As Garth Brooks said, “Blame it all on my roots.” My roots as a Florida Man run strong and deep, and I think that’s why I like weird guns so much. KelTec calls Florida home, and that may be why we’re a perfect pair. KelTec’s weird designs appeal to me and the CP33 is the space gun I always wanted. I love guns that are…different, especially if they’re chambered in .22LR.
If it’s weird just for the sake of being weird, I want it to be cheap to shoot. Hopefully, it’s also mostly reliable. It’s rare we can get an odd gun that reliably chambers .22LR and is cheap to shoot. Who remembers the USFA Zip? I took my time getting a CP33 because I wanted to make sure the kinks were worked out.
Kinks are something that can be common with some KelTecs, especially the weirder ones, though, admittedly, they seem to have gotten better at producing firearms in the last few years. I bought the CP33 with high hopes, but still tried to temper my expectations. The CP33 has a lot going for it, and my main fear was reliability due to that magazine.
33 Rounds of Mighty Mouse
After shooting this thing a fair bit, I’m always thinking about that Civil War era quote about the Henry rifle that went, “That damned Yankee rifle that can be loaded on Sunday and fired all week.”
The CP33 is that damn Florida Man gun that can be loaded on Sunday and fired all week. Fitting 33 rounds of .22LR in a handgun magazine that flush-fits is certainly different. It does this via quad-stack magazines. Yes, quad stack. The design integrates two double-stack magazine columns that meet at the top.
This creates a magazine best described as funky. They’re transparent and mostly made of polymer. Loading them isn’t difficult, it just takes forever. Oddly enough, yesterday I noticed one of my mag lips was slightly broken, but I had been shooting all day, and have shot this gun a ton. I loaded it up and shot another magazine without failure.
The CP33 doesn’t have a moving slide. The action is self-contained. Across the top, we have a huge rail that allows for an optic just about anywhere you want to mount one. What’s great about the design is the rail doesn’t move, so the optics remain stationary for faster follow-up shots.
Up front, we have slots that look vaguely M-LOK-ish, but they are not M-LOK slots. Some folks have found ways to modify rails to fit the bottom slot, but that’s not the purpose. It’s a big handgun with a barrel length of 5.5 inches and an overall length of 10.6 inches. You get 9.5 inches of sight radius with the iron sights. For such a big pistol, it’s surprisingly light at 1.5 pounds.
Everything Else About the CP33
So it’s a weird gun that looks like something that will be popping up in sci-fi movies sooner rather than later. It’s weird, but internally, it’s relatively normal. To the surprise of no one, the CP33 uses a direct blowback design. Direct blowback designs are the standard with .22LR guns.
KelTec wisely added a 1/2×28 threaded barrel to provide ample space for various muzzle devices. Suppressors would be my go-to choice, but there are comp options available for the CP33. Do you need a comp on a .22LR that’s this massive? No, but it would add to the space gun look.
The sights are high-visibility, and the rear sight is fully adjustable. The charging handle sits at the back of the slide and protects the rear sight. It’s a tab you grab and pull to charge the gun. It’s non-reciprocating and easy to rack, even for shooters with reduced hand strength.
The magazine release sits on the bottom of the pistol grip, and the magazine doesn’t quite fall out when that button is hit. You have to pull it out. The ambidextrous safety is a switch-style design that goes up and down. The slide lock is super-small and difficult to press down, but easy to press up to lock the action open.
The CP33’s grip is thick. It’s a grip that Sir Mix-A-Lot would love. Quad-stack magazines have certain space requirements. The front-to-rear portion of the grip is quite wide. If the gun had more recoil, this could be an issue, but this is a .22LR, so it’s not a big issue.
At The Range
Let’s talk reliability. The CP33 isn’t necessarily ammo picky, but it’s not going to chew through everything. I hate .22LRs that only shoot something like CCI Mini Mags. I want to be able to fire cheap ammo, and the CP33 handles rounds like Federal Automatch without a problem. I had issues with Remington Golden Bullet, but who doesn’t? Oddly, it also had issues with CCI Velocitors.
I had feeding issues, not cycling issues. It’s due to the magazine for sure. It likes rounds that are round tipped and long; that’s what seems to be what the successful cartridges have in common. Additionally, I haven’t experienced, but read, that dirty magazines (not that kind) can create reliability issues. My mag is filthy, but it runs just fine.
The CP33’s accuracy is fantastic. I can put five rounds into a 2-inch circle at 15 yards off-hand with iron sights. At 25 yards, I can hit a 10-inch gong with boring regularity. At 50 yards, hitting an IPSC target is super-simple. A lack of recoil makes repeated hits easy, and the sights aren’t moving, so you aren’t tracking them all that much.
It’s a total blast to unleash 33 rounds of .22LR onto a target. All the dings remind me of a swarm of angry bees. A .22LR wouldn’t be my first choice for home defense, but 33 accurate rounds of .22LR would change some minds. Mounting a light and optic would be easy on this gun, so it could be a very viable defensive weapon.
Brace options are even available for the CP33, and they could make for a solid defensive platform if you wanted to get a little crazy with it.
The Common Man’s Space Blaster
The KelTec CP33 is a beastly-sized .22LR. It’s big, fun, and easy to shoot, and with the right ammo, it’s reliable and very accurate. It’s a very solid, fun gun for me. The look, feel, and accuracy make it great all the way around. I need to replace a magazine, but even the broken magazine still works…for now. The CP33 is a solid little rimfire contender and a solid Floridaman gun.
Specifications: KelTec CP33
Caliber: 22LR
Capacity: 33+1
Barrel Length: 5.5 inches
Overall Length: 10.6 inches
Weight: 24 ounces (empty)
MSRP: $505
Haven’t shot a CP33, and don’t plan to. I have owned a couple of Kel-Tec firearms, and my overall impression was that the designs were great, and the component quality and manufacturing quality sucked @$$. Took me a month, and nearly double what the gun originally cost, to get my Sub2000 functioning properly. Now it runs great, hasn’t had a failure-to-feed or jam in over 1,000 rounds.
I wish their design crew had a manufacturing crew as good as they are. The Sub2000 is a great PCC design, and can be a great ‘truck gun’, or survival gun, or in your backpack for a SHTF scenario . . . if you spend the money and time to get the damn thing running right. As I bought it, it was a POS . . . with a cool design.
Maybe Beretta could take a look at acquiring Kel-Tec; Beretta could use some innovative designs, and Kel-Tec sure as hell could use Beretta’s manufacturing expertise and quality control!!
I love it. I wish they’d make a centerfire in this configuration, or at least a WMR.
Is it forced reset friendly???
Does it qualify as a bullpup?
Depends on whether you define that as chamber behind the grip (no) or FCG behind the grip (yes, but no more so than a 1911 or Glock).
The guy at Demonstrated Concepts in Colorado put a red dot on one of these, and teaches how to shoot it from the cheek, surprisingly effective. He also does it with a Shockwave. He has videos on the you tube. I thought it looked a bit funky, but tried it with my AR pistol in 350 Legend. Pistol style buffer tube with a foam pad sleeve on it, plus an elastic sling to push against, makes for a surprisingly stable platform.
If they would make this, or the PLR22 in 22 Mag, my wallet would get lighter.