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-gNMU

In 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/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 👍.