It’s December 1999, and the year 2000 is right around the corner. You and I both know this Y2K thing is the real deal. Boy, it’s all coming to the end! Planes will fall out of the sky, banks will crash, and the stock market will implode. Things will get dire. Luckily, you’re ready. You have some K-Rats from lord knows when, a bug-out bag before it was cool, and a Feather Industries AT-22 you purchased three years back.
The AT-22, a crucial part of your Y2K survival arsenal, is designed for versatility. Its wire stock collapses, making the rifle ultra-small, and the barrel can be easily unscrewed and removed. When disassembled, it’s not much larger than a standard handgun. This .22LR rifle, equipped with 20-round magazines, weighs next to nothing and is a testament to adaptability. When combined with a debarked chihuahua, it becomes the ultimate survival weapon, ready for any situation that Y2K may throw at you!
The Feather Industries AT-22
Or is it? The AT-22 reeks of that 1990s all-black weapon design. This was before ARs dominated the market, and people just threw things at the wall to see what would stick. Feather Industries was a small American gun manufacturer that produced the AT-22 and AT-9. The AT-9 is the 9mm version of this gun and used Uzi magazines. The AT-22 used proprietary single-stack magazines.
Feather Industries would eventually go out of business before being revived as Feather USA. Feather USA sold 9mm and .45 ACP guns that used Glock magazines along with the Rav-22, which was the AT-22 by a different name. Regardless of which incarnation you find, they all seem rather rare. I stumbled into the AT-22 by pure luck at a local gun store and instantly knew I had to have it. The 1990s vibes of barrel shrouds and wire stocks intrigue me. The icing on the cake was that it came with five magazines and a 4X scope.
Feather Industries produced a few variants of the AT-22. The wire stock model I have seems to be the most common. An ad from 1996 also shows a model with a wood Thompson SMG-like stock. If you’re purchasing a take-down 22LR, the collapsing wire stock seems to make the most sense.
These simple guns can be traced back to the first submachine guns. The receiver is a tube, much like the famed Sten gun. It uses a straight blowback mechanism and is as simple as it gets. Everything about the gun is impressively simple but still intuitive.
In-Depth With The AT-22
The polymer magazines feature a simple notch that connects with a spring-loaded magazine button. To release the magazine, the release is just pushed upward, and the magazine is pulled downward. The safety sits inside the trigger guard and consists of a small lever that’s toggled forward for fire and rearward for safety.
The barrel is covered by a shroud that has serious SMG or TEC-9 vibes. The shroud bolt screws together, and simply unscrewing it allows you to remove the shroud and then the barrel. The stock has a bottom button that locks it in the collapsed or deployed position. The stock can also be easily removed. The AT-22 stock is the poster boy for wobbly wire stocks. When deployed, it has inches of movement, so don’t expect a cheek rest.
The gun had a weaver rail option, and the previous owner used it. It came with the 4X UTG Leaper scope, which seems like a perfectly suitable option for a 22LR. Underneath the optic sits a surprisingly nice peep sight setup that aligns with a front post. It’s quite adjustable, more than you expect from such a simplistic gun.
A knob at the rear end can be unscrewed, and you can remove the parts from the rifle for cleaning. There isn’t much to the bolt, and it’s what you expect from a direct blowback .22 LR rifle. It does get dirty, so some Hoppes No. 9 and a rag will make sure the gun keeps running.
To the Range
I went to the range with a grab bag of ammo. I’ve heard reports that the gun is unreliable, and I wanted to find out if these reports are primarily due to ammo issues. Semi-auto .22 LRs have always had a hit-or-miss reputation for reliability. I brought Federal Punch, Aguila Super, some Winchester Super X, Federal Automatch, and Remington Gold Bullet.
The Punch and Aguila Super X ran perfectly. The Federal Automatch ran okay, and I had intermittent failures with the Winchester and Remington loads. The Automatch is the cheapest ammo that runs pretty decently. You might get a malfunction every two or three magazines with Automatch. The AT-22 hates the Remington and Winchester loads. It choked through them over and over, making it not worth the effort.
The little gun has hardly any recoil and is pleasant to shoot. The stock absolutely sucks, and if the gun actually had any recoil, it might be a real problem. It provides zero support, and the movement can create a hassle when trying to get a good sight picture. You have to really tighten down on the gun to keep the stock from moving.
Is It Accurate?
When braced and tightened down, you can produce somewhat respectable accuracy. At 25 yards, it’s certainly “minute of squirrel” accurate, but it’s no tack driver. I’d imagine the quick-detach barrel design doesn’t lend itself well to precision accuracy. A Ruger 10/22 will outshoot it every day of the week.
With the right ammo, shooting rapidly is a ton of fun. The little to no recoil makes it easy to handle and cheap to shoot.
The punchy little gun does have good ergonomics outside of the stock. I didn’t have any trouble with the controls, and everything was fluid and intuitive to find with my firing hand. The small forend has enough room to rest your support hand, and apparently, there is a forward grip available, which I want for a peek at the 90s aesthetic.
The Ultimate Bug-Out Gun
The overall design does lend itself well to being a bug-out gun. At 3.25 pounds, it would disappear into a backpack. The little gun could be handy for taking small game and, with a well-placed shot in an emergency, even taking something as significant as a white-tail deer. For defensive purposes, .22 LR wouldn’t be my first option, but it can be deadly, and 20 rounds give you plenty of ammo for follow-up shots.
Regarding reliability, the gun has to be fed a steady diet of high-velocity .22 LR to run well. If not, reliability takes a nosedive. I could see some value in adding a device to lock the bolt and make it a straight-pull bolt-action for lower velocity loads, but with Feather Industries long gone, we’ll never see such a thing.
It’s a really neat gun, and I love the look and even the feel. It’s not my first choice for any serious role, but it’s fun to shoot, and sometimes, that’s all a gun needs to be.
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