Update: The owner of MAG contacted me after the publication of this article to remind me that “there are thousands, not hundreds” of guns in the vault. Somewhere close to 4000 with 1000 of those being handguns and 2000 being machineguns. Clearly my urge to resist hyperbole was misguided.
Movie Armament’s Group is a Canadian company that provides firearms for movies and television productions. I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon being shown around their vault, and was allowed to snap a few photos of the treasures within.
All the firearms are fully functional live firing. When a production requests a particular firearm, Movie Armaments will supply a gun wrangler on set to retain control of the firearm, convert it to the appropriate blank charge, run the actors through proper manipulations etc. Almost every firearm in the vault is capable of full auto fire, as I was told “directors never really want semi auto shooting.”
There are literally hundreds of guns in the vault, and around every corner there’s something usual and rare. As a gun-nerd, it was an absolute delight to visit, and I could easily spend days in there pulling things apart.
MAG has provided guns for movies like Boondock Saints, RED, the Resident Evil series, Robocop, and most recently every gun in Suicide Squad that just released. For a full list of the movies they’ve worked on, check out their IMDB page or for other views of the vault, their Instagram feed.
Some of these are taken with a proper camera, but the majority were taken on my cell-phone, so please accept my apologies for that. If you click on any of these you should get a nice hi-rez version.
Top: A classic MP5-K with the vertical grip and 4.5 inch barrel. Bottom: The M320 40mm grenade launcher in a standalone setup
Top: A select fire HK 416 with the Geissele lightweight freefloat rail, a PEQ-15 laser and Eotech & Magnifier optics package. Bottom: An original Russian AKSU Krinkov. Check out this TFB article on where the Krinkov name comes from.
The always sexy H&K MP7. Apparently sourcing blank 4.6×30mm rounds is a real challenge. Fortunately MAG can manufacture their own for varying charge levels.
There are literally piles of MP7s sitting around the vault. I snapped this shot to contrast the size difference between “deployed” and “compact” mode of the MP7.
A factory original G36C. Apparently these are a popular request for TV shows looking for something slick and high tech. This concludes the “German tour.”
Your’s truly with a slightly wild expression. Because yes, that is a real Stoner 63 in my hands. No, they wouldn’t tell me where they got it.
Another mysterious acquisition. There were stacks and stacks of AK pattern rifles of every kind, but this one stuck out. Do you recognize those symbols?
That’s right, it’s an AK made in North Korea. Not many of those make it across the DMZ.
Another bit of historical fun: the Swedish K submachine gun. If you look on the wall below you can see a PPSH submachine gun that has been burned and damaged for effect.
A real rarity: an integrally suppressed QCW-05 submachine gun. This Chinese 9mm is made by Norinco, and apparently “a real bitch to run reliably.”
A factory Glock 18. Not exactly common in Communist-Canada.
A 12″ SBR Benelli MR-1 from the Robocop reboot. The blue panel on the stock was designed as an LCD screen that would be digitally altered in post production. A shorty MR1 might not be a highlight for most people, but I see this as the closest we ever got to a realization of Beretta’s Rx4 prototype.
As a Tavor shooter I couldn’t pass up the chance to handle MAG’s X95 models. These Israeli IDF issue rifles are super small and super light. The 9mm version is pictured with the enclosed trigger guard, while the 5.56 version has the reduced pistol grip.
The original Uzi submachinegun. I’ve never used such a convoluted folding/telescoping stock.
The much smaller Micro-Uzi. Notice that this isn’t a “select fire” weapon. This is full auto or nothing.
An SBR Galil rifle that I will never be allowed to own. All Galil’s in Canada are prohibited as “variants of the Kalashnikov.”
Hebrew inscriptions on the fun-switch selector of the Galil. Fun fact ב is for bodedet which is semi, א is for otomat which is autotmatic, and נצ is natzur which is safe. This concludes the “Israeli tour.”
While I was there a shipment arrived from Beretta. Inside? Several new ARX-160 rifles and their grenade launchers.
This unit features the 11 inch barrel. The under-barrel launcher is Beretta’s GLX 160.
A look inside the grenade launcher. Note that this is a push forward like the old M203, rather than a twist like the M320.
There are hundreds of historical weapons inside the vault as well, stashed away on racks piled high to the ceiling. I happened across this stack of MG42s and other WWII treasures. (Can you spot the Bren Gun?)
A more modern machinegun rack is loaded with M249 SAWs and G3s. Loading procedure with a SAW using blanks can be quite tricky.
Both the Daewoo and Thompson are something of a rarity in Canada. Thanks mid-90s gun control for shutting out all the fun stuff!
The C7 and C8 rifles used in Hyena Road, a Canadian produced film about our soldiers in Afghanistan. Fun Fact: Colt Canada now sells the semi-auto versions of these rifles to licensed Canadian citizens.
And finally, a full stack of RPG tubes. “We only needed one or two, but they said we had to buy them by the crate. So we got a crate!” These also see use in foreign weapons familiarity courses for the Canadian Forces.
There were literally hundreds of things I didn’t see or didn’t photograph, and lots that couldn’t be shown because of security or NDA requirements, but I hope this short sample has provided some interest to you: the wider gun-loving public.