The American 180
Originally adopted for use by the Utah Department of Corrections, the American 180 is an awesome full auto .22 firearm. It gets its name from the 180 rd drum that sits atop the receiver, which it needs, because this little open bolt blowback has a cyclic ROF of 1200RPM. 275 round drums were also available. One trip to the shooting range in Oahu, HI, I happened across a gentleman who owned a semi-auto version of this. Truth be told, I thought it was a Thompson at first glance with the magazine removed. “Thompson?” I inquired of the gentleman. “American 180,” was the reply. He proceeded to give me some background on it, and let me shoot a few rounds through it. For the most part, rather enjoyable, a bit on the heavy side, but mostly just really cool.
Here is a cutaway view of the original patent.
And here is the ejection port on the under side of rifle. The knurled screw in front of the port is to facilitate breaking the gun down for maintenance, storage, or shorter barrel/fore end.
That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this installment of .22 Tuesday.
Dive! Dive!
bubbleheadgunnut 