I can remember my first carry pistol like it was yesterday, even though I bought it more than 25 years ago. It was small, light, and accurate at reasonable self-defense distances; it was a KelTec P32, one of the many stalwart firearms in the KelTec catalog created by gun designer extraordinaire George Kellgren.
I carried that little .32 ACP pistol in a pocket holster for years, and still do on occasion, if the situation warrants a very discreet carry gun that has little chance of being noticed. I can truly say it has never let me down.
It's just one of many quality and innovative firearms to come from this Florida-and-Wyoming-based manufacturer, but how did KelTec, known today for its courageous and sometimes surprising gun designs, come to be?
A Little KelTec History
To tell the KelTec story, we must jump all the way back to May 1943 when George Lars Kellgren was born in Sweden. As a young man, George moved to northern Sweden to study engineering and in 1968, he landed a job in the research department of an arms factory.
When that company stopped making firearms, he went to South Africa for a couple of years before landing a job at Interdynamic in Stockholm.
One of the earliest gun designs he created while working for Interdynamic, the MP-9 submachine gun, was considered for adoption by the Swedish government, but was ultimately passed over and the gun never went into production there.
George took the design to the U.S. and reworked it to comply with the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). It was marketed under the subsidiary Interdynamic USA brand, which was operated by Kellgren, Carlos Garcia, and Mercedes Garcia.
“In the early days when I came to America, we tried to entice American manufacturers to license and manufacture this firearm,” Kellgren said. “We ended up down in Miami…and founded the company. That continued up to 1983, when I left the company. I sold off my shares and moved up here and started Grendel.”
After George left, the company was renamed Intratec, and the gun design later became the famous TEC-9 pistol.
The rest, as they say, is history. In 1991, he started a company named KelTec strictly as a machine shop to make parts for Grendel Inc., which produced some of the earliest semi-auto polymer-framed handguns on the market.
In 1994, Congress passed a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” wrecking Grendel’s business. Kellgren made the decision to manufacture guns that could be sold during the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and the semi-auto 9mm P11 pistol marked the birth of KelTec as a firearms company.
Adrian Kellgren, George's son and KelTec’s current Director of Industrial Production, said the P11 set a new standard in firearms design.
“A compact, reliable, everyday-carry pistol was the proof point: practical innovation that ordinary people could actually carry and trust,” Adrian said in an exclusive interview with Hook & Barrel.
“The bigger vision was a portfolio of unconventional, problem-solving designs; pistols, rifles, and shotguns that challenged assumptions without compromising safety or reliability.”
Next came the KelTec P32, a handgun that George Kellgren says was different from anything on the market at the time of its introduction in 1999.
“That is actually quite remarkable because it's a pocket handgun that has a lock breach,” George said. “Before that, all pocket guns were only blowbacks. Traditional blowback guns tend to be very heavy and expensive to manufacture.
"So, I would say the P32 is the gun that has had the biggest impact on the industry," he added. "Everybody copied it. Unfortunately, in those days we couldn't afford the patent.”
The Game-Changing KelTec KSG Shotgun
The KelTec KSG, introduced in 2011, was a shotgun design entirely different from anything the world had seen before.
The diminutive pump-action shotgun is laid out in a bullpup configuration with the action in the buttstock, allowing it to pack a 18.5-inch barrel in a package that is just 26.1 inches long. Plus, it sports two magazine tubes with a selector switch for a total 2 3/4-inch shell capacity of 14+1 rounds.
There was absolutely nothing else like it.
“The KSG, that was quite surprising the way it took off,” George said. “Actually, that's the way it's been with most of the designs. Because you don't know if that's going to sell or not…but up till now, we’ve had luck. And as you go on, obviously you get a reputation and you need less luck.”
The KSG has since become a full fledged shotgun line with several variants and has also spawned the KS7 shotgun, which has just been updated with a Gen2 model.
Since the KSG was first introduced, KelTec has become quite well-known for its out-of-the-box guns and willingness to push firearm design boundaries. Adrian credits his dad with fostering that mindset.
“My father has always believed constraints are fuel, not friction,” he said. “His design mantra is simple: If the purpose is clear, the mechanism should be elegant. That’s why you see compact carry pistols (made by KelTec) before they were fashionable, bullpup rifles that actually balance, and shotguns that rethink capacity and form.”
KelTec Today...
So where has KelTec landed in the firearm industry landscape after all that disruption?
“KelTec is the independent innovator: American-made, family-run and unapologetically original,” Adrian said. “We don’t exist to chase the market; we exist to move it. When people hear ‘KelTec’ I want them to think of clever engineering, surprising utility, and products that make you say, ‘Only KelTec would do that.’”
I asked Adrian to rank his favorite KelTec models, and unsurprisingly, he listed the P11 at the top of the heap, followed directly by the KSG.
“The P11 was the spark that lit the brand — compact carry before it was trendy,” he explained. “The KSG rethought shotgun capacity and form factor in a single leap.”
Adrian then continued his favorites list with the folding SUB2000 carbine, the breech-loading PR-5.7 pistol, the RDB bullpup rifle, the wild P50 5.7 pistol with its 50-round standard mag, and the RFB 7.62/.308 bullpup. But Adrian’s list is likely to change soon.
“Ask me again next year, and the order might change,” he said. “That’s the point of innovating.”
With the company’s 35th anniversary coming up next year, Adrian answered quickly when asked to what he attributes KelTec’s success.
“A stubborn commitment to originality, American manufacturing, and listening hard to our customers,” he said. “We’ve stayed family-run, surrounded ourselves with talented partners, and kept the brand’s soul intact: Build useful, surprising tools that earn trust.”
...and the KelTec of Tomorrow
Adrian said the company’s near future looks bright with several new offerings in the pipeline. In the short term, KelTec fans will see SUB2000 Multi-Mag configurations to broaden compatibility, more accessories and continued support around the PR-5.7 platform, and incremental updates to core bullpups that improve both shootability and serviceability.
“We like to under-promise and over-deliver, so expect a few ‘that’s so KelTec’ reveals,” he said. “The next chapter of KelTec is defined by momentum: industry-leading design and function within the handgun space that’s redrawing the box entirely.
“We’re evolving current favorites into their next-generation forms while surprising both customers and the industry with completely new platforms no one saw coming.”
Ultimately, Adrian said those who love KelTec guns will want to keep their eyes open for what the slightly more distant future promises to bring.
“Innovation has always been our heartbeat, but today it’s matched by a re-engineered marketing and brand structure designed to move just as fast,” he concluded. “Every new firearm will be more than a product, it will be a story our customers can experience, understand and interact with in ways never before possible.
“This is the new KelTec: Where groundbreaking engineering meets storytelling that brings innovation to life.”
As for George, who has been designing firearms for more than half a century now, he says he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
“It's my entertainment,” he said. “It's my enjoyment, to do this. I don't have to do it for money or anything like that. And no, I don't think I’ll quit, I have quite a few things in the pipeline.”
Editor's Note: Be on the lookout at hookandbarrel.com for future KelTec gun reviews on the new 10mm SUB2000 folding carbine as well as the KelTec PR-5.7 pistol.
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