American 180, 18.5″ Barrel 22LR – Machine Gun Brokers

Scarce American Arms Model 180 M2 Fully Automatic Class III/NFA “22 LR” Machine Gun

Description

What a neat little fully automatic rifle manufactured by the American Arms International Company. These were originally designed in the late 1970s as a semi-automatic version with the fully automatic models being introduced in the early 1980s. The underside of the receiver is stamped: “AMERICAN ARMS INTL. S.L. C. UT./AMERICAN 180 M-2”. They were designed to look like a Thompson SMG but used a drum magazine mounted horizontally on top of the action somewhat like a Lewis or Russian DP-38 machine gun. The drum magazine holds 177 rounds of the very popular and easy to obtain 22 LR ammunition.

These handy little rifles can fire in either Semi-Automatic or Full-Auto (from an open bolt), a finned barrel like the 1921/28 Thompson SMGs, to aid in cooling. They have a cyclic rate of 1200 rpm which could be quite devastating even for the 22LR. It has a side-mounted cocking handle, a fixed blade front sight and an adjustable rear sight patterned from the M1 Carbines. They were very unique at the time and still are today. They have a high impact brown plastic buttstock and forend with a blue/black metal finish.