Arsenal Firearms' Double Barrel Pistol shoots two bullets at once
It's
been a popular design for shotguns for over a century, so why not handguns? With
a design that looks like two guns were melted together, the new handgun from
Arsenal Firearms is definitely a handful. Thanks to the gun's dual barrels
though, the AF2011-A1 Double Barrel Pistol is capable of firing 16 rounds in a
span of three seconds by shooting two bullets at the same
time.
Arsenal
Firearms produced the double-barreled handgun to commemorate the 100-year
anniversary of the Colt 1911-A1, which has been the preferred sidearm of the
U.S. Military since World War II. This certainly isn't the first double barrel
pistol ever made, but it is the first .45 caliber, semiautomatic one built to
industrial specifications.
Aside
from the separate barrels, the rest of the AF2011-A1 is made of conjoined parts,
so that it uses a single slide, grip, and safety. It can however be customized
to use a single trigger or two separate triggers, so the left and right barrel
can be fired independently.
VIDEO
Most of the internal parts - firing pins,
springs, housings, etc. - are actually interchangeable with standard Colt 1911
parts. The pistol holds 16 .45 ACP rounds split between two columns, which
connect to a single base plate and can be loaded like a single
magazine.
Arsenal
says the gun can be handled like any other .45 caliber handgun and is
surprisingly accurate, considering its non-traditional design. At 15 yards (13.7
m) from a target, all 16 bullets will group in an area about the size of an
orange; at 25 yards (22.8 m), that area grows to about the size of a watermelon.
The dual barrels also pack quite a punch, with two bullets making up 460 grains
of weight hitting a target one to two inches apart from each other, depending on
the distance. That means one full payload from the AF2011-A1 can deliver in
three seconds what would take a regular 9 mm pistol almost ten times as long to
fire, including reloading.
Check
out the video below to watch Dimitry Streshinskiy, co-creator of the AF2011-A1
Double Barrel Pistol, demonstrate the handgun by firing a fully loaded
magazine.