Kel-Tec KS7 pump-action shotgun
SHOT Show 2019 – The Kel-Tec KS7 pump-action shotgun slims down the well-known KSG design while retaining the ambidextrous bullpup design and adding a few more tweaks and quirks to a package that should be considerably cheaper than its predecessor
The new Kel-Tec KS7 pump-action shotgun – finally introduced at the 2019 edition of the NSSF SHOT Show after having been teased on the Internet in the past couple of weeks – answers the demand of the American and international shooters' community for a variant of the well-known KSG design that would be quicker and cheaper to produce (and buy) while getting rid of a few features and replacing them with others.
Essentially speaking, the Kel-Tec KS7 is a slimmer variant of the KSG design, doing without the latter's twin feeding tube and replacing them with a single tube that offers an overall capacity of 7+1 12-gauge shotshells. The tube can be extended to reach an overall capacity of 10 shells.
The barrel of the Kel-Tec KS7 pump-action shotgun is 18.5"/47 cm long, with a cylindric choke, and is likewise replaceable with a longer one that would match the length of an extended tube. Polymer components are available in black, desert tan or olive drab, and contact surfaces feature Kel-Tec's signature squared slip-proof checkering.
Among other distinctive features of the new Kel-Tec KS7 pump-action shotgun are a redesigned pump with flared forend – preventing the dreaded "hand slip" that turned out to be a hazard with the KSG! – and a raised carrying handle dubbing as a sight channel and featuring a triangular fiber-optic sight.
The raised sight channel comes with a hole in the middle for magnified optics or Picatinny rails, and M-LOK slots are cut on the sides of the handle and the pump. All controls are ambidextrous, and with the bottom feeding port also dubbing as an ejection window, the Kel-Tec KS7 pump-action shotgun remains as left-handed friendly as its predecessor.
The Kel-Tec KS7 pump-action shotgun is also from one to two pounds (450 to 900 grams) lighter than its predecessor, the KSG, depending from wheter or not it's loaded. It remains a well-balanced gun, and despite the 18.5" barrel it's still shorter than, to say, a Heckler & Koch MP5.
