The USFA Zip .22 (stylized as ZiP) is a semi-automatic

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...

chambered in

.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...

, commercially introduced by the

U.S. Fire Arms Manufacturing Company United States Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, Inc. (U.S. Fire Arms Mfg. Co., USFA) was a privately held firearms-manufacturing firm based in Hartford, Connecticut. This company is not to be confused with and has no affiliation with the U.S. Arms ...

(USFA) in 2013. Although given some praise for its innovative concept, affordability and accuracy, it was widely panned for its frequent mechanical malfunctions, with failures to feed ammunition and eject spent casings being reported by a large number of shooters. The poor reliability of this gun made it a commercial failure, causing the eventual demise of the USFA in 2017.

Design

The ZiP .22 is a straight blowback-operated semi-automatic handgun in a configuration, with a box-shaped, futuristic-styled polymer frame featuring two holes for the trigger and the user's middle finger, and a flat buttplate on which the shooter's hand rests. It has simple notch and blade

sights A sight is an aiming device used to assist in visually aligning ranged weapons, surveying instruments or optical illumination equipments with the intended target. Sights can be a simple set or system of physical markers that have to be aligne ...

, and uses

Ruger 10-22 The Ruger 10/22 is a series of semi-automatic rifles produced by American firearm manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co., chambered for the .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge. It uses a patented 10-round rotary magazine, though higher capacity box ma ...

removable magazines, with the 10-round wheel magazine being the default. The bolt of the firearm has two trapezoidal bars extending out the front of the housing along the length of nearly the entire barrel; pushing these in towards the shooter is the only way to cycle the action. This design choice drew significant criticism, because it required the shooter to place their hand next to the muzzle in order to chamber a new round, putting them at risk of injury from accidental or negligent discharges. The firearm was designed to act as the receiver portion of a modular weapon system, which could be built up according to the shooter's needs using a wide range of drop-in expansions. The standard iron sights, mounted on a removable plate, could be swapped out for enhanced sights that glowed in the dark, or a

picatinny The Picatinny Arsenal ( or ) is an American military research and manufacturing facility located on of land in Jefferson and Rockaway Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, encompassing Picatinny Lake and Lake Denmark. The Arse ...

or scope rail that would allow the mounting of

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...

. Another rail accessory allowed the ZiP .22 to attach to the underside of a rifle, similar to underslung shotgun designs, in order to provide additional firepower. The ZiP .22 could also itself be converted into a rifle through the addition of a carbine stock and a suppressor, although these accessories as well as a .22WMR conversion kit never made it past the prototype stage due to the commercial failure of the weapon.

Production history

The ZiP .22 was first revealed to the public in an attempted viral marketing stunt, when a YouTube user, believed to be designer and company CEO Douglas Donnelly, uploaded a video titled "Unidentified Firing Object", which showed the gun in action at a range. After some speculation about the identity of the firearm, USFA announced plans for its production in late 2012. The development of the ZiP .22 was a big risk for the USFA, a gunmaker that had made a name for itself with its highly regarded replicas of the

Colt Single Action Army The Colt Single Action Army (also known as the SAA, Model P, Peacemaker, or M1873) is a Trigger (firearms)#Single-action, single-action revolver handgun. It was designed in 1872 for the U.S. government service revolver trials of 1872 by Colt's P ...

and other historic guns. The gun, although able to be sold at a low price, required very expensive polymer moulding equipment to produce, the cost of which would require USFA to sell off their Single Action Army production tooling. The company nonetheless took this risk, intending to restart production of replica guns with newly purchased tools once the ZiP .22 had turned a profit. This decision proved to be the company's demise when the ZiP .22 failed on the market due to severe reliability issues. Production of the gun stopped in 2014. USFA itself shut down in 2017, unable to return to production of more successful products.

References

{{Reflist Semi-automatic pistols of the United States