumb as you close the slide.
Shooting the PR-5.7: Accuracy, Recoil and Ammo Cost
There really is nothing to remember. This is the classic point-and-click interface. The trigger is light but long for safety. The manual of arms is a single sentence — draw the weapon, point it at something scary, and squeeze.
Yes, these little 5.7mm micro-bullets don’t hold a candle to your favorite .45ACP in the "knockdown power" department. However, did I mention you have 21 of these diabolical little monsters on tap? And that in roughly the same physical footprint as a typical .380 pocket gun.
This gun is so smooth and so pleasant that it is actually work NOT to shoot stuff multiple times. Take your time, and the PR-5.7 will group inside an inch at across-the-room ranges all day long.
Run it like you mean it, and you can have five or more rounds on target in the same time it would take to plant a couple with a heftier piece.
As the PR-5.7 is just so ridiculously placid on the range, practice and plinking are positively recreational. The only real problem is the lofty price of 5.7x28mm ammunition. However, an economy of scale is actively addressing that across the shooting spectrum.
If bought in bulk, 5.7x28mm blasting bullets will set you back about 50 cents per trigger pull. By contrast, 9mm ball is admittedly about half that. However, suck it up and pick up 450 rounds or so, and that should last you a while.
In addition to the PR-5.7’s legendarily benign comportment, it also offers a wide variety of ammunition options. FMJ and polymer-tipped bullets are fairly cheap and plenty spunky.
Elite Ammunition offers high-end exotic lathe-turned projectiles made from hardened copper. These little monsters look like the sabot rounds fired by an M1 Abrams tank and offer some otherworldly penetration.
The basic gun was reliable with everything I fed it. The PR-5.7 comes ready to accept an RMSC Shield red dot.
However, I found that the slide sometimes failed to close with the red dot mounted when fed lightweight 27-grain fodder. Even with the sight installed, the 40-grain sort ran like a Congressman after money.
Is the 5.7x28mm Enough for Self-Defense?
This really is the best time in all of American history to be a gun nerd. Modern manufacturing techniques produce quality firearms at unprecedented low prices. Additionally, every time we foolishly elect an anti-gun administration, the industry veritably explodes. That’s a bit counterintuitive, but it is nonetheless true.
Rivers of ink have been spilt over the nebulous topic of stopping power, whatever that really is. Truth be known, any pistol is going to be less effective than most any rifle.
At appropriate ranges, most any rifle will be less effective than most any shotgun. The KelTec PR-5.7 puts some of that rifle-grade secret sauce into a trim, compact package that you can easily hide underneath a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
I’m a physician. I have seen quite a few people shot. I have, admittedly, never personally seen anyone shot with a 5.7x28mm round. However, 21 of these energetic little beasts should be enough to make any evil-doer rethink his life choices.
KelTec PR-5.7 Price and Availability
I saved the best for last. The MSRP for the PR-5.7 is only $399. Unlike some previous KelTec offerings, the PR-5.7 is actually widely available, as well.
Radically innovative and just cool as can be, the PR-5.7 is the lithe, powerful, high-capacity rifle that identifies as a handgun.
KelTec PR-5.7 Range Performance
| Ammo | Group Size (inches) | Velocity (fps) |
| FN SS198LF 27-gr JHP | 0.75 | 2.023 |
| FN SS197SR 40-gr FMJ | 0.75 | 1,601 |
| Fiocchi 35-gr Polymer Tip | 0.65 | 1,720 |
*Group Size is best four of five rounds fired off of a sandbag rest at 10 meters. Velocity is the average of five rounds measured by a Garmin Xero C1 chronograph.
KelTec PR-5.7 Review: Final Verdict and Score
- Best group of 0.65 inches at 10 metres
- 13.86 ounces, a third of a 1911's weight
- 21 rounds of 5.7x28mm on tap
- Only 0.937 inches wide at its widest point
- Carried daily for months and stayed comfortable
- $399 MSRP and widely available
- Slide can fail to close on 27gr with a dot fitted
- 5.7x28mm runs about 50 cents per round
- Stripper-clip loading is slow to reload in the field
- Product Origin
- Manufacturer Sample
- Test Type
- Range (groups from a sandbag rest at 10 metres) plus several months of daily concealed carry
- Ammunition Tested
- FN SS198LF 27gr JHP; FN SS197SR 40gr FMJ; Fiocchi 35gr polymer tip
- Instrumentation
- Garmin Xero C1 chronograph; groups best four of five rounds
- Magazines
- Internal 20-round; two reusable polymer 10-round stripper clips with thumb pushers
- Accessories
- RMSC-footprint red dot fitted for part of testing
- Malfunctions
- Slide sometimes failed to close on 27-grain loads with the red dot mounted
- Tested By
- Will Dabbs, M.D.
- Range Data — FN SS198LF 27gr JHP
- Group Size (in): 0.75; Velocity (fps): 2,023
- Range Data — FN SS197SR 40gr FMJ
- Group Size (in): 0.75; Velocity (fps): 1,601
- Range Data — Fiocchi 35gr Polymer Tip
- Group Size (in): 0.65; Velocity (fps): 1,720
- Caliber
- 5.7x28mm
- Action
- Short-recoil, rotating barrel
- Barrel
- 4 inches
- OA Length
- 7.16 inches
- Height
- 5 inches
- Width
- 0.937 inches
- Weight
- 13.86 ounces (empty)
- Grips
- Polymer
- Sights
- 3-dot fixed; RMSC optic cut
- Finish
- Flat Black / FDE / OD / Blue Titanium / Bronze
- Capacity
- 20-round internal magazine (21 with one chambered)
- MSRP
- $399
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