Kel Tec's 'Folding' Sub 2000 Gun Just Hit The Market. Will It Succeed?

Charlie Gao

Technology,

It's fairly niche.

Key point: There are more compact guns out there.

Kel-Tec’s Sub 2000 is one of the only “folding” firearms on the U.S. market today. Designed to be a compact pistol-caliber carbine with a long barrel, the Sub 2000’s main selling point is that it folds in half for transit and storage, allowing it to easily fit into a backpack or similar storage case. But as other pistol caliber carbines get smaller and smaller, is the Sub2000 still relevant?

When the Sub 2000 was originally introduced in 2001, pistol caliber carbines (PCCs) were still an incredibly niche category of the American firearms consumer market. There were some reproductions of old open bolt submachine guns converted to closed bolt and restricted to semi-automatic mode, some modern submachine guns restricted to semi-auto mode. There were very few modern semi automatics, and even fewer still that shared mags with pistols, which the Sub 2000 did.

At the time, it was a very attractive option for those looking to get a cheap carbine that shot pistol ammo for plinking or for hunting small game. The shared mags with pistols and the various models and calibers the Sub 2000 meant that almost anyone with a common pistol could get a Sub 2000 model that also used the same magazines. The presence of long stick mags like the 33 round Glock “big stick” also meant that the Sub 2000 could compete with SMG-based PCCs in magazine capacity.

But around the turn of the decade, PCCs saw a slight renaissance in the industry. The CZ Scorpion EVO 3 and SIG MPX, along with a variety of AR-15 variants that took pistol or Colt 9mm SMG mags rekindled interest in PCCs. The addition of the PCC Division into the USPSA and IDPA competitive shooting circuits also garnered a ton of interest in this category of guns.

These new PCCs featured AR-style controls and layouts, their own special variety of mags, and shorter barrels. The non-AR-based designs often featured side-folding or collapsible stocks/braces as well, bringing them to the same level of compactness or making them smaller than the Sub 2000.