Friday, February 08, 2008
AA-12. I want one.
The Atchisson Assault Shotgun,
also known as, Auto Assault-12 (AA-12) is a firearm first developed in 1972 by Maxwell Atchisson. It served as the basis of several later weapons, including the USAS-12 combat shotgun.
The weapon can fire in semi automatic or fully automatic modes.
In 1987, Max Atchisson sold the rights of AA-12 to Jerry Baber of Military Police Systems, Inc. The company in turn developed the successor simply known as Auto Assault-12, which was redesigned with 188 changes/improvements over the original blueprint, and had taken 18 years to develop. MPS also teamed up with Action Manufacturing Company, and Special Cartridge Company to combine the gun with FRAG-12 High-Explosive ammunition into a weapon system. In 2004, 10 firing models of the AA-12 were produced, and were demonstrated to United States Marine Corps.
The weapon was shortened to 966mm but retained same barrel length as the original, and lightened to 4.76kg.
It uses a 8-round box, 20-round drum, or 40-round drum magazine. It is designed to fire three different types of 12 gauge shells: Buckshot, Slugs, or Frag-12.
MPS also claimed this gun requires zero cleaning or lubrication.
AA-12 CQB model has 13-inch barrel length, and weighs half a pound lighter than the regular model.