Larry Vickers Takes On Arsenal's Functional Miniatures

As part of his trip to Moscow, Russia, Larry Vickers was able to fire, for the first time, some of Arsenal Firearms’ scale miniature firearms. While miniature firearms are nothing new, Arsenal’s really are different in that they not only look like the full-size guns they replicate, they actually are the weapons, with everything from mechanisms to chambers replicated to scale. Unlike some other miniature firearms that replicate the look or even function of famous guns such as the M1919 or M2 while firing common calibers like .22 or .38 Special, the Arsenal reproductions fire scaled down ammunition; one can even see the belt of half-scale 8mm ammunition hanging from the miniature MG-34 in the second video.

The first three videos talk about Arsenal and their manufacture of miniature firearms, and in my opinion are an essential part of the whole. However, for those who just want to see the little guns shoot, head straight to Part 4. I have to say, however, watching them all in order really impressed me; collectively these are the coolest YouTube gun videos I’ve seen in a while:

Arsenal does sell their half-scale guns, but those who’ve already watched the videos before reading on will know they aren’t cheap; their half-scale AKM (Larry’s favorite, and complete with underbarrel firing miniature GP-30M in 9mm Luger) goes for around $60,000.

Miniaturizing firearms and having them work is no mean feat at all. Firearms do not scale well, a fact which the designers at Armalite, Cadillac Gage, Heckler and Koch, and other firms found out to their annoyance when trying to scale down 7.62mm weapons to 5.56mm.