I didn’t really want this Keltec RFB, it wasn’t on my list of wants or needs but for the price I just couldn’t say no. If all else failed I could have made money on it, now I think maybe the Keltec RFB stays.
I ran into a guy I knew years back at my local gunstore. He was trying to sell me this Keltec RFB in absolutely mint condition (looked unfired) with plenty of decent goodies with it for 1250$. It had a MagPul sling and adapter, Magpul forward grip, Magpul front and rear flip up sites, the cheek protector plastic cheek thingy and a YHM muzzle device. There were also half a dozen DSA magazines and a Bushnell MP red dot. Which incidentally, I thought was totally the wrong optic for this set up but whatever, I can Ebay it or use it elsewhere. That was a Monday, by Friday it was $1000 and by Sunday morning he sent me a final offer text of $750. Ok, ya got me. For $750 I can sell the whole thing for well over that or sell the stripped rifle for $900+ and keep the accessories. I could have used the mags in my LAR-8…it was a total win/win deal. No way I couldn’t come out ahead on this.
I’ve had a lot of Keltecs over the years, more or less they were fine. I don’t have anything against them but at the same time I didn’t expect much from the RFB. I also don’t know a lot about this model in particular to be perfectly honest which is why this is a range report on performance and that’s about it.
Optics: A 308 “battle rifle” if you will in my opinion needs a magnified optic, not a 1x Bushnell red dot. I can’t see far enough anymore to use the thing past 100 yards without some magnification but I didn’t want to break the bank on a scope for a rifle I was pretty sure was going on down the road soon enough. I ordered a Weaver Kaspa 2.5-10x Tactical scope with a Mil-Dot reticle. These have served me very well in the past and are dirt cheap when you buy them direct from China, which I did. It takes a slow boat to get it here but for $90 it beats the hell outta paying $200-$250 here and getting it faster. While we wait on that Weaver let’s just roll with the 1-6x Vortex Strike Eagle for now. I took that off a RRA Elite Operator just to get this thing on the range.
I got rid of the Magpul forward grip and went With a Grip-Pod with the deployable bipod, I really love those things. That’s about it for changes, just the scope and bipod. Let’s go shoot.
Federal American Eagle 150 grain ball, not super impressive but good enough for practice or anything not requiring a “match” rifle.
It would have served me well to read the gas regulator section of the manual first, my fault..I was going ass backwards and it took me a few extra rounds to figure that out. Making things worse, the new DSA mags with the plastic followers do not feed worth a shit. I was surprised by that…I hope they work in the LAR-8. I grabbed some older DSA mags that are all steel and those fed fine. So once the gas/mags debacle was solved I got down to shooting some groups.
Almost as good as the Fed Gold Medal….not too shabby for cheap Russian steel case. 168 grain Colt from Barnaul.
100 Yard First Shoot: I took 3 kinds of ammo, American Eagle 150 grain ball, Colt marked boxes of Russian SilverBear that were 168 grain bullets and a couple boxes of Federal Gold Medal 175 grain match. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Check out the groups, the weird part being the cheapo Russian stuff hangs right in there with the Federal Gold Medal! Who’d have thought it? If this thing does as well at 500 as it does at 100 the Keltec RFB might be staying. Right now we have the potential to shoot 1 MOA or possibly a tad less with the right load.
I’m certain I would have driven that flier home had the wind not moved me just as I fired. I knew that shot was off before I looked.
500 Yards: You shouldn’t have any problem ringing a 10 inch steel gong at 500, pretty easy to do consistently. It was too damn humid for me to really feel like humping back and forth all day looking at holes in paper and taking pictures. So I set the gong up and let her rip. She did fine, so it’s holding at least 2 MOA out to 500. That was the mil dot Weaver scope on 10x with about a 3.5 mil holdover.
Summary: The Keltec RFB looks pretty cool in my opinion, it seems solidly built as well. I was amazed at the trigger being that it is a bullpup. I’ve had various bullpups over the years and generally the triggers sucked. This trigger is light and crisp, amazingly so considering the bullpup design. The ambi-safety will have to be modified for me as my hands are large and it hangs up in the web of my hand on the right side. The pistol grip didn’t quite meet up where it comes together and I ended up smoothing it out with some sandpaper to make it more comfortable and sliding on a Hogue rubber pistol slip on. With a few easy mods this thing really impressed me. I am pleasantly surprised accuracy wise and it made a good suppressor host too. It’s not nearly as long and cumbersome due of course to the bullpup design, some people need an extra gas piston for suppressor use to keep the back pressure down, I don’t seem to need it. All in all, I hit a homerun considering the price. Would I be as happy if I’d paid his first price? No, probably not but if you stumble across a deal like this even for $1000 on a decked out RFB I’d say take it, it’s seems worth it. Worst thing that happens is you have some fun and maybe make some cash on it. As always thanks for reading and train often.
Cary Kieffer
Latest posts by Cary Kieffer (see all)
- 224 Valkyrie AR Build: Parts List Pt. 1 - September 4, 2018
- 458 SOCOM Oops! SB Tactical Pistol Brace - March 6, 2018
- 458 SOCOM Build List w/ Tromix Barrel - February 27, 2018
Big problem with my Kel-tec RFB
Brand new right out of the box I took my Kel Tec RFB out to the range to sight in a 3x burris optic and to see just how the RFB handles. Not even 60 rounds into shooting, I’ve had more failure to extract spent casings than I have successful cycles. So I’m already off to a bad start with this thing. I opened the gas all the way and worked my way down from there to ensure I wasn’t using an improper gas setting.
Then things take a turn for the worse, about 5 rounds of needing to drop the mag and manually dig out the spent casing one after the other, I flip the rifle upside down and rack the charging handle 2-3 times. It’s then I notice something fall out of the rifle and it wasn’t a spent casing. It was a chunk of my damn gas block! The thing snapped right off! Not sure if this was user error but even so. 60 rounds is all this thing could handle?!
I wish I didnt feel the way I do about this rifle because I really, really wanted to love it. It’s a great idea, comfortable platform, but terrible execution. It’s a Gen 2 aswell.
I don’t know what to tell you about the gas block, obviously I wasn’t there too see it but Keltec will make it right. I know they have good customer service in my experience and they will fix it. So call them and send her back.
Keltec has some neat, innovative ideas…sometimes execution gets a little off but I’ve never had them not make it right. I just picked up a CMR-30 and was having some feed/trigger reset problems. A complete disassembly and a good scrubbing and it runs good now. Most of the Keltecs I have/do own needed some kind of TLC on my workbench. Doesn’t make them necessarily bad.
Send it back and let us know what happens. Cary
For the sake of my own fubar, did you clean and lubricate out of the box/bag? I did it once on a new rifle and thought I got junk. It was the storage oil that was causing all the fouling. I’d never bought a brand new gun so I didn’t understand the storage greas/oil is way thicker so it stays put. I cleaned it a lubed it and it shot like a dream
Thank you for a very good review. I wish I had seen it earlier. I purchased one of these rifles and have yet to get it to feed more than 2 rounds from the magazine. It has been returned to the dealer and I am awaiting their review. After reading this it appears that it is a problem with the magazine and I just need to order up some good old Metal FN metric mags and try it again. I do agree that it is a fun rifle to shoot and the accuracy is decent enough.
Yeah, I don’t know what it is with those plastic followers but the RFB hates them. Thanks for stopping by TGR. Cary
Bought mine before I read any reviews. Glad to see the bad reviews are probably from those to lazy to read manual. They spend money to print manuals for a reason. Other than the mag from keltec being a piece of plastic trash, the mags I ordered from IL work great. Metal high capacity mags from a state you are not allowed to own them in. Other than tweaking gas adjustment 1 click rifle is functioning great. I will try 1 of my variable scope and see what it does at longer ranges. Right now have a AR 1×4 nikon scope on it. Had 1 laying around.
If yours is like mine then at 500 to 600 yards you will hit with boring regularity. I haven’t stretched it past that. The limited time I get on the longer ranges I work with my Savage 300 WM and Savage 338 Lapua. Thanks for stopping by TGR. cary
Nice review, I’ll keep that in mind if I see a deal on it. Pardon me, but would be able to tell me the website you ordered the weaver scope direct from China? Thank you.
Badger, thank you and yes. Below is a link to my eBay page where I bought 2 recently. One was 93$ and the other 90$. Incase that link doesn’t work the sellers name was MXOUTDOOR. Thanks for stopping by TGR. Cary
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222151056184?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Thank you for the quick reply. That is a great you got. Molon Labe.