Echo 1 Airsoft Minigun Rocks!
The Echo 1 Airsoft Minigun is without doubt the most hardcore airsoft gun ever built in the history of Airsoft, capable of dominating the airsoft battlefield on looks and its intimidation factor alone.
This mini gun is a multi-barrel automatic electric gun (AEG) with an extremely high rate of fire (approximately 3,000 rounds per minute) with a velocity of 400 feet per second (fps). The six Gatling-style barrels actually rotate, making this an awesome realistic airsoft gun to simply watch in action. Anyone bringing this unique weapon onto the airsoft battlefield will immediately command respect and become the center of attention. This minigun is the ultimate in projectile disperal and cannot be compared to any other gun available on the market. When you unleash the fury of this six barreled beast, you and your teammates will rule the battlefield as your opponents flee in terror. Nothing stands in the way of the Echo 1 Mini Gun.
The ammunition magazines for the minigun have a capacity of 1700 rounds. Weighing 36 pounds without the battery or BBs, the user of this gun may wish to use a shoulder harness for support to prevent fatigue. The Echo 1 Airsoft Minigun is available in two separate barrel lengths. The short version is 27 inches long and the longer version is 35 inches long. This air soft gun is relatively new on the market, having only been available since Fall 2008. It goes without saying that this gun is highly desired by airsofters. Besides being the biggest airsoft weapon ever built, the Echo 1 Airsoft Minigun delivers performance unmatched by anything else on the market. The retail price of $3,500 means that actual ownership of this gun will be restricted to those airsofters and replica gun enthusiasts with deep pockets and a burning desire to possess the pinnacle of airsoft weaponry.
The minigun was invented over 150 years ago when Doctor Richard Gatling patented the Gatling Gun in 1861 during the American Civil War, and it was employed by the United States Army beginning in 1867 after technical loading and jamming issues were resolved. Manufactured in Hartford, Connecticut by the Colt Armory, the Gatling Gun had six rotating barrels. Unlike the modern airsoft minigun which uses battery power, the original gatling gun was operated by hand, employing a crank-operated handle to load the firing chambers and rotate the barrels. The original gatling gun was able to fire 200 rounds per minute, which at the time of its invention was considered incredible, and it became the first machine gun with reliable ammunition loading as well as the capability to maintain multiple bursts of fire. Modern military grade gatling or miniguns fire in excess of 6,000 rounds per minute and even the Echo 1 Airsoft Minigun has an impressive fire rate of 3,000 rounds per minute, way beyond the rpm of the original gatling gun.
Known as the M-134 by the US Army and the GAU-2/A by the US Air Force, the modern minigun is a machine gun designed by General Electric. It is a multi barreled (usually six) rotating gun based on the Gatling Gun, and in fact most guns of this type are still referred to as Gatling or Gatlin’ guns. The name “minigun” is used because these guns are scaled down from larger vehicle mounted Gatling-style guns. The M-134 (first manufactured in 1963) uses a 7.62mm shell, a considerably smaller caliber weapon than the 20mm M61 Vulcan Cannon on which it is based.
The minigun, also known as a chaingun, became popularized in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “Predator”, where a group of military commandoes battled an alien in a central American jungle. The scene where a commando fires his mini gun, chopping down foliage and causing a lot of carnage until his gun heats up and his ammo backpack runs out, always gets a rousing positive response from the movie audience. In “Terminator 2”, another Schwarzenegger movie, the Terminator destroys several police cars outside the Cyberdyne Systems building with a minigun. Similar chainguns were seen in the movie “Black Hawk Down” equipped on military helicopters for close ground support and are also standard equipment on US Military Raptor assault vehicles.
Because the minigun became prominent in popular culture, it was only natural that a replica built for airsoft would become something that people would clamor for. Though there are/were several boutique and small niche manufacturers, such as the now-defunct Monty’s Miniguns developing airsoft miniguns, there were usually long waits to take ownership of one of these hand-crafted guns. Echo 1 was the first large company to design and manufacture a minigun for the airsoft market on a large production scale, making the gun easily available for anyone who could cough up the bucks to pay for one.
In addition to Echo 1’s airsoft version of the minigun, several 3 and 6 barrel airsoft miniguns are available from Piper Precision Products. These guns tend to be more customized and not available on a mass produced scale. Their M124A2 Vulcan airsoft mini gun is similar in styling to the Echo 1, but is not often in stock. Piper Precision Products also has other minigun models available, though these are more stylistically designed and not modeled on an actual existing military gun. The RSG-2 also has six barrels, has an internal ammunition hopper with a 1,500 round capacity, is 29 inches long, weighs 21 pounds empty without ammo and fires at a 490 feet per second (fps) velocity @140 psi, or 40-50 rounds per second. The RSG-1 only has three barrels, has the same internal ammo hopper with a 1,500 round capacity, is 29 inches long, weighs only 19 pounds empty without ammo and also fires at 490 fps @140psi. Both the RSG-2 and the RSG-1 have a retail price of $2,995, putting them out of the reach of all but the most deep pocketed and enthusiastic airsoft warriors. And since these guns by Piper Precision Products are not based on an actual weapon design, airsofters looking for realism are likely to choose the Echo 1 version of the airsoft minigun.
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