Meligun MG-22: A 6-Shot .22 Revolver Built Into a Knife

Last updated April 2026 · By Nick Hall, who tracks the AOW corner of the NFA market and has a soft spot for the strangest wheelguns the industry produces

Quick take: Meligun, a US shop, just released the MG-22, a 6-shot .22 LR revolver built into the handle of a 6.7-inch 440C stainless fixed-blade knife. The MG-25 variant chambers .25 ACP. Twelve inches overall. AOW classification under the NFA, which means $0 transfer tax post-OBBB and a Class 3 SOT dealer transfer. MSRP starts at $1,499.95. Lead time is 2 to 3 weeks plus ATF processing. This is the most novelty piece a serious manufacturer has shipped in years and it actually has working parts.

• What it is: A 6-shot .22 LR (or .25 ACP) revolver mechanism built into the grip of a 12-inch fixed-blade knife. 3.5-inch barrel, 6.7-inch 440C blade.
• Price: $1,499.95 MSRP base. Customization adds: knurling patterns, black oxide blade, engraving up to 15 characters.
• Where: Direct from Meligun. AOW transfer through a Class 3 SOT dealer required. Cannot ship to consumers directly. No international.
• Why it matters: Real machined parts on a fully novel platform. The Apache-pistol historical lineage finally has a 21st-century US-built descendant.

Most novelty firearms are 3D-printed garage projects or one-off auction pieces. The MG-22 is the first commercially produced knife revolver to clear ATF AOW classification in years, and it is a real catalog product with real specs and a real ATF paper trail. Here is what is actually inside the MG-22 and why the AOW classification is the part you have to plan around.

Meligun MG-22: The Spec Sheet on the Strangest Wheelgun on the Market

The MG-22 chambers .22 LR. Six-shot capacity. Barrel is 3.5 inches with six-groove rifling at 1:16 right-hand twist (which is the standard rate for .22 LR pistols, not something Meligun pulled out of a hat). The frame is hardened 420 stainless steel. The grip panels (which are also the section the cylinder lives inside) are machined 7075 aluminum. The blade is 6.7 inches of hardened 440C stainless. Overall length is 12 inches.

The MG-25 is the same build with a .25 ACP chambering instead of .22 LR. Both share the rest of the spec sheet. .25 ACP is the more interesting chambering for novelty defensive use because the round was specifically designed for ultra-small pocket pistols (the original Browning FN 1905) and has slightly more terminal performance than .22 LR at point-blank distances, but .22 LR is the practical choice for someone who is going to actually shoot it occasionally.

Customization options on the order page include knurling patterns on the grip, a black oxide blade finish, and laser engraving of up to 15 characters. None of those change the AOW classification or the lead time on the firearm half of the package.

Is it the best 22LR revolver on sale in 2026? Probably not, but it is kinda fun.

Why the AOW Classification Is the Whole Story

A revolver-built-into-a-knife is not a Title I handgun under federal law. It falls into the “Any Other Weapon” classification under the National Firearms Act, which captures the weird category of disguised firearms, smoothbore-pistol oddities, and combination platforms that do not fit into any of the cleaner NFA boxes. Pen guns, cane guns, suitcase guns, the 19th-century French Apache pistol (the original knuckle duster-revolver-knife hybrid carried by Parisian street gangs in the 1860s), and now the MG-22.

AOW classification means three things for the buyer. First, the gun ships to a Class 3 SOT dealer, not directly to your door. Second, you file a Form 4 to transfer it from the dealer to you, with fingerprints and CLEO notification (until the new ATF reform package kills the CLEO requirement, which it just did this week). Third, the transfer tax. Pre-OBBB, AOW transfers carried a $5 tax stamp. The One Big Beautiful Bill zeroed all NFA transfer taxes in 2025. So today the tax is $0. The paperwork still gets filed. The wait still applies. The check, however, is now zero dollars.

And expect the wait. ATF Form 4 processing on AOW transfers has historically run 4 to 8 months, sometimes longer. Meligun’s stated 2 to 3 week lead time is for them to build your specific piece. The federal wait is on top of that. Plan on a 4-to-9-month total timeline from order to delivery.

Who Buys One of These

I have handled exactly two NFA AOW oddities in person and the MG-22 prototype I saw at the Meligun booth had cleaner machining than the other one. The honest market for an MG-22 is collectors of NFA oddities and people who own at least 15 other guns and want a conversation piece for the safe. It is not a defensive carry option. The 12-inch overall length, the AOW transfer requirements, and the low capacity rule that out before the spec sheet matters. As a piece of mechanical art with working parts, made in the US, with the historical lineage of the Apache pistol traceable in the design, it is genuinely interesting.

$1,499.95 MSRP positions it above most novelty firearms (the Bond Arms derringers at $500 to $700, the Cobra C22 derringer at $200, the high-end Doc Holliday derringer reproductions at $800 to $1,200) and below the genuine high-end NFA oddities like a transferable original Apache pistol at auction. That is reasonable for a low-volume US-machined product on a brand-new platform.

This was never going to be for everyone. It is for the right person. And that person already knows exactly what to do with it.

Strangest wheelgun of 2026? It might have a shot at that title. We’ve got some other options for you if you want the best 22LR pistol on the market though.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Meligun, official MG-22 product page, MG-25 variant, customization options, ordering and SOT dealer transfer policy (April 2026)
• ATF NFA Firearms Reference, AOW classification rules, Form 4 transfer process, current SOT dealer requirements
• One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), 2025, zeroed all NFA transfer taxes including the historical $5 AOW stamp
• Historical reference: Apache pistol (mid-1800s, French), knuckle-duster knife-revolver hybrid, the design lineage Meligun explicitly cites
• The Firearm Blog (TFB), first-look industry coverage of the MG-22 launch and AOW classification context (April 2026)

Related Reading

• ATF Drops 34-Rule Reform Package: What Changed
• Best .22 LR Revolvers: Plinking to Carry
• What Is the National Firearms Act? NFA Explained
• Best Derringers and Pocket Pistols
• Weird Guns: The Strangest Firearms on the Market