Lexan drum winder – 0.43 kg (15.2 oz) – Must have installed on drum to use on weapon
BASIC LOAD – 3-177 round steel drums (531 rounds)
LOAD WT – 5.85 kg (12 lbs 14.4 oz)
MANUFACTURER – Western States Arms Manufacturing (Original Casull Model 290 – 1966-1967), Voere, Präzisiontechnik, GMBH, Kufstein, Austria (A – Model weapons – 1969, Marketed by American Arms International Corp, Previously American Mining and Development Co.)., American Arms International, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (D -Model weapons – 1980), Illinois Arms Company, Inc. (B – Model weapons 1987). E&L Manufacturing of Riddle, Oregon (V- Model weapons). A very limited run of the submachine gun (24 units) was made by S&S Arms, New Mexico prior to 1986.
STATUS – Presently in limited production as a semiautomatic rifle
SERVICE – Commercial sales, some Law Enforcement use.
Designed and developed by Richard J. Casull and Kerm Eskelson, the first working prototype of this weapon was available in 1960. The weapon, eventually known as the Model 290 Carbine, was unusual in that it had a very unique ammunition feed was designed and patented for it. The firearm fed from a flat drum magazine that fit horizontally across the top of the receiver. Ammunition was held in a number of rotating layers, giving the drum magazine a capacity of 290 rounds. Given that the Model 290 Carbine was a semiautomatic-only design, it could be loaded once and fired for a very long time.
The 1968 Gun Control Act made it very difficult for the original manufacturer, Western State Arms, to raise operating capital, the rights to the design were sold to the American Mining and Development Company of Nevada in 1969. In 1972, the further development and production of the design was let to Voere GMBH of Austria. This company revamped the basic design to give it greater appeal to both Military and Law Enforcement sales internationally. Now known as the American 180 M-2, the weapon was capable of select fire, both semi and full automatic, and fired from an open bolt to help with cooling. To clear the sight line, the magazine capacity was reduced to 177 rounds, making the new steel drum flat and low across the top of the weapon. This design was marketed internationally by Voere and sold in the United States by the American International Corporation of Salt Lake City, Utah.
The American 180 was now of the very few submachine guns chambered for the .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge. The short bolt travel gave the weapon a very high rate of fire for a hand-held firearm. The large drum capacity helped keep the weapon from running out of ammunition too quickly. And the flat horizontal drum allowed for the shooter to have a very low profile when in the prone position.
In spite of the high cyclic rate of fire of the American 180, the low recoil of the .22 Long Rifle round makes the design very controllable on full automatic fire. The 40 grain lead bullet of standard velocity .22 ammunition gives the American 180 a cyclic rate of about1,200 rounds per minute, about 9 seconds of fire from a 177 round magazine. The 20 rounds per second fired by the American 180 land very close together on a target, basically chewing their way through surprisingly resistant materials. The American 180 can cut through cinder blocks like a chain saw, and a single drum can cut through a normal wooden telephone pole, dropping it like a felled tree.
To take additional advantage of the volume of fire put out by the very controllable American 180, it was one of the first firearms to have a laser sight developed for it. The rechargeable “Laser Loc” sight was released in 1973 for the American 180. The helium-neon laser of the sight put out a red laser beam that placed a visible red dot on the target. The dot was about 7.6 cm (3 in) wide at 183 m (200 yds). The impact of the bullets basically hit where the dot was. This early laser sight was very large when compared to the laser sights of today. The original (Model SC 100) Laser Loc was 34.9 cm (13.75 in) long, 11.4 cm (4.5 in) tall, and 4.4 cm (1.75 in) thick. It mounted solidly under the forearms of the long-barreled version. It weighed 2.61 kg (5lbs 12 oz) and operated for up to 2 hours per charge, recharging time was 8 hours.
Though the American 180 was not a very successful commercial design, it went through a number of manufacturers, it made a reasonably strong aftermarket for itself. A manufacturer, E&L Manufacturing, has marketed a number of very large magazines for the design. The new magazines are made of lexan plastic to help keep the weight down for their very large (165, 220, and 275 round) capacity.
