Aimpoint’s Only Gun: The PC-80 Symmetrical Action

Today we are looking at the entire scope of Aimpoint’s firearms development division…which is actually just this one firearm. Aimpoint was founded in 1975 as a partnership between Arne Ekstrand (a Swedish inventor with an idea for a brand new “red dot” type of optic) and Gunnar Sandberg (a wealthy Swedish entrepreneur interested in new technology). The company began by developing the Aimpoint Electronic sight, and in the later 1970s the men were introduced to another Swede, Carl Bertie Johansson (CBJ). He had an idea for a new firearm mechanism, and found an interested audience in Aimpoint. He was hired on, and the company now had two divisions; one for optics and one for firearms.

A single prototype of Johansson’s firearms was made, circa 1979. It was a PDW type of weapon, with a short stroke annular gas piston and a rotating bolt, chambered for .221 Remington Fireball using a magazine in the pistol grip. What made the design quite interesting was the axially symmetric nature of the action – it all acted around the center of the bore. The company sent Johansson to the US to look for a market and a manufacturing partner, and there they encountered a number of major players in the firearms industry, including Bill Ruger and Jeff Cooper. They were unable to find a suitable factory interested in making the gun, however, and a short time later Sandberg (the money behind the Aimpoint company) decided that the firearms division did not have the potential to justify continuing it. Johansson parted ways with Aimpoint on good terms, and is still doing firearms work today (you may have heard of his 6.5mm CBJ cartridge).

The one PC-80 (a name given to the gun by Jeff Cooper in his 1980 article for Soldier of Fortune) remains at Aimpoint to this day. Many thanks to them for giving me access to it to film for you!