PAR1

A two shot handgun in .45ACP or 9mm? Sure. A single shot shotgun in .410? Eh, maybe. But who in the world turned to their buddies and said “you know what I want? I want a handgun that gently tosses a .22 caliber projectile towards the target while generating a massive and blinding fireball from an insanely short barrel.” And yet, that is exactly what Heizer Defense has designed, and will be showing off at the NRA Annual Meeting this weekend . . .

From Jesse Smith:

Heizer Defense points out that the PAR1 Pocket AR will feature the same ambi controls as the PS1 shown, which accepts .45 Colt or .410 shotgun shells. It will also only be .7″ wide and fit in your pocket, so we assume a somewhat similar design with what they claim offers a smooth trigger pull. The PAR1 is constructed with a stainless steel frame, radiussed grop and the trigger is on roller bearings. The barrel can be removed with the Ambi latch release. We also assume it will be quite the pull and experience when firing off a .223 round. While, we are sure it will be interesting for novelty sake, a single shot “AR” that you can throw in your pocket is an interesting stretch, just as much as its namesake. Nonetheless if one simply fell into our hand, we would gladly give it a go just for the sake of science as we would like to call it. The PAR1 Pocket AR Pistol will retail for around $450-$500 and will be on hand at the NRA Annual Meeting with Heizer Defense in Booth #6274.

Yeah, it’s not for me.

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122 COMMENTS

    • Heizer,

      we’ve gathered here today because we are your friends. We all love and care about you, and we’re each here to tell you how we each value you.

      We have also come together because we have seen the destructive path you are heading down, and we want to stop you before its too late.

      *Leghorn steps up, nervously coughs and begins to read from his prepared notes*
      Heizer,
      I’ve known you for a couple of years now and we’ve become great friends. At first, it was really fun with the smaller calibers, but as the years have gone on I’ve seen you become obsessed with bigger and bigger rounds. This last one is just too much. Stop it man, just stop it.

      For gods sakes, whats next? .50?

      *Leghorn steps back, a single stoic tear in his eye*

      • YES! Heizer REALLY needs an intervention. Admittedly, the fireball from this thing will blind any attacker, plus the user and any bystanders within 100 yards, but a simple flare gun would be just as effective. Have you ever fired a .223 from a 10″ Contender? Really nifty special effects!

        C’mon, Heizer, why not try .357 and .44 mag first?

        • “…why not try .357 and .44 mag first?”

          Ouch. Though .38 specials might not be too bad, and .44 specials might even be doable without anesthetic.

        • Maybe they can do a 460 S&W?

          Perhaps it is not intended to launch bullets, but to incinerate targets. Caution, do not for inside your pocket or near your jewels.

    • I feel the same way about anything vanity baby related.

      But you know, different strokes for different folks.

      This is a free(ish) market. Not North Korea.

      • I’m not saying it should be banned or restricted. But I reserve the right to point and laugh at anyone who purchases and/or uses one of these.

        • Yeah, but don’t tell me that you wouldn’t ask to shoot it if you saw somebody next to you with one at the range.

    • Yeah. You fire it the first time, and the recoil breaks your wrist in 4 places (like mine was once) and sends the little piece through your forehead and into your brain…

      Just be certain you – I mean your bereaved accomplice – can upload the footage to YouTube before you go through with it.

    • Come on guys, get with the times. We need this in .300 AAC Blackout for stopping power capable of taking hippos, accuracy out to 1000 yards, and tactical rainbows-shooting-out-of-a-Leprechaun-butt.

  7. The cartridge is almost as long as the barrel so it’s going to have some really strange ballistics. Will it even be supersonic? A subsonic 223 round would be just slight more effective because of its larger mass than your good old fashion high velocity 22lr.

  10. Okay, everyone, the shark has officially been jumped on pocket pistols. Move along, nothing more to see here.

    BTW, if this doesn’t flip out of most people’s hands 600 nitro style when fired I will well and truly be shocked.

    • I don’t think the recoil will be that intense – as others have said, it will make a huge fireball, though.

      Rifle powder burns slower than pistol powder. By the time the bullet exits the barrel on this thing, most of the powder will still be un burned.

  11. Because they’re part of the gun industry and can do whatever they want. It’s only a matter of time before another Zimmerman uses this on an unarmed teenage drug dealer with a bright future.

  12. Do it come with the shoulder thing that goes up or .30 caliber assault clips?

    If so, I will buy one.

  13. Does Heizer have a patron with strange taste in guns? I can’t think that they are actually marketing these things; it makes my brain hurt.

  14. How long until this is demonized as a “cop killer” pistol like the 5.7? I’m sure it’ll never get popular enough for anyone to notice it.

    • .223 pistols already exist. I would LOVE for a gun grabber to start pearl clutching over this so we can smile and say “and how about the other million .223 pistols sold in the last 10 years?”

      • Sure, but none so concealable. I assume it would penetrate most soft body armor even with the short barrel. Never mind the obvious fact that you could just use a rifle or aim for the head if you felt like killing cops for some reason.

        • Almost assuredly it will not penetrate soft body armor. Penetration depends a lot on velocity, and that’s one thing a .223 out of this pistol will not have. Out of a 20″ barrel the 55gr .223 has a nominal velocity of 3000fps. Subtract 50fps per inch of barrel length lost (17″, assuming a 3″ barrel) and you’re looking at a maximum velocity of 2150fps, and probably less.

          EDIT TO ADD: Ballistics By The Inch says 1150fps. Apparently .223 drops off even faster than other rounds. Not really surprised.

          This is in .22 Magnum territory out of a 3″ barrel. I don’t see a vest penetration occurring here.

    • 5.7, did someone mention 5.7×28. Can we have a Heizer in 5.7.
      Oh hell, lets just do one in 7.62×51, or 303

  16. Great. Another “armor piercing” handgun round to ban… Just what the anti’s were looking for… Not that it would actually have much power as pointed out by others.

    • Dude there have been .223/5.56 handguns for decades. Steel core is already banned for import, with an exception made for M855 (62 grain steel core).

      • M855 is GTG because the core is lead with a steel “cap”. Still think a 55 grain 7N6 style is superior

  19. How is it that anyone is still calling these things ‘pocket pistols,’ anyway? They’re larger than the offerings from Ruger, Kel-Tec, Kahr, and the rest of the common pocket-pistols.
    For all of that additional size, you still only get two shots and a gutter site.

  20. Can’t wait to see someone shoot this on YouTube! Lol! I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for that.

  23. I must say that although I will often defend oddities in firearm design, I really cannot see one little bit of practicality in this. I mean, maybe if you want to set an assailant on fire with the muzzle blast, or if for some reason you can’t find pistol caliber ammo, ANY pistol caliber ammo.
    Now put the same ammo in an 8 inch barreled revolver or single shot weapon with a decent grip and some good sights, you might have something for target and hunting use.
    As is, this would be a range toy or a horrible joke. That said, I’d be interested in seeing what sort of ballistics this thing has, and if offered the chance to shoot one, I’d take it. I’d don my shooting gloves first, but I bet the recoil wouldn’t be that bad with such a short barrel.

  24. It is a gun made for an idiot, full of sound and fury but capable of hitting nothing.

    The fireball from that thing must be in the same class as my Obrez

  28. I see something of value here. And I think this maybe what the company is “really” marketing this for. The future- when the war over guns starts. This could be used as a sort of “liberator” like the single shot .45 in WW2. Smuggle and distribute it in the occupied areas. Making it out of 5.56 makes sense then because that will be very common round “liberated” off of the Nazis. Makes sense when you think about using it as getting close to a lone sentry, or straggler, and shooting them in the back with it, then you have a rifle. Next you “use rifle to get machine gun”… and so on….

    • Yes, shoot an enemy in the back with a snubnose 223. And then 30 seconds later while you’re rifling his corpse his buddies show up because the shockwave from the gunshot blew out the windows in the house you were in.

    • You’d need to be at point-blank range, in which case a knife would be a better bet. More effective and silent, unlike this monstrosity.

  29. Heizer Defense…aren’t they the people that were originally supposed to manufacture the (slightly less useless) DoubleTap but couldn’t be bothered to actually produce any? And this pistol looks familiar for some reason…can’t put my finger on it…tap-tap…hmmm…

  30. Regardless of ballistics your attacker will be bleeding from the ears, and you will too.

  32. I doubt the fireball would be all that impressive. More than 1/2 the powder probably wouldn’t even burn. Recoil wouldn’t be much more than a 22WMR and velocity would probably be under 1100fps. This is a really bad idea made for a just because its there market.

  33. This is one of those guns you hope a friend buys so you can shoot it once, but save your own money for more useful guns.

  34. They have been making .223 derringers for eons. Ballistics by the inch actually tested on and the results have been on their website for close to a decade now.

    Ballistics really are awful on this barrel length and you are really better off with a stinger or .22 magnum

  38. Once you’ve fired a pocket AR, what’s next? Setting your b@lls on fire with a blowtorch? Sticking your tongue in an electric pencil sharpener? Oh, I know — how about rolling buck nekkid in a length of concertina wire.

    Good times.

  39. Stuff like this reminds me of the movie Equilibrium: it seems really badass and cool until you put so much as a smidgen of thought into it, and then it just becomes pants-on-head retarded.

  41. Why not just grab a musket ball and an M80? Hold them tight in the same hand, light the M80, stick hand in attackers face.

  43. I shot a 5.56 NATO derringer when i was young and stupid.Recoil was virtually nonexistent and the muzzle flash was comparable to that of a snub .357…

  45. Sometimes it’s ok to have a stupid fucking gun that’s just kinda neat for one very narrow reason.

  46. I don’t know what this is supposed to be. I recall when the DoubleTap came out, I and about 100 others joked about up-calibering it into .50BMG or other such silliness. Upon seeing this, I thought maybe this thing was just a publicity stunt meant to drive traffic to their website and convention booth to gain exposure for the rest of their product line. Well.

    That worked on me, except that when I got to their site, I found that this thing is basically their only product. Plus the PS1 jobber. These don’t even amount to niche market products. Somewhere lower than novelties and closer to oddities is more like it. Just for S’s&G’s, I would *love* to see their formal business plan. What thought process, what reasoned business strategy, could possibly support the conclusion that this is a viable, never mind profitable, business venture?

    Look, I take my hat off to these guys and others like them who run an idea from concept to drawing to prototype to production run and risk the market’s reception. Hell, I’ll eat my hat if these guys can turn a decent buck on this thing. I love ’em, God bless ’em, and the whole nine yards. I’m just saying that there has to be more to this company’s operation’s than just this high-powered assault derringer.

    • Agreed, I suppose. Even gullible morons deserve fair representation on the firearms market.

  50. The recoil will not be an issue in the least since most of the .223 powder will not even fully burn and the bullet is practically hanging out of the barrel… at best you might have a nice fireball.

  54. Finally a handgun less useful than a NA mini derringer.

    Oh and at least twice as expensive and less powerful than at least the 22 mag versions.

  55. Wow, I never thought you guys were so retarded.

    It’s a “rifle cartridge” guys. Take this, attach a tiny ACOG, a baby stock and a teeny weeny suppressor.

    Bam! World’s Littlest SBR. The anti’s can’t take it away because they can’t find it.

    You’re welcome.

  56. It looks a lot like the Mossberg Brownie. That 4-barrel pocket gun at least had the decency to fire .22 rimfire.

  58. pocket flashbang. Guaranteed to send your average “knockout” player running… the report will be emitting the infamous “brown note” as gangstas and thugs sh*t themselves.

    But then, that’s what 22WMR was invented for too in a pistol, isnt it?

  59. Looks like Heizer is trying to get as much publicity as possible before Double-Tap sues them out of existence.

  60. Pointless, the entire point of small high velocity rifle rounds is to well…have a lot of velocity. Out of a short barrel your not going to get much.

    I see this pistol as kind of a pointless novelty.

  61. I want one, in 7.62×39 with a 8 inch barrel and a target grip (adjustable palm shelf). Could make a decent hunting gun in the config I mentioned.

    Though if they want to be serious they should make it double barreled, quad barrel would be ideal. At least chamber it in 9mm Brenneke for all the “9mm is so weak, hurr durr” jokes.

  65. Is this the solution to the ammo cans full of 5.56 that I have. Oh wait, no, I have a way to use those that wont blow my ear drums and possibly start a fire.

    Solution in search of a problem.

  66. As a range gun, it would certainly be an attention getter or when you’re out in the woods shooting with your friends. As far as a real-world use, I can think of only one, and that would be as a last-ditch “get off me” gun involving a muzzle contact shot. All of that very high pressure gas follows the bullet into your assailant. With a contact shot using a .22 Long Rifle or even a .22 Magnum derringer, you’ll get a .22LR or .22 Magnum case worth of burning powder, but a .223? Think of 55,000 psi of pressure uncorked in very close proximity to whatever organs you need to keep you ambulatory. As a primary defensive weapon? Forget it. Third or fourth gun? It could save your life.

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