NEW ORLEANS – Earlier this month, on a gun range in Louisiana, a man dressed as a space smuggler fired a working replica of Han Solo’s iconic Star Wars blaster.
Professional speed shooter and Louisiana resident Jerry Miculek debuted his working blaster in a slickly produced video posted to the X Products Facebook page on April 2.
Clad in a Han Solo costume and sitting with his leg propped up on a table to mimic Solo’s posture, Miculek begins by blasting a paper target of bounty hunter Greedo’s face.
“Every good smuggler knows, you have to shoot first,” Miculek says.
He goes on to detail the working replica, which he says is the only one that he knows of in existence.
“This is an exact replica of the blaster Han Solo used in the movie, his DL-44 model plaster, to be exact,” Miculek said.
The blaster features a flash suppressor from a German machine gun, fins off of a model airplane, and a telescopic sight.
“It’s all based off of a wartime commercial model C96 Mauser,” he said.
Predictably, Miculek’s demonstration of Solo’s weapon doesn’t go unnoticed, soon drawing the attention of Darth Vader, who appears at the gun range along with a pair of Stormtroopers.
After blocking Miculek’s rapid blaster fire with his hand and then disarming the Solo stand-in with the power of the Force, Vader asks Miculek to test fire some Star Wars themed rifles and sign a poster for his son, who is a “huge fan.”
You’ll have to watch the video to see how Solo/Miculek weasels his way out of Imperial custody.