ANGSTADT ARMS MDP-9

Move Over MP5, There's a New Roller Locked Subgun in Town

- lain Harrison

The public face of firearms development usually follows one of two arcs. Either a big announcement is made at SHOT Show to gauge interest in the new Blastomatic 2000, with the product eventually making its way to market after a couple of false starts and several months of thumb-twiddling. Or we're let into the secret a few months in advance of the launch date on pain of ex-communication and then run the review when everyone else does once the embargo has been lifted. The Angstadt Arms MDP-9 followed neither of those protocols, probably because they're a small company unburdened by a big marketing department's prelaunch checklists.

We first encountered the pistol at SHOT 2019, when we stopped by the company's tiny booth, manned by a couple of engineers and their founder, the fresh-faced Rich Angstadt. We tend to seek out smaller outfits run by budding crews, as they typically don't have big advertising budgets and therefore aren't swamped by media acolytes keen to whore themselves out for ad dollars. They're also more likely to pursue interesting passion projects, even if they end up innovating themselves into oblivion.

When we first encountered the MDP-9, it was at an advanced stage of development, needing only a few tweaks to bring it to market. Unfortunately, the world had other plans, and it was shelved to meet the incredible demand for anything that went bang during months of panic buying brought on by the Shanghai Shivers and post-Floyd summer of fiery, but mostly peaceful, protests. It took almost two years before work could resume on the roller-delayed pistol, but it's most definitely worth the wait.

UNDER THE HOOD