By Mark Keefe

The gun I principally traveled to SHOT Show this year to see this year was on the last position on the lower range at Media Day At The Range. It is the Uzi Rifle, and it is actually a .22 Long Rifle rimfire version of the legendary Israeli design. I have shot a number of Uzis over the years, including the semi-automatic carbine when I was a teenager to the full-automatic submachine guns and the difficult to control Mini Uzi in full automatic, and I must say this was almost as much fun as a full-automatic Uzi. OK, maybe not as fun, but close. The gun is made by Carl Walther in Germany and imported into the United States by Umarex, with the name and likeness of the gun being licensed by Israel Weapon Industries.

The rifle version features the metal folding stock, 26- or 33-inches long in overall length (folded or unfolded), with the 17.9-inch long barrels is surrounded by a false suppressor. But this gun has it all, the grip safety, the manual safety and the cocking handle on the top, except of course it is a closed bolt blowback operated semi-auto only. It is fed by a polymer 20-round magazine that is loaded through the grip and its release on the lower left of the grip works just like the center-fire Uzis. Without the magazine it weighs seven pounds, 10 ounces. The front post and rear aperture are faithful to the original Uzi.

I burned magazine after magazine out of the gun and tore up a metal plate. I reluctantly had to give the gun back, but one of the first guns is already ordered for the next season of “American Rifleman Television.”