KEL-TEC P-3AT, one .380 ACP featherweight

In one of his Fables, Jean de La Fontaine rightly reminded us that we often need someone smaller than ourselves. In our practice and from a security perspective, we can transcend the thought of the author by affirming that we often need a smaller something on oneself.

Bold choices

Compact and lightweight are the two major criteria of the KEL-TEC P-3AT. Marketed between 2003 and 2022, it then made a good place in the US subcompact market for concealed carry or “back up” function. In this matter KEL-TEC had already cut quite its share on the market with its P-32 in .32 ACP whose weapon presented here is very close… except for a few details including… a superior caliber! This “detail” probably reassures a certain segment of the American market. The .380 ACP, better known in Europe as “9 mm Browning Short” or simply “9 Short”, is not very common in our latitudes. It has never won against its little sister the 7.65 mm Browning (better known as the .32 ACP in the United States). Without diving too deep into a ballistic family story, the .380 ACP can be classified in a category of ammunition with “moderate” ballistic performance. More widespread in the United States, its asset for this market was undoubtedly its caliber (9mm), often considered there as a minimum for defense use. Manufactured ammo are found quite easily, sometimes with expansive bullets, it is particularly simple to reload. Components and dies are available, as well as plenty of reloading data.

Regarding the trade name of the model P-3AT which phonetically means Pistol (P), .380 (3, the AT being read “eighty”). We can wonder if there is not a little humor in this appellation, “AT” being obviously the acronym for “Anti-Tank»! A fun way to highlight the caliber’s power advantage over the .32 ACP of the P-32.