Smileys were a serious problem with the first generation P3AT's. Much of the testing we posted back then, several years ago, was lost during a major glitch at KTOG. The site went down for several months and when it came back the smiley threads were gone. I did manage to save some of the data.
I feel like I'm wasting my time talking about it. Anyway several of us, especially a guy named Flyer, convinced KelTec that a half moon cut on the feed ramp was needed to reduce the problem. They included that in the second generation P3AT. But the problem did not go away completely due to what I blame is the magazine furnished, made by MecGar, having a hard, black, very slippery epoxy coating. This allows rounds in the magazine to be pushed forward over the edge of the mag lip where they still get hit by the feed ramp during recoil. KT knows this and will do nothing about it. And now it appears that Ruger by copying the design, including getting the mag made with the same black coating will continue to suffer the smiley problem.
The concern about smileys is the setback to the bullet that occurs. Maybe not enough to cause a Kaboom, but unkown just how much damage the added chamber pressure will do.
Here's a link to my "What's a Smiley" thread for anyone interested.....
http://usrange.org/smf/index.php?topic=2647.0
I still don't have my own LCP yet but I'm now having second thoughts about buying one. Got to examine one recently and noted the black magazine which concerned me. Yah, sure, it has the half moon cut on the feed ramp. But now that someone has reported the smiley problem, I doubt I want a LCP which not only looks exactly like a P3AT but appears that it will have the same problems.
Cheers and good luck to future buyers,
og
