I have had the opportunity to put only about 700 rounds through the Keltec PF9 so far. I will just say that I am starting to come out of the honeymoon phase I was in after the initial 500 rounds. I do not dislike the pistol, nor do I feel that it is not a good pistol. I think I am just starting to get a better feel on who this pistol is best for and where it sits in my collection. My recent experience with the PF9 gave me a bit of a realization about what this pistol is all about.

Before I begin sharing what I think of the PF9, I need to disclose an experience I had. This did not necessarily affect my decision about this pistol but it is something I consider to be very important. Recently, I was shooting the PF9 and the hammer spring broke at around 600 rounds, rendering the gun completely useless.

I called Keltec with the intent to send the pistol in, but found out that it would take at least 5 weeks to get it back. Yes, 5 weeks away from home at the least. Apparently the pistols in front of me were going to be non-emergency tune up jobs. Apparently Keltec has not set up a triage procedure where emergencies and warranty repairs are taken in with higher priority than someone wanting internals polished.

I was extremely displeased about this, so I decided to work on the gun myself. Now I will say that the customer service representative was very courteous. I waited 5 days for the part to come in the mail and found that working on repairs myself was probably a better option anyways. It is not a complicated weapon and the design is straight forward. In ten minutes, I easily replaced the hammer spring and was ready to shoot again.

Now with the disclosure out of the way, let me get into my thoughts about this pistol overall. The PF9 was designed to be extremely light, yet durable and usable. I think it does that quite candidly. As you shoot the pistol more and more, the recoil goes down and your technique/skill goes up exponentially if you are doing your job. I found that my skills across the board were better with other pistols after spending alot of time with the Keltec PF9.

For this reason, I believe that this pistol needs a special owner. It needs an owner that is understanding of what it was designed for, what it requires in terms of skill, and someone who is patient and knows how to work on pistols. This pistol is not something I would classify as a good beginner pistol. This is a pistol for experts and people who will accept what this pistol was meant for. In short, this pistol is kind of a specialist gun. It is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who lack patience or good sense. The warranty on this pistol is one of the big saving graces of this pistol. Keltec does a good job of taking care of their customers, but I can not ignore the fact that they would take 5 weeks, at the least, to change a spring.

If you are interested in this pistol, I would recommend that you realize that this pistol is a shooters pistol, as I mentioned. I don’t regret the pistol, and I rather enjoy shooting it. But, it is important that you realize that this pistol is a specialty pistol designed to fill a specific role for a specific shooter with a very specific set of needs.

It kicks pretty good, has a challenging trigger for the less experienced, and can be difficult to understand at times. But it is the lightest and slimmest pistol that holds 7+1 that I know of. It is not meant to be a highly modified race gun, but an inexpensive pistol that will be there when and wherever you need it. If you know what you are doing, I think the Keltec PF9 could be a very good asset for little investment.

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