By 248 Shooter
There are just some guns that break the conventional mold. The Kriss Vector in it is many forms is one of those guns. From it’s styling to its function it is nothing like any gun before it. While most guns in the semi automatic pistol arena are based around a slide that moves the Kris has created a blowback system like nothing else on the market.
By driving the action down instead of back and over the top of your hand the muzzle flip is greatly reduced. This allows you to rapidly fire 45 caliber rounds on a full auto, burst or semi auto while easily staying on target. It is often billed as a no recoil gun.
Having seen the gun in several movies and following the technology behind it for years I finally broke down and got one to put to the test.
Opening the Package:
the Kriss comes in a Patriot Cases full size rifle case. Since Kriss also sells a carbine version and SBR versions of the gun I can see how such a large case would make sense. For the pistol it is way overkill however. Kriss opted for the egg crate foam over the cut foam but again with cost and ease of packaging multiple products I completely get it. I have since ordered hard foam from Patriot cases and am having it cut to fit exactly as I want.
By default the gun comes with just 1 Glock magazine. It is a 13 round Glock 21 magazine and it will fit flush in the gun. Available on the website they offer assembled magazine kits that extend the standard 13 round mag to a 25 round magazine. They also sell the kits for you to upgrade existing mags you may own. Having now shot this thing it is ridiculously easy to blow through rounds and you are going to want theses extended magazines.
The entire lineup comes with Kriss branded flip up iron sights. From what I can tell these are diamondback iron sights that were branded by Kriss. These replaced the original plastic Magpul BUIS sights they used originally.
Also included in the package is a single point bungy sling in black.
the barrel comes in a threaded and non threaded version. My goal is to eventually shoot this with a suppressor for a future review so mine has the threads.
Initial Impressions
Ok once I got over they holy crap this is the coolest looking gun I have ever owned I began actually checking the gun out. It is lightweight for it’s size weighing only 5.4 lbs. Considering that this uses Glock 21 mags and the Glock weighs 1.8 lbs it is still much heavier than a standard pistol. This weight however is part of what makes this such a flat shooting gun.
Cleaning and taking the gun down is easy once you do it a time or two. The system is so unlike anything I have ever used or cleaned before that I had to pay close attentions to the manual the first time. I put the bolt in wrong the first time and spent 15 minutes trying to figure out why it was not right. Once you get past the initial bumps though you find it is very easy to do and fast.
This is the Carbine version but breaks down the same as the SDP.
Shooting
So here is my biggest issue with the gun. The Kriss was created as an SBR to be used as a sub machine gun. For this purpose I would rate this as a best of class type gun. However since SBR regulations for civilians are issues in many states and have the added $200 tax stamp as well as long wait Kriss invented the SDP and Carbine versions. The carbine version increased the barrel to the required 16 inches and kept the stock used on the SBR version. The SDP the pistol version removed the stock to keep it same length as the SBR when folded but legal for concealed carry.
Unfortunately like most hybrids or products designed to circumvent legislation neither offer the advantages the original SBR version offered. The carbines length in my opinion makes the Kriss a pointless gun. It is not good for use in clearing a home and it wont offer the ballistics an Ar-15, SCAR or any other modern semi-automatic rifle since it is chambered in 45. For those reasons I went with the pistol version unfortunately this to poses some issues. Without a stock this gun is hard to properly aim, almost every issue we ran into when testing would be solved by having a stock on this gun.
There is one other major problem with the design in a SDP version. You can not legally put a forward grip on the gun as that would make the weapon an AOW and negate the advantages of having a weapon classified as a pistol. If you look at the shape of the Kriss and the ads you will see that this is circumvented by using the magwel of the gun as a forward grip like in this Kriss marketing image.
That is fine and dandy in the movies and images but as we have found in our testing this creates a very large real life issue. In this position there is a huge likely hood that you will accidentally engage the bolt lock back. How likely is this of 5 shooters (one of which a famous trainer and special operations guy) that I have let shoot this every single one of them has engaged the bolt lock back on the first magazine they ran. That’s right every single one of them did it. Even after knowing that they could do it on subsequent magazine dumps we found about 30% of the mags the lock was accidentally engaged. Considering this creates a very dangerous situation of pulling the trigger and not firing a round and reduced dexterity in self preservation situations learning to properly work around the bolt catch is something you need to spend serious time on.
We also found that in the advertised position without a stock accuracy was greatly depreciated. Sub guns are not made for marksmanship I know that and the groups we shot in that stance would certainly be acceptably placed shots on a real target. However when comparing my groups with and without a stock (the one with the stock was a legal SBR a friend owns) you will see a huge difference in how the gun functions. He also had a forward grip since it was an SBR and we had no issues with the bolt catch.
Working with what we had however we tried various ways to make the gun perform better. Holding it in a traditional pistol stance made a huge difference. It is not hollywood and takes some of the coolness factor out of the gun but makes it a hell of a lot more accurate.
Yes that is a Sightmark reflex optic on top we figured we could get 2 reviews done in one. Stay tuned for that in a future update.
Shooting like this may look awkward but in actuality it was very easy to do. In this position and a 25 round magazine you can blaze through a mag in seconds and create a rather large centralized whole in your target. Kriss should adapt the marketing to be
Kriss SDP for when you need to turn a home invader into chunks of meat.
Seriously when 25 rounds of 45 hit a target in a 3 inch circle there is just nothing left.
This is gun while it does not “virtually eliminate felt recoil and muzzle climb ” it is by far the flattest shooting fastest back on target pistol I have ever shot. The recoil is mitigated between the super v delayed blowback system and the weight of the gun. You can go through a magazine in no time and it is so much fun to shoot while your doing it.
Usefulness
I don’t own my dream car or my dream motorcycle because the things I want are simply not practical in Michigan. Instead I buy and build my dream guns and the Kriss was a a gun I just had to have. If you are more practically minded about your weapon purchases like I am with car choices your going to have a hard time justifying this gun. There is a few exceptions however that make this gun a best of class.
- Truck Gun: Since the gun is legally a pistol this is a weapon you can legally carry on you or in your car with a CPL or CCW in most states. (see local laws) With 25 rounds of 45 and the pure menacing factor this gun offers it is a smaller alternative to the AR-15 pistols that have become so common as truck guns.
- Home Defense: While we have seen arguments all over the place indicating one round is better than another for home defense I personally like the 45 for home protection. It has the mass to stay on target through barriers unlike 223 that starts to tumble but is a low enough velocity that it should not rip through your home and into the neighbors (this is only my thoughts not advice). The high capacity allows you to deal with multiple assailants as home invasions often involve 2-3 assailants.
- Bug Out: In the event of civil unrest you can toss this weapon in any backpack and hide it easily. 45 ammo is relatively easy to come by making it a good weapon for ammunition scavenging. Also easier to carry a whole bunch of 45 then 556
We will go into the pro’s and cons in our next article as well as share some of the video of the gun in action. Thank you to all our loyal readers and fans for helping us grow and please share this with your friends and on social media to help us in bringing more reviews like this.
Via: 248 Shooter
