USAS-12 Combat Shotgun
Forgotten Weapons
•
11m
The USAS-12 is one of the few fully-automatic shotgun to actually be put into mass production, aside from Russian 12ga AK conversions. It was designed in the late 1980s based on the work of Max Atchisson and manufactured by the Daewoo conglomerate in South Korea. About 30,000 were made in all, mostly sold in Asia for police and military use. Importation of semiautomatic examples into the US was hindered by the Treasury Department determining them to have no sporting purpose, and thus to be legally classified as Destructive Devices under the NFA.
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Howard's Thunderbolt: A Remarkably Co...
Designed by brothers Charles and Sebre Howard and first patented in 1862, this is a single shot lever action produced by the Whitneyville Armory between 1866 and 1870. It is a really neat compact design that is all contained within a tube. The system was made in rifle, sporting rifle, and shotgun...
-
Chinese Warlord Pistols: the "Horn Gr...
In the course of researching Chinese domestic pistols of the Warlord Era, I sorted through several hundred examples, and was able to identify six distinct patterns of uniquely Chinese designs. Once of these I have designated the Horn Grip Type, as almost all the examples identified use horn (some...
-
Chinese FN 1900s: From Wauser to Brow...
One of the most popular pistols in Warlord Era China was the FN 1900, a compact and reliable officer's pistol in .32 ACP. The Chinese also found great use for the Mauser C96, but this was seen as a sort of combat carbine, where the FN was more a defensive weapon and status symbol.
Several lar...