American-180
- Category
- Submachine Gun
- Barrel
- 470 mm
- Weight, empty
- 2.60 kg
- Introduced
- 1972
About
What it is, and why it matters
The American-180 is a US-designed, Austrian-manufactured (Voere/ILARCO) .22 Long Rifle submachine gun introduced in the early 1970s. It feeds from a top-mounted spinning pan drum holding up to 275 rounds and fires from an open bolt at around 1,200 rpm. Marketed to police and prison agencies, it was pitched as a high-volume, low-penetration suppressive-fire weapon.
The American-180 took its name from the roughly 180-round capacity of its early prototype pan magazine, and was an early adopter of a factory laser-aiming option. The high volume of small .22 LR rounds was sold to prisons as devastating yet less likely to over-penetrate cell-block walls.
Manufactured in Austria by Voere under contract; marketing and assembly handled by the Illinois Arms Company and later American Arms International. Drum capacities ranged from 165 to 275 rounds. A higher-velocity .22 ILARCO (shortened .22 WMR) chambering pushed cyclic rate to around 1,500 rpm.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Illinois Arms Company (ILARCO)
- Category
- Submachine Gun
- Country
- United States
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1972 to 1985
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 470 mm
- Overall length
- 900 mm
- Weight, empty
- 2.60 kg
- Weight, loaded
- 4.50 kg
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Blowback
- Firing mechanism
- Open bolt
- Capacity
- 177
- Magazine
- Drum
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 320 m/s
- Muzzle energy
- 130 J
- Effective range
- 100 m
- Rate of fire
- 1200 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Top mounted pan magazine
Spinning drum feed
Optional laser sight
Adjustable sights
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty weightAmong 282 submachine guns | 2.60 kg | 3.15 kg | Lighter than about 70% |
| Overall lengthAmong 281 submachine guns | 900 mm | 737 mm | Longer than about 90% |
| Barrel lengthAmong 282 submachine guns | 470 mm | 213 mm | Among the longest tenth |
| Magazine capacityAmong 287 submachine guns | 177 | 32 | Among the largest capacities |
Its place in the rankings
Answers
Questions about the American-180
How much does the American-180 weigh?
The American-180 weighs 2.60 kg (5.73 lb) empty and 4.50 kg (9.92 lb) loaded.
What caliber is the American-180?
The American-180 is chambered in .22 Long Rifle.
How many rounds does the American-180 hold?
The American-180 holds 177 rounds, fed from a drum magazine.
How long is the American-180?
The American-180 is 900 mm (35.4 in) long overall, with a 470 mm (18.5 in) barrel.
Who makes the American-180?
The American-180 is made by Illinois Arms Company (ILARCO) (United States). It was designed by Richard Casull.
When was the American-180 introduced?
The American-180 was introduced in 1972 and discontinued in 1985.
How does the American-180 operate?
The American-180 uses a blowback action, and its firing mechanism is open bolt.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- Utah Department of Corrections
- United States
Provenance
Confidence in this record
72%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/american-180' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "american-180", "name": "American-180", "manufacturer": { "id": "ilarco", "name": "Illinois Arms Company (ILARCO)", "countryCode": "US", "foundedYear": null, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "updatedAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "version": "d48e9b49cfff13c4e492db66d2b9d016ea91d953769a858287661ad9e1be8b30" }, "category": { "id": "submachine-gun", "name": "Submachine Gun", "description": "Automatic firearms chambered in pistol calibers" }, "country_of_origin": "US", "year_introduced": 1972, "barrel_length_mm": 470, "weight_empty_g": 2600, "action_type": "blowback"}