r/canadaguns • u/Batsinvic888 Bats888 on YouTube • Aug 01 '26
Gun and gear reviews Kral Arms KR22 Tactical Review - Dramatic Quality Control Issues
https://youtu.be/VNu3HO-gNMUIn a bit of a unique situation, I ended up with two of these guns, which allowed me to compare them. And wow are there quality control differences.
I actually think this would be an incredible design, if they put more money into QC and materials. Make this a $500-600 gun with aluminum receivers and it would likely be a lot better.
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u/War_Hymn Aug 02 '26
Seems like you get what you pay for. It's a $300-350 CAD newly manufactured semiauto gun from a small-medium scale manufacturer whos taking a risk with the volatile Canadian market. They're going to have to save money somewhere to make their margin.
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u/Batsinvic888 Bats888 on YouTube Aug 02 '26
Kral is definitely not a small company, at least anymore. It's not clear on their website, but you can Google this generically, that they make ARs and AKs (416 clones specifically).
But ya, definitely what you pay for kinda thing. It just would have been preferable to pay slightly more for a better finished product.
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u/War_Hymn Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
A firearms company with less than 300 employees is small or medium scale for me. Keltec has about the same workforce size, and their more "upscale" plastic SU-22 offering sold for about $600-800 here before the ban.
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u/Batsinvic888 Bats888 on YouTube Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
I'd say they're a medium size, lower medium if you wanna be specifc. But you can't just look at number of employees.
In general, for me a small buisness has to have few employees, small scale, and lower revenues. I think of a local bakery, a repair store, etc. A company that manufactures firearms for international markets just can not be a small company. Like, Colt Canada has less than 300 employees, no one in their right mind should call Colt Canada a small company because of their payroll. They are a company with large revenues and global reach. Like, Valve, the multi-billion dollar company, has under 360 employees. They aren't a small company.
For me, an example of a small firearms company is Lockhart. Limited selection, limited revenue, very few employees.
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u/War_Hymn Aug 02 '26
It's funny you bought up Colt Canada, because they're literally getting 9 grand a pop with that contract for new rifles. Not to mention, they're owned by the larger CZ Colt Group.
Which brings me to my point, these young smaller companies likely don't have as much economy of scale to produce "good" guns at such a low price point, at least not without heavy investment into things like cost cutting machinery and automation.
Maybe Kral Arms does have that going for it already, but I still think $300 for a nice looking semi-auto .22 isn't the worst thing in this day and age. Would I buy it myself? Probably not. In any case, I appreciate you taking the time and effort to make this review 👍.
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u/squishydonut16 Aug 01 '26
I think this is a valid review. However I have one and she cycles beautifully once broken in. I didn’t have any issues with the upper, but the lower magwell is definitely tight. To get around this, I got the SBI adapter and some REM 597 mags and they slide in like butter. I think people need to remember it’s the cheapest of cheap Turkish guns, and with the right mods and patience it will treat you well for the price
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u/Batsinvic888 Bats888 on YouTube Aug 01 '26
This definitely seems to have some large QC variance. I'm not surprised there are some that run very well.
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u/Lumindan Aug 01 '26
Credit where it's due, it's fascinating to see how many Turkish offerings have popped up to fill the void in the Canadian market.
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u/GinnAdvent Aug 03 '26
Awesome review and I just wish they could just skimp on the cost part and just make a better firearm in general.
This remind me of a Black and Decker products, really innovative designs, but bad parts which cause them to fail prematurely.
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u/thefreezy96 16d ago
I just won one of these from a sticker draw and brought it out for the first time today. Every mag had a light strike at the last round and was near impossible to get it out while trying to hold the bolt open. To make things worse, I accidentally dropped the bolt while trying to take the round out and the fucking thing fired. It looks like the extractor claw itself hit the rim hard enough to fire. It happened another 3 times on the mags after it (I wanted to see if it was repeatable). Glad I kept it pointed in a safe direction but that's it for me. Not worth the danger and headache. Just buy a 10/22... Idek what to do with it. I don't want to sell it and doubt the store will do anything for a free/giveaway rifle. Ugh. Avoid like the plague and I ever see one being shot at the range idk if I'd stay LOL
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u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Aug 02 '26
"Dramatic Quality Control Issues" is how to best describe new guns on the canadian market these days