Gee… this seems to be a trend

By | May 16, 2013

*This is another one of those posts that I should probably state that this is purely my opinion and it doesn’t necessarily represent the opinion of WizardPC, who keeps letting me post here for some reason.  My information comes solely from the sources that I have linked in this post.  If you have not already done so, please follow and read them and come to your own conclusions.*

I’m sure most of you will remember me talking about Linoge’s experiences with the US Firearms’ ZiP Gun (now with response post!).  Long story short, Linoge was able to reliably pull the trigger and operate the firing pin while the gun was out of battery.  This caused a couple rounds to go off while not in battery (.22 ammo in notorious for not going into battery properly in a semi-auto).  The President of the company apparently feels that 1. it’s impossible for a rimfire to detonate out of battery (evidence to the contrary), and 2. not having the trigger disconnected unless the gun is in battery is not a problem.

Well, shortly after that, the fine folks at guns.com reviewed the ZiP gun.  While they failed to have the out of battery experience that Linoge had, they too noticed that their firearm had this “interesting design feature.”  They also had a different malfunction.  Their particular T&E item would, randomly, but repeatably, fire 2 rounds per trigger pull!

I have a theory that it may have not gone into burst mode, but rather the trigger actually got pulled twice.  I have not handled this gun, but I could see this happening if the trigger reset is short.  Given the… umm… interesting ergonomics of this weapon, plus the fact that it can be fired before it’s fully back into battery could mean that a looser trigger pull could essentially bump fire it.  It’s a hair-brain theory, but I’m trying to give the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt.

I hadn’t really read or heard anything more about this quirky little gun until today, when I tripped over this forum post.  Someone bought a ZiP gun, took it to the range, and discovered that his 10 round 10/22 mags were so tight a fit that he needed pliers to remove them (the 25 round mags didn’t work, but that’s to be expected).  He reported multiple double shots, and at least one of them had the second round fire so dramatically out of battery that the case of the .22 did a rather good attempt on disintegrating.

So, it looks like he experienced *both* issues reported by the two previous reviews.  I’d say that this is pretty damning evidence that these things should best left on the shelf.

Please don’t get me wrong.  I admire this company for trying a rather radical new design.  I would love to say that I’m trying to figure out a way to explain to the wife why I need to add it to my collection.  Unfortunately, at this point, all signs point to this being a dangerous product.  The most alarming thing is that the company that makes it can’t say that they are not unaware of the issues, and does not seem interested in fixing what is clearly a defective design.

3 thoughts on “Gee… this seems to be a trend

  1. Chris

    Read the comments:

    “Aerindel Light · Top Commenter
    I have had the exact same problem after replacing the trigger with their reliability upgrade kit. The first thing the gun did was fire a two round burst. I sent an e-mail to zip and immediately got a call from Doug. I must say, the customer service is amazing. My zip is now on the way back to USFA as well. I really like the idea behind this gun and hope they can fix it.
    Reply · Like · Follow Post · Edited · April 5 at 4:10pm”

    Reply
  2. mrs wizardpc

    1. You said “wife”! How’d that feel?
    2. Good luck convincing her! Normally, I’d help, but not on this one.

    Reply
  3. HSR47

    “I have a theory that it may have not gone into burst mode, but rather the trigger actually got pulled twice. I have not handled this gun, but I could see this happening if the trigger reset is short.”

    I’ve done that with an M1.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *