By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- Toby Obermeit, Lead Design Engineer at Kel-Tec, holds a PMR-30 magazine. That magazine holds 30 .22 WMR cartridges. The design is popular, with Kel-Tec shipping 500 of the pistols each week.
I talked to Toby at the Shot Show this week. He and Kel-Tec recently obtained a patent on a new magazine design that would create an even larger capacity for the .22LR cartridge. It would fit in a pistol grip, with a preliminary capacity of 33 rounds.
Toby said that Kel-Tec CNC has been granted the patent just a few weeks ago. It is specifically aimed at the .22LR. The one pictured in the patent drawings holds 33 LR cartridges, but would likely fit in a regular pistol grip. The patent is a departure from Kel-Tec’s more common practice. Kel-Tec has generally followed the strategy of getting product to the market, rather than filing for patents. Here is the abstract from the patent. From uspto.gov:
Abstract from the patent:
Double stack magazines have a tubular body defining an elongated passage and a lower and upper end, a floor plate element connected to the lower end, an elongated separator element within the passage, a follower defining an aperture receiving the separator element and movable within the elongated passage, a spring within the passage having a first end contacting the floor plate, and having an opposed second end contacting and biasing the follower toward the upper end of the body. The separator may be a rod spaced apart from the body surfaces. The spring may be spaced apart from the separator element. The spring may be a coil spring having multiple winds, each encompassing the separator element. The separator element may be medially located in the body. The separator element may be positioned to define first and second stack passages between the left and right side walls and the separator element.
It makes sense to me, in that the rod keeps the two columns of rimed cartridges separate, while using only a single spring system. Knowing Kel-Tec and Toby, I assume that it was prototyped with a 3D printer.
Toby made no promises as to when a product might come of this patent. He said that it would be at least a year in the future. I expect that it will take at least a year. The market is still hot, and product is flying off of the shelves. There is less incentive for innovation when profits are high. Still, Kel-Tec has been a leader in getting innovative products to the consumer.
I have often thought that there was a lot of space inside .22 LR pistol grips that was not being utilized effectively. A 30+ shot full sized .22LR handgun with a 5 inch barrel, threaded for a suppressor, and weighing about a pound, would be a very nice backpacking and general field or “kit” gun. A simple blowback design would allow for multiple barrel lengths and configurations.
I would like to see arrangements for an optical sight. A small reflex pistol sight would work nicely. A fixed barreled .22 pistol with an optical sight might be usable for small game to 60 yards.
c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.