Hello,

I had a quick question. What was wrong with the calico pistols and rifles. Why did they fail? Was it a popularity reason, or were they unreliable?

AWB

Quoted: AWB

Yep.
They would have continued to make a killing, but the mag ban signed their death warrant.

I have met the man theat owned Calico at the Burbank, Calif(suburb 10 miles north of L.A.) PD range years ago, and he was really nice guy. I got to shoot his rather unconventinal 9mm Para M100(?)machine gun with a 100rd rotary magazine that he wanted to sell to the police and military.  Bill Clintons '94 AWB did a lot of damage here, because he could no longer sell his semi-auto versions to civilians, one of the big selling points was his 50 & 100 magazines.  Also realiistically the police & military world was not ready to buy from a small, essentially a start up company, those folks would go with the established companies such as S&W, Ruger, Colt, HK etc.

Bakersfield CA SWAT was given some semi-auto Calico 9mm rifles....they sucked so bad that they could not give them away.  In fact, during the AWB, a SWAT member tried to sell me the two preban Calicos he had for like $200 total....I looked them over, and they sucked bad....real bad....

Excellent full-auto Calico use in Timebomb.

I have one of the .22 pistols - pretty reliable and a fun plinker. Neat concept I would have liked to have seen stick around.

I remember I bought it the week Clinton was sworn in.

Quoted: Excellent full-auto Calico use in Timebomb.

I Come In Peace

Did real well in Space Balls.  

Quoted: I have one of the .22 pistols - pretty reliable and a fun plinker. Neat concept I would have liked to have seen stick around. I remember I bought it the week Clinton was sworn in.

I wish they would make a .22 like that but a side loader or bottom loader that way at close range the impact vs sight height wouldnt be bad

The design was simple and robust with respects to the receiver and trigger group.  The magazine was not soljer proof and if dropped on a hard surface, the plastic would crack.  Thus, it could not withstand abuse in combat.  Still, it was a mighty fun gun to shoot and the .223 or 12 gauge version would have been a hoot to shoot - had they produced it.

Aren't they still in business, on their website they opened back up after the ban

Quoted: The design was simple and robust with respects to the receiver and trigger group.  The magazine was not soljer proof and if dropped on a hard surface, the plastic would crack.  Thus, it could not withstand abuse in combat.  Still, it was a mighty fun gun to shoot and the .223 or 12 gauge version would have been a hoot to shoot - had they produced it.

A .223 magazine using their design would be over two feet long and would have to be around eight inches in diameter.  The internal helix has to have a small enough slope to push the cartridge forward without binding.  If anyone has a 9mm magazine, measure the 9mm cartridge OAL, measure a typical .223 cartridge OAL, take the ratio, and multiply the diameter of the 9mm magazine by that to get what it would probably end up at.

12ga would probably be worse since the shells are so heavy.

Their patent, U.S. 5335579, expires on April 12, 2013;  if they kept it in force, they still have a chance to make some money.  I hope they do;  they got royally screwed by the AWB.

I have both a .22LR pistol and .22LR rifle of theirs.  The rifle is a lot of fun and fits me perfectly.  Only tried the pistol once;  it was ok, but for me it was just basically an oddball to keep in my collection.

Quoted: Quoted: Excellent full-auto Calico use in Timebomb. I Come In Peace

Yeah, but in "I Come in Peace" the thing was some kind of plasma/laser gun that shot 40mm explosives.