KEL-tec cp33 22lr - $475

Since 1985 Swedish born George Kellgren has been innovating the weight out of the humble pistol, rifle and shotgun with the use of polymers. This is a lot harder to do than the average consumer might imagine: when you abandon the fortitude of steel for your frame, things get complicated especially in a tool which must endure the repeated exercise of igniting internal micro-explosions thousands upon thousands of time. Get it wrong and your tool will come apart in short order. Of course everyone is doing this polymer pistol thing now but there were innovators, namely George Kellgren (1985) and Gaston Glock (1982) who necessarily ironed out all the kinks for the latecomers. So to all those plastic pistols who've been born in the past couple of years, don't forget your grandparents. A little history out of the way, let's look at the CP33 (pictured above). Heads up, this might be the perfect modular pistol in infancy! With a purported 50 round mag available as aftermarket, this means you can load a full box of 22LR ammo INSIDE THE GRIP! Not many will understand the significance of this in terms of reliability versus an external magazine (utilized by every other manufacturer when building high capacity 22LR firearms) which is susceptible to knocks and resultant jams. The internal mag is the golden mean for semi-autos as it provides the necessary feed protection to ensure reliability. Next, the internal bolt and lack of traditional slide also contributes to reliability and is more synonymous with rifles and shotguns, but it also means it's undoubtedly being considered for an adapter to attach a pistol brace (or stock with the relevant ATF stamp). Add select fire and you have a useful tool for military applications - this may be the American answer to the B&T USW (at a 5th of the price). CP stands for competition pistol so accuracy is inevitable, and adding a threaded barrel means we get to leave earmuffs at home. A full top rail and M-Lok undercarriage gives endless possibility for added sights and accessories. 22LR means it'll be cheap and fun to spend all day at the range...the only unknown at this stage is reliability and that'll have to wait until the first round of buyers reports back in the Spring when these hit the shelves. Though if it's anything like the Sub 2000 it may be harder to find initially than hen's teeth so here's hoping George devotes his machinery to a good run of CP33's at the offset so we all get a chance at ownership. Ed.