This month I’ll be going over another peculiar and successful oddity in the firearms industry. KelTec is a company which was born right here in America, back in 1995 in the state of Florida. Since the very beginning they have been introducing some of the most radical firearms designs ever seen. I remember back in the day wondering how well they would hold up. Now that we’re well past two decades and the company is going stronger than ever I would say they’ll be around for quite a while. In fact, they are continuing to develop some pretty amazing creations including the slimmer successor to the KSG called the KS7.
The KSG shotgun is not one of their newest offerings. In fact, it’s been around since 2011 and it still continues to turn heads. It’s appeared in over a dozen movies, TV series, and games and has the sort of profile which is very rarely mistaken as anything other than a KSG. What makes this pump action shotgun special is a couple of different features working in tandem.
The first detail is obvious: It’s a bullpup shotgun. There aren’t too many of these on the American market and fewer still which are domestically manufactured. The KSG is a very compact shotgun at an overall length just a hair over 26 inches for the standard model. While this may not be its most innovative feature it does help it to stand out right out of the gate.
Its real party trick comes in its dual magazine tubes. With 3″ shells, each tube can hold six cartridges. If you step down to 2 3/4″ shells, then it’s seven and seven. If you really want to stretch it out, you can use mini shotshells and put an absolute ton into a KSG. It will cycle them just fine and is guaranteed for a lot of laughs at the range.
Because the KSG both loads and ejects from the bottom, the shotgun is also completely ambidextrous. At the front of the trigger guard is a lever which can easily be pulled downward from either side with the index finger which frees up the action. A cross bolt safety rides right above the rear grip and is comfortably placed for a thumb. There’s also a third control which seems to be a little less known compared to the shotgun itself. At the front of the loading/ejection port there’s a small lever. This controls which magazine tube the shotgun will chamber from. A benefit to this design besides doubling your capacity without adding to the gun’s length is that you can carry two types of ammo at the same time and switch between them on the fly.
Other features include a Picatinny top rail and another at the six o’clock position on the forend for attaching a forward grip (which I would suggest,) a standard barrel length of 18.5,” a five pound trigger pull, and an overall weight of just under 7 pounds. Construction is a mix of metal and polymer, the impression I had gotten was that it was pretty darn solid. I’ve handled a number of KSGs over the years and have always been quite fond of them. Even better was being able to shoot one.
My range time involved a couple different varieties of rifled slugs from a more typical Winchester load to a lighter recoiling Remington offering to the Aguila Minishell, an adorable 1 3/4″ stump which is a total riot to send downrange. Even with heavier recoiling shells I found the KSG to be manageable and not too punishing so long as it’s shouldered correctly and not caught up on a necklace. Oops!
I found the trigger to be pretty darn good, especially considering that it’s a bullpup shotgun with some polymer pieces. Accuracy at 40 feet was a little difficult to measure considering a slug’s tendency to completely annihilate paper targets but with a red dot sight I felt like I was right where I wanted to be. The majority of the holes are all within an area about the size of my hand. While I cannot verify this I am mostly certain that the KSG has a cylinder bore choke, so it isn’t designed for taking down clays. Although with the KSG25, a 12+12 capacity monster with a 30.5″ barrel, you might have better luck.
If smaller is the name of the game, there are two stubby models, the Tactical and the Compact. The only difference is that the compact still has an 18.5″ barrel to avoid the tax stamp (or to give you something you can still have fun with while waiting for said tax stamp to clear.) These models naturally have a reduced capacity, 5+5 for 2 3/4″ shells and 4+4 for 3″ shells.
Loading the KSG is a little awkward. I find it best to flip the gun upside down. First you have to make sure that the slide is in the forward position, otherwise the bolt will get in the way. The mag tube selector has three positions. I believe the center position is for easier reloading but I found it works the best to flick it all the way over in order to give myself the most room possible as it’s a bit of a reach. The trade-off to such a large capacity is that you won’t be pulling any Three Gun tactical reloads here.
So the KSG is a fun, radical, and really distinctive high capacity bullpup twelve gauge. Surely there’s a catch? A few. To be perfectly honest I had expected a lot more, but overall this is a very solid little design. The first two kind of go hand in hand; it’s a bit portly and it’s a bit pricey. The dual magazine tube setup is really slick but it does add weight, bulk, and complexity. This is what has me so interested with the new KS7, it’s a single tube mag design and thus these two concerns are taken care of.
Mechanically, the one detail you really need to be conscious of with the KSG is that it will fail to pick up a new shell unless you work the action good and proper. This isn’t like an 870 or a 590 where you can just glide the slide and be ready to go. A KSG demands some muscle in the backward draw or you’ll be rewared with a click of an empty chamber instead of a bang. Cycle it like you mean it and you’ll be good to go.
There is one potential safety warning which comes with the KSG, as well. A vertical forward grip is highly recommended, both because some force is required to fully cycle and because if your hand happens to wander too far forward of the action there is nothing out there but muzzle. I’ve heard that some ranges have banned KSG’s because of careless shooters. The new KS7’s forend has an integrated handstop because of this.
Interestingly there seems to be quite the aftermarket support for KelTec firearms and the KSG is no exception. The model I was able to review already had some extra bells and whistles including an extended flash hider (or maybe a breacher brake? Honestly not sure but it looked wicked.) It had a polymer panel to cover the cheek rest area of the rear receiver, a nice touch given that this is normally bare metal. It had an extended mag selector lever which I feel should be a factory upgrade. The top rail had Magpul polymer back-up iron sights, an Aimpoint red dot sight and some manner of green laser sight with a “scattershot” pattern which worked perfectly for the gun. A pressure switch linked the laser to a folding foregrip. It was quite the imposing little monster, but with just two sections of rail there is plenty of freedom to trick out a KSG to your heart’s content.
I’ve even seen a few models at gun shows where the front caps for the magazine tubes were finished with steel spikes. Why? Probably because they looked cool. The muzzle device these models also wore always stood out further than the spikes so any practical application was right out the window, but they really did look cool.
My final verdict of the KSG is that it’s more of a range gun rather than a hunting, competition, or duty gun. The complexity and stiff action don’t lend themselves to quick operation, although a case can be made for duty use given that you can have two types of shells on tap. Its compact size would make it excellent for being a companion for close quarters use or perhaps while out in the woods. Where space is at a premium or capacity is paramount, the KSG has you covered.
KelTec’s primary strength lies in their innovation. They aren’t afraid to try new things, and as serious firearms enthusiast I always love to see what they come up with next.
