From many quarters comes a request for an airsoft version of the Auto Assault 12 (AA-12), the combat shotgun also known as the Atchisson Assault Shotgun which bears the name of its designer, Maxwell Atchisson. In fact we have been hearing rumours about the AA-12 for airsoft from the U.S. and of all places that we get to see a prototype, it is France which is getting ahead with such a design.

France is really an airsoft country, apart from being the home of the company-who-must-not-be-named, has recently seen the growth of actual airsoft manufacturers with one already making some strides with their nicely made AK AEG, the Black Ops Soul AKM 13 (and they have good line of airsoft guns at their website), and now comes Airsoft Absolution which has no website yet and just created their Facebook Page last Monday, 24 June 2013.

The introductory airsoft gun of Airsoft Absolution is the AA-12, or Airsoft Auto-12 Combat Shotgun, and based on the real AA-12. What they have posted online at their YouTube channel is a prototype of the AA-12 with external details, including a rotating drum magazine.

This is rather an AEG when we were anticipating a gas-powered one so this comes as surprise. Weighing 4.5kg, it is made of steel and fiberglass and has a MOSFET chip to have efficient power usage and also protect the electrical inside. We don't know if the MOSFET is programmable to either increase and decrease rate of fire. Also designed with a new hop-up system, it can fire 3 BBs simultaneously in one trigger pull.

Since we didn't have any peek into the internals of this airsoft AA-12, we'll turn our attention to the drum magazine. Since this is AEG combat shotgun we do not expect this to be loaded with BB shotgun shells, and rather the drum magazine itself contains all the BBs that it can carry. The 12GA shells that you see in the drum magazine are merely cosmetic, just like those dummy bullets that are used in the drum/box magazines for airsoft support weapons such as the M249s and PKMs.

The difference of the Airsoft AA-12 drum magazine from the other existing airsoft drum magazines is that this is a rotating drum, to mimic the loading of shotgun shells into the shotgun. The video shows the drum magazine rotating but we don't know if rotation is done by the pull of trigger since it wasn't shown. The magazine is based on the 20-round drum magazine design and we don't know if there will be options for the 8-round magazine and the 32-round drum magazine.

Well, we're just trying to stretch here our observation in the video and we're basing information on what is provided there and giving our interpretation which could be wrong in the next revelation. Airsoft Absolution are promising a test firing video of the AA-12, and that is an important thing as it will show a fully working airsoft AA-12.

We're sure we'll hear shouts of "take my money" again when airsoft players see this. Even us here at Popular Airsoft are welcoming this development since we can have a nice combat shotgun to bring to CQB and MOUT-style games.  The Airsoft Absolution gunsmith needs to focus now to come up with the first AA-12 for the airsoft market and make history.