Some say the key to developing a new firearm is to start with a good, reliable magazine and then build a gun around it. In the case of KELTEC’s new P50, they’ve not only found a good magazine, but a very high-capacity one in the form of FN’s 50-round P90 mag . . . and they literally built a pistol around it.

Two of those P90 magazines come with every 5.7x28mm P50, which are slated to begin shipping later this quarter.

I give it zero months before the retro futuristic P50 finds itself on a movie production set. How darn cool is that P90 magazine just chillin’ right down there in the middle of the P50?

And you just gotta love flipping up the belt-fed machine gun-style heat shield top cover to access the magazine below. Clearly this doesn’t make for the fastest magazine change on the market, but it just might be the most fun.

Worthy of note: in a FN P90, the magazine faces downward, while in the KELTEC P50 it’s facing upward.

If you aren’t familiar, yeah, the P90 magazines are pretty weird. They’re a double-stack, box-style magazine right up until they aren’t. Designed to fit along the length of the weapon instead of perpendicular to it, a spinning feed system lifts and rotates the on-deck round 90 degrees and serves it up for the bolt to feed it into the chamber.

While it’s clearly more complicated than a typical magazine, that maxim of starting a gun design with a good, reliable magazine still holds true here as the P90 mags are both of those things. They’re easy to load, too, if slower than a typical mag. No worries about feeding slowly; they’ve never had an issue keeping up with fully automatic fire from the P90’s screaming fast 850 to 1,100 RPM cyclic rate.

Now all we need is for 5.7x28mm ammunition production to bump up. With the release of the Ruger-57 and the Diamondback DBX (FYI I just finished testing of the DBX and the full review is coming soon), we had high hopes this year of widely available, inexpensive 5.7x28mm.

That hasn’t come to pass. In fact, during the current ammo drought, we’re seeing exactly the opposite. I’m sure when manufacturers get caught up there will be a renewed focus on affordable 5.7, but right now ammo availability for the KELTEC P50 is my biggest concern for its sales prospects.

 

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80 COMMENTS

  1. Science fictiony looking. It will show up in some straight to dvd warriors of the wasteland type movies shooting fake, poorly done, cgi rays.

    Odd looking, that.

    • Not odd, it is UNIQUE, at least according to the advertising. I am not as sure about the adaptable or retro though. It would be more adaptable if it had a way to attach a brace or stock. Not sure if it has a threaded barrel. At this point all barrels should be threaded. At least anything other than a pocket pistol.

      Not sure how it is retro unless the PS 90 is retro. Retro sci fi I guess.

    • I disagree. It’s not odd looking, it’s damn butt ugly. And, I LIKE Keltec’s innovations.

  2. A pistol that holds 50 rounds? Hee-hee, I can just here Mommies Demand shrieking from here. Especially 50 rounds of 5.7. Everytown (I think) has already labeled that particular round a “Cop-Killing bullet” or some such rot.

    It will be interesting to see if Kel-Tec can produce anything near demand. The old joke about Kel-Tec having 3,000 marketers and 3 actual gun makers isn’t without some truth.

    Personally, I want to see more platforms in .22 TCM. That round interests me a lot more than 5.7.

    • I once owned a Calico gun with a 50-rd helical feed 9mm mag. No longer have it. I hope this KelTec has better ergonomics than that Calico did.

      However…that Calico had the absolute simplest takedown I’ve ever seen in any gun I’ve handled.

      • And Calico’s ultra-compact roller-delayed blowback BCG, which doesn’t require the HK’s ridiculously complex receiver, is the epitome of elegant engineering.

      • I still have a Calico 100 round .22 with the folding stock and all. It was never reliable to shoot through many rounds before the mag had to be taken apart and I finally just put it back in the box and it’s in the basement somewhere. I don’t even remember why I bought the damn thing- just about any .22 auto is reliable to shoot. Hope the KelTec is a better toy.

        • wanna sell it cheap? Ian from forgotten weapons has pretty much proven that it is spring touchy on the mag, and that if you can read and not wind it up til it won’t turn that it is actually pretty reliable.

          Manufacturers instructions are to wind it a specific number of turns…

          I’ll give you $25 for it no questions asked – here allow me to send my FFL address to ship it to.

    • The Rookie,
      I agree completely about .22 TCM. It does everything that 5.7 does (and more), except for the excellent P90 magazine. I cannot grasp 5.7’s appeal in conventional, fence-slat sized magazines.

      • What has driven people away from .22 TCM is that the ammo is completely proprietary, so selection is limited, the cost is kept artificially high, and if the patent locked ammo factory has a problem your gun becomes an expensive paper weight.

        If they would open up ammo production to buffalo bore and other ammo mfgs then their gun sales would more than make up for the lost ammo profits and they wouldn’t look like cheap, short sighted, douche bags…

  3. FYI, the empties eject out of the top, note the region of “picatinny” that’s missing slot cuts. That “beaver tail flangy thing” is the mag release/break open lever that unlocks the top cover.

  4. Well that’s cool…but it’s a KelTec. I was profoundly unimpressed with the QC of my 2 Keltec gats. Went to a LGS I hadn’t been to in awhile. Pelcher’s in Lansing,ILL. WORST PRICE GOUGING AMMO(& gun) prices I’ve EVER seen this side of Cheaper Than Dirt! Oh well…

  5. Interesting but I think pointless. I know how much a fully loaded 50 round mag weighs, I own a PS90. I suspect it would take two hands to shoot it anywhere close to accurately. Might be fun to shoot once.

      • I thought of that, too. I found myself looking at the aft end to see if it has a mini-Pin rail for mounting a light, folding stock. But no.

        • IF they didn’t design this pistol to be easily SBR’d the engineers failed miserably. Assuming it’s reliable, A gun like this needs only a can and a stock.

          Kel-Tecs are hit and miss when it comes to quality and function, but they are almost always well engineered and creatively designed.

        • gdc reports it has qd sling mounts at the bottom of the grip and at the back of the receiver. I can absolutely guarantee that somebody will be making a QD Brace system as soon as they get some measurements…

      • In which case, why not just SBR a PS90 and be done with it? Don’t get me wrong, this thing is interesting, and it’s nice I have a ton of mags for it already, but… solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

  6. I like the DBX better mostly as it comes with a brace. A gun like this, to me, is much more attractive with a brace or a stock. I am wary of Keltec’s QC issues but have not experienced them with my KS7.

  7. Have you people actually forgotten about the STARGATE series? Amanda Tapping always looked hot while packing an FN P-90. Colonel O’Neil always looked like the flat toothed, grass eating castrati that he is. I bought my wife a FN PS-90 as a housecleaning gun to compliment her AKS-47.

    • +1 Love that series. I think I’ll have to watch it through again, now that it has popped up on Netflix again.

      • I once had an epiphany while standing in my half mile long driveway with the slide locked back in my Smith and Wesson, CS 45.
        If you stop on the way to using your children to school to shoot cyotes, you might be a redneck.

    • Oh yeah, Amanda Tapping was the center of that show, smoking hot center!

      Those were some fun Sci-Fi years ! 🙂

  8. With 50 round capacity mag change speed is irrelevant. If 50 rounds ain’t enough you didn’t bring enough to the fight to start with.

    • It’s something on the order of two and a half to three regular pistol magazines. So yeah, you’ve got some ammo. It’s always nice to have more, but 50 is not a small number.

  9. Already have a P90 SBR, so this seems a little pointless. And knowing how big a P90 mag is, this is one long pistol.

  11. I want one so bad even if just as a wall-hanger.
    It’d look boss next to my KS7 and Cx4.
    Maybe by the time these are available in the wild ammo will be come back to the shelves.
    Or, it’ll be the first thing listed in the 2021 AWB.
    Perhaps I should buy a dozen P90 mags just in case.

  16. If I were Sec Def, I would allow all service members to choose their sidearms. These would make sense as a PDW as well. 50 rounds is enough to decide the issue or the issue won’t be decided with small arms.

  18. 1000 dollar handgun + no sights + no optic + cant carry + cant holster it + 180 cents a round ammo =
    a solution to a problem that only exists in the minds of people that are both able and willing to waste lots money on their firearms habit
    dollar for dollar and for what its actually capable of doing it might just overtake the mp5 as the most overpriced firearm in history

  20. Is there something special about 5.7x28mm or could the P90 magazines be adapted/designed to hold other calibers?

    I mean, if it’s a proven magazine design, it would be interesting to see it in other calibers / in other guns.

    • Its parallel sides suit the magazine better than most. I think 10mm is cylindrical enough, and believe that combination could make for the perfect PDW.

      I don’t think more tapered cartridges would be impossible, but you’d need a workaround Guide ribs for the extractor grooves might work.

  24. Dang. This looks like a souped-up Beretta U22 Neos. I want. Stimulus check in hand, here I come!

    • i’ve bought 3 neos pistols. and a cx4. and a ps90. and an sp22. and put a 10/22 in a zk22 kit. and 2 g22 carbines.
      this will make its way into my collection

  25. Looks like a sci-fi space blaster!
    Funny how Calico did the exact same thing many years ago in 9 mm

  27. First, I would like to thank you for putting up photographs that allowed me to blow them up to a point where I could start to discern some details about the design and execution. Much appreciated.

    Second, for those complaining of the price: This is how innovation happens. Cheap happens after you’ve gotten it correct and mass-produced. This is an interesting new development here.

    Third, consider the utility of such a gun in the event the Burn-Loot-Murder crowd comes to your door. 50 rounds in a low-recoiling handgun… could have some utility.

    • Keltec seems to have problems with both the mass producing and perfecting of their designs. They should partner with Ruger.

      • Keltec as a Ruger skunkworks would be super cool. Keltec would come up with the wild and crazy designs, and then Ruger would figure out how to build them so they’d be reliable.

        A Ruger refined a built KSG would be a hell of a thing.

  28. Could be fun as a carbine. Longer barrel, folding stock. Too expensive for me tho.

    Ammo too, now that 5.7×28 was pricey stuff before the panics (how panics are we at now anyway?). What the heck would I find to feed the thing even if I could afford it?

    But agree, innovative design efforts are worth hearing about. Gun technology did not get to where it is by only absolute winning ideas getting brought to the market.

  29. A Kel Tec KSG shotgun can unload 195 pellets of 00 buckshot. That should provide a warm reception for President Harris and her Senile Sock Puppet Biden’s constituents.

  30. Words to fear, “a new gun from Keltec”. You typically do not want to buy a Keltec in it’s first year of production.

  31. Noticing all the screws in what has to be an empty grip, so either Keltec or some after market company will likely have a way to brace it in fairly short order.

  36. I wonder if there might be some issues popping up, regarding selling it with 50 round mags? I ask, because the FN PS90-50 says available for Law Enforcement, they only list the 10 or 30 round available for Commercial and Law enforcement. And then there is the Select Fire version available for Military and Law Enforcement only.

  37. This makes me want to move to a free state where it’s legal. I’m in one of the half-dozen states where large, black pistols are banned as evil-scary-baby-killing-assault-weapons-of-mass-destruction. My state says this has at least 5 evil features and is therefore ultra-plus-super banned by the “assault weapons” ban:

    1) Weight greater than 50 oz., 51.2 oz to be exact (because being overweight is bad for your health?)
    2) A magazine outside of the pistol grip (because the location of the magazine somehow makes it more dangerous?)
    3) Threaded barrel (ooh, those threads make it extra dangerous!)
    4) Barrel shroud (the infamous “shoulder thing that goes up!”)
    5) Capacity more than 10 rounds

    • Also has those rails to attach a bayonet or grenade launcher, and it’s black and looks assaulty.

    • Now that the left has gotten away with literally stealing the election on all fronts there will be no free states left. Look at what they did to Arizona alone. Voter fraud throughout every faucet and now the state will be run by pro-druggie, Gun hating Commie trash.

  38. This thing has PDW written all over it. Small foregrip on the rail up front, sling from the back, light jacket for concealing, 50 rounds of 5.7

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