#P11

Just as Shot Show 2020 was getting underway on January 20th, KelTec announced via their website and YouTube channel that the venerable P11 would be discontinued. The KelTec P11 was produced in 1995 and was the first double-stack polymer-framed subcompact pistol to be brought to the market. In true KelTec fashion, the companies YouTube channel gave the aged subcompact pistol a well-deserved sendoff that had me laughing throughout.

Today, the lightweight pocket 9mm handgun market is flooded with options, with that configuration being one of the major “weapons of choice” for the contemporary concealed handgun carrier. However, in the 1980s, it was a different world. Those few who carried firearms on a daily basis generally preferred to carry revolvers, either larger service-sized firearms, or smaller snubnosed .38 cal “detective” models. Detonics, a company whose name elicits excitement from handgun geeks all over due to their at one time unique catalog, developed a pocket 9mm handgun in 1985, ten years ahead of the Kel-Tec P11 that jumpstarted that market in the mid-1990s. Detonics’ gun – appropriately called the “Pocket 9” – was a commercial flop (being cancelled in 1986), but its innovative design makes it today a special rarity sought after by handgun collectors. Ryan Michad, host of the Firearm Radio Network’s Gun Guy Radio and Handgun Radio shows, takes a look at the Pocket 9 in a video embedded below: