Metal Storm is a radically different concept for weapons and ammunition, the brainchild of a self-educated Australian inventor with brilliant intuition for practical applications in engineering, physics and electronics. Following its genesis in the early 1990s, this novel electronic ballistics technology has suffered from what might charitably be termed unrealistic expectations.

Early claims of a rate of fire capability at 1 million rounds per minute inspired some fanciful applications ranging from covert wrist guns to missile defense. Metal Storm has been a darling of the media, frequently seen on the Discovery Channel and others in highly sensationalized depictions of supergun abilities. In one particularly memorable TV episode of CSI Miami, Metal Storm-like guns were seen literally vaporizing anyone who was on the muzzle end of this terrifying weapon.

Million Rounds a Minute

James Michael O’Dwyer was 47 years old in 1991 when he sold his successful food wholesale business to devote his full energies to various inventions. Two years later, he bet the remainder of his life savings and all the money he could borrow on development of a unique weapon system that, he strongly believed, would have revolutionary applications in military and law enforcement.

Years of work in O’Dwyer’s backyard garage/laboratory ultimately yielded what would become the internationally patented Metal Storm System. A breakthrough came in 1996 when a formal study by US defense giant Lockheed Martin provided essential third-party validation for the radical concept.

Building on success of his single barrel prototype, constructed with the help of a local Australian engineer named Graham Bugden, O’Dwyer’s next breakthrough came in captivating media attention with a dramatic demonstration video. News organizations worldwide picked up the demo clip showing an incomprehensibly fast burst of 9mm rounds from a box of 36 bullet-stacked barrels that O’Dwyer had whimsically named “Bertha.” A lightning strike blast of 180 rounds stormed out in about one hundredth of a second. Yes, that’s a rate of fire better than one million rounds a minute.

Bertha showed the way to a variety of devices utilizing O’Dwyer’s clever stacked munitions principle. Prominent among these are a “smart” handgun, remotely fired munitions to replace traditional minefields, close-in protection for vehicles against ambushers and incoming rockets, plus gun pods for robotic vehicles.

But, thus far, none of these has achieved commercial success.

Game-Changing Technology

Finally, after many years of work, fueled by multimillions of dollars in developmental funding from private investors, industry partners and various military entities, the radically unconventional Metal Storm system seems on track for fielding in key roles in the Global War on Terror.

We recently talked to Metal Storm to separate the truth from the fiction and get an update on how the company has progressed from the patent office to the marketplace.

Peter Faulkner, General Manager of Metal Storm Incorporated, the U.S. licensee of Metal Storm Limited in Australia, told us, “The company has become intensely focused on product development over the past three years and the work is beginning to pay off. We are close to offering the military and law enforcement communities real products rather than ideas.”

The real products Faulkner is referring to are the MAUL, 3GL and FireStorm. Not nearly the million rounds per minute, battlefield clearing supergun once imagined by the Metal Storm inventor, but certainly more relevant to current tactical applications.

MAUL Underbarrel Shotgun

Breaching shotguns of various types are in widespread use by American forces; all relatively heavy and mechanically actuated in form and function essentially unchanged for more than a century.

The Office of Naval Research, acting on behalf of the US Marine Corps, turned to MS for a better solution. Of particular interest was the need to more efficiently launch the devilishly effective FRAG-12 fin-stabilized high explosive 12 gauge projectiles.

This was a Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory project to see if these specialized breaching rounds could be stacked. MS delivered a bench test gun that proved successful as seen in live fire video linked on the MS website. This has led to an ONR contract to actually build a weapon for the M4 carbine, the weapon of choice for MOUT scenarios, along with lethal and non lethal rounds.

It’s now known as MAUL, a particularly appropriate acronym derived from its formal name of Multishot Accessory Underbarrel Launcher. Backed by funding of nearly a million dollars from ONR, this slim, light, electrically-fired semiauto clamp-on quickly loads with slip-in tubes pre-packed with up to five rounds of various types. MAUL is fast tracked for delivery to the Navy by June 2009 for more detailed operational evaluations.

Caliber: 18mm (12 gauge)
Ammunition: Lethal and less-lethal
Capacity: Up to 5 rounds in preloaded sleeves
Operation: Manually reloaded, electrically fired, semiautomatic
Weight Empty: 2 pounds

3GL Three Shot Grenade Launcher

The 40mm grenade launchers currently in US and allied military service that are suitable for mounting to a primary weapon such as the M4/M16 family are single shot devices. Critical seconds are lost in reloading during intense firefights.

MS offers an alternative in the light and fast-firing 3GL, a semiautomatic grenade launcher with a trio of beefy 40mm rounds stacked in a single barrel. While externally similar to recent modular grenade launchers with a pistol grip and rail mount points, the 3GL can be manually loaded by the soldier with three rounds in any combination of ammunition types, potentially from irritant cloud to high explosive.

Battery-powered electronic ignition cuts weight and complexity, allowing ultra-fast firing and improved reliability. The grenadier can immediately engage up to three targets, “walk” his rounds to a precise impact point, or put multiple rounds into a single target for maximum effect.

Caliber: 40mm
Ammunition: All common less lethal to lethal payloads
Capacity: 3 rounds
Operation: Manually loaded, electrically fired, semiautomatic
Weight Empty: 5.1 pounds
Configuration: Stand alone or attached to host weapon

The 3GL weapon and a new family of 40mm grenades that can be individually loaded by the grenadier are developing rapidly in close partnership with Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK), known as one of the largest defense firms in Asia.

Dr. Lee Finniear, Metal Storm Limited’s CEO, confidently anticipates system safety certification so that sales demonstrations can begin soon. “We can confirm that early in the New Year (2009) we expect to qualify the 3GL and ammunition for safe man-firing….”

Multi-Barrel Versatility

Uncle Sam has fielded a wide range of remote controlled weapon mounts suitable for use on vehicles big and small for land, sea and air operations. Their common characteristic is undesirably heavy weight due to the requirement for supporting large and energetically recoiling traditional mechanical guns like the massive .50 cal. M2HB and 40mm MK19.

Metal Storm offers a compelling alternative in Redback, a 4 barrel cluster with advanced fire control and automatic target tracking as an ultra-smart remotely operated weapons system (ROWS). Produced in cooperation with STK and Electro Optical Systems (EOS), it consists of a lightweight gimbal, mount and weapon, weighing approximately 150 pounds. It includes a combat proven fire control system that has thermal and imaging sensors as well as a laser rangefinder with a 5,000 meter range.

Considerable weight is saved in mounts and the overall system because the MS concept eliminates the bulky housings and complicated mechanical apparatus needed for feeding, extraction and ejection. Additionally, a simple and effective coiled spring around each barrel and built in shock piston systems efficiently counters recoil.

Redback offers a dual role capability with significantly improved lethality and target effect, instantly attacking multiple targets with different munitions and providing a lightweight offensive and defensive capability for all vehicles or fixed assets.

And most dramatically, Redback has shown the capability to intercept rocket propelled grenades using STK’s COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) 40mm airburst munitions. It automatically tracks and registers targets, slewing at speeds up to 700 deg/sec and can acquire and fire at 3 targets in approximately 1.2 seconds, selecting the appropriate munition for each target.

A recently developed universal “tail” housing for its propellant load and primer makes nearly all existing low velocity 40mm projectiles suitable for use in Redback including high explosive, enhanced blast, air burst, and less lethal munitions. This is an important logistical consideration for economy of manufacture and ammunition commonality.

Firepower can be precisely controlled to deliver one or more munition types to target simultaneously, with the operator able to choose both fire rate and ammo to provide an intense and accurate salvo of munitions.

David Pashen, Chief Engineer and Development Manager for Metal Storm’s Australian headquarters, tells us that the work done to date on Redback has been very successful.

“We’ve undertaken tests last year to prove the effect of our rounds on an RPG warhead,” Pashen said, “showing that our system was able to place and detonate two rounds alongside a simulated incoming RPG warhead in full flight.

“The next steps for Redback,” Pashen said, “will be responding to specific customer demands for the capability and the integration of sensors leading into the full automation of the system.”

FireStorm

The four barrel weapon cluster on Redback has given rise to FireStorm, a lighter, simpler and less expensive way to discharge various types of 40mm munitions, tailorable to the tactical situation. As with Redback, electronic ignition of the stacked ammo allows variable firing rates from single shots to as high as 1,800 rpm per tube in recent testing.

FireStorm is said to have performed well in a recently-completed technology demonstration of a Mission Payload Module – Non-Lethal (MPM-NL), loaded with a selection of “less lethal” chemical and frangible ammunition newly developed by engineers at the Metal Storm US operation. Given the challenges of firing stacks of these rounds without wrecking their fragile projectile cones, this is a remarkable accomplishment unto itself.

The MPM-NL experiment in crowd control was funded by US Marine Corps Systems Command, seeking a better way to handle large scale threats without resorting to deadly force. Metal Storm officials expect to learn sometime in 2009 if contracts are to be awarded.

Battle ‘Bots

The relatively light and definitely fast-shooting FireStorm offers advantages that give it particular prominence in the fast-growing need for arming military and law enforcement robots. Metal Storm weapon modules have been successfully fired aboard Foster-Miller’s TALON and, most recently, iRobot’s Warrior.

The US Navy’s ultra high tech SPAWAR (Space and Navy Warfare Systems Command) has recently evaluated a robot-riding FireStorm system for its “Anti-Personnel Unattended Weapons Pod” on its own unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).

Arthur Schatz, who’s been with Metal Storm from the very beginning and is now VP for Business Development of the US corporation, explained that the purpose of the project was to “show the capability to have robotic systems, networked through a central command post, and patrol a given perimeter for base, area, border or facility protection.”

Schatz, a retired US Navy Commander whose professional contacts had been invaluable in obtaining initial military funding for O’Dwyer’s radical concept, told us that this latest contract culminated in a successful demonstration of the system and – when funding comes available – follow-on work is anticipated.

What’s Next?

Dr. Lee Finniear, CEO of the Australian Metal Storm Ltd, is predicting commercial success in the near future for MAUL, 3GL and FireStorm. He also sees “a number of derivatives…we plan to expand our munitions to provide the suite of lethal and less lethal munition natures that customers expect.”

Compatibility with robotic platforms is also an ongoing key focus. “The electronic lightweight nature of our technology provides substantial advantages for weaponizing small and mid-range robots,” Finniear said.

For the medium term, Finniear revealed that Metal Storm has no immediate plans to enter the arena now entirely dominated by traditional high velocity systems like the MK19 grenade machine gun. “We are finding a niche in close-in to medium range weapons and have also invested heavily in less lethal applications of our weapons.”

All in the Family

Finniear has ambitious goals for the future of the Metal Storm system, particularly in view of the collaboration agreement with STK. “Our development plan will provide the company with a family of low velocity weapons, a suite of supporting munitions, and an additional caliber in the 12 gauge MAUL weapon, he told us. “This platform really adds value to Metal Storm as a company and provides the commercial base to deliver a much wider range of capability applications.”

Postscript

Credible news reports dating from 2006 reveal a pattern of energetic attempts by China to acquire Metal Storm’s technological secrets. It is said that the Peoples Liberation Army has offered a bounty of as much as $100 million Australian dollars (about $68 million USD) for data packages. O’Dwyer himself is reported to have emphatically rebuffed an invitation accompanied by a similar sum to live and work in Beijing. There must be more to all this than just Roman Candles.

Unique Stacked Ammunition

The secret of Metal Storm is an electronically initiated, stacked projectile system that removes the mechanical elements required to fire conventional weapons. Projectiles in the barrels are lined up nose to tail and patented technology provides the ability to fire each round independent of the other. When the propellant of one round in the stack is ignited the other rounds are not affected.

Rather than using a firing pin impacting on a primer, Metal Storm weapons are electronically fired utilizing a computerized fire control system which precisely controls the ignition signal to each round in the barrel. As there is no need to mechanically reload the barrel after each round is fired, Metal Storm has complete control over the timing and rate of fire. The weapon can be used to deliver a single round or dozens of rounds instantaneously at the target.

When combined with airburst munitions, Metal Storm weapons can use precisely timed firing to create a pattern of fragmentation and blast to meet specific needs, such as to intercept an incoming RPG or missile.

Due to the light weight of Metal Storm barrels, most non-infantry configurations use multiple barrels, usually between 4 and 64. This provides increased firepower and the ability to mix munitions – to have a weapon configured to respond to different threats in different ways – such as having less than lethal or marker rounds instantly available as an alternative to the use of lethal force.

Inventor Mike O’Dwyer’s first Metal Storm rounds were essentially caseless, not unlike multiple loadings of a musket with powder topped by a patch and a cone shaped Minie Ball. These were specially contrived to take advantage of recoil forces causing “wedging and sealing” of the rounds behind. So, unlike the Roman Candle, firing the foremost one in the barrel would not normally ignite the next.

While this performed quite well, only proprietary Metal Storm loadings could be used. Practical considerations have since led to the development of a special “tail” that facilitates individually loaded cartridges for Metal Storm’s 40mm family. Now, many COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) projectiles for 40mm low-velocity weapons can be readily adapted for firing. This is particularly important to Metal Storm partner Singapore Technologies Kinetics with its extensive catalog of munitions ranging from crowd-control sponge grenades to cave-clearing thermobarics.

The new tail has undergone a great deal of development and iterative testing; producing a unit that is easy to load individually and also provides the ability to hold the rounds together during firing. Although preliminary tests have been carried out on the HEDP and practice round, the tail can be retro fitted to other munitions with little or no effort. This enables them to be fired from a 3GL launcher, either in single or stacked configurations dependant on their length.

Mindful of an oft-raised concern, we asked David Pashen, Chief Engineer and Development Manager in the company’s Australian home office, about vulnerability to accidental detonation from outside electrical sources. An emailed response from this former Major in the British Army’s Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers is worthy of presenting here in full:

“All Metal Storm weapon systems are designed to meet military standards for EMI (electro-magnetic interference) when used on Ground Mobile, Aircraft and Shipboard applications. As the energy levels required to initiate the charge are high, the chances of accidental detonation are extremely small. In fact to date in all tests of high levels of electronic interference it has not been possible to ignite a charge on our system. The most challenging of the use environments would be on the deck of a Navy ship or fitted to a helicopter. A high powered radar dish whilst it is operating can be problematic; however the ability to shield our technology electronically from interference in such extreme circumstances precludes any potential hazard.”

Find Out More

Metal Storm Limited has a particularly information-rich website with excellent photos and videos, plus detailed descriptions of its many products, technologies and capabilities: www.metalstorm.com

Metal Storm Limited is a multi-national defense technology company engaged in the development of electronically initiated ballistics systems using its unique “stacked round” technology. The company is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia and separately incorporated in the US, with an office in Arlington, Virginia.

Metal Storm is working with government agencies and departments, as well as industry, to develop a variety of systems utilizing its proprietary technology; an electronically initiated, stacked projectile system which removes the mechanical steps required to fire a conventional weapon. Effectively, the only parts that move are the projectiles contained within the barrels. Multiple projectiles are stacked in a barrel, each separated by a propellant load. The technology allows each projectile to be fired sequentially from the barrel.

Metal Storm’s fully loaded barrel tubes are essentially serviceable weapons, without the traditional ammunition feed or ejection system, breech opening or any other moving parts. Metal Storm barrels can be effectively grouped in multiple configurations to meet a diversity of applications.

Metal Storm technology enables a new generation of “network centric” weapons that connect with today’s battlefield. Importantly, Metal Storm enabled systems are all capable of local or remote operation through a computerized fire control system.

The elements which differentiate Metal Storm technology provide for a number of key capability advantages not available from conventional weapon technology:

• Increased lethality from conventional warheads
• Cumulative effect of firepower
• Simultaneous delivery of different munitions
• Instant selectable choice of munitions
• Variable rates of fire
• Intense bursts of repeatable firepower
• Scaled response
• Remote operation

Mr. Metal Storm

“For the first twenty minutes I thought Mike was certifiably mad.” General Wayne Downing, Former Commander of US Special Operations Command

Downing recalled this troubling observation from his initial contact with the intensely focused O’Dwyer, who was making yet another in a seemingly endless string of impassioned but ultimately futile sales presentations in Australia and America.

But that quickly changed. “After thirty minutes I realized that Mike had stumbled on probably the most revolutionary thing that could be done with firearms in about the last five hundred years,” Downing said.

The retired General, a legend in the Special Operations community, was so impressed with O’Dwyer’s radical invention that he accepted the top position at Metal Storm Limited, coming aboard in October 1999. Over the next seven years, Downing’s reputation and contacts are said to have contributed substantially to multimillion dollar government contracts for further development of the technology in various novel applications.

Midnight Brain Storms

Going Ballistic, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation television documentary from 2000, has a collection of fascinating interviews with O’Dwyer himself and key persons in his life and work.

Through it we learn that the inventor admits to being “not a particularly good student” during his high school years in a small town in Queensland, Australia. Interested primarily in the odd combination of physics at school and working on cars in his stepfather’s auto repair business, after graduation he chose to enter the workplace rather than continue on to college.

O’Dwyer’s personal and professional traits contributed to a quick rise to management level in retail and then in founding his own highly successful food wholesale company. But his compulsion for invention would not relent and the products of inspiration when he would awaken suddenly in the middle of the night began to fill a bedside sketchbook.

His son Sean recalls pages upon pages of “engines and wings and carpets and electrical points… maybe 50 ideas.” Passion for invention eventually overcame the need for comfort and security in the business world. With the blessing of his wife Rhonda, O’Dwyer sold everything in 1991 and literally took a giant step into development of his amusing concept for running shoes cooled by forced air generated from each impact on the ground.

But breezy footwear would soon give way to a dream of fantastic firepower.

Mrs. O’Dwyer recalls the genesis of Metal Storm in 1993 as yet another of her eccentric spouse’s insomniac insights. “He just woke up and he said ‘I’ve improved the gun. I’ve got to go and put this on paper,’ and he doodled for an hour or so.”

The revolutionary concept at the heart of today’s Metal Storm technology has been described by its inventor as a modification of the common fireworks Roman Candle so that its projectiles may be initiated with computerized precision.

Doodles eventually took form in a single barrel prototype and, after much ammunition experimentation, proved the practicality of sequential electronic firing of stacked caseless projectiles. With the system’s enormous military potential clearly foreseen in his fertile imagination, Mike O’Dwyer sought to convince Australia’s military establishment to bankroll further development.

“To say that I was treated as though I was a friendly kook,” the inventor recalls, “would be a polite description of the response.”

Undaunted, O’Dwyer set off to America, only to experience months of futility being rebuffed by every possible contact in the Pentagon. His luck didn’t change until after the system received a successful technical validation from a major US defense contractor.

This must have been what it took to convince Australia’s Defense Science and Technical Office (DSTO) to take a closer look, soon followed by significant funding and direct collaboration in hardware development. In addition to facilitating a distinctive trio of Metal Storm weapons from pistol to cannon caliber, the partnership gave much-needed official gravitas. Now, the “kook” inventor had the backing of serious scientists and engineers from his homeland’s defense establishment.

Blossom Point Demo

The reader is urged to access the MS website www.metalstorm.com and click the VIDEOS link. Skip the latest postings for now and reach back to July 2000, when several of the mysterious new Metal Storm weapons were live fired for key military and government representatives at the Army Research Laboratory’s Blossom Point Facility in Maryland.

This extraordinary demonstration, a joint presentation by DSTO and Metal Storm, along with new US partner Science Applications International Corporation, was attended by a number of decision makers from DARPA, the American military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. With deep pockets to bankroll cutting-edge technologies, DARPA’s backing was eagerly sought.

It’s likely that the fellow wearing a straw hat, fleetingly seen in the video, is O’Dwyer himself, cheerfully firing his VLe handgun and touching off a megafast burst from a bench test pepperbox containing six pistol caliber barrels. This produces a devastating effect on a rack of target boards and then an oddly wired tube blows 40mm holes in a junk car.

While clear tactical applications for these lethal curiosities would not gain real acceptance until several years later, it should be evident to those who view this historic video that the “certifiably mad” inventor was definitely on to something big. DARPA’s emissaries apparently agreed and, in November 2000, entered into an unprecedented developmental agreement with DSTO, together committing some $50 million dollars.

This correspondent first met O’Dwyer in May of 2001 at the prestigious NDIA Small Arms Conference, where Metal Storm had a display booth and also presented a formal technical paper to influential US and Allied defense industry personnel. Having elbowed through the crowd gathered to watch the heretofore little known firm’s dramatic video clips, we were approached by a slight and somewhat owlish fellow who introduced himself as Mike.

Turned out this was the modest but intense inventor, who proceeded to give our modest but intense magazine a personally guided tour of his visionary applications for the decidedly radical Metal Storm System. Alas, Mike had no hardware on hand to fondle and no planned participation at the annual event’s customary live fire demonstrations. So we politely listened, accepted colorful brochures and promised to stand by for further news.

Mike made sure we were on Metal Storm’s list for press releases and they began regularly arriving; product pages, as it were, for a growing catalog of delightfully intriguing weaponry.

We soon learned, for example, that techno-spooks at DARPA had awarded more than $10 million to Metal Storm for an “Advanced Sniper Rifle.” No, the end result wasn’t fielded, but that doesn’t mean the program’s resulting data package for launching innovative projectiles at hypervelocity will not find practical application elsewhere and later. It’s Metal Storm’s proprietary intellectual property that they just haven’t gotten around to yet for further development.

O’Dwyer continued to promote Metal Storm technology with missionary zeal, envisioning all manner of applications – not just military. At the heart of its civilian potential was a versatile mortar box with specialized loadings. These could be for precision fireworks displays, “sky typing” advertising messages, bombarding wildfires with suppressant chemicals, spreading pesticides and fertilizer, and mineral exploration seismology.

Nothing Personal, Just Business

While the scope of this article does not include details of the corporation’s complicated financial history, the wild ride for Metal Storm’s shareholders has been reliably reported over many years. New applications and new government experimental contracts were periodically trumpeted in press releases and news features, but no real orders for hardware were forthcoming. Investors, many of whom were regular folks of modest means, were justifiably unhappy.

Veteran insiders in the corporate structure are quick to credit O’Dwyer’s demonstrated genius and tireless promotional contributions. But, we were told in carefully crafted statements, the time came when it was necessary for “the face of Metal Storm” to step aside.

A corporate press release from February 2005 announced Director O’Dwyer’s retirement with the bland assurance that “he will continue to provide consulting advice to the company from time to time in an informal, unpaid basis.”

The inventor/founder signed over “certain existing and future intellectual property rights,” and agreed to “certain non-competition arrangements.” Then, in recognition of nearly two decades in building Metal Storm, O’Dwyer received a severance package of a half million Australian dollars (about $345,000 USD).

A gentleman to the end, James Michael O’Dwyer is quoted in the same release with a rather gracious parting shot. There is much to be learned by those who carefully read it and consider all that has been reported in this feature:

“Over the past twelve months, Metal Storm has been assembling a skilled team of qualified engineers and associated professionals to concentrate on commercialization of the technology. Now that the team is fully operational, I believe it is time to pass the baton to what is a new generation. I am confident that under the leadership of David Smith, the team can complete the next stage of the company’s development,” O’Dwyer said.

Many NFA owners are avid shooters as well as collectors. If they shoot their guns on a regular basis, they soon begin to tinker and modify their weapons while some even dream of building their own. After the 1986 FOPA, which included the infamous Hughes Amendment, building a new full auto cannot be done as an individual, but other items can still be made.

With the ever increasing prices on many of the NFA world’s most sought after items, there is a market that is increasing in size. This market is the semiautomatic versions of the original full auto weapons. An individual can purchase a semi auto version of the AK, 1919A4, MG34, and M16 to name a few. For those individuals that like to work with their hands, there is the option of building a semi auto version of the Vickers HMG.

In 1999, Curtis Debord with American Delta Arms received BATF approval to manufacture a semi auto version of the Vickers. The needed modifications included the right side plate, action arms, the lock, and of course the firing linkage. Several of these semi auto versions were made and still command a decent price when they become available. However, production of this model stopped several years ago. Enter the homebuilder.

Lonnie Ingram had wanted a semi Vickers for quite some time. After having a chance to examine several of them, he set out to build his own semi auto. He studied the BATF approval letter that clearly states the components that must be modified. He now offers the semi Vickers conversion set complete with instructions and parts.

Once a Vickers kit is located, make a complete inventory of the contents to ensure that all parts are included but the right side plate. On a Vickers, the right side plate is considered the firearm by BATF and will not be found in any of the Vickers kits on the market. The builder should use the left side plate that comes in the Vickers kit as a basis for building and locating the holes in the right side plate. It is important to note the denial islands that must be incorporated into the semi right plate to prevent unmodified action arms or locks being inserted into the weapon. Clearance cuts will need to be made on the right action arm to match the denial islands. In addition, the slots in the top of the arms that allow the lock to be inserted are also welded, moved, and then relocated. These changes will need to match the changes made to the bottom of the lock. These modifications ensure that an unmodified full auto lock and action arms cannot be inserted into the semi auto version of the weapon. With the action arms complete, the rest of the lock modifications can be performed.

The lock body is altered to allow for the installation of the new firing linkage. The firing pin, trigger, and main spring are altered as well. In addition, a landing pad will need to be built for the disconnector spring assembly. With the lock modifications now complete, the cams can be fitted and installed.

The receiver box is now ready to install the action arms and lock. Simple pop rivets were used to hold the box together while doing the cam install and fitting. The goal is to verify that all the parts move freely. The cuts must now be made to allow the disconnector/denial plate to be inserted. After final fitting and test firing, this plate will be TIG welded into place. The receiver box is now ready to assemble to the trunnion.

The jacket assembly is riveted and soldered to the receiver box. Please note that not all of the rivets are installed until after the trunnion has been prepped and soldered to the jacket assembly. Should a museum quality build be desired, the trunnion can be removed from the jacket and special bucking bars can be fabricated. For simplicity, four screws were installed on each side and the rest of the receiver was riveted. Several thousand rounds have been fired through Lonnie’s semi Vickers with no leaks. The remaining rivets can now be installed and the weapon is completely assembled minus the top cover.

The trigger bar is now modified and the disconnector/denial plate assembly (included in the kit) is ready to install. It is vital to ensure that the trigger reset every time before applying the final finish to the firearm and welding the plate into position. Make certain that the gun will mount securely in the tripod assembly before the final Parkerizing or hot bluing. Now set the spring tension to the fusee, add water, pack the barrel, and take the new semi auto Vickers out to the range for a firing session.

The semi kit that is available from Lonnie Ingram includes complete instructions, rivets, screws, disconnector/denial plate assembly, and the mill bits that are required to perform the project. Mr. Ingram will also modify the lock and action arms if the builder does not possess the means. A more detailed overview of the project is available at www.projectguns.com if desired. The author would also advise reading The Grand Old Lady of No Man’s Land by Dolf Goldsmith.

This is not a typical semi AK or 1919A4 build project. The author and his father invested over 50 hours in building each of their Vickers. It is not a particularly hard build, but it requires a great deal of patience and attention to detail. This is project is truly a labor of love that will provide a great deal of satisfaction. It may also lead to the need to acquire a vast amount of accessories and tools that have been made for the Vickers HMG.

The contact information for Lonnie Ingram and more detailed instructions and photos are available at Stan Szalkowski’s site www.projectguns.com Profiled right side plates with instructions for proper layout and measurements are available from several vendors on the www.1919a4.com site. A copy of the original approval letter is also available on that site.

Interested readers can also build a BATF approved semi 1910 Maxim, a semi MG42, or a PPSh41 that can be built as a SBR or as a title one firearm with a sixteen inch shroud.

Since the beginnings of the creation of firearms, man has had a continuing quest to develop guns that shoot faster, farther, and with more accuracy. Technology and manufacturing process imrpovements in the art of rifle building continue, and the benefits are applicable to all of us in the shooting community. Much of these improvements start with the rifle barrel itself.

Superior Barrels, a small up-start company, was created with the purpose of building barrels that shoot with outstanding accuracy longer than has generally been achieved. Undoubtedly, most barrel manufacturing companies already provide outstanding quality and accuracy in their products, and that is good enough for most of us. Superior Barrels goal is to provide a barrel that holds that accuracy for many more rounds, and perhaps up to three or four times longer than other barrels manufactured today. Their process called Hard Blue brings that innovative difference to the industry.

John Hearn, the president of Superior Barrels, was previously a former rocket-scientist type who worked for a major defense contractor and the victim of company downsizing and career changing in mid-life. Being forced into this transition, he chose the honorable path as that of a firefighter. After the events of 9/11, he started focusing his attentions towards gun barrel designs. With his background expertise in aerospace structures and advanced materials, his company is using similar metallurgical processes to improve a gun barrel’s ability to withstand the degrading effects of high temperatures and throat erosion that result from prolonged rapid firing.

Despite what the evening news reports, and the ever-tightening economic situation the country faces, one thing that remains constant and sometimes “under the radar” is that the aircraft and space industry continue to push the technological envelope in the development of specialized materials and advanced structures. Without these materials advances, the performance of our modern military hardware would not be where it is today. Metallurgy science is generally a boring subject for the best of us; however if there is a better mousetrap out there, the spin-offs from military research and development are of obvious interest to the small arms industry.

Mr. Hearn’s previous career in the rocket world focused on refining high temperature materials, and being a shooter, he knew there was potential for utilizing similar technologies in gun barrels. His initial investments and experimentations culminated during 2004, when the company started producing AR-15/M16 variant barrels that last an exceptionally long number of rounds, without the typical degradations in accuracy experienced over time. They currently estimate that their AR barrels will provide up to three or possibly four times the barrel life of what has become the accepted standard, perhaps providing acceptable accuracy up to 20,000 rounds.

During initial meetings with the company, they displayed one of their AR-15 rifles that had 2,000 documented rounds fired with essentially zero throat erosion, and another one with 4,000 rounds with 0.01 inches (0.254 mm) of throat erosion. Most heavy-triggered machine gun enthusiasts know first hand the effects that high temperatures have on barrel degradation and resulting accuracy loss, so the obvious benefits that their process could add to the shooting industry are substantial. One major company goal is to provide their product for the military, to assist those serving our country in harms way delivering bullets to intended targets with long lasting accuracy.

So what is “Hard Blue?”

In general terms, Hard Blue is a collection of processes that optimizes steel’s toughness by increasing the barrel bore durability without changing the dimensional properties. Superior Barrels reports that their process eclipses nitro-carburizing, and understandably, they will not divulge the exact details of their formula. It is not related to “electro-polishing” or other previously marketed products that have cropped up over the years. They have spent quite a lot of their resources perfecting Hard Blue, and since they are now producing the resulting products, they do not want to let the exact specifics of their success out for general knowledge. That being the case, we can look closely at data, and make some conclusions from the vantage point of performance.

Before the skeptics rise up and start throwing rocks, know that after carefully testing and firing several thousands of semiautomatic and full automatic rounds through their barrels, the initial results show that Hard Blue does significantly reduce normally observed wear rates. Besides a much longer barrel life, additional benefits include outstanding accuracy, superior corrosion resistance, and enhanced ease of cleaning. Accepting that questions would arise from their product claims; Superior Barrels provided several range demonstrations that included side-by-side comparisons of both a treated and untreated barrels. The company has provided those with open skepticism a “let us show you” attitude, and let the range results speak for themselves.

Thermal erosion is the main enemy when it comes to running bullets thru a barrel at rates that exceed the system’s thermal limits. In many machine gun barrels, chrome lining the bore is the accepted practice to increase lubricity and corrosion resistance, and to reduce wear rates. Unlike chrome lining, Hard Blue does not alter the bore’s dimensions, and a Hard Blue processed barrel shows much greater corrosion resistance than one without it. It leaves the exposed metal surface so tough, even running a metal file it across the surface multiple times will leave no visible scratches.

Show Me…

Range tests were set up comparing a Hard Blue treated and an untreated barrel. Baseline accuracy would be determined with several ammo types, followed with a “torture test” that would include full automatic firing of 1,000 rounds in a very short time-span to maximize peak temperatures. Afterwards, bore conditions would be carefully measured and wear differences verified. A final accuracy test would provide additional useful data. Baselines were established and are outlined below:

• Full Automatic Test: Using new & unfired 4140 chrome moly barrels from the same manufacturer and identical configurations, fire 1,000 rounds through each barrel at the same relative rate to achieve very high temperatures and potentially erode the barrel to the point of failure.
• Before & After Data Gathering: Borescope examinations provided by third party participant Mark Humpreville. Mark is a High Master, a Distinguished Rifleman, Member of the Presidents Hundred, and winner of the Palma Individual Trophy in 1985 and 1986. Accuracy testing observed and verified via other third party observers.

100 yard (91 meters) accuracy baselines were established using Federal Match 69-grain, Hornady 53-grain, and Swiss GP90 ammunitions. Each barrel had five fouling shots fired, and then two groups of ten shots printed for measurements. The next ammunition type underwent the same process. Afterwards, each barrel was carefully examined and throat dimensions recorded. The return trip to the range was dedicated to the firing of 1,000 rounds thru each barrel.

Full auto firing started out via the emptying of fully loaded Beta C-Mags, followed by using 20 and 30-round magazines for the duration. Rates of fire were continuous and abusive, allowing the barrels to achieve temperatures near the melting of gas tubes. When gas tubes started to glow red, cycle rates were slowed to allow some cooling time between magazine changes. The untreated barrel ran into trouble before it completed the test. At approximately 800 rounds, bullets started key holing into the targets. Near round 850, the gun totally stopped functioning and a quick check determined it would not get back in action. Conversely, the Hard Blue treated barrel made it to the 1,000 round mark without any indications of key-holing or other malfunctions.

After cooling, visual inspection indicated no component failures on either barrel. Both gas tubes stayed intact. The severe key holing of the untreated barrel right before stoppage might have been the early indication of loss of sufficient gas pressure to cycle the gun. Post throat erosion measurements were interesting indeed, with the untreated barrel completely swallowing the gage, and the treated barrel indicating 0.10 inches (2.54 mm) of erosion. Within the scope of this test, it was evident that Hard Blue had a significant impact on reducing wear-rates at high temperatures.

1. “Fire-to-destruction” testing is an interesting process to learn how firearms react under extreme conditions. Previously documented tests by the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development Engineering Center (ARDEC) have indicated that M16/M4 military barrels destructed as their temperatures reached up towards 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (927 degrees Celsius) during full auto firing. (ARDEC Report No. AMSTA-AR-ES-96-2. Fire to Destruction Test of 5.56mm M4A1 Carbine and M16A2 Rifle Barrels – Final Report, September 1996.) Barrels fail due to the structural changes that occur at those temperatures. How a Hard Blue treated barrel would do under these exact testing conditions would no doubt be interesting and a worthwhile endeavor. However interesting that might be, Superior Barrels focus is not the making of machine gun barrels. The demonstration and data generation herein provides a starting point for comparison and showing several advantages of Hard Blue. Their current product offerings include making barrels for the semiautomatic rifle, however more research and development is ongoing in different areas. Some of these areas include treating .308 rifles and pistol barrels.

Additional Post Processing & Damage Assessment

Detailed third party borescope examinations of the untreated barrel revealed throat erosion normally seen only beyond the end of a barrel’s useful life. The rifling was completely gone at least 1 inch (25.4 mm) forward from the end of the chamber. “Heat Checking” (a pattern of parallel surface cracks that are formed by alternate rapid heating and cooling of the surface metal) on the lands and grooves was visible for at least half the barrel length. The barrel was unsalvageable by any stretch of the imagination.

The Hard Blue barrel still showed marks that the factory chamber reamer left in the throat. Normally, such marks disappear in 150 to 200 rounds; however, this barrel still had them after the firing of 1,000 rounds. There was a very light trace of Heat Checking for a short distance forward of the chamber, estimated to be between 5% and 10% of what the untreated barrel exhibited. After recording internal measurements, subsequent range tests showed the barrel still produced excellent accuracy, and is probably quite capable of continued service life. Baseline 100 yard (91 meters) groupings showed essentially no change, that being 1.53 inches (38.9 mm) before, and 1.58-inches (40.1 mm) afterwards.

Where’s the Beef?

Time will tell if the Superior Barrel Hard Blue process takes hold and makes a significant impact on the industry. At the time of this writing, end users within the US SOCOM (Special Operations Command) and the D.O.E. (Dept of Energy) have obtained several barrels in various profiles. Other entities include a U.S. Army R&D unit evaluating several chambered in 6.8 SPC. Now that the product is getting into these hands, there should be additional information forthcoming as to how they are performing under demanding conditions.

Additional evaluations have continued using one of their .223 uppers during a three-day SWAT sniper course. Delivered with an 18-inch (457 mm) Lothar Walther match barrel adapted with a Daniel Defense handrail and a full automatic bolt carrier, the barrel was threaded for use of a suppressor. Placed on a Rock River Arms lower and mounted with a Leupold 4.5-14×40 Long Range scope atop Mk 4 rings/base, the first eight rounds fired from this platform produced a 100-yard (91 meters) group that measured 0.62 inches (15.8 mm).

Copious amounts of Black Hills ammunition of varying bullet weights were fired through this gun with almost all of them consistently printing MOA or better. With a suppressor, the mid-length barrel favored a couple of the Black Hills factory loads, and produced outstanding and repeatable performance with their 50-grain VMAX and 73-grain Berger bullets. At 300 yards (274 meters), the 50-grain VMAX load continued to deliver repeatable MOA accuracy. Heavier 73-grain Moly (USMC) and 73-grain Berger routinely produced 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) or better 5 shot groups at 100 yards (91 meters). After a long day at the range, the bore cleaned up squeaky clean of fouling after the passing through of only five or six solvent-soaked patches.

It is what it is…

With the price of ammunition being what it is, most folks might agree they need to make every shot count these days. These initial evaluations of Superior Barrels products indicate several significant advantages over the norm, and are available for the shooting world at a very reasonable cost. Most of us would consider the product a bargain when you factor in prolonging the accurate life of a rifle barrel. The motivation behind the company appears to be a good one and they are committed to and stand behind their product.

Sources:

Superior Barrels
P.O. Box 6
Lebanon, GA 30146
www.superiorbarrels.com

Black Hills Ammunition
P.O. Box 3090
Rapid City, SD 57709
http://www.black-hills.com

Leupold & Stephens
Beaverton, Oregon 97006
www.leupold.com

In response to a Polish government request in the late 1950s for a light, hand-held defensive weapon for use by rear echelon/support troops, design of the Wz 63 was initiated by Piotr Wilniewczyc. Upon Wilniewczyc’s death in 1960, the design in 9x18mm Makarov caliber was finished by a team at the Lucznik Arms Factory located in Radom, Poland, in 1963. Production began in 1964, with the Polish Armed Forces and police adopting it for service in 1965. Also known as the PM-63 (pistolet maszynowy wz. 1963 or submachine gun model 1963) and the RAK (Reczny Automat Komandosa or hand-held automatic commando firearm), approximately 70,000 weapons were manufactured before production ceased in 1974.

Easily distinguished by its shovel shaped muzzle compensator, the Wz 63 is blowback operated and fires from an open bolt that is incorporated inside its slide. Capable of semi or fully automatic fire, the rate of fire is determined by the operator’s trigger manipulation. Rearward movement of the trigger to the first position results in semiautomatic fire; continued rearward movement results in fully automatic fire. In order to keep the fully automatic rate of fire to approximately 600-650 rounds per minute, the slide incorporates an inertia firing rate reducer that causes the slide to remain open for a fraction of a second during recoil when the slide is at its most rearward position.

The complete method of operation for fully automatic fire begins with the insertion of either a 15 or 25-round magazine into the magazine well located in the pistol grip. The operator then retracts the slide by either grasping the slide via the serrations on the rear of the slide and pulling the slide to the rear or by placing the end of the compensator against a hard surface and pushing the weapon forward. When the trigger is pulled fully to the rear, the slide moves forward and strips a cartridge from the magazine. When the cartridge becomes fully seated in the chamber, the extractor snaps over the cartridge rim and the slide’s fixed firing pin strikes the primer while the slide is still moving forward. Cartridge initiation causes the slide to stop forward movement and begin rearward movement against the recoil spring that is located under the stationary barrel. The empty casing is extracted from the chamber and travels with the slide until it reaches the ejector (which is a raised side of the magazine), where it is ejected through the ejection port located on the right side of the slide. The slide continues its rearward movement until the recoil spring is fully compressed and passes over a retarder lever, which snaps up to hold the slide to the rear. An inertia buffer in the rear of the slide continues rearward movement and compresses a buffer spring. When the buffer spring becomes fully compressed, it propels the buffer forward. The forward movement of the buffer pushes the retarder lever down, which allows the slide to move forward if the trigger is still fully depressed and cartridges remain in the magazine in order to repeat the firing cycle. Upon firing the last round in the magazine, the slide catch locks the slide open. To assist with accuracy when firing with both hands, the Wz 63 has a folding vertical grip made of plastic for the support hand and a retractable metal stock with a pivoting butt plate.

In the early 1970s, versions were made at the Radom factory in 9x19mm (designated the PM-70) and .380 ACP (designated the PM-73) calibers, but production soon stopped due to lack of demand. An unlicensed version, designated the Type 82, was produced by the People’s Republic of China in 9x18mm Makarov caliber.

While the author was examining the Wz 63, the curator related an amusing tale. A Polish visitor became very animated when shown the Wz 63 that included a lot of hand waving and loud speaking. It seems the visitor, a veteran of the Polish Armed Forces, did not heed Lt. Colonel Jeff Cooper’s firearms safety rule number two, “Don’t point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy.” While operating the Wz 63, the Polish veteran used the forefinger of his support hand to push back on the muzzle compensator to cock the weapon. For whatever reason, he failed to remove his forefinger from in front of the muzzle before pulling the trigger. The animated hand gestures of the visitor were an attempt to bring attention to his missing finger tip!

Wz 63 Specifications

Caliber: 9x 18mm Makarov
9x 19 Parabellum (PM-70)
.380 ACP (PM-73)

Operation: Straight blowback, slide with integral breech bolt firing
from open bolt, automatic, selective fire trigger system
with slide-mounted thumb safety. Short pulls of the
trigger result in semiautomatic fire; full pulls result in
automatic fire.

Weight, empty: Approximately 56 ounces (1.6 kg).

Length, overall,
stock stored: 13.1 inches (333 mm).

Length, overall,
stock extended: 23 inches (583 mm).

Height (15-round magazine inserted): 5.7 inches (145 mm).

Height (25-round magazine inserted): 8.4 inches (213 mm).

Barrel: Chrome lined with either four or six grooves with a
right-hand twist of one turn in 10 inches.
Barrel length: 6.0 inches (152 mm).

Magazine: 15 or 25-round, double column, detachable box-type.

Sights: Flip, fixed rear (settings for 492 feet (150 meters)
and 246 feet (75 meters) and front blade.

Sight radius: 6.0 inches (152 mm).

Grip panels: Black plastic.

Status: No longer in production, but still in service with
Poland. An unlicensed copy known as the Type 82 is
still in service with the People’s Republic of China,
Cuba and Vietnam.
Manufacturer: Lucznik Arms Factory, Radom, Poland; Type 82,
Norinco, China.

(The Government of Burma changed its name to Myanmar following the 1988 demonstrations within the country. Most people still call the country “Burma,” as the new name of “Myanmar” is considered by many to be an attempt to erase the memory of the students of 8/8/88, who protested and died for ideals that they believed would make their country into a free and independent democratic nation. It has not worked out that way. SAR will use “Burma” for international recognition purposes. – V. Kenneth.)

The isolated State of Burma (Myanmar) plays a very small role in international affairs today. Burma is an unfrequented country with tight government controls, danger in the mountains, and a politically inflamed climate. It is wedged in between developing Thailand and expanding India. Mostly overlooked and virtually anonymous in the Western world, Burma has declined in its international presence due to the current military dictatorship that begin with the coup in 1961 lead by General Ne Win, who died in 2002. General Than Shwe is currently the head of state. Being a police state under military rule, Burma’s army has always played a decisive role in the history of the Southeast Asian nation. Called the “Tatmadow” in the local dialect, the Burmese Army was formed in January 1948 with the independence of the country from Great Britain. Groups of irregulars and an officer corps that came from the “Thirty Comrades,” a select group of Burmese officers trained by the Japanese during the country’s occupation during World War Two, were melded into the new Burmese military. Being a British colony prior to the war, the armed forces were based on the British operating structure and chain of command. Burma’s initial small arms inventory included SMLEs, No.4s, Bren Guns, Sten MkIIs and a variety of other British firearms.

As the 1950s rolled by, the inventory was greatly expanded from a variety of sources. American Military Assistance Programs (MAP), Foreign Military Sales (FMS), British assistance up until 1954, and several other countries helped to increase the quantity and variety of weapons in the inventory. TZ-45 submachine gun licenses were bought from Italy, and the TZ-45 was manufactured locally under the designation BA52 in 9x19mm. Israeli sales to Burma included fifty thousand rifles in 1954. China sold weapons to Burma, and Thailand contributed sales of Thai HK33s or captured rifles from the northern insurgents. Most importantly, Burma received much help from West German government owned Fritz Werner Industry Ausrustungen-Gmbh (FRG), an arms company that sold Burma rifles and machinery to locally manufacture a variety of the Heckler and Koch G3 series. The G3 was designated the BA72, and as such the 7.62x51mm G3 was Burma’s main battle rifle for the next forty years of service.

Much of the world had switched over to the 5.56x45mm platform by the 1970s and 1980s, but Burma’s transition did not occur until the late 1990s with the new Myanmar Army (MA) rifle. Up to this point much of Burma’s small arms had been bought, copied, or captured. The development of the MA series marked the first truly Burmese design that was almost independent of foreign parentage, but showed many influences. Soon after this development, the EMER K1 was discovered by the Western Press. Most recently, in September of 2007, during the “Saffron Revolution” two 40x46mm low velocity grenade launchers appeared that the Burmese had developed and produced on their own. This point in time (late 1990s to present) marks the beginning of a new era in Burmese small arms development; one of innovation and inventiveness. Though the basic designs are often replicated from elsewhere, they are Burma’s first developments undertaken by its own government in its short history of independence.

BA Series Rifles

A licensed version of the 7.62x51mm Heckler & Koch G3 had been in Burmese production since Fritz Werner exported and sold the rifles and machinery to Burma after several negotiations started in 1953. By the time of the military takeover in 1961, the military was armed with German made HK G3s. In the decades following, with the help of H&K, the German Technical Corporation Agency and Fritz Werner, weapons and ammunition factories were set up around Rangoon and elsewhere to produce G3s with the Burmese model designation of BA72 (Burma Army 72). Several variants were produced: a folding stock version designated as the BA63, a copy of the G3A3ZF marksman’s rifle designated as the BA100 and a magazine fed light machine gun version with a bipod, carrying handle and enhanced handguard with ventilation ports. Burma utilized the G3 from the 1960s up until the late 1990s, when the MA weapons platform took over and replaced it in active service. BAs may still occasionally be seen at police posts throughout Rangoon, as well as at remote military outposts and in the hands of insurgent groups.

MA Series Rifles

As the western world gradually switched over to the 5.56x45mm platform, Burma followed suit and created a number of variants, embarking on a journey that would lead to a new battle rifle of that caliber. The first step was to follow the example of the German HK33 and G41 rifles. Prototypes were made locally with attempts to copy both rifles as accurately as possible but with a number of changes by the Burmese. These alterations included experiments with a PPS 43 style top-folding stock, and a new style of wooden handguards to ease production. Burmese markings were used for the selector, make and model number. Burmese selector markings are either the German SEF markings or the equivalent in Burmese characters. Experimentation proceeded with the G41 and HK33 approaches at the same pace. Out of these prototypes came a limited production run of the precursor to the MA1, the MA11. The MA11 is a delayed blowback roller locked action 5.56x45mm select fire battle rifle that was fielded in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It had one other variant, the MA12, which was a magazine fed light machine gun (LMG) version and the only differences were the addition of a bipod, carrying handle, and heavier barrel. The MA11 could mount a bayonet (same as used on the MA1) and furniture was made with either brown pistol grip, stock and black handguard or simply all black. The handguard had a single row of ventilation ports that ran parallel to the barrel on both sides of the handguard. The magazine was of Burmese design, similar to the H&K magazine and release system. Magazines are interchangeable between both firearms. Sling attachments are a simple stud to the left of the front sight and a ring on the left side of the buttstock. After the development of the MA11, Burma realized that it could no longer rely on West German assistance for help with their service rifles and in turning to Israel the government found a viable partner. Israel and Burma have had a long history of collaboration although neither country publicly admits to that. In 1991, an Israeli team visited Burma and sold a number of Uzis, and assisted the government in producing them locally as the model BA94. Singapore helped with the machines and tooling required for weapon production, even producing and sending Burma a prefabricated factory (all of this occurring after the bloody 1988 demonstrations).

Burma completely abandoned any hopes of continuing with the G3 action as a platform due to West Germany’s new political stance on dealing with Burma, and they began experimentation on a Galil type platform. Taking Israeli Galils and reconfiguring them so as to manufacture them in Burma, Burma produced a number of prototypes with wooden handguards, 20-round magazines, and a magazine fed LMG version. At the end of this period, there emerged four distinct models: MA1, MA2, MA3, and MA4. All were initially produced with brown polymer furniture and the early production stages utilized rounded, smooth pistol grips while later ones had clear cut Galil grips. Later versions were produced with black furniture.

The MA1 is the basic, standard issue main battle rifle. Disassembly and operating functions are identical to the Galil though there are a number of differences with many Burmese innovations. The handguards have ventilation ports in a double staggered row along both sides. There is no pistol grip thumb selector. The rifle’s stock has a classic trapdoor for cleaning supplies, which the Galil lacks as issue Galils had the side folding stock. There is a bayonet mount and stud on the MA. The rear sight is a simple open “U” notch sight with protecting triangular ears. One undocumented report from an individual with live fire experience states that the rifle is consistently inaccurate and cannot hold a zero due to the vibration of the receiver cover during recoil.

The MA2 is the magazine fed LMG version, the only changes being the carrying handle, handguard, bipod, and a longer, heavier barrel. The handguard differs in having two rows of horizontal ventilation holes parallel to the barrel. The rear sight is the H&K drum type.

The MA3 is the carbine version of the rifle. The stock is similar to the Galil side folding stock and has a recoil pad. In this variant the thumb selector is located just like the Galil thumb selector on the left, above the pistol grip and MA3 also operates the AKM type selector on the right. The stock is usually never seen folded as it takes a good amount of pressure to depress the lock and the help of a solid object to balance the weapon on. Other than the folding stock and selector there is virtually no difference between the two rifles. All MA3s seen have been in black while MA1s are a mix of black and brown furniture depending on early and late production. Soldiers sometimes tie the sling to the metal tubes of the folding stock as the swivel is out of commission.

The MA4 is the under barrel grenade launcher (UBGL) variant of the MA series, it being equivalent to the M16 with M203. The 40x46mm low-velocity UBGL is copied from the M203 and has brown furniture for the polymer handgrip. It has two rows of ventilation ports above it for the rifle barrel and has no thumb selector. The rifle rear sight is still present as is a grenade launcher sight graduated for the standard 40x46mm low-velocity cartridge, and is located above the ventilation ports.

All four rifle types have three selector settings; safe, semiautomatic, and fully-automatic. There are no burst limiters. Markings are present above the magazine on the left side of the magazine well consisting of a circle with the Defense Industries triangle within it, and the firearm serial number which is stamped on the barrel and receiver cover as well. Of five serial numbers collected by the author, manufacture blocks C-K were represented. This means that the firearm has only been in production within the last 10 years or so. The Burmese continued where the Israelis left off. Israel never fielded a dedicated LMG or UBGL version of the Galil in large numbers whereas the Burmese did.

40mm Launchers

Other than the under-barrel grenade launcher used on the MA4 rifle, Burma has a stand-alone, single shot, break open 40x46mm launcher. The Burmese 40mm grenade launcher is simply called “40mm” by those in the service. It is an M79 design copy but employs many Burmese features. The pistol grip and stock are both brown polymer, not one being seen in black although there is mention of it. The barrel swings out to the right about 40 degrees, enough to slide in one 40mm grenade. The pistol grip is hollow with a screw up the middle to attach it to the receiver. It has no slant or curve whatsoever and is perpendicular to the barrel. The stock has a butt trap door for cleaning supplies. The open “U” sights are graduated to 300 meters with 50 meter increments. The sight must be raised up in order to fire. There are a number of metal rings surrounding the barrel in between the front and rear sights, that serve as a handguard or gripping surface. The barrel can be opened by a catch that is pulled to the rear. The selector is a switch on the left side that points forward for “safe” and up for “fire” and the operations are indicated by F or S. The front sight is protected by two very large ears that hold the front sight blade down the center and this can be flipped up. The rifling is very prominent, and there is some crowning at the muzzle. The only markings on it are on the right in bright white letters with three lines stamped “40MM”, “Grenade Launcher”, and a serial number. The author has collected four examples which are in blocks “B” and “D” showing that the launcher has just started serial production. Some examples observed have “Defense” stamped on them.

Two types of 40mm rounds have been seen in use: an all white round and an olive drab round with yellow lettering on it. Both are smoke rounds as the government will not issue its police forces the destructive HE fire power. Burma does have HE rounds in inventory because the army has been using M79s and M203s since some of the first MAPS and FMS programs from the United States. All the launchers are outfitted with slings. The other launcher appears to be more of a simplistic type for crowd control/tear gas. It has both a pistol and frontal grip; the frontal is reversed like the Hungarian AMD65. These are chambered in 40x46mm low-velocity, and have an odd, loop-shaped stock. The barrel is released and tilted down for break-open loading.

EMER K1 Prototypes

The EMER K1 is one of the most controversial of Burmese firearms as it represents an advanced design that received technical assistance from abroad and reports were leaked into the public news. It was designed in 1995 along with a batch of 16 firearms that were submitted for testing and evaluation by the Tatmadow’s Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps, rather than the Ordnance Department. It is reported but unconfirmed that the K1 was produced with significant Singaporean assistance. The K1 action is based upon the Chinese QBZ series and there are two variants. Both take 30-round STANAG magazines. In fact, the EMER K1 series takes features from the SA80, the M16 and the QBZ, cleverly combining them all into one package. The flash hider, magazine, carrying handle, flip aperture sights, bayonet stud, and sling swivels are all derivatives of the M16. The grip, arched trigger guard, trigger-fire control unit, stock and ventilation ports are all mirrored after the SA80 series. The action is modeled after the gas piston action of the QBZ and it is chambered in 5.56x45mm. The three setting selector is on the left side behind the magazine well and the charging handle is on the right side.

The magazine fed LMG version doesn’t differ too much from the rifle. The compensator was switched to an AKM type, heavier barrel and a new ventilated polymer handguard. There is no provision for a carrying handle or bipod. Both K1 examples fire at approximately 650 rpm. The rifle weighs 4.5 kilograms with the LMG .5 kg heavier. The EMER K1 has taken the Burmese pattern of producing a rifle and then its LMG variant. Both are accurate out to 400 meters. The rifle was reported in use on the Yadana pipeline project by reliable diplomatic sources in the late 90s but has not been seen in action or in use since then. It has taken the status of an out of line project that will not be brought back into service

Conclusion

The Tatmadow is in an experimentation stage in weapon procurement, and is coming up with inventive designs such as the EMER K1, the MA series, and 40x46mm low-velocity grenade launchers. The Tatmadow probably won’t be looking for a new service rifle for some time as the MA series and grenade launchers were just pressed into service. Probably the next firearm to come out of Burma will be a side arm or a medium or heavy machine gun in 7.62mm or .50 caliber. Their current heavy and medium machine guns, the imported MG3 and US M2HB .50 caliber (12.7x99mm) should be worn out within the next 10 years because the last M2HB procured was in the 1970s, and the last MG3 in the 1980s. If the Tatmadow doesn’t replace these machine guns with another firearm already in production, then they will probably produce their own.

(The author has fifteen years of experience in Southeast Asia and has lived in Thailand and Burma for that time. He has studied the small arms in the region, and will be submitting a number of reports to SAR on the small arms in the region, specifically the seldom seen Burmese military weapons.)

Located in the heart of Warsaw, Poland, the Museum of the Polish Army holds some 300,000 historical treasures dating from 966 through World War II. The outdoor exhibits around the museum contain a wonderful selection of aircraft, armored vehicles, tracked vehicles, towed artillery pieces, field artillery pieces, large crew served weapons, bombs and torpedoes. The ground floor inside the museum deals with the period from the Middle Ages to 1831. Displays on the second floor provide exhibits about national uprisings and the First and Second World Wars.

The museum was founded by Marshal Jozef Pilsudski in 1920. In World War II, Hitler’s forces took control of the museum regarding it as a military institution and removed most of the contents. The Waffen SS used the building as a warehouse. In 1944 and 1945 the museum building suffered major damage from aerial bombing.

The Polish Army took possession of the plundered, partially ruined museum in 1945. About three quarters of the exhibits taken by the Germans were restored to the collection. Other contributions came from soldiers, private collectors, and from the donation of a major collection of weapons, uniforms and relics owned by the Polish Institute & Sikorski Museum in Great Britain.

The two floors of the museum are divided into sixteen rooms with the first floor containing seven rooms. These first floor rooms detail the history of:

Polish Soldiers in the Middle Ages 966-1497.
Exhibits of note include a cone-shaped gilded helmet from the 10th or 11th Century which probably belonged to a sovereign from the period of the first Polish rulers, a Gothic reliquary made in 1388 for the Teutonic district chief in Elblag, taken as a spoil of war during the battle of Grunwald in 1410 and a Gothic suit of armor of the 15th Century.

The Polish Army in Renaissance 1497-1576.
Exhibits of note include 16th Century two-handed swords, armor for rider and horse, parade shields and helmets.

The Period of the First Elected Kings.
Exhibits of note include a portrait and saber belonging to King Stephan Batory in the second half of the 16th Century and armor and equipment of the Husaria in the mid 17th Century.

The Swedish Invasion of 1655 and the Wars with the Ottoman Empire 1648-1697.
Exhibits of note include the collection of late 17th century Husaria armor, the roof of the Turkish tent taken during the battle of Vienna in 1683 and equipment of “Pancerini” Polish cavalry of the late 17th Century.

The Saxon Era 1697-1763.
Exhibits of note include the Order of the White Eagle, founded in 1705, the first and the supreme Polish state order, oriental-style saddle used by Stanislaw Leszcynski during his election as the King of Poland and parade sabers of the first half of the 18th Century. * The Revival of the Nation and the Downfall of the State. Exhibits of note include Polish uniforms from the second half of the 18th Century, Virtuti Militari Order, established in 1792, the supreme military order in Poland and a portrait and souvenirs of Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

The Napoleonic Era.
Exhibits of note are a saddle which may have belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte used during the Egyptian campaign, uniform of General Jan Henryk Dabrowski, commander of the Polish Legions in Italy (1797-1803) and uniforms of the First Regiment of Chevau Legers of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon.

The November Insurrection 1830-1831.
Exhibits of note include the Polish General’s uniform belonging to Tsar Alexander I, painting of the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska and uniforms of the army of Congress Kingdom of Poland.

The second floor contains the remaining rooms of exhibits and displays and includes:

The Springtime of Nations (1848-1849) and the January Insurrection (1863-1864).
Exhibits of note are flags of partisans units from 1863 with arms of Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia, dress of a Polish partisan from the 1863 January uprising and patriotic jewelry worn by Polish women.

Struggle for independence 1914-21.
Exhibits include a portrait of Pilsudski, uniforms of the Polish Legionaries and the uniform of General Haller, Commander of the Polish Army in France, and various weapons of the period.

Fights for Frontiers (1918-22).
Exhibits of note include the uniform of General Dowbór-Musnicki, Commander of the Wielkopolska Army, badges from the Silesian uprising and the Bolsheviks’ standard from the battle of Warsaw.

Armed Forces of the Second Republic of Poland (1921-1939).
Exhibits include presentation sabers of the Polish Army, portrait and Marshal’s baton of Rydz-Smigly, Polish weapons including the semiautomatic rifle M1936, Mors submachine gun M1939, Ur anti-tank gun and an Enigma enciphering machine.

Poland’s Military Contribution to the allied Victory in the Second World War.
The Polish Army in France exhibits include a portrait of General Sikorski, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces France in the West and uniforms of the Polish Army created in France; The Polish Air Force 1940-1945 with exhibits that include the flying suit and uniforms of Col. Falkowski, Commander of the Polish 303 Squadron; The Polish Navy 1939-1945 with exhibits of uniforms of the Polish Navy and equipment from Polish ships; 1st Polish Corps in Scotland with exhibits of the uniform of General Sikorski and uniforms of soldiers of the 1st Polish Corps; The Polish Army in the USSR with exhibits of a greatcoat and fur cap used by General Sikorski during his visit to the USSR and the first uniforms for Polish soldiers given by the Russian authorities; The 2nd Polish Corps with exhibits of uniforms of the Polish 10th Commandos Company, a uniform of a soldier of the 5th Kresowa Infantry Division and pieces of equipment recovered from the battlefield of Monte Cassino; Battles Involving Polish Soldiers in Western Europe 1944-1945 has uniforms of the 1st Armored Division commanded by General Maczek and a portrait and uniform of General Sosabowski; The Polish Army in the East has exhibits of uniforms and equipment of the 1st and 2nd Polish Armies in the USSR and captured German banners.

The Polish Resistance Movement (1939-1945 and the Warsaw Uprising (1944).
Exhibits of note include the Sten and “Blyskawica” submachine guns made in an underground workshop in Warsaw, a catapult made from a car spring used during the Warsaw uprising, uniforms of insurgents and German Goliath.

The Museum of the Polish Army is one of the great military museums of the world making intellectual sense of their convoluted history. Their logical display of Polish military historical artifacts as well as their collection of original artwork is stunning in its thoroughness. Students of military history and devotees of all kinds of small arms will not be disappointed and is a wonderful way to discover Poland’s history through its military victories and defeats. A visit to this museum while visiting Warsaw is a must. Plan on spending a good part of the day there to fully absorb its content: it is well worth your while. Unfortunately, while there is a color tour book available for purchase and all the displays have descriptive placards, none is in English.

The Museum is open on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday the hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission is about five US dollars and it will cost an additional three dollars to shoot photographs inside the museum. Admission is free on Saturdays.
The Museum of the Polish Army
Aleje Jerozolimskie 3
Warsaw, Poland
Tel: 629 52 71
Email: muzeumwp@wp.mil.pl

The show, held January 15-18 at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, comprised 715,000 square feet of exhibit space, with 1,800 exhibiting companies. According to preliminary figures, this year’s show attracted 25,384 attendees, 22,098 exhibiting personnel and a record 1,425 members of the media for a total attendance of 48,907.

“This has been a tremendously successful show from a number of standpoints,” said NSSF President Steve Sanetti. “Exhibitors and buyers were very upbeat, the products sold well, and I’d say the industry begins 2009 with a sense of cautious optimism in this challenging economy.”

Small Arms Review exhibited at the SHOT Show, and presents this overview to new products of potential interest to the NFA community.

Constitution Arms Palm Pistol

The Palm Pistol made a splash in the national news media outlets when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it was revoking a prior determination that the pistol was a “medical device.” Whether accurate or not, a solid model of the pistol was available for examination. The model proved to be very ergonomic and easy to grasp. The design incorporates two independently operable grip safeties that are deactivated by firmly gripping the pistol. A loaded chamber indicator allows the user to quickly determine if the firearm is loaded while a Picatinny rail allows the attachment of a small flashlight or laser aiming device.

Similar to a rifle where the recoil force is directed rearward to the shoulder, the palm pistol directs recoil into the palm and through the forearm of the shooter. While a firing model was not available for examination, the solid model was a very effective demonstration tool to show that the firearm is a viable design, is comfortable to handle, and capable of wide market appeal.

Elite Iron Suppressors

Elite Iron Suppressors of Bonner, Montana showcased several new suppressors within their line up. The Tango Down pistol suppressor is offered in three calibers: 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. Utilizing a 7075-T6 aluminum tube, the .45 caliber suppressor is capable of 19-22 dB reduction when fired dry or 33-35 dB reduction when fired wet. The suppressors also feature a removable recoil booster for Browning-type pistols, as well as a super tough Ceracote surface treatment. Owner Dale Poling explained that the Ceracote is more durable than anodizing and provides a superior surface treatment. With a limited lifetime warranty, the Tango Down suppressors weigh 11 ounces (without the recoil booster) and retail for $750.

Elite Iron also has two new rifle suppressors intended for .223, .308, .338 Lapua, .416 Barrett, or .50 BMG. The SERE features an oversleeve design and is intended for a 20-inch barreled AR-15 type weapon. Due to the oversleeve design, the suppressor is better able to capture residual high pressure gas during the firing sequence, is lighter in weight, and operates as a highly efficient flash suppressor. SERE suppressors are built to order and retail at $825 for a .223 suppressor, or $925 for a .308 suppressor. Brian boasted that he currently has over 70,000 rounds through the .223 suppressor design with minimal wear to the suppressor.

The Alpha suppressor is intended for .416 Barrett or .50 BMG rifles. Weighing just under four pounds, the Alpha provides hearing safe suppression on the .416 Barrett platform when shooting 438-grain projectiles at 3,200 feet per second. Field testing of the suppressor provided a 24-inch group at 3,000 meters. The Alpha suppressor retails for $1,395. All suppressors made by Elite Iron are 100% TIG Welded. Additional information on Elite Iron Suppressors may be found on the web at www.eliteiron.net.

Airtronic USA, Inc.

During a brief interview, Airtronic revealed that they are currently manufacturing all M203 grenade launchers for the U.S. Government, with over 22,000 M203s manufactured during 2008. Airtronic also currently manufactures 65% of all spare parts for the M2HB machine gun.

Airtronic displayed a 40mm stand-alone grenade launcher system. Intended to allow the use of an M203 without a host rifle, projected retail for the stand alone system without sights is $250. Future developments include a version without a buttstock for use as a breaching tool. Mr. Dockery reports that the recoil from a breaching round when fired without a stock is manageable. More information may be found online at www.airtronic.net.

SWR Manufacturing

SWR Manufacturing displayed their new A2RA suppressor. Rated for full automatic fire, the suppressor is intended for the M4 rifle system but may be utilized with any 5.56mm rifle that uses a standard A2-type flash hider.

The suppressor uses a proprietary mounting system licensed from SAI in Denmark. The design uses two locking rings – the first ring acts as a gas check while the second ring secures the suppressor to the weapon. With this design, the suppressor locks tightly to the host weapon but will not interfere with existing sling mounts or bayonet lugs. While conducting research into the design, it was noticed that some suppressors could not be securely mounted to the HK416 rifle due to dimensional differences between rifle manufacturers. The A2R2 suppressor eliminates this concern, and will operate effectively on either gas or piston operating systems.

The A2R2 features an inconel blast baffle, measures 1.5 inches in diameter, is 7.5 inches in length, and weighs 21 ounces. The suppressor is fully TIG welded, and cannot be disassembled. Projected retail price is $795, with full production available in Summer 2009.

Smith and Wesson

Whether due to commodity prices on the world market or a shortage of ammunition due to uncertain political conditions, the cost of shooting has increased. Enter the Smith and Wesson M&P 15-22. A dedicated full sized AR-15 type rifle, the M&P 15-22 is a dedicated .22 caliber rifle.

Both the upper and lower receiver is engineered from high strength polymer. The rifle’s operating features, functionality and durability are true to the standard AR-15 design, offering all of the features found on an AR-15 or M16 rifle. The M&P 15-22 features a 16-inch barrel with a 1:15 twist. The M&P 15-22 comes standard with a six-position collapsible stock and an A3 style flat top upper receiver with a quad-rail hand guard.

Similar to a full sized AR-15, the bolt and charging handle are fully functional. The fire control parts feature standard AR-15 parts in the expected locations on the rifle. Reportedly, the internal fire control parts (with the exception of the springs) are standard AR-15 parts and after firing the last round the bolt locks to the rear allowing the user to easily load a new 25-round magazine.

The unloaded weight of the rifle is approximately 5 pounds; measures 31 inches with the stock collapsed and 34 inches with the stock fully extended. The M&P 15-22 is designed to accept all 1913 Mil-Std rail adaptable accessories, Mil-Spec carbine stocks and most standard after-market AR-15 pistol grips.

When asked, Smith and Wesson representatives indicated that the entire system was designed from the ground up and that the upper receiver will not function on a standard AR-15 lower receiver. S&W representatives were also unable to comment on whether the system could be converted to a post-86 restricted machine gun.

The M&P 15-22 is well suited to recreational shooting while also being an extremely viable training firearm for law enforcement and military personnel and has a retail price of $449. 25-round magazines will retail for $29.95.

Wylie X

Whether a recreational shooter, active military, or a member of law enforcement, gloves should be considered as important as eye protection. Accidents happen – barrels get hot, out of battery detonations occur, and targets may have sharp edges. Wearing gloves while shooting protects the shooters hands and may reduce the possibility of injury. Wylie X is well known to U.S. military personnel for their line of eye protection and now Wylie X has released four new flame resistant combat gloves.

Currently listed on the Government approved product list as non-flammable, the Wiley X CAG-1 glove is sold in either short or gauntlet length. When compared to the standard aviator’s Nomex glove, the CAG-1 gloves were hands down more comfortable. Unlike the standard issue Nomex gloves, the CAG-1 allows the wearer to easily pick up small objects with no loss of manual dexterity. Current feedback from deployed troops indicates that the CAG-1 gloves are lasting twice as long as current issue gloves.

The CAG-1 gloves are available at Military Clothing Sales Stores, AAFES, civilian clothing outlets, and on the web at www.wileyx.com. Suggested retail ranges from $88-$150, depending on model and style.

Heckler and Koch

As reported last year in Small Arms Review, Heckler and Koch has released the MR223 rifle for US sales. While similar in exterior appearances to the HK416 rifle, subtle engineering differences were observed. The changes were explained as necessary in order to comply with German firearm regulations.

Three significant differences between the MR223 and HK416 were observed. The rear take down pin on the MR223 lower receiver was relocated 6mm to the rear, preventing the installation of a 416 upper receiver on an MR223 lower receiver. In addition, the MR223 chamber has a protrusion preventing the installation of a standard AR-15/M16 bolt carrier into the MR223 receiver. In the event that an AR-15/M16 bolt carrier was installed in an MR223, the bolt would not fully seat within the chamber and the rifle would not function. The MR223 bolt carrier has a corresponding notch to match the chamber protrusion allowing the rifle to function properly with use of an MR223 bolt carrier. Unlike the European version, the firearm was equipped with a flash suppressor.

The need for the design change is based upon German and U.S. law. As a German company, Heckler and Koch must comply with German law while complying with U.S. law when importing or manufacturing domestically. German law prohibits the sale of the HK416 to civilians, regardless of where the rifle is manufactured. As a result of the 1989 import restriction, the HK416 cannot be imported into the U.S. without substantial modifications to the external design. As a result, the MR223 is being made within the U.S. Prior efforts to import rifles from Germany resulted in the HK SL8 rifle, which was internally similar to the HK G36 battle rifle yet featured a highly modified stock. Domestic production of the MR223 should avoid import and design issues encountered with the HK SL8 rifle.

FNH-USA

As reported in the February 2009 issue of Small Arms Review, FNH-USA announced the release of a civilian legal SCAR rifle chambered in .223. According to FNH-USA representatives, the civilian version of the SCAR rifle will be virtually identical to the military version. Two obvious changes to the civilian SCAR rifle include semi-automatic only function and an 18-inch barrel with standard A2-type birdcage flash hider. The rifle is expected to retail for $2,499.

Timney Triggers

The Ruger 10/22 is one of the most popular American made firearms in recent history. The ability to easily change the barrel and internal components makes the rifle easily adaptable. As many SAR readers are aware, the rifle is also easy to suppress, or make into a short barreled rifle. In 2006, Timney triggers took the shooting world by storm with the release of their AR-15 trigger system. Timney has done it again with the release of a new trigger system designed for the Ruger 10/22 rifle.

As a true drop in and self-contained modification, the Timney unit replaces the 10/22 trigger mechanism by providing crisp trigger response and allowing increased accuracy. The factory 10/22 features a 6-8 pound trigger pull. The new Timney trigger system eliminates trigger creep and reduces the trigger pull to a highly accurate 2-3 pounds. Easy to install, the unit utilizes the factory pins with the addition of two set screws to secure the unit within the receiver. Total installation time was about 15 minutes, with the majority of that time spent assembling and disassembling the rifle. Suggested retail is $149.95.

Tango Down

Tango Down presented two new products for commercial and military customers. The new Tango Down AR-15/M16 magazine presents a new take on an old design. The Tango Down magazine is a sealed two piece design that is not intended for disassembly. Traditional AR-15/M16 magazines are molded in a constant radius throughout the body of the magazine. With the multitude of manufacturers producing AR-15 and M16 lower receivers, there is no control over the specifications or design features within the lower receiver. As a result, Tango Down discovered that traditional AR-15/M16 magazines do not always fit within certain lower receivers, specifically, the Heckler and Koch 416. The newly designed magazine features a straight section that is inserted within the weapon, while utilizing the traditional curved section for the exposed section of magazine.

The magazine spring has also been redesigned with tests replicating the loading and unloading of the magazine through 10,000 cycles. Ten thousand cycles translates to 300,000 rounds of ammunition through a single magazine. The life of the magazine spring should far exceed the life of the magazine body.

Two types of magazines are offered. The first is intended for the military market and incorporates a seal between the magazine and the magazine well. The sand seal is intended to eliminate and prevent sand and other debris from entering the weapon, while providing a high quality product. The commercial version will not feature the sand seal, as the seal increases the magazine width. Suggested retail for the Tango Down magazine is $24.95.

Tango Down also featured a newly designed vertical grip. The new grip eliminates the dual locking bars currently found on existing Tango Down and Knight’s Armament forward grips. Jeff Cahill of Tango Down explained that dimensional tolerances in Picatinny rails can result in a bad fit when locking bars are utilized. If the rail is undersized, the grip will be loose and may wobble. If the rail is oversized, the grip may not fit, or may break once installed. In addition, it can be difficult for users to install, remove, and adjust grips utilizing dual locking bars.

The new grip utilizes a throw lever, which allows for adjustment in size. If the rail is oversized, the throw lever can be adjusted to accommodate the rail. If the rail is undersized, the throw lever system can be adjusted to fit snugly, unlike the current locking bar type grip. Additional information on Tango Down products may be found online at www.tangodown.com.

Badger Defense

A combined display by Badger Defense and Airtronic caught the eye of many at SHOT 2009 with a display of RPG-type rocket launchers. Formerly Badger Barrels, the company has been acquired by Airtronic USA, Inc., of Elk Grove Village, Illinois and renamed Badger Defense.

The latest offering from Badger Defense includes an American manufactured RPG rocket launcher. Representatives for the company indicated that the entire design had been improved with 3130 barrel steel being used in place of original cast barrels, an upgrade to the double action trigger group, the addition of an electronic sight, (with a built in internal ballistic and range finder) the addition of Picatinny rails to allow the addition of a bipod and other accessories, and an improved AT-4 type stock. The improvements will reportedly allow the system to hit a point target at a range of 500 meters.

Badger Defense will be manufacturing a full line of energetic and Less-Lethal ammunition for the system. Kevin Dockery has been hired as the production manager and will be in charge of day-to-day operations. Mr. Dockery explained that during the redesign process, “We were finding dimensional differences of 2mm in Russian, Chinese, and other rounds. The newly made American rounds will be superior to any round manufactured in a Warsaw Pact country.” The Badger Defense version of the OG7 fragmentation round will boast a better fuze system and provide controlled fragmentation compared to the original Russian offering. The redesign includes an improved rocket and propellant system to include the elimination of black powder as a propellant and the elimination of the original piezoelectric fuze system. Instead, a triple redundant electronic fuze will be employed to comply with current U.S. Military requirements.

Sub-caliber devices chambered in .308 Winchester are in the planning stage. The entire system will be available for sale on the commercial market, with the option of purchasing a live destructive device, or an ATF-approved deactivated system. Reportedly, the deactivated system will be classified as a Title 1 (Non-NFA) firearm and will allow the user to fire the sub-caliber conversion. According to Mr. Dockery, the sub-caliber conversion has been classified as a “pistol,” due to the short barrel length, and will also be sold as a Title 1 firearm.

The 2010 SHOT Show is scheduled for January 19-22, 2010 and is returning to Las Vegas, Nevada. Reportedly, the SHOT show will remain in Las Vegas through 2021. Additional information may be found online at www.shotshow.org.

The Welrod Mk.IIA is a unique pistol with an integrated silencer chambered for the .32 ACP cartridge. The pistol was invented by the Special Operation Executive (S.O.E.) during World War II and airdropped to the resistance in the occupied countries in large quantities. The purpose was to silently liquidate informers, collaborators and Gestapo officials. An assignment the Welrod completed to its fullest.

Around the middle of 2005, a unique lot of 10 so called Drill Purpose (DP) Welrods suddenly surfaced. In order to authenticate them a story followed purporting they originated from a WWII weapons cache in Norway. Shortly thereafter the DPs were put up for sale at online auctions and gun shows in Scandinavia.

However, when a treasure like a DP Welrod pops up out of nowhere never having been mentioned in any of the many documents that I have had the opportunity to read during my research, I became a little skeptical.

The DP was described to me as a non-firing version made to chamber an empty .32 ACP shell case. The barrel is smoothbore with a “calibre” of only 5mm but fitted with the usual bleeder holes. They are stamped with the usual five pointed star and square, inspection stamps and a two digit serial number. The bolt is solid in front and fitted with a shortened firing pin. The DP Welrod can be recognized because of a painted white 1/2 inch wide band around the silencer tube just in front of the trigger. I have since discovered that not all of them have the painted white band.

The Differences

Unfortunately, with the exception of the rubber grip and silencer tube end cap, I have not had the chance to handle the DP myself. But I have had the opportunity to compare close up photos of the DP with the original Welrods, and they are definitely not made on the same set of machine tools. I have listed only a few of the differences below:

1.) The DP trigger guide plates have sharp edges as opposed to the Welrod which has rounded edges.

2.) The knurled pattern on the DP muzzle cap is coarse cut when compared to the Welrods fine pattern.

3.) The luminous paint on the DP is bright white but on the Welrods it is dark yellow and browning due to old age.

4.) Noticeable differences in the serial digits because of different type faces.

5.) The finish on the DPs looks pristine with the exception of the white band where the paint is almost worn off.

6.) The black grip is made from soft rubber: its shape, size and feel differ a lot from the original Ebonite grip.

7.) The rubber discs in the silencer are undoubtedly made from modern materials and bear no similarity to the originals consisting of laminated layers of rubber and leather/linen.

It is difficult to conceive that a special DP Welrod would be made solely for instructional purposes when it would be easier to use the already available original. In wartime, it would not be feasible to start a second production line for a dummy pistol. Furthermore, the fact that the DP is a combination of the Mk.II and Mk.IIA is also worth considering. It has the first pattern oval ejection port scallop that characterizes the Mk.II but the trigger and trigger guides (side plates) of the Mk.IIA models. I have only seen two Welrods with this combination and they were from the early stages of the production with a serial number close to #3000.

Another thing that raises concern is the bleeder holes in the barrel. If the DP was made for practice and instructional purposes, as claimed, why bother with the bleeder holes? It was obviously never going to fire a live round from a .32 ACP casing through a 5mm smoothbore barrel. Besides, the operator does not have access to the barrel on the original Welrods as the silencer tube is fixed to the receiver with a mandrel stamp. To gain access to that particular area would be going far beyond the term “field stripping” and would be a job for the armourer. In short, it simply doesn’t make sense to drill bleeder holes in a smoothbore barrel, especially because the bolt face is solid and therefore unable to fire a cartridge or operate a firing pin.

The silencer is complete with baffles, spacers and rubber disks. The rubber discs are made from what looks like a modern day rubber material. I am convinced that the reason that the DPs are marketed with the non functional barrel and bolt is to enable it to pass as a non-firing replica, making it easier to get across country borders, and to gain access to a potential worldwide buyer market.

I must admit that it is a very well made copy of the Welrod and a lot of effort has been put into the job to make sure the details are correct. The threads are identical, making the parts interchangeable. The small inspection stamp found on the butt of the receiver is present and there are even traces of black paint that can occasionally be found on the original Welrods.

Summary & Conclusion

During my research, I have been in contact with the dealer on a regular basis reporting my findings. He has explained that he bought 10 DPs from a man in Norway claiming that he had found them in a weapons cache from World War II.

With the above mentioned findings at hand, the dealer confronted the seller only to find him hospitalized and in a terminal condition. The dealer then made contact with the seller’s son who admitted that a total of 15 DPs had been produced whereupon he then gave the dealer a box of unfinished DP parts as shown in the photo.

In my opinion the problem is not the reproduced items them selves, but that they were marketed and sold as original items. For decades, collectors of German war artifacts have been suffering from this type of scam, and now unfortunately we must conclude that the same is happening when collecting from “the other side” too. Apparently, the widespread use and high prices obtained on internet auction sites have provided incentive for this type of scam. Internet auctions were not in common use 10 years ago, the market of potential buyers was also much smaller and confined to local areas, keeping the sale price down, making it unfeasible to start such fraudulent productions at such a high level.

1 August, 2007, Dayton, NV

David Edward “Dangerous Dave” Cumberland was born 18 November, 1932 in Fairley Farm, Virginia. He married his wife Elsie in 1955. Dave was Interarmco’s man in Thailand in the 1950s and one of the early machine gun and cannon dealers in the US. His company, The Old Western Scrounger, was renowned for helping shooters around the world get their odd ammunition needs filled. This author has known Dave for thirty years and we caught up with Dave at his home in Nevada, where he was pleased to sit down and recap many of his experiences for SAR’s readers. A lot of Dave’s experiences interact with a number of our other Interviews, and help “Fill in the blanks.” – Dan

SAR: When was the first time you were around firearms?

Dave: Right about the end of the Second World War, and that was just a 22 rifle. It was Mossberg 42MB, which was the last thing that Mossberg was making that the public could buy: they gave their all to the military. It was the only Mossberg rifle you could get around the end of the war. We went out plinking and hunting with it, go out to the dump and shoot rats. I lived in a small village in rural Virginia so that was pretty much expected of young boys. My father had a C96 Mauser pistol with a massive stock, and he never shot the gun to amount to a hill of beans, and he never knew much about guns. He wasn’t a hunter or shooter really, but I was fascinated by that gun. I finally figured out how to get it apart and back together again. Must have been about 18 years old at that time. Later I’d purchased a Trap Door Springfield Carbine and, why I bought this next one, I don’t know, but I had a Remington Derringer, 41 Rimfire. There was no ammunition for that but I just had to have it, it was so interesting.

SAR: Did you have any experience with machine guns early on?

Dave: No, not a thing. Not cannons either. Didn’t really have any interest in them, oddly enough for where I ended up. However, I made my share of pipe bombs and a good time was had by all.

SAR: You joined the service in…

Dave: In 1952. I was 20 years old and turned 21 when I was in San Diego. I was an electronic technician in the United States Navy. Traveled across the Pacific; headed for the Korean War. The first ship I was on went to Yokosuka, Japan and that was when they just did normal fleet operations for six months. It turned out we were only there for about two months and we got word to pull hook and head for Haiphong, Vietnam. So my ship turned out to be the command ship for the evacuation of the refugees from the communists, and the French army from Hanoi and Haiphong in French Indo-China, what you guys call Vietnam. That was mid to late 1954. That was the largest civilian evacuation ever, hundreds of thousands of refugees: they called it “Operation Passage to Freedom.” We brought the guy who was the 100,000th refugee and his family down with us on our ships. We didn’t take anybody else on our ship; we were strictly a command ship. We brought he and his wife down, everybody else came on LSTs and supply ships and what have you. We also evacuated the Tachen Islands between Communist Mainland China and Taiwan. The Nationalist Forces were cornered there by the Chinese Communists and we moved them to Taiwan. I was in the Navy for four years. I checked out in San Diego with my wife and we went to visit my parents and her parents on the East Coast.

SAR: When did you go out for the nuclear tests?

Dave: That was before I got out and before the Indo-China refugees. I think it was in March of ’54. It was the second series of bomb tests on the hydrogen bomb and our ship had been in the first one called “Operation Ivy.” The second one, “Operation Castle” was the name of it. They’re available on videotape of all things. Our ship was the USS Estes. It was a communications force flag ship. It’s one big floating radio station that’s used to consolidate an amphibious landing, for example. Our sister ships were the USS Mount McKinley and the USS Mount Olympus. Mount McKinley was at Iwo Jima and the Mount Olympus was at D-Day in Normandy. We were all out in the Pacific, headed back to the states we thought. We had about 600 people on board and we took on food and supplies we needed for about four or five months and we sailed from the South Pacific. We got sidetracked to Bikini Atoll, which is where they hold the bomb tests, explaining why all the extra stores were needed.

SAR: So, on your way home, boys, why not stop off and watch the Nukes? (Laughter)

Dave: Yeah, that’s about it. Eniwetok Atoll is where they had all the scientific personnel and civilian engineers and stuff like that, plus they had an airfield there. It took us about ten days to get down there. It was just beautiful. There was a wrecked Japanese freighter on one of the little islands. That little island was also a recreation island for us, where you could go and swim. We’d go over there with an M1 Garand in. 30-06 so they could shoot sharks if they got after us. The first bomb test was supposed to be, I can’t remember exactly, but I think it was 15 or 16 megatons. They said it was less than 20 megatons, I do remember that. It turned out to be 40 megatons when the damn thing finally went off. It was unreal. We could see the shock wave coming along the water, approaching at the speed of sound, of course. I had a friend who was down in the engine room on watch at that time. He said that when the concussion hit the ship, it rocked the entire ship over. We could see that, ’cause we were up on the deck, which was pretty intense. He said it blew flame out of the boiler inspection ports ten feet all the way across the inside of the engine room. The back pressure from the shock wave back-flushed all the ventilation systems on the ship. That hadn’t been done since the ship was built in 1944, and you wouldn’t believe the piles of crap that came out of those ventilators all over the ship when that pressure wave hit us. Then we went to what was called a “Purple 2 alert,” which meant an atomic attack was in progress. We stayed there in general quarters for about 30 hours because you couldn’t go up on the flight deck, you couldn’t go topside because there was too much fallout. We had the sprinkler systems on all over the ship. That was also when the Japanese tuna fishing boat got caught in the fallout and it killed all the crew, it was the “Shot” called “Castle Bravo.” There’s no fresh water on those islands out there so, at the time this bomb was going off, they were bringing out tankers full of water to hose us down. The tanker got caught in the fallout, too, and they turned her around and sent her back to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor and dropped the hook out there. When we came back in several months later, she was still out there with atomic radiation signs all over the ship. It was pretty well toasted. They gave you a chance to do your part in all of this by spending time on the decontamination team. On the decon team you put a plastic suit on, and just imagine what the temperature’s like at about 100º outside. We’d get these plastic suits on and go out on the deck of a contaminated vessel and use a high-pressure steam hose, and do that for 20 minutes. Then you come back and wash off for ten minutes in fresh water, and present yourself to the guy with the Geiger counter. Put your hands up in the air, and he checks you everywhere for fallout. If he found anything, he took a little high-pressure hose and squirts the area down. For that, you got a free steak dinner that night. [laughter]

SAR: Have you experienced any problems from the fallout?

Dave: No. It’s interesting. When I first went to the Veterans’ Hospital in my old place up in Northern California, the first thing they asked me was if I was exposed to atomic radiation. I said, “Yes.” And they checked this little red block on the thing. I don’t think I have anything as a result of that Atomic testing, but I have Parkinson’s disease, and as a veteran, they pay for all of my Parkinson’s medicine.

SAR: In 1955 you were in San Diego. You signed out of the Navy, and then you took off to visit family.

Dave: Elsie and I bought a new Volkswagen Beetle for $1,500 and we drove that turkey across the country and back. We headed up to San Francisco and that’s where I went to work for the California National Guard on the 90mm batteries. The Bay Area in general had four batteries. It had two batteries of four guns each for anti-aircraft, using M-33 fire control radar. My job was to keep the radar and computer running. There were also two Nike missile defense situations in the same area. They were both on the hill to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge. I was there about a year and a half. I had to join the National Guard to get that job and when the time came for a new job, I went to Korea. I was teaching the U.S. Army how to keep their radar equipment in operating condition.

SAR: That was the post-Korean War era, while there was still a real tense situation on the demarcation line.

Dave: I have some pictures of me sitting with my feet up on the desk of the North Korean general’s negotiating chair in Panmunjom. I was shooting different weapons now. The Navy would allow us to shoot aboard ship “at the discretion of the Captain.” We used to shoot off of the fantail at a towed target. I had that Trap Door Springfield and a Broomhandle Mauser. That’s the first place I really got a chance to shoot a machine gun. I shot a 1918A2 BAR and a 1919A4 .30 caliber Browning from the ship’s armory. The 1919 was on a ship’s mount of course. To this day, machine guns don’t really turn me on that much. I like the big stuff. If I had a choice in a machine gun, it’d be a 3″ 50 automatic.

SAR: [laughs] Well, you have had a lot of machine guns, right?

Dave: Yes, I sure have. You asked what I like, and it’s always been the cannons that I’ve really enjoyed the most.

SAR: How long were you in South Korea for that job?

Dave: About 14 months. I was at the 7th Infantry Division in Seoul. They would give me a Jeep and say, “Go here. Go there,” to different places where they had repair facilities for radio equipment. I would go there and check out the systems and make sure the guys knew what the hell they were doing and that everybody was happy and that things worked the way they were supposed to. It was pretty good duty. When my time was up there, I came back to the United States and they wanted me to go out again. They said, “We only have two openings for you right now.” First was in Chile on top of a 13,000 foot mountain as part of the Vanguard tracking satellite system. I said, “No way in the world. It hasn’t rained down there in 30 years.” They gave up on that and said the other place was Bangkok, Thailand. Knowing a bit about Southeast Asia, I thought “That sounds a lot less bitter,” and I headed on over. That was 1958. Flew over this time, on a DC-7C Super Constellation, which went all of 265 miles an hour. Flew to Pearl Harbor, then to Wake Island, and on to Tachikawa Air Force Base in Japan. From there, I flew down to Manila and on to Bangkok. Of course, this was all MATS flights (Military Air Transport Service) so you took what you could get. A guy would go there with his orders and plead with the guy behind the counter to get on the quickest flight. It took a long time to travel, but you got there.

SAR: What was the situation when you got to Bangkok?

Dave: It was a little tense. It was not going full bore in Southeast Asia like it was two years later but, they had me in there going upcountry or down country and teaching the Thais how to keep their equipment running. While I was in a little place called Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand, I ran into a very wealthy Thai gentleman who owned a series of hock shops in Bangkok. There was a little Japanese airfield down there and there was a golf course. The greens were all fine sand. I used to play golf with him down there. He was a shooter, and he gave me an Eley cartridge display board that I sold two years ago for $8,000. He always had custom things – Holland & Holland made him a double size Swiss Army Knife. Interesting guy. We went hunting once together, for tigers, even though that was illegal. I shot one of those wild red bulls with an 1874 Sharps.

SAR: You went hunting on other trips around Thailand?

Dave: Oh yeah, many times. Got ambushed by Burmese bandits in the highlands once.

SAR: Dave, ambushed by Burmese bandits in the Thai highlands?

Dave: (Laughs) You heard me right. We were out in the middle of the jungle with a Thai hunter who was kind of interesting. He was just a plain old, everyday gentle person except his rifle was a Model 70 Super Grade, in .375 H&H. I couldn’t believe that. We had two elephants we rode, and the Thai fellow who was our hunter. He had his son along as a camp-watcher. We would go out and hunt all day and sit in the jungle at night and get bitten by mosquitoes. We slept in Jungle Hammocks, by the way, which I think is the only way to sleep in the jungle – up off the ground. This one evening about the third or fourth day we were there, we were sitting around the campfire. We had just finished eating, and I was smoking a cigar or cigarette. Jack and I were getting ready to turn in for the night. Some people came walking into the camp and we didn’t speak any Thai. We gave them tea, and we had a pound of Prince Albert tobacco. We gave them some Zig-Zag paper so they could roll smokes and have tea. They were talking with our guide. We had a Thai military phrase book and we finally got the idea that they were going to come back and kill us because we had too much stuff around that was just too saleable. Jack said, “My God, we’ve got to get out of here.” I said, “Wait a minute. Let’s find out what the old man wants to do. He lives here. He knows what’s going on. We don’t know where these people even are right now. They could be taking us in their sights right now.” He asked, “Well, what are you going to do?” I said, “I’m going to wait and see what the old man does.” The old man, he finally said something to the kid and the kid starts putting things together. He and the kid had been sleeping on the ground with the ants going over them, that didn’t make any difference to them. He cut some bushes and he put them into the two jungle hammocks. They were tied to one tree at one end and a tree here on the other end. Jack and I were in arm’s reach of each other pretty much. I had a 12 gauge. I took that and loaded that with buckshot. Jack had a Model 12 pump gun in 12 gauge and he put buckshot in that as well. We took up a counter-ambush position about 15 yards in the jungle. It was pretty thick right in there. At just a little after midnight, maybe an hour or two later, the old man reaches over and pokes me on the arm. He puts his cigarette in front of his lips and he points. You could see them in the moonlight, four of the five people that were in camp earlier. They had single-barreled shotguns when they were in camp before. Now they didn’t have the shotguns with them but they did have these big knives about two feet long. They each took up a position over one of the dummies that the kid had put together. I had these two guys right in front of me who thought they were going to hack us to death. Jack had another guy down on the end. The old hunter had the fellow in the middle. I only had two shots for two guys, and when that .375 went off next to me, I pulled the triggers and I got both of them, one with each shot. I shot them in the back as they started to hack what they thought was me, to death. Jack, who made it clear he didn’t want to shoot anybody, once it started he ended up hitting his guy about three times before he hit the ground. “Well,” he said, “this could be the end of my career.” I said, “It could have been the end of your life, you dummy. Good thing you did what you were told and followed this old man’s instructions.” The next morning, the old man and the boy stripped the bodies, put all their stuff on one elephant and put all of us on another elephant. He sent the one elephant back somewhere. I don’t know where he went, probably home. At about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, we were making another camp and here comes the elephant back with the kid on it. We hunted for another week and never saw anything to shoot except monkeys. I shot a monkey and we ate that just to taste it. It was tough as hell, but it was edible. It was much better while it was stew than it was when it was fried or anything else. If you had to eat it, you could. The kids there used to make Figure 4 traps. There were big lizards that lived in the ground. They weren’t monitors but they were pretty good sized. These lizards would come up and they’d stick their neck into this Figure 4 trap and choke to death. I’ve got that on film, pulling the stick out of the ground with the lizard thrashing away on one hand and me with the 8mm movie camera on the other hand. That was very good. We tried some kind of a great big hornet, as big as your little finger. The larva from these hornets were quite tasty. The hunter found one of these things and he fired up his pipe and he blew the smoke down the hole. We dug it up and we cooked them up and they were pretty good.

SAR: Did you see any modern military weapons or any unusual antique machine guns or anything while you were in Thailand?

Dave: Not in private hands. Remember, I spent three years working the surplus arms deals there for Sam Cummings. One of the museums in Bangkok, it’s part of a temple, had something I’d never seen anywhere. It was a Model 76 Winchester in a full-length case, highly engraved and gold-plated, with 50 cartridges, a loading tool that’s gold-plated and all the goodies. Very fancy wood. There’s a plaque on the lid of the box that says something like, “Presented to His Royal Highness,” and then all his titles and “for assistance to the United States.” There was a big hurricane they had, or a typhoon. It washed a US Navy ship ashore and the Thais helped out. That’s about the time that Perry was over there, I think, and it was commemorated later. They presented this rifle from the President of the United States, and I’ve never seen that written up in any book at all. This museum also had a 1″ bore solid bronze, including the barrel, pinfire revolving cannon. Now that’s something to see. The hammer is a dragon’s mouth and it comes out, and the cylinder is about a foot and a half around.

SAR: Any other exotic hunts?

Dave: On that hunt where we were ambushed, about the second day out, we split up into three groups. The other Thai guy who was hunting with us came running into camp and he’s screaming, “Ngoo Yai, Ngoo Yai,” which means “big snake” in Thai. I grabbed a double-barrel 12 gauge and put in some #4 buckshot and we ran up there where this “big snake” was. We got up where there was a little savanna of maybe 100 yards, 150 yards diameter. It was full of grass that was about two and a half feet tall, about knee-high. He worked hard to make me understand that there was a snake in there, that it was a big one, and that it would come after me if we went in. I smiled and said, “Yeah, go ahead and do what you want to do.” I got ready and I was looking around everywhere I could see for the bush to move for where that snake was going to be. Cobras, incidentally, are vindictive. They will defend territory. The guide cut a piece of bamboo that was about 12 or 15 feet long. It was pretty skinny and he trimmed all the leaves off the top except at the very end of it. He left a little bunch of leaves up there. Then he got alongside and a bit to the back of me and he indicated that I should walk along with him just to his right. He was going to sweep the grass with this piece of bamboo and I was going to shoot the snake. Well, we were just going to see how well this works out. [laughter] So, at any rate, we were walking along in there and I got in there about 30 seconds into the grass when I heard what was like a bottle of gas going, “Ssssssss,” a hissing noise. That damn snake came up out of the grass about four feet high and looked me right square in the eyeball. That just scared the shit out of me. [laughter] I had no idea, I mean NO idea, how big a King Cobra could get. I pulled both triggers and turned around and ran for my life. When I got out to where I could see if that snake was going to follow me or not, I was reloading the shotgun in a hurry. I looked around for my assistant and he was over there with his big knife, chopping. He finished the snake off with that knife. I just blew some of the head off and he chopped the rest of it. That was more than a little exciting. We brought it back to camp and skinned it out, but none of us knew anything about what we were doing and we didn’t preserve it properly. Unfortunately, I lost the trophy. That was a six meter King Cobra, over 19 feet long. I think the record on Kings is 22 feet long.

SAR: That’s an incredible snake, too bad you didn’t get the trophy.

Dave: In those days, it would have made quite a stir. As far as firearms go, I did make a trade with my Thai friend and one of the gunsmiths that had never been out of Bangkok. They’re all on one street, Boorapa Road. I’d been there enough that they all knew me after six months or so. This guy said, “I want you to take a look at this combination gun I’ve got. I can’t get any ammunition for it.” I looked at it and he brought out a combination double rifle Drilling. It was 9x57mm rimmed for the rifle barrels and 24 gauge on the shotgun barrel. The interesting thing about it, I’ve never seen this since, it had selective automatic ejectors on it which is very unusual on a Drilling. On the little ejectors themselves, they have a slot cut in there and a spring-loaded tooth so that you can put the smallest cartridges in there. The spring would depress as they went down. If the cartridges went in, the bottom of the case would depress the spring and then, when it got to the end, it would snap into the extraction groove of the cartridge. It worked just great. I bought some 500-grain soft-point bullets for another gun, for my Sharps. I kept looking at the Drilling, and 245-grain soft-point bullets I could get there, and I had a friend in the states who didn’t mind taking a few chances. Later, he got a few pounds of powder and mailed it to me along with primers and I made up the ammunition. It worked just fine. Anyway, I had to have this gun so I said, “What do you want for this?” He said, “I don’t want to sell it, I want to trade it to you. I want one of those new .44 magnum carbines because I just can’t get them over here.” I ordered one through the PX, and sure enough, it came through and I did the trade. After I had it about six months, I told the colonel in charge that carbine was going to be shipped back to the states and I gave it to this guy instead and took his Drilling. I had a Dutch friend who lived where the Bridge on the River Kwai was. We went hunting down in that same area where there’s an abandoned railroad track in the jungle and they keep just enough debris off of it to where you can take a section car and make it out over to these little jungle villages. Our host down there was a Dutchman, about 85 years old, named Captain Charles Brie Dubrow. I’ll never forget it. He gave us this treat of gin while we were there, warm gin, which is bad news. The Captain was just getting married for the second time. “That’s nice,” I said, “Did you have to get married?” He said, “No, I wanted to get married.” I was joking around with him and asked if he had any kids. He reflected and said, “No, not yet, but there’s one coming.” I laughed and said “You’re quite a man.” He said, “Actually, when I was looking for a woman, I got this matchmaker to look for a woman for me and the matchmaker said, “The only thing wrong with her is that she’s just a little bit pregnant.” [laughter] The Captain says, “My friend, at 100 meters you could tell she was a little bit pregnant. But at my age I don’t care, I liked what people might think!”

SAR: It’s 1959 and you were in Bangkok.

Dave: Yeah. The Vietnam War was starting to heat up a little bit. I met Sam Cummings in Bangkok, the president of Interarmco. He made me an offer to work for him as a moonlighter. He was in the Air Wong hotel which was the best hotel in town at that time. He was on an around-the-world trip for his honeymoon. He came by our little apartment and, in addition to helping out, he said, “The general said that you know about antique guns.” I said I did, and he started asking about what I had seen in Thailand. There were a lot of cannon there and he ended up getting all the cannon. They had a couple of beautiful Gatling Guns. There’s a museum there today, the Royal Thai Army Museum in Honour of HM The King, that’s never been opened to the public, and they have a lot of these beautiful guns on display there. Anyway, Sam made me a deal to act as a representative to buy and sell for him and Interarmco. It was 10% of whatever I did, and a monthly paycheck of $600. I was still holding military ID which got me into any of the places I needed to get into. The Immigration Department was looking for me of course. My wife had gone home already when her visa ran out. They knew where she was, but for some reason, they couldn’t find me. We had two children born over there, by the way. When they finally did find me, they said, “You’re going to have to leave.” I had a lot of stuff that I didn’t really want them to look at because it was illegal in most cases. I got a hold of my friend, Boon-aek. He was the Chinese pawn shop owner. Boon-aek said, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of things.” On the day I had to leave, I had my passport, my ticket on the MATS flight, but I had to go through entire Thai Customs to get on the MATS flight. This Cadillac limousine pulls up out in front of my apartment. My friend was in there, with the Colonel who was the head of the Thai Arsenal. We got out at the airport and I gave him my suitcases and passport, as I was told. He said, “Get in the car,” and we drove out over the blacktop to the plane. They shook my hand, and I got on the plane and I asked where my passport and baggage was, and he said, “It’ll be right behind you.” And it was. He got me out of the country without any trouble.

SAR: What was the stuff that you had that wasn’t legal?

Dave: That combination Drilling was one thing because it hadn’t been properly registered, no papers been filled out on it. I didn’t have any proof of owning it, and even at that time in Thailand that was trouble. Oh, yeah, and I had a statue of Buddha about 18″ tall. It was an old one from Ayutthaya from about the year 1350.

SAR: Just happened to have a statue of the Buddha in your suitcase?

Dave: (Laughs) Yeah, guess that sounds out of context. Religious items like that were definitely not to be taken out of the country, even back then. A friend of mine, he had purchased this thing for $30,000 in cash from a dealer in upcountry Thailand, in the name of the Cincinnati Museum of Art. I was just the one that was supposed to smuggle it out of the country. I had it wrapped up in a towel in my suitcase. When I got to Pearl Harbor, the customs guy asked if I had anything to declare. I said, “Nothing except I got a rifle here that I neglected to have signed up before I went out of the country.” He said, “Well, you can fill this form out and swear that it was yours, then that’s okay.” I said, “I’ve got this other thing here in the towel.” He said, “What’s that worth?” I said, “Oh, maybe $30,000 or so.” He decided to impound that on the spot. I couldn’t have that happen since I’d promised to bring it, so I started in on how this was important, for the museum, and if there was so much as a scratch on it his ass would be in such a bind. He started getting nervous, and even though it was 3 o’clock in the morning in Cincinnati, Ohio at that time, he called up the director of the museum, got him out of bed and finally he hung up and he said, “It’s yours. Take it with you and get moving.” I had a couple of pistols, a baby Nambu, a Papa Nambu, and one of the palm firing “squeeze” pistols.

SAR: How long were you working for Sam Cummings in Thailand?

Dave: About two years. I didn’t come back to the states at all during that time. Found a lot of great stuff. There was a bunch of the little 50mm Krupp guns like Dolf Goldsmith purchased from us. They were beautiful little guns, and I still have one, it’s serial number 1. We found about 25 small cannon, one of which was very unusual. It was English and it was a breech-loader. It had two barrels, side by side. The breech block had a handle. You pulled the handle up and it rotated. Then the breech block pivoted out to the right side from one barrel, and the other pivoted out to the left side. It took a bag of powder with a ball in it and loaded from the breech end and fired with two percussion fuzes. It was very unusual. We got the cannon back to the States. Actually, Tom Nelson was in charge of that deal after I left. I’d been in business in California about a year and a half by that time. He called me up one day and he says, “You got any money?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “You want to buy some cannon? The Thai stuff’s coming in.” I said, “Hell, yes I do!” I never did know who actually finalized those deals, whether Tom did it or somebody else did it. I never asked him, but I bought some cannon. There were Gatling guns and a couple of Nepalese Bira guns. Those look like big, ugly, pan-fed Gardeners. We were not interested in those, so we didn’t buy them but we bought all the rest of the cannon including the little bronze rifle breech-loading pieces. Really, these little guns were about the size of a two-pound Hotchkiss gun. We had some two-pound Hotchkiss guns, no wheels. We had to have wheels made. There ended up being about 35 of the little Krupp guns. There were quite a few thousand 8x50R caliber rifles that were made on a contract by the Imperial Arsenal in Koishakawa, Tokyo. It was a 98 Mauser bolt-action style, and an excellent rifle, sometimes called the “Siamese Mausers” or the “Type 45.”

SAR: You did the Armalite AR-10 project to the Thai government for Sam.

Dave: I got a letter from Sam which said, “We have information that leads us to believe that the Thais are going to have a weapons testing with the FAL. We would like to compete with the AR-10. Would you like to get into this?” As usual I said, “Hell, Yeah!” Sam said he’d make me a good deal if I could pull this off. The test was on a Saturday afternoon. I think it was 1959 or ’60. Interarmco sold me an AR-10. There was no trouble to get it. They just simply mailed it to me through the U.S. mail, and it came in by military mail at the G.I. Post Office in Bangkok. I had the gun, two magazines and a bayonet. It was an Artillerie Inrichtingen, an AI Dutch gun. A nice rifle, it had a wooden forend instead of plastic, and the bayonet had a combination tool like a Swiss Army knife built into the handle. That is what people call the “Sudanese AR-10” today. I went out to this test with this AR-10 that I didn’t know much about. I wrote in to the Thai government and I got permission to bring the gun, and they were very lackadaisical about the fact that I had a machine gun. I guess they figured, if he’s got it, it must be legal. They fired the FAL, which is a nice rifle as well. While the FAL shoots well, that AR-10 is a helluva lot more controllable with off-hand fire in particular. I had a Lyman bullet puller, and a hand-seating tool in .308. I pulled five rounds of the ammunition in .308 and dumped the powder out on the counter. I took a knife and just slipped half of the powder off on the floor. I did the same thing with about 20 rounds for the FAL. The FAL malfunctioned three times and my AR-10 didn’t malfunction at all. I did that right in front of the Thais, showed them that even if there was an inconsistency in the powder, the AR-10 would still function. Their response was positive. I was working with the Minister of Defense. The first thing he did was to put his hand on my shoulder and say, “I hope we can do business.” And I was thinking “My money’s made.” He then asked “How much money do I get out of this deal?” I negotiated with him, and he was supposed to get about 11/2 or 2% commission. There was another guy in the Ministry of Defense and he was supposed to get $25,000 US. Right as we were finalizing, I got this letter from Sam that said, “Discontinue AR-10 deal. Lost the manufacturing rights with the Dutch.” That was the end of that. There were about 10,000 AR-10s in the deal, at about $160 USD each. By the time it was all added up, it was about $7 million including the cost of the guns, ammunition, armorer kits, spare magazines and bayonets. I never did find out what the whole deal was; I figured it wasn’t my place to ask. Gene Stoner never came over while I was there on the AR-10 project.

SAR: Any other experience with assault weapons or machine guns in Thailand?

Dave: No, but I did learn how to charge the cylinder on a Pack 75 Howitzer. The Thais had a couple of those. They loved the older guns and they had a pile of ammunition for them, too but they never fired the Pack. I was watching this Thai working on this gun and I asked what he was doing. He spoke pretty good English and he said, “We’re trying to get the gas recuperative system charged up from the nitrogen bottle, but we don’t really understand what the terminology is.” I took the manual home and read it that night. The next morning I said, “Let’s put this thing together.” I said, “But we have to test fire it after we get through to make sure it works.” He said, “Well, of course.” So we fired about five rounds down the road and it worked just fine. The Pack 75mm is a neat little gun. They had a very interesting gun in the Thai Arsenal in Bangkok. It was an open-tracked vehicle very similar to a Scorpion, with an anti-tank gun, basically a tracked armored vehicle with a freestanding gun. It looked to me like a new German 88 mounted on there but it could have been something else. Sitting next to it, the most interesting cannon I’ve ever seen, was a pair of Bofors artillery pieces. They were over and under barrels. These were fed by hand. The Thais had a lot of neat cannon.

SAR: When you came back to the US, you got you involved in the regular firearms business?

Dave: I always wanted to be in the gun business, and that all started well before Thailand. I was in Mare Island Shipyard, and the ship was in for repairs. My wife-to-be was there, in nursing school. I’d known her before in college at the University of Virginia. I found out where she was and we dated and ended up getting married after two or three months. I was down at Mare Island one time, I’d been there about a week, I guess. I was taking the bus and I looked out the window and here’s this sign, the Old West Gun Room, a gun store. I pulled the chain on the bus and got off. I looked at the store, and made friends with the people in there. After a short time, I said, “George, if you ever want to sell this business and I’m in a position to buy it, I’d like to know.” That was the Old West Gun Room, in El Cerrito, California, which had started in 1952. George Repaire, the owner, was a Colt collector extraordinaire. He had bought the Sultan of Turkey’s Dragoon. It was the most elaborate, privately owned, engraved Colt in existence. The only other one was in the Hermitage in Russia. Actually, they were both supposed to go to the Czar as a pair but Colt needed to make points with the Turks so he gave the Sultan of Turkey one of the two guns they’d made for the Czar. Colt encased them both in very fancy cases, the whole ball of wax. Some years later he donated that Dragoon to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He had turned down a $5 million price on the gun. It was 1955 when I first went into the Old West Gun Room, and I was hooked.

SAR: Did he have machine guns?

Dave: He had an old Colt Potato Digger with the leather case, and a Maxim MG08 on a sled mount. George had some old submachine guns, but everything was a Dewat. Those “Deactivated War Trophies” didn’t have to be registered at that time, that didn’t start until 1968 of course. I met George Repaire before I went to Thailand. When I was coming back, he wrote me a letter and he said, “My health is bad. I’ve got to move to Arizona. If you want the business, I’ll sell it to you for $10,000 down and the balance as sold. The $10,000 was for the goodwill and then he consigned a lot of guns to me to help me out. The Old West Gun Room had started in 1952, I got it in 1961, and as we’re talking today it’s still in business, being owned by my former manager Bob. Aside from the fact that we were living on cash flow, things were pretty good. Everybody thinks that it’s all big money in the gun business, but lots of times it’s hand-to-mouth for anybody with a gun shop. It was tough. The only thing that saved us was the building that the gun store was in; it was an old grocery store from about 1910. It was about 50 feet wide and about 25 feet deep, with a 12 foot tin ceiling. The three bedroom apartment attached to and behind the building was where we lived. If it hadn’t been for that I’d never been home because I stayed open until 8:00 o’clock at night. If I went to work I just opened the door in the wall and walked through and there I was in the gun shop. I sold that gun shop in 1984.

SAR: Did you start getting involved in the unusual firearms right away?

Dave: Of course! I went back east and my father-in-law gave us a ’52 Buick four-holed wagon. It had the four holes in the side of the fender. I put a rental trailer on it and went down to Interarmco and I bought a 25mm Hotchkiss, a 25mm Puteaux anti-tank gun and two cans of ammunition for each gun. There were eight rounds in the can. I put them in that trailer and then we put in mattresses and the furniture that her parents had given us and anything else we could get in. I took off and it took me a week to drive across the United States. Drove across on 80. I can’t remember the name of the damn mountain over here, the one right by Lake Tahoe. Coming down on the California side, the brakes started to go out on that old Buick. I told my nephew, “If I say ‘jump’, you open up the door and jump out into the ditch and I’ll put this thing up against the rocky wall and scrape it to a stop.” I did manage to get the rig stopped, but then it wouldn’t start up again. It was overheated. We finally managed to make it but we were worn right out. Then I didn’t have enough money to bring Elsie out so it was another month and a half before she could join me.

SAR: Did you shoot those 25mms right away?

Dave: No, I was having fun but doing business. There were two brothers that came in to the Gun Room. One was about 18; the other was about 21. They decided they had to have one of these 25mm cannon. Those guns were selling at Interarmco for $50 a piece. They were retailing them for $139 or something to that effect. I put $199 on them. These brothers decided that they had to have it so I sold them the gun for $199 and I sold them a can of ammunition for $2 a round, and I showed them how to work it. About a week later, I get a call from the Richmond Police Department. “Did you sell Joe and Bob Smith a cannon?” I answered that I had. “Well, where is it?” I said, “Hell, I don’t know. They probably got it. Go ask them.” They said, “We can’t find them.” I said, “Well, I’ll give you their address, at least the one that they gave me when they bought the gun.” So, I looked it up on the 4473 and the police headed out to find them. Turns out what these two had done is they’d gone down on Point Richmond where there used to be an old pistol range on top of a hill right by the old Kaiser Shipyards. That’s where the guards used to practice. They drive up there one Sunday on the top of this hill. You can’t see them from the bottom. There’s an island out there off the Richmond Bay Bridge, the bridge up in Marin County that crosses the bay. This island is called Red Rock because there’s a red rock sticking about 150 feet straight up, just a big knob right there in the middle of the bay. It’s about 1/4 mile from the bridge. These turkeys were firing at this little island out there. [laughter] The cops come up there and they said, “What are you doing?” They said, “Oh, we’re having a little target practice, officer.” “You can’t shoot a cannon here.” One of the brothers says, “Well, why not?” The cop told him “You just can’t.” “Is there any law against it?” And the cop scratches his head, he says, “I don’t think so but I’m just saying you can’t do it. It’s not safe.” That was a pretty crazy thing for them to be doing but at the time, Destructive Devices didn’t exist. It was just a firearm like any other, and they were just out target shooting.

SAR: Did you start getting any machine guns in or start doing any work with the movie industry?

Dave: Oh yeah, a lot. We moved into another location about 100 yards up the street. It was an old nursery, with a nice concrete building. By that time, Elsie and I had saved enough money where we could buy a home out in Pinole. We moved the business up there and started looking around. Just before we moved into the new place, I met Bert Jacques. He came into the store one day. He had this International Travel-All, with a special trailer made up for it that had hydraulic brakes that connected to the hydraulic brakes with slave pistons on his car. He could adjust the trailer so if he had a lot of weight in the trailer he could put more braking power on this. It worked pretty well, actually. He would go back to Interarmco and would buy a million rounds of beautiful 9mm ammo. I can’t remember who made it but it was gorgeous stuff. Interarmco had purchased several million rounds of the brass and they had it loaded. It was 2 cents a round in bulk. Bert would get his trailer loaded with this ammo. He’d start on the East Coast and he would sell ammunition as he proceeded to the West Coast and he’d just buy and sell as he went. By the time he got to the West Coast, he’d turn around and drive back and do it again. He came in the Gun Room and said, “You ain’t doing anything in machine guns?” I said, “Nope, never really thought about it.” I got to know him pretty well after a while. I had another friend whose name was Tom Phair and another friend by the name of Hal Ross. All these guys, we were all looking to go in together and get something but none of us had any money. We decided we would get together and we would call ourselves the OSS, Order and Supply Service. That we did and the first thing we got into was when Bert went up to somewhere in Sacramento. We had six Winchester BARs, World War I, high-polished finish – they were original Model of 1918 BARs. Semi- or fully automatic, just beautiful guns. We paid about $200 a piece for them. Bert said, “I think I can get about $450.” We said, “Boy, now that’s a good deal.” We were turning the money around for a fast profit. We kept on doing it. One day we got a phone call from a guy in Canada that Bert knew. He said, “We’ve got a Maxim machine gun up here that you might want to buy. It’s one of the guns that the U.S. Army used in the trials. It’s a .45-70.” I didn’t know anything about this because I’m not a machine gun addict. Bert on the other hand, said that we better go take a look at it. We bought a ticket and shipped him off to Montreal. The guy wanted about $2,500 for it. He had the tripod and some belts and miscellaneous odds and ends. It was in really nice shape but we didn’t buy it because we decided that it was too much money. A week or ten days later, I was having dinner with Bert down at a local restaurant. I looked at Bert and I said, “Bert, you know what I was thinking?” He said, “Yeah, I bet I was thinking the same thing you were thinking. We should have bought that goddamn gun.” I said, “Yeah, you’re right.” I said, “Do you know if it’s right or has it been put together?” He says, “I don’t know.” I said, “I don’t know either but one way or another, we ought to find out about it.” The next day, Bert called the guy up and he had sold it. As I recall, they made two of those.

SAR: Wish I knew where that was now.

Dave: We had a pile of machine guns go through the shop, but that was definitely “The one that got away.” We sold those BARs, and I got in a Potato Digger and they de-milled it by welding the barrel at the muzzle. We sawed a 1/2 inch off the muzzle, loaded it up and it worked like a charm. [laughs] We shot the heck out of it, then we welded it back up again and ended up selling it to a collector. That was when Dewats didn’t have to be registered, but people would activate them and de-act them pretty much at will.

SAR: When did you run into Dolf Goldsmith?

Dave: Now, that’s a whole story on its own…

Join us in Part II of the Dave Cumberland Interview in the next issue of SAR. Dave talks about the deals with Dolf, the Thorensen Affair, doing business in the Sixties, the movie gun deals, “The Old Western Scrounger,” Gardner guns, the Rock Crusher press and much more!

Chinese troops wearing gas masks aim their Type 68 rifles during a training exercise.

During the 1920s China was embroiled in a civil war between the Chinese Communists led by Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) who was led by Chiang Kai-shek. The fighting briefly subsided after 1937 with the Japanese invasion of China. During World War II, the United States became allied with the Chinese Nationalists and provided massive military and financial aid to help China fight the Japanese. The wartime plan of the U.S. was to assist China in becoming a strong ally and a stabilizing force in Asia after the war. When World War II ended, the Chinese civil war intensified, eventually resulting in a Communist victory in 1949. The Nationalist government left the mainland and settled on the island of Taiwan. Communist leader Mao Tse-tung renamed China the Peoples Republic of China.

During the Korean War the Peoples Republic of China supported the Communist north and in October of 1950 sent troops in to assist the North Koreans in fighting the South Korean, NATO and U.S. troops. Ironically, many of the U.S. made weapons that were sent to China as military aid during World War II were fielded by the Chinese against U.S. soldiers and marines in Korea.

Soviet Post War Military Aid

The Soviet Union began a post World War II program to the assist the new Peoples Republic of China. The program primarily consisted of military aid that included many small arms, which the Chinese soon copied and started to manufacture themselves, with technical and financial support from the Russians. Most of the small arms were exact copies of the Russian weapons including the PPSh 41 submachine gun produced in China as the Type 50, the PPS43 as the Type 43, the SKS as the Type 56 carbine and the AK-47 as the Type 56 rifle. However, during the late 1950s the Russians and Chinese began to have differing national interests and political ideologies, resulting in a Sino-Soviet split by the mid 1960s. While many previous Chinese weapons were near exact copies of Russian models, evidence of design variations were observed after the Sino-Soviet split when the Chinese began to produce their own version of the Soviet stamped receiver AKM model. The Chinese version (still designated as the Type 56) differed from the Soviet AKM, and most eastern European copies, by having an 800-meter rear sight, smooth top cover, flat sided lower handguards, relief holes in the gas tube, flat muzzle nut, lack of a hammer delay system and a thicker sheet metal receiver. The stamped receiver Type 56 was followed by other era weapon designs that were uniquely Chinese, including the Type 67 machine gun, the Type 64 submachine gun, and the Type 68 rifle.

The Type 68 Rifle

While most Chinese infantry small arms of the twentieth century were copies of Soviet models, the Type 68 (sometimes referred to as the Type 63) rifle is an indigenous Chinese design. The weapon is somewhat of an anomaly; having a few “modern” features such as a select-fire capability and firing a midrange 7.62x39mm cartridge, but has the appearance, weight and length of an older World War II design.

At first glance the Type 68 looks very much like an SKS rifle, the primary difference between the two designs is that the SKS uses a titling-bolt locking system, while the Type 68 features a rotating-bolt system similar to that of the AK-47 rifle. The SKS is a semiautomatic-only weapon while the Type 68 has a semiautomatic and full-automatic capability.

The gas system used on the Type 68 is an impingement design that is similar to that used in the SKS. While the SKS gas piston impinges on a spring-loaded gas piston extension, the Type 68’s piston rod impinges directly on the rifle’s bolt carrier. The piston rod extends through a spring that returns the piston to a forward position after engaging the bolt carrier. The gas piston is enclosed inside a circular sheet metal heat shield to protect the upper handguard from excessive heat during sustained firing. The Type 68 gas piston is not attached to the bolt carrier as on the AK-47, but is a separate component. The Type 68 has an adjustable two-position gas regulator located on the front end of the gas tube to keep the weapon functioning when extremely fouled. The gas regulator is adjusted by pressing the retainer and rotating it downward, which will allow it to be pulled free, and the regulator knob rotated to the desired position. The soldier can see the position of the gas regulator spindle, which is indicated by a small and large hole on the back of the knob, at a glance. The smaller of the two gas ports is the normal position. Like the Chinese Type 56 carbine (SKS) and some Type 56 rifles (AK-47), the Type 68 has a permanently attached spike-type bayonet. When not in use, the bayonet can be folded and stored under the barrel. To extend the bayonet the soldier pulls the grip rearward and rotates the blade forward locking it onto the L shaped lug under the front sight tower. To retract the blade, the grip is pulled to unlock the bayonet and then rotate it under the barrel until it locks into position. There is a barrel mounted front attachment point for a sling and a sling swivel on the buttstock: both are on the left side of the weapon.

The bolt carrier is a steel forging machined for containing the recoil spring, rotating and housing the breech bolt and tripping the automatic sear. There are also grooves on the sides that ride on rails inside the receiver. The cocking handle of the Type 68 is on the right side of the receiver and is an integral part of the bolt carrier; the handle itself extends straight out and is similar in appearance to that of the SKS rifle. A sheet metal cover is fitted over the top of the receiver.

The trigger groups of the SKS and Type 68 are similar modular designs, and are a variation of the basic design used on the U.S. M1 Garand rifle. The Type 68 has a three-position selector lever located on the right side of the trigger guard. The safe position is marked with a 0, the semiautomatic position with a number 1 and the full-automatic position is marked with a number 2. The stock is inletted in this area to aid in the manipulation of the selector lever. The Type 68 trigger group has three sears: an automatic sear is located forward of the hammer and is actuated by the bolt carrier, a trigger sear is located to the rear of the hammer on the right side and operates with each pull of the trigger, and a semiautomatic sear is located on the left side of the hammer and functions only when the selector is in the number 1 position.

When the selector is rotated to the 0 or safe position, the selector blocks the movement of the trigger sear, preventing the release of the hammer.

With the selector on the number 1 or semiautomatic position, the selector moves the semiautomatic sear into position, which is then controlled by the trigger. When the trigger is pulled, the trigger sear releases the hammer. Upon firing, the rearward moving bolt carrier re-cocks the hammer and it is held rearward by the semiautomatic sear until the shooter’s finger pressure on the trigger is released, at which time the semiautomatic sear releases the hammer, but the hammer is retained rearward by the trigger sear until the trigger is pulled again.

With the selector on the number 2 or full-automatic position, the semiautomatic sear is disengaged. When the bolt is initially released, the automatic sear is tripped but the hammer is retained by the trigger sear. When the trigger is pulled the hammer is released firing the round in the chamber. As the bolt carrier is pushed rearward by the gas piston, the hammer is cocked and held rearward by the automatic sear until the bolt carrier is in a forward position, at which time the bolt carrier trips the automatic sear and the hammer is released. This action will continue until the trigger is released or the magazine is emptied. If the trigger is released it will be held back by the trigger sear. The full-automatic cyclic rate is 750 rounds per minute. The automatic sear also serves a secondary function as a “safety” sear preventing the hammer from falling unless the bolt is locked in the battery position.

The Type 68 rifle uses a detachable steel box-type 15-round magazine similar in design to the standard AK-47 magazines. The magazine can be loaded while in the weapon through grooves in the bolt carrier with ammunition on SKS stripper clips, or removed and loaded by hand. The bolt hold-open feature of the weapon prevents the use of a standard AK magazine. If the bolt-hold feature is removed the weapon can then use any 30 or 40-round AK magazine to increase the weapon’s firepower. The magazine catch is placed forward of the trigger guard and is attached to the trigger housing.

The AK type elevation adjustable rear sight is a sliding bar, tangent type calibrated out to a range of 1,000-meters; the 300-meter battle sight position is indicated by a Roman numeral III. The front sight is also an AK post type adjustable for elevation and windage.

There are two variants of the Type 68. Early models had a forged steel receiver while later production used a stamped steel receiver. The stamped receiver is easily identified by the presence of rivets on the sides and is the model photographed for this article. Both models featured a wooden buttstock and were normally fitted with an upper handguard made of plastic. The buttstock has a stamped steel buttplate and is designed to house an AK capsule type cleaning kit, which contains a combination tool, gas port cleaning tool, jag, patch holder and bore brush. A cleaning rod is stored under the weapon’s barrel.

There have been reports of a simplified Type 68 rifle designated as the Type 68/73, but the existence of production models of the weapon could not be confirmed.

Specifications: Chinese Type 68 Rifle

Caliber: 7.62x39mm
Operation: Closed bolt, gas operated
Overall length: 40.5-inches
Barrel length: 20.5-inches, 4-groove right-hand twist
Loaded weight: 8.23 pounds
Magazine: Detachable box, 15 rounds, double-stack double-feed
(Some sources mistakenly state that the magazine holds 20 rounds.)

(A special thank you to Al Houde and Beth Crumbly of the U.S. Marine Corps National Museum, Triangle, Virginia.)