Highlander Magnum

The Highlander Magnum is a gas powered, fully automatic airsoft rifle made by Sheriff of Osaka, Japan in the early 1990s. It is considered to be a classic airsoft gun.

Officially the gun is known as the Highlander Magnum despite the fact that stamped onto the stocks of the gun is the name "Hilander Magunam". This is due to Sheriff's Romanization of the Katakana characters for Highlander Magnum. Sheriff print advertisements, airsoft catalogs, and Japanese airsoft publications all use "Highlander Magnum" when referring to the gun. Moreover, "Highlander Magnum" is considered to be the correct spelling, despite the appearance of the alternate spelling on the gun itself.

The weapon employs an operating system similar to the "blow forward" mechanism developed by Tom Kaye of Airgun Designs and used in the Automag paintball marker. 60 6mm airsoft bbs are positively chambered into the gun using a feed mechanism taken from the Asahi Firearms M60 series of replica machine guns. The feed mechanism is in turn supplied with bbs from a gravity feed 1000 bb hopper that is located above the barrel and concealed within the body of the Highlander Magnum. By the simple removal of a rubber bumper within the hopper, the capacity can be expanded to 3000 bbs, though the absence of the bumper does make feeding of the last 100 bbs or so from the hopper to the feed chamber dubious if the gun is not held perfectly level.

The Highlander Magnum is constructed chiefly of steel, with ABS plastic being used in the stocks. Many components were cut by hand rather than machine, while the stocks were hand cast resin. This hand construction was possible due to the extremely small production run of the Highlander Magnum. Official advertisements for the gun indicated that only 25 rifles would be built.

Of the 25 Highlander Magnums made, 15 were the standard model and 10 were the deluxe or "DX" model. The DX model differed in that it came equipped with a longer inner barrel and an extended aluminum suppressor (to conceal the extra barrel length) in place of standard short muzzle break. Curiously, the Standard model is the more desirable variant as the visual appearance of the DX model is easily replicated with the installation of a suppressor on the Standard gun, whereas the short flash hider on the Standard Grade is not otherwise commercially available, so replicating that look would require a custom machined part.

All Sheriff Highlander Magnums came equipped with a hop-up barrel as standard equipment. The hop-up was imparted by three separate o-rings in series. By altering the stiffness of individual o-rings, the hop-up could be easily tuned for maximum range for any given bb weight or brand. Sheriff claimed that the standard model could hit a man sized target out to 80 meters at 330 fps using precision bbs, while the DX model could extended that range to 90 meters at 330 fps, thanks to the extra barrel length. Sheriff also claimed 1" groupings over an 8 meter indoor target course.

The official weight of the rifle is listed at 5.7kg, while the length is 845mm with the standard flash hider and 970mm with the extended suppressor. Original retail price was set at 158,000 yen back in 1992 for the standard model and 173,000 yen for the DX model. Due to inflation and collector's demand, the 2006 street prices for a good condition Highlander Magnum are above 300,000 yen for either model.

While it is thought by many that the design of the Highlander Magnum is derived from the WA2000 bullpup sniper rifle, Sheriff claim that the Highlander Magnum is based on the FN GPN, a prototype light machine gun built by FN Herstal.