Range Report - Keltec PF9

The last trip to the Range was a cornucopia of shooty goodness, and a chance for me to celebrate diversity in my own, cordite-wreathed way. The Keltec PF9 demonstrates the importance of not discriminating on the basis of size.

Now I don't carry a pistol, but this would be a neat one if I did. It's tiny, but gives you 7 rounds of 9mm europellet goodness in double action semi-auto.

It's so small, that I couldn't really use a two handed grip. My left hand interfered with my trigger finger. Expect to shoot one-handed with this.

7 yards, 13 rounds (more or less two mags), slow fire. I should have tried rapid fire, as any serious action you'd get at 7 yards while you were carrying would likely be (ahem) hurried.

Rapid fire with this would likely be all over the map, until I got used to it. There are two reasons:

• This pistol is snappy. Since it weighs (ballpark) half as much as the Springfield XD, and shoots the same round, the recoil is twice as pronounced. Sir Isaac Newton will not be denied. Getting back on-target took more concentration than with a heavier pistol.

• The trigger is double action only, so it's a long trigger pull. In many ways, it felt like shooting a revolver, which was interesting. I'd expect that this is something that you'd get used to after putting a hundred or two rounds down range.

The iron sights seemed OK (IOW, I don't remember either particularly liking or disliking them). Given that I seem to be somewhat persnickety about sights, there's a good chance that you won't mind them, either.

If you want to use this as a carry piece, expect to practice with it more than with a larger pistol. It's plenty small and compact, and the recoil should be controllable once you're used to it, but it seems more like driving a sports car than an SUV. Light weight, nimble, manual transmission. Kind of fun, actually.