It’s lightweight and can be controlled with one hand.
Collapsed, it can be comfortably fired by a 5 foot tall shooter.
The strong hand grip is right around the boreline, so it’s easy to point accurately.
It’s about the same length as MP5K PDW submachine gun, while much more powerful, accurate and slightly lighter. It’s also completely ambidextrous. Recoil impulse is similar to the 9mm MP5.
A user who might prefer a pistol grip configuration can swap furniture in a minute, it’s all cross compatible. The main down sides are also functions of the design:
- Checking of the chamber status is slower than on a conventional rifle.
- Downward ejection can be a problem if shooting sitting in shorts or prone with short sleeves. A clip-on brass catcher fixes that.
The pluses are more numerous:
- Empty casings don’t end up in the faces of people next to the shooter, or bounce off barricade or wall into the shooter’s face or arms.
- Five pounds is easier to carry or hold up than six to seven pounds typical of competing designs. You can have an RDB-S with a red dot, a sound suppressor and a full magazine for what a bare-bones Sig 556 weighs.
- Felt recoil is more like 22WMR than 5.56.
- Gas system can be tuned to work with any load, and also for sound suppressors. Minimal gas blowback.
- Very slim form, especially with a flush-fitting 10-round magazine.
- 16.1″ barrel compared to 8″ of a similar length AR15.
- Variable length of pull with adjustable stock, uncommon for bullpups.
- Folding iron sights of good quality.
- Very high grip keeps the rifle from rolling even if a relatively heavy optic is mounted. Also keeps muzzle from flipping up on firing.
- Simple, easy to maintain design. If you look at the parts diagram in the instruction manual, you will see that most of the parts by numbers are screws and nuts, while the actual mechanism is very simple.
I notice “Perfect rifle for piss drinkers” isn’t among your bullets.
To be fair, that’s a small demographic. I hope.
It’s growing on me.
Okay, if the front sight is attached to the muzzle, how is it “Suppressor compatible”?
Is the front sight base threaded on? Does that mean a standard fixed or flip up AR front sight would be compatible with the attached rear sight?
I want one!
Did you actually say “casings”?
I am not a fan of the 5.56, but as a survival rifle that could have real possibility’s
I like the shirt she is wearing.
And yes I can. <.5 MOA at 100 yards with 75gr. Match handloads in my AR15.
It looks interesting. I like the compact size/weight along with a full 16″ barrel (perfect for the 5.56mm). Though I noticed you didn’t list the manufacture’s suggested retail.
I bet for the price I could build 2-3 AR-15 carbines or pistols (outfitted with with decent glass, quality rails, and magpul stocks). The last time I looked at a Kel-Tec RDB it was retailing at $1500+.
It looks like the front sight would hit the rail when folded. Can you post a picture of it with a red dot and the front sight folded?
Has anyone tried removing the gigantic front sight post to see what effect if any it would have on barrel harmonics? As bullpups go, I’m not opposed to the design concept (and would still love to have an original Steyr AUG A1) but the front site setup looks like it just begs to get hung up on the first branch, etc. that it crosses paths with IF it were used in the woods. If you removed that front-mounted tail hook and used a BUIS on the front end of the rail and a red dot, that might improve the aesthetics of the firearm as well.