Photos of what looks like an advertisement for a yet-to-be-announced KelTec firearm have begun to circle around on social media for what would be one of the company’s most interesting products to-date.
The ad is for the KelTec P50, a large-format pistol chambered for FN 5.7x28mm that accepts P90 magazines. The flyer even calls it the “Most unique KelTec yet!”
It’s easy to see why. The P50 is totally futuristic and looks like a movie or video game gun. It’s not just eye-catching, it looks extremely functional, with a long barrel and 50-round P90 magazine slotted in the middle of the action.
While this looks like a pistol in the legal sense, the design of the receiver and pistol grip extension could also support a stock or brace, making the P50 a potential successor to the original FN P90 personal defense weapon, or PDW.
The design looks like it has two main components, a polymer lower receiver assembly that contains the fire control parts and provisions for a forend and 6-o’clock accessory rail and a ventilated, metal upper receiver, with a partial-length rail over the length of the barrel for optics and other top-mounted accessories.
The P50 appears in-line with the construction methods often used at KelTec, with a clamshell lower and a stamped or extruded upper receiver. It even sticks with KelTec’s telltale waffle-pattern gip texture.
Furthermore, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a listing for a KelTec P50 trademark dating back to February of this year. So this is more likely real than not, and the only question is, when and if KelTec announces it.
It stands to reason that this may have been slated for a late 2020 or an early 2021 announcement since that would have been right around the time of the NSSF’s upcoming SHOT Show, which unfortunately has been canceled. KelTec is a prominent participant at SHOT Shows and often showcases new and exciting products at the event.
See Also: The KelTec CP33 ‘Most Innovative Gun of 2019’
KelTec likes to push boundaries at these events, putting guns on display that really highlight the bright and curious minds within the company. This would absolutely qualify as a show-stopper for KelTec.
That isn’t a guarantee, though. While KelTec has a solid history of new and interesting designs, not all of their cool ideas fully materialize. It wouldn’t be the first time for KelTec to start marketing a product before putting it into real production, and sometimes that means paper launches.
But this looks like a clever idea and it doesn’t appear to fall at all far out of the realm of possibility for KelTec’s engineering and manufacturing capabilities. Fingers crossed, we may in time see something come from this early leak.
For more information about other interesting and innovative KelTec products, visit them online.
Looking at it i wonder if the upper pivots forward like a break barrel and the mag is then locked in.when you close the upper the mag is encased and ready to rack and shoot.the barrel looks long enough to get some velocity which is what 5.7 needs to do its work.with the mag not in the grip you can make it ergonomic to ladies and hand them a magnificent defense gun.
Sadly (or not, depending on your perspective), this is fake. While KelTec may have a “P50” design kicking around, this cant’ be it. The magazine is upside down, thus feeding from the top. If you look, there’s no room for a bolt, or a firing mechanism behind the magazine. While we don’t have a picture of the other side, it also looks like there’s no way to actually remove the magazine short of disassembling the gun. The P90 magazine base plate is an “I” shape, with the narrower middle serving as a guide. There’s a locking catch near the feed area that would prevent that end from rotating (P90s have the magazine lever in from the top, not swing in).
Your assessment is not really correct. The magazine is indeed upside down but only when compared to how FN utilized it. Upon closer inspection, you can see that the barrel is situated ABOVE the magazine, which would in fact require it to be placed upside down. In addition, there does appear to be room for a small bolt and guide rod/spring assembly, especially if it is a flexible system that curves downward. The picture, even if fake, would be technically possible to be engineered into a working firearm.
While I’ve only just learned of this topic a few minutes ago, so I’m probably one of the least qualified to speak on it, I feel you are incorrect. Less so about whether its real or not, but your reasons stated for how it couldn’t be real.
P90 mags are spring loaded, so whether its upside down or not, doesn’t matter a whole lot. As for there being no room for a bolt or firing mechanism, that entirely depends on if you are comparing this to standard operating firearms, like AR15’s or AKs. The fact of the matter is, this is a 5.7, while still a decently high pressure cartridge, as long as you have good lock up, you could realistically have a “bolt” be a small chunk of steel no larger than 1/2in. It would just require some precise trickery with the other parts of the system. Which you can already see taking place, via the recoil spring being on the outside of the barrel, forward of the chamber, instead of behind the barrel. (visible through the vents) You can use the “Korobov” TKB-022 firearm as an example of a firearm that looked like they had an impossible allowance behind the magazine, but were very solid designs. While I’m unsure if there were any that had live rounds put through them, the concept for how it functioned is a strong one, and in theory, could work extremely well.
As for your claim that P90 mags wouldn’t be able to rotate in, that too is not entirely the case. While yes, the P90 was designed for a lever in insertion like how you stated. It would be entirely possible to create a rotating base on the firearm, where the magazine could “lever” into place, before the magazine could then be rotated into final position, locking it into the firearm. As you stated we can only see a singular side of this firearm, which means that the other side could support such a rotating lock-in feature. Again, it would require some trickery, but it would be very possible to someone determined enough to make it work. KelTec has wowed us with some impressive designs in the past, and will likely continue to do so.
All this being said, I would like to point out, that I’m arguing that this firearm is “possible”, NOT that it would be a well functioning firearm, or a even a real one at that. Regardless of how you feel about KelTec, they’ve come up with some of the industries most interesting firearm designs, and I’m excited to see how this one might turn out.
Now that Kel-Tec has officially launched this pistol, I’ll bet you feel pretty dumb right about now huh? BWAHAHAHA
Put me down for one. But since there’s no ammo I’ll see if I can convert it over to shoot spit-balls …
Nice but who can afford to shoot it? 50 rounds of the least expensive 5.7×28 on ammoseek.com comes to just under $100 before taxes and shipping.
I’d rather have my CP33. Mag dumps are under $5 bucks even factoring in crappy 3X priced .22 LR.
It’s actually about $30 for 50 rounds. I have the P90, also the Five-Seven pistol, and the Ruger 57, which all shoot this cartridge. I would buy this. The 5.7×28 is a very interesting round.
No better than 9mm what’s so interesting about that
WOW,I like it!
not really practicle when one can’t find ammo. And if you do the price is over the top to worry about a 50 rd mag. 1 box a mag. $50 a box. Chris Rock comes to mind. Bullet control. lol
If only we could get the price of 5.7 ammo down…and availability/choices up.
About 50c/round at the best of times…forget an ammo rush. And that’s for the cheap Federal rounds.
I’d get one if the price is reasonable. Just for fun.
Could they possibly have made it more ugly? Seriously- how much brain power did it take to create this thing when they knowingly must have studied every ugly firearms designs in the last century to come up with this.
I want!
Way too big & ugly ! I’ll stick with my FN …. if your worried about saving $ on ammo a 5.7 is not a gun you should be buying in the first place.. a 57 should be maybe your 4th or 5th + handgun at the most someone should get to their arsenal