May 2005

Carbine Showdown: Kel-Tec, Springfield Armory Face Off

The $640 Kel-Tec SU-16 and the $1,727 Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 offer different solutions for long-gun self defense.

Testing the Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 at a public range caused quite a stir among onlookers. Despite an MSRP of $1,727, everyone wanted one. We polled some local retailers and found that the actual retail price averaged about $200 less, but they didn’t stay on the shelf. Accuracy with the metallic sights was only average. We’d take advantage of the supplied Picatinny rail and mount an electronic scope.

The bulk of our evaluations at Gun Tests consist of head-to-head match-ups of like weaponry. However, every once in a while we come across firearms that occupy such a small niche, that competing products are hard to find. The best that we can do is match them up by job function, and see which product we prefer.

The job this month is long-gun self defense, and our two candidates offer different solutions to problems presented in the survival or tactical arenas. For example, the Kel-Tec SU-16 is, for all intents and purposes, a lightweight AR-15 that folds in half. Our other test sample is less exotic. The Springfield Armory Socom 16…

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