Few men alive today have ever had the opportunity to fire a Nordenfelt manually operated machine gun. During a recent Small Arms Review Expeditionary Force to the Pattern Room at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England, a delightful, unassuming quiet gentleman by the name of Neville West was assigned to assist us in our research. During our days of photographing early historic machine guns, he mentioned in passing that, as a young man in the army, he had the opportunity to restore to firing condition and actually fire a Nordenfelt machine gun. This is his story, being the reminiscences of 24006056 Sergeant Neville West, Intelligence Corps, seconded to the Sultan’s Armed Forces in 1972.

History

The Sultanate of Oman has a long and interesting history. Until the early 1970s the country went by the name of Muscat and Oman echoing the historical difference between the coastal people of the area surrounding Muscat and Mutrah on the one hand and the people of the mountainous interior, Oman, on the other. Knowledge of this difference, this division, and its consequences is important for an understanding of the history of the country and the part played in it by Nordenfelt machine gun No. 6024

From the end of the 10th century to the early 17th century, Oman’s contact with other countries was limited. The first Europeans to appear off Muscat in the first decade of the 16th century were the Portuguese who in 1507 attacked and looted the town. Soon after them came the English, the Dutch and the French, all with their sights on India or further shores. There was an unsuccessful invasion by the Persians in the early years of the 18th century and another unsuccessful one very early in the 19th century by the Wahabis from what is now Saudi Arabia.

In the first quarter of the 17th century there were at least five petty rulers in Oman reigning at Rostaq, Nakhl, Sumail, Samad and Ibra, together with tribal leaders elsewhere. The history of that period is a story of internecine tribal squabblings leading to civil war and its erosive consequences particularly with regard to water resources and agriculture. In the late 18th century the concept of ‘Muscat and Oman’ came into being when one of the more effective rulers in the interior moved his capital from Rostaq to the coastal town of Muscat, which was flourishing as a trading center. The move, the name and the fact that over the years the port of Muscat changed hands many times – at one time the Turks, at another the Persians, then the Portuguese and finally the Omanis themselves – all accentuated the position of the coastal community at the expense of the interior mountain community and created discord that lasted well into the 20th century.

In the early 18th century certain ill-disciplined captains of the Omani navy attacked trading ships of the Honourable East India Company sailing between India and England and that in turn involved contact with the English government. The piracy was to have far reaching effects on Oman’s history and resulted in a series of treaties between Oman and the Honourable East India Company. One important treaty was that of 1798, the aim of which was not so much the suppression of piracy – always a problem – as an attempt to keep the French from India. Britain was at war with France and it was feared that the latter might use Muscat as a naval base from which they could launch attacks on British and Indian shipping; or even as a staging post for an invasion of India. As a result of these fears a treaty of friendship with Britain was concluded with the reigning sultan – a treaty which has endured to this day.

Throughout the 19th century there were various other treaties with the British. Two significant ones which hit Oman entrepreneurs hard were those connected with the abolition of the slave trade and the sale of arms. At the same time larger, faster European shipping and the opening of the Suez Canal reduced the income of Oman drastically and as the country sank further and further into recession so unrest and unease increased. The Sultan’s finances were in an unhealthy state and his requests for assistance were not immediately heeded by the Government of India – until the French once again started to show an interest in the area.

By 1871 unrest in the interior was considerable. There was a renewed struggle for power upon which was superimposed a deterioration in the relations between the tribes of the interior where, based in Nizwa, the Iman, the spiritual leader of Oman, was exercising power and the writ of the government in Muscat did not extend.

In 1895 tribal resentment flared into active rebellion. A surprise attack on Muscat by tribesmen succeeded and the town was captured and looted. That the Sultan survived was due almost entirely to the support of the British Government; the rebels were paid off and Muscat retaken. Sir Arnold Wilson noted that in 1896, “…the Government of India presented Faisal, the Sultan of Muscat, with two mortars and ammunition as an addition to his means of defence.” In the early years of the 20th century the Omani tribes once again rose in rebellion under the so-called “Iman” and Mutrah, Muscat and other ports were threatened. J.E. Peterson writes that in order to prevent a victory by the Imanate forces and to maintain Britain’s influence in the area, Indian Army troops, with British and Indian officers, were stationed in, or near to Muscat in July 1913. In a private communication to the author, a former officer in the Sultan’s army wrote, “Unfortunately historical details of the British and Indian Army presence in Oman around the late 19th/early 20th century are sparse. British involvement in Oman’s military history is minimized in most modern accounts and even the painting of the Battle of Bait al Falaj in 1915 has been doctored, turning the British officers into Omanis and changing the hats of the sepoys into Muscat Regimental balmorals, even though the Muscat Regiment did not exist then.”

The costal area of Oman, writes W.D. Peyton, was raided for the last time in 1915 when a rebel force said to have numbered some 3,000 was defeated by 700 Indian troops at Ruwi, two or three miles south of the small fort called Bait al Falaj. In 1972, when the Nordenfelt machine gun No. 6024 was restored, Bait al Falaj was the Headquarters of the Sultan’s Armed Forces. It was in front of the main gate of the Headquarters that the gun was found. F.A. Clements describes these Indian troops as a battalion of Baluch infantry with British officers sent by the East Indian Government to support the Sultan. J.T. Gorman gives more information and refers specifically to the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Bombay Grenadiers. At the time however, this unit was designated the 2nd Battalion, the 102nd King Edward’s Own Grenadiers. Whether this unit consisted of Baluchi troops or whether it was Russell’s Infantry has not yet been ascertained. The 2nd/102nd were redesignated the 2nd/4th Bombay Grenadiers in the Indian Army reforms of 1922.

Gorman writes, “…the Viceroy when he inspected the regiment and Russell’s Infantry at Sarseit (a coastal village some 3 miles north of Bait al Falaj) on his visit to the Persian Gulf spoke of the success of the operations against the rebels in Oman and thanked Colonel Edwards and the regiment in the name of the Government and the people of India. The Grenadiers returned to Poona in India in April 1915. Medals and decorations were presented and speeches were made that referred to their recent fights both in the field and against the assaults of sickness at Muscat which had added fresh glory to their past record.”

It is recorded that Indian troops left Oman in 1921 when the country had settled down. The troops can not have been the Grenadiers for in November 1915, the 2nd/4th, up to full strength of 519 officers and men, embarked for Mesopotamia. It is very probable that the ‘assaults of sickness at Muscat’ must have attacked both Indian battalions mentioned earlier leaving both of them under strength so that the 700 Indian troops mentioned by Peyton probably refers to them both. It is likely that it was Russell’s Infantry that stayed on until 1921.

The subject of weaponry used by soldiers of the Indian Army at this time is complex. Because of the mistrust of Indian troops engendered by the Mutiny in 1858, most Indian Army units had been issued with obsolete, single shot smooth bore weapons; but by 1890 all units of the Indian Army had been re-equipped with rifled weapons and, generally speaking, the equipment of the Indian Army units was on a par with their British counterparts. Certainly by 1900, Nordenfelts were considered to be obsolete in the British army and numerous photographs taken at this time show Indian Army units equipped with Maxim machine guns.

It is very probable that it was in the last decades of the 19th century or the early years of the 20th century that the Nordenfelt gun and ammunition, although not fully compatible, arrived in Oman as aid from the Indian Government. To the rear of this gun’s magazine, on the body cover, and to the left of the gun’s number are engraved the letters “E I G,” the standard abbreviation for East India Government.

It would be interesting to know whether any units of the Indian Army were still using Nordenfelts in 1915 and, if they were, did either Russell’s Infantry or the Grenadiers leave one behind on their return to India? In a letter from Dr. Peter Boyden of the National Army Museum, London, he writes that, “The Indian Army units often continued to use older types of weaponry after they had been replaced by the British Army and it is likely that the Indian troops arriving in Oman in 1913 were armed with 24 year-old machine guns. The handbooks for Nordenfelts were still being reprinted in 1899.” This gets nearer to answering the questions, “Who brought it to Oman and when?” The answer to the question as to why it was sent to Oman is almost certainly that it was an aid to securing the stability and security of that country in the early 20th century.

The Nordenfelt

Each day for months we had passed this gun on the way to our work-place in the old fort of Bait al Falaj. In 1971, this fort was the headquarters of the Sultan’s Armed Forces and it was to this unit and location that Dick Valentine of the Royal Engineers, and myself from the Intelligence Corps, had been seconded. The old fort has since been extensively renovated; its surround landscaped and is now the Sultan’s Armed Forces Museum.

This early machine gun fascinated us and, after a close inspection together with the aid of the text and diagram from Dudley Pope’s Guns, we realized that the Nordenfelt was still in working order. At this time we had no plans to do anything with it.

The gun is one of a series of manually operated weapons produced in the latter part of the 19th century. The earliest Nordenfelt machine gun was designed in 1872 by Heldge Palmcrantz, a Swedish engineer but the series was both manufactured and marketed by Thorsten Nordenfelt, a Swedish financier, 1842-1920. The guns came in various calibers from rifle caliber to one inch and with one to twelve barrels, which were fixed horizontally in a rectangular frame.

On the multi-barrel models, a tall rectangular magazine or hopper, holding up to two hundred and fifty rounds, is positioned on the top of the gun over the carrier block; the cartridges being gravity fed into a slot behind the chamber. The whole mechanism is operated by a lever on the right hand side. Pushing the lever forward chambers the rounds and at the end of the lever’s travel the firing pins are released and the cartridges fired. Pulling back this lever cocks the firing mechanism and at the same time ejects the empty case. Chapter 14 of Col. George Chinn’s book The Machine Gun contains detailed information of the mechanism.

In his book, William Read shows a Battery Sergeant Major of the Royal Artillery in 1884 firing a three barreled .45 caliber Nordenfelt. The gun that is the subject of this article has five barrels in parallel, each being .45 caliber and chambered for the Martini-Henry rifle solid brass case. A brass plate on the body cover bears the date 1880 but whether this refers to the date of manufacture or the date it was taken into service is not known; it may relate to the Government specifications of that date for Nordenfelts in British service.

The gun could be fired mounted on its two wheeled carriage. As an alternative, it could be dismounted from the wheeled carriage and fired from a tripod formed by its trail and the two front supports. Nordenfelts of this type, weighing 150 pound upwards, needed special mounting or a mule train and a large gun team.

The Indian soldiers of the gun team which brought it to Oman would have had four mules to help them. The first mule would have carried the gun itself, together with some ammunition hoppers and ammunition. The second mule carried the trail, together with more hoppers and ammunition. The third mule carried the wheels and axle, a pick, a shovel and forage whilst the fourth mule carried yet more ammunition and hoppers. In all the team carried 1,600 rounds and there were other ammunition mules, each carrying 1,200 round, in attendance.

The Discovery of Ammunition

The event which started the ball rolling was the discovery of a wooden box full of .45 caliber Martini-Henry ammunition in an abandoned and rat infested storeroom in Fort Mirani, an old Portuguese-built fort, overlooking Muscat harbor.

The Mark III ammunition was neatly wrapped and tied in packets of ten rounds and was clearly labeled as being of the rolled brass case type produced at the Kirkee Arsenal in India in 1896. Interestingly this is the same year in which Sir Arthur Wilson notes that the Indian government gave military aid to the Sultanate.

We had some spare time in the early afternoon on most days when it was too hot for any but essential work and we reasoned that since we had an unusual gun with suitable ammunition we ought to do something positive with them both.

Our ammunition trials with the Martini-Henry rifle satisfied us that all was well in that there were no adverse effects to the firearm or ourselves. We were aware that the brass plate on the body of the Nordenfelt specified that it was chambered for the solid brass case whereas our cartridges were of rolled brass. We did wonder what the implications might be and we were soon to find out.

It was not our intention to conserve this gun – it was to be our plaything. After permission had been granted for us to proceed with this restoration project the gun was moved to our workshop – the veranda of the British Sergeants’ Mess.

Restoration Commences

Our first task was to clean off the layers of sand and black paint, to strip the gun down, to clean the barrels and working parts, to oil them up, to reassemble the bits and pieces, repaint the carriage and fire the gun until the ammunition ran out. As far as we could ascertain the gun had originally been painted grey and we were fortunate in being able to cadge some suitable paint from a passing Royal Navy warship. That achieved, we settled down to work; a labor of love during a very hot Omani summer.

Cleaning away rears of accumulated dirt was a sweaty, tedious but not particularly difficult job. We suffered from sweat rash and blisters on our hands and forearms but that did not bother us unduly. As far as I can remember, stripping the working parts, cleaning, oiling up and reassembling them presented no great problems – getting the steel rim back on one of the carriage wheels did.

Firing the Nordenfelt

Although this machine gun was capable of firing 120 rounds per minute, we were never able to fire more than five at any one time without having to clear one or more of the breeches of an empty case. We soon understood why we should have been using solid brass case ammunition – the extractors often pulled away the base of the rolled brass case leaving an expended case stuck in the breech. It also emphasized the fact that the ammunition and the machine gun probably did not arrive in Muscat and Oman at the same time because they were not suited for each other. Possibly the ammunition accompanied a consignment of Marini-Henry rifles. Whenever a primer failed to detonate (and that was not often despite the age of the ammunition) and when the base came away as well, we were left with a potentially dangerous situation of having a live round in the breech.

Our Immediate Action for such stoppages and blockages was to push out the empty case or live round from the muzzle end of the barrel with a cleaning rod taken from one of the many mid to late 19th century small arms that we had discovered in the ‘tribal arms store’ at Bait al Falaj

In the early 70s, just after the present ruler had overthrown and replaced his father, there were many thousands of rounds of commercially made solid brass case Martini-Henry ammunition in Oman and this ammunition, together with an ornately decorated Martini-Henry rifle locally known as a “sama’a,” was still carried by the older men as a status symbol and as a right. Indeed, one of the many causes of unrest at the beginning of the 20th century was the attempt by the British government and the Sultan of the time to control the arms trade in the region. By many, this was seen as an attempt to interfere with the right to bear arms and was not a popular move. We did find solid case ammunition but, unfortunately, all the solid case ammunition we found and tried was useless leaving us with just the rolled case ammunition to use.

Our small supply of rolled case ammunition was expended all too rapidly and we never got to know the gun as well as we would have liked. It tried to tell us some of its secrets and until recently I did not realize the significance of the slight movement of the barrels between volleys. It seems that the designer put a most unusual device on models with five barrels or more – it was the Nordenfelt automatic scattering gear. Chinn says of this, “…the shots composing a volley were separated from each other by a space of three feet between each bullet. Thus volley fire of ten shots would cover respectively five to ten men in formation. The spread of bullets can be given for any distance up to five hundred yards by adjusting a thumbscrew placed on the left rear of the gun. Beyond that range it was thought that the natural dispersion of the gun would ensure sufficient spread. When firing volleys at bodies of troops, the lateral direction of the gun could be slightly altered after each discharge so that no two volleys would fall in the same target area.”

The restoration and the use of Nordenfelt No. 6024 provided us with many happy hours and experiences unavailable to the majority. In one sense, it is a shame that we did not have the correct ammunition for the gun that would have enabled us to have a more consistent firing experience. Yet, we made do with what we had and it still provided an understanding and familiarity with a historic antique weapon that represents an interesting period of history. When I left Oman in May 1972, the gun was standing guard at the right hand end of the veranda of the British Sergeants’ Mess. The gun is now an exhibit in the Sultan’s Armed Forces Museum at Bait al Falaj.

After the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese leader Sun Yat Sen confirmed the Republic of China on 10 October 1911 and China then embarked on 40-plus years of internal struggle and war. During the 1920s China was embroiled in a civil war between the Chinese Communist forces led by Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) led by Chiang Kai-shek, who took control of the Kuomintang Party and the army during 1926. With China embroiled in a bitter civil war, Japan saw the opportunity to advance on Manchuria in northeast China during 1931. Manchuria was easily taken and occupied by the Japanese until the end of World War II. The Japanese attacked again on 7 July 1937, troops poured into China, attempting to occupy the five Western provinces. Chiang Kai Shek was caught between fighting the Communist Chinese and the Japanese; he focused on defeating his Chinese rivals.

During World War II, the United States became allied with the Chinese Nationalists and provided massive military aid through the United States’ Lend Lease Program to assist China in defeating the Japanese. The Chinese were supplied with large amounts of U.S. small arms. 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 Formosa (Taiwan) located off of the southeast coast of the mainland. Communist leader Mao Tse-tung renamed mainland China the Peoples Republic of China.

The Chinese Type 36 Submachine Gun

After the end of World War II and the U.S. Lend Lease Programs, the Chinese began to copy and manufacture weapons of both Soviet and U.S. designs. One of the U.S. weapons they copied was the U.S. M3A1 submachine gun, commonly known by its nickname “Grease Gun.” The M3 and the product-improved M3A1 were first designed and fielded by the United States during World War II. The first Chinese M3A1 clone produced on mainland China was adopted in 1947 and thus designated as the Type 36. The designation came from the Chinese Republic calendar year that started in 1911 when the Republic of China was established by Sun Yat Sen. The Chinese .45 caliber Type 36, manufactured at the Shenyang 90th Arsenal, near Mukden, China was a near exact copy of the U.S. made M3A1, except for the Chinese markings on the magazine housing. Reportedly fewer than 10,000 Type 36 submachine guns were produced before Communist forces overran the factory.

The Chinese Type 37 Submachine Gun

Like the Chinese Type 36, the Type 37 was a very close copy of the U.S. M3A1 submachine gun, except the Type 37 was chambered for the 9mm Parabellum cartridge. The Type 37 was manufactured at Mainland China’s 60th Jin Ling Arsenal located in the city of Nanking, China, then the capital city of the Nationalist Chinese. The Type 37 designation of the weapon indicates that it was adopted and manufactured during 1948.

The 9mm Type 37 submachine gun differed only slightly from the Type 36, and was basically a conversion of the .45 caliber Type 36 model. To facilitate the 9mm cartridge, the barrel was extended 8mm further out of the rear of the barrel nut than a standard .45 caliber barrel. This was necessary to reliably feed the shorter 9mm round into the barrel’s chamber. The rear of the 9mm barrel is slightly larger near the receiver end where it is pressed into the muzzle nut. The bolt is similar to the .45 model, except the bolt face was recessed 8mm further to compensate for the portion of the barrel protruding rearward. To feed the Type 37, a copy of the British Sten magazine was used. To permit the 9mm magazine to fit into the magazine well a three-sided magazine adapter was fabricated from a piece of .030 of an inch thick spring steel. The adapter was held in place by two metal tangs on each side. The standard M3A1 magazine release was used. To remove the 9mm magazine adapter the release button must be removed. The adapter is identical to that used in the World War II U.S. 9mm Grease Gun conversion kit, except there are no caliber or drawing numbers present.

The Type 37 was only manufactured for a brief period before the Communists overran the city of Nanking during April of 1949. Prior to the Communist takeover of the Arsenal, the Nationalist Chinese fled to Formosa taking most of the manufacturing equipment with them. Once settled on Formosa, production of the 9mm Type 37 resumed and redesignated as the Type 39. The submachine guns manufactured on Formosa are marked with the logo of the new ordnance department established there, the Combined Service Forces.

Brief History of the M3 and M3A1 Grease Gun

As early as 1939 the United States Ordnance Department had set a number of requirements for a new weapon to replace the expensive Thompson submachine gun.

U.S. Submachine Gun, Caliber 45, M2

There were extensive trials held at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to test and evaluate foreign and domestic submachine gun designs, which could meet or exceed the Ordnance Department’s requirements. One of the George Hyde designs was considered for adoption early in 1942 as a substitute standard to begin replacement of the Thompson submachine gun. The weapon was selected as a direct result of testing at Aberdeen and was one of several designs submitted by Mr. Hyde. Several prototypes were tested before a final model successfully passed the service test. In April of 1942 the United States adopted the weapon as the U.S. Submachine Gun, Caliber .45, M2. The Marlin Firearms Company was chosen to manufacture the M2.

There were many problems encountered with the production of the M2, and there were still some flaws in the basic design. Several of the M2’s internal parts were designed to be manufactured by powder metallurgy technology and a difficult time with the manufacturing process was encountered partially because of the aforementioned process. The technology was not advanced enough at the time to successfully utilize the method. The parts then had to be redesigned for machining from steel bar stock and this added substantial man-hours to the M2 production time.

While solving problems with the M2 submachine gun were being addressed, the prototype T-20 (M3) submachine gun was tested and evaluated; the weapon had all of the characteristics that the Ordnance Department was looking for. In an Ordnance Committee meeting held in November 1942 it was reported that, “The development of a caliber .45 submachine gun and a 9mm submachine gun: The requirements for these two weapons have been met by the development of a caliber .45 machine pistol which can be converted to 9mm operation by changing the barrel and bolt.”

The T-15 and T-20 Submachine Guns

The select-fire T15 was the prototype of what would become the M3 submachine gun. Like the M2 submachine gun it was designed by George Hyde. The T15 weapon used no critical metals and required a minimum of time-consuming machining. Except for the barrel and bolt assembly the entire weapon was constructed from simple sheet metal stampings. The bolt was designed to ride on two steel rods that were secured by two holes stamped into the rear of the receiver. The rod and bolt assembly was held in place by the barrel that simply was screwed into the front of the receiver. The bolt would slide on the two steel rods never contacting the inside of the receiver. This kept the moving parts impervious to dirt, making it an extremely reliable design. As the project progressed, there were a few changes. One was a lower cyclic rate, and a full automatic only operation. The new prototype weapon was designated the T-20.

The U.S. M3 Submachine Gun

U.S. Army Ordnance R&D officer Réne Studler recruited General Motors to assist with the T-20 development. Fredrick Sampson, chief engineer of GM’s Inland Division was assigned to the project. After a brief, but thorough evaluation of the T20 prototypes, the T20 was officially adopted as the U.S. Submachine Gun, Caliber .45, M3. The M3 – T20 prototype had an overall score of 95 out of a possible 100 in the Aberdeen test, higher than any previous weapon tested. The time period between the conception and production of the M3 submachine gun was an unprecedented seven months. The project was authorized in October 1942 with five working prototypes available for testing by November 1942, and the M3 was adopted by the United States Army on Christmas Eve 1942. The M2 submachine gun contract was canceled when the M3 submachine gun went into production. The initial cost of the M3 was $17.93 per unit, minus the bolt assembly. The contract for the M3 bolts was awarded to the Buffalo Arms Company at a cost of $2.58 per piece.

The U.S. M3A1 Submachine Gun

After the M3 was in service for a period of time the Ordnance Department felt that most of the problems with the weapon design had surfaced and they set requirements for improving the initial design. One of the biggest problem areas with the M3 was with the cocking handle and its related parts. A new bolt was designed that was cocked by the finger of the operator, eliminating the need for a cocking handle. An enlarged ejection port was also needed to incorporate the new style bolt. The new model was standardized as the M3A1 December 1944 and the M3 was then classified as substitute standard. Other improvements and changes incorporated in the M3A1 were: A larger oil container that was contained inside the pistol grip, a new stock design that served as a cleaning rod and a magazine loading tool. The stock could also be used as a wrench to remove a tight barrel, a new barrel nut that had “flats” machined on it so a wrench (or the stock) could be used to easily remove it. The rear guide rod retainer was redesigned so it would clear the ejector, allowing the bolt assembly to be removed from the receiver without removing the ejector housing. Guide Lamp production ceased in August 1945, after manufacturing 606,694 M3 and 82,281 M3A1 submachine guns. An additional 33,227 M3A1 models were manufactured by Ithaca in 1955-1956. The Ithaca M3A1 was nearly identical to the World War II M3A1 weapons manufactured by Guide Lamp. The M3A1 remained the standard U.S. submachine gun until 1957. In addition to China, the M3A1 design was copied and manufactured in Argentina as the P.A.M. 1.

(Special thanks to The United States Marine Corps National Museum, Triangle, Virginia, Mr. Al Houde, Arms Curator, United States Marine Corps National Museum, Quantico, VA, and Mr. Dolf Goldsmith, Texas. The Type 37 submachine gun photographed for this article courtesy of the United States Marine Corps National Museum, Triangle, VA.)

One of the prime movers behind the scenes in the production of the BAR was Edwin Pugsley. He was a giant of a man and as CEO of Winchester attended to the details of production and experimental firearms. Not much has been written about him except in the book on the BAR, Rock in a Hard Place. In it is described how Mr. Pugsley took the only prototype that Colt had to Winchester to make production drawings over a single weekend. Only a man of Pugsley’s stature could have pulled an entire engineering staff together to accomplish such a massive and precise undertaking. Edwin had joined the staff as an engineer in 1911 and rose through the ranks to eventually become president and CEO of WRA.

A little known but amusing anecdote of Mr. Pugsley is that a neighbor of his, Charles Addams, a noted writer and cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine, immortalized Edwin Pugsley in the campy, creepy classic cartoon The Addams Family. Pugsley became the mundane and morose son of Morticia and Gomez Addams. Though amused, Edwin was far more proud of his award winning design work on a sundial, which today sits beautifully in a garden at Old Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.

Pugsley’s genius in addition to working on difficult production problems was dealing with other design genius’ and their weird and irascible behavior. He ran interference with David Marshall “Carbine” Williams on the M1 Carbine. He also worked with Elmer Keith on the M70 – he was not a problem but a legend in his own time. Pugsley was a man of strong character with genius abilities, but was also an artistic thoughtful man. A true Renaissance man whose guidance of Winchester and their products live in the classic weapons we all know.

One of Mr. Pugsley’s and “Marsh” Williams’ designs did not make it to production, though it should have.

The Winchester Automatic Rifle: the WAR

In 1943, work began on a possible replacement for the venerable BAR. In mid 1944, the army published requirements for the possible replacement. This would be a difficult task since the BAR was such a unique and respected weapon.

Winchester led the way in this program with the T-20 series; the modified M1 Garands. The whole Garand series of T-20s with a BAR magazine was entirely too light for the full auto role, a fact that was rediscovered in the late fifty’s with the M14 and M15. The whole T-20 story is well illustrated and told in WHB Smith’s classic Small Arms of the World, Eighth Edition.

What is glossed over, without photo or explanation, was the “in house “Winchester designed WAR (Winchester Automatic Rifle): a spinoff of the G30R program attributed to David Marsh Williams of M1 Carbine fame. In fact, it looks rather like an M1 on steroids. Utilizing the famous tappet system so successful in the carbine, it also has elements of John Garand’s famous rifle. This is not farfetched since Winchester was a prime contractor on M1 rifles.

The WAR story became reality to this author on July 12, 1996 when Steven Beatty, Curator of the Springfield Armory Museum NHS held one of these gingerly in his hands, serial number 12. He proudly proclaimed, “All the major sources say that ten of these were fabricated. Even Winchester doesn’t have this one.”

From the photos you can see that it has a slightly curved 20-round magazine and a spindly bipod. It utilizes a turning bolt and a cammed operating rod similar to the M1 Carbine. It is selective fire with a lever located on the top left hand side of the receiver – sure to get hot after a few rounds.

Obviously, this rifle would not stand the abuse the BAR will, but it would have made a beautiful sporting rifle. The only good source of information on this fascinating but obscure rifle was written by Konrad Schreier, Jr. for Armax, the Journal of the Cody Firearms Museum in 1990.

As discussed in previous articles on the subject, by the early 1970s, Soviet Spetsnaz troops and specialized KGB personnel (which acted both in and out of country) already had some highly specialized and practically noiseless pistols with the 7.62mm S4M and MSP. The key problem with both of these was that either one was nothing more than a 2-shot derringer, which was more or less adequate for a last-ditch self defense weapon for secret agents, but certainly insufficient for Spetsnaz or KGB anti-terrorism units operators (the USSR also had its share of political terrorists, airplane hijackers and all other types of dangerous and organized crime).

Therefore, in the late seventies a requirement was set to develop a multi-shot, self-loading compact weapon that would fire internally silenced ammunition. The problem, however, was that existing ‘noiseless’ ammunition was either overly bulky (as in the case with the 7.62×63 PZAM cartridge), or badly suited to self-loading applications (as in the case with the 7.62×37 SP-3, which had a protruding telescoping piston and a case that was expanded at the neck during the discharge). Consequently, work commenced with development of new ammunition that was better suited for self-loading applications. Since the users of the proposed weapon were intended to operate in circumstances where foreign criminal investigation of results would be irrelevant, it was decided to use a specialized bullet optimized for penetration and stopping power at relatively low velocities. The new cartridge featured a flat-point, cylindrical bullet 35mm (1.38 inches) long, made of mild steel, with a brass driving band at the front. When fired, this bullet is said to penetrate a standard steel military helmet at 25 yards and still have sufficient killing power to disable the helmet’s owner. The new cartridge, designated as SP-4 (Spetsialnyj Patron 4 – Special cartridge 4), employed a bottlenecked case 42mm (1.65 inches) long, with short neck. The case is made of steel and is copper washed. When loaded, the bullet is fully seated in the case with its flat tip being flush with the case mouth. Below the bullet there’s a short steel piston, which separates the powder charge and the bullet. The piston’s diameter is larger than that of the cartridge mouth/bullet diameter, so when the powder charge is fired the piston jams itself in the cartridge mouth, sealing powder gases inside the case. Like its predecessor, the SP-4 cartridge uses standard primers which are securely crimped in the base. The cartridge is devoid of any headstamps or markings, save from a ring of red lacquer around the primer pocket in the base. The muzzle velocity of the 9.9 gram (153 grains) bullet is about 200 meters per second (655 fps).

With the new ammunition on hand, designers at the TSNII TochMash (Central Institute of the Precision Machine Building, the prime Soviet/Russian developer and supplier of Spetsnaz-type arms) commenced development of a new semiautomatic pistol to fire it. It took about three years to design and refine a quite unusual and unique firearm, which was adopted in 1982 as PSS (Pistolet Samozaryadnyj Spetsialnyj – special self-loading pistol): official military index 6P28. It was quite compact, being even shorter than the standard Makarov PM pistol, and featured a 6-round detachable box magazine, which greatly increased firepower compared to the earlier 2-barreled noiseless pistols. This pistol was soon issued to military Spetsnaz units that were to operate behind enemy lines, and to specialized KGB units, such as the famous anti-terrorism unit ‘A’ (better known as ‘Alpha’ group). Today the PSS can be found in armories of a large number OMON and SOBR (SWAT-type) units across the Russia that are engaged in operations against terrorism, separatism, organized crime and drug trafficking. Originally top secret equipment, today it is widely known among Russian gun enthusiasts and professionals alike, and offered for export to qualified foreign government buyers through the Russian state arms export agency, RosOboronExport.

Based on interviews with law enforcement operators who use the PSS in their line of duty (operating against drug dealers and armed separatists in the more troublesome parts of Russia), the PSS gets quite positive reviews. It is compact, reliable, and quite quiet when fired. It is often used to dispatch guard dogs and armed sentries, as well as during room clearing when entering especially tight corners. This author also was told that the PSS is a preferred ‘last resort’ weapon for many LE officers operating against terrorists in Chechnya, as it can be readily concealed, to be used in case of attempted capture of said officer by terrorists. (The proposed future of those officers, if captured by terrorists, is usually quite short and extremely painful).

While the PSS was quite successful for its intended purpose, it left something to be desired, and in around the turn of the 21st century the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) sponsored the R&D program called “Vorchun” (Grumbler). Exact requirements of this program were never published in the open press, but its final result is a rather unique sidearm, developed by the late Igor Stechkin – author of several weapons, including APS and APB machine pistols described in previous articles. This new weapon, known under its factory index OTs-38, as produced in Tula by KBP (instrument Design Bureau), looks like a more or less conventional double action revolver – until you take a closer look. It was officially adopted in 2002 but first displayed in public several years later.

OTs-38 fires the same 7.62×41 SP-4 noiseless ammunition as the PSS pistol described above, but it does not eject the fired brass automatically, and has a specially designed trigger unit with manual safety that allows for “cocked & locked” carry, which is impossible with the PSS that has a decocking safety borrowed from the Makarov PM pistol. Thus, the OTs-38 allows for more accurate first shots (at least in theory). It also has a built-in integral laser pointer, which may or may not have any real value for a special-purpose weapon like this, but nonetheless is a cool thing to have. In any event, the OTs-38 seems to be well favored by the personnel who use it (mostly in some territorial anti-terror units of Russian MVD and FSB). This author was unable to test fire either the PSS or the OTs-38, but was told by officers who did that the PSS is ‘almost noiseless’ (due to the slide cycling back and forth with a noticeable, although not loud, sound), and the OTs-38 is almost perfectly noiseless, with the only sound produced by the gun itself being the click of the hammer falling on the firing pin. In both cases the sound of discharge of SP-4 ammunition is almost inaudible, with no visible flash or smoke. Fired cases remain hot and under dangerous pressure from inside for some time after the discharge, but once cooled down, can be handled safely.

Description of the PSS Pistol

The PSS pistol is made almost entirely of steel except for the grip panels, which are plastic. The action is of more or less the usual blowback type, but the barrel is made from two parts. The front part of the barrel is rifled and fixed to the frame. The rear part, which contains the cartridge chamber, is allowed to recoil inside the frame against its own spring for a short distance. The slide return spring is located above the barrel, around the guide rod. When the pistol is fired, the rear part of the barrel and the slide initially recoil together. This is necessary to use the friction of the bullet, as it leaves the cartridge case and enters the barrel, to push the chamber and slide back for the reloading cycle. After some 6 millimeters (about 1/4 of an inch) of travel the rear part of the barrel is stopped against the frame and the slide recoils alone; as soon as the barrel stops, it then returns to battery under the pressure of its own spring, while the slide still moves back. At the very end of the slide recoil cycle, it catches the sliding barrel part to use its mass as a brake, to slow down the recoil and decrease the sound of the moving parts hitting the frame in their rearmost position. The extraction and ejection cycle is standard and, while all this may sound rather complicated, the gun actually works quite well. The trigger is double action, with an exposed hammer and a slide-mounted safety/decocker (overall trigger and safety design is similar to that of Makarov PM pistol). The magazine is single-stack, and the magazine release is located at the base of the grip. The sights are fixed; the rear sight blade is dovetailed to the frame.

Description of the OTs-38 Revolver

The OTs-38 resembles a traditional double-action revolver, but it has many uncommon features. First, it has a more or less common exposed hammer with double-action trigger, but the action is fitted with an ambidextrous manual safety, with levers located on either side of the frame, which allows for safe “cocked & locked” carry. Next, the OTs-38 fires from the bottom chamber of the cylinder, as opposed to most revolvers that fire from upper chamber. Therefore, the barrel axis of the OTs-38 is relatively low and muzzle jump is minimal. The large cylindrical housing located above the barrel of the OTs-38 contains an integral laser pointer/sight. The cylinder fixture is also of most unusual nature. The cylinder axis is hinged to the frame at the front, so once the cylinder release (at the left side of the frame) is pushed forward, the cylinder can be swung open to the right and forward (while on most modern revolvers cylinders are swung down and to the left). Upon the opening of the cylinder, an automatic ejector partially withdraws the clip with rounds (or empty cases) from cylinder. This unusual cylinder mounting is essential to provide minimum play between the firing chamber in the cylinder and barrel throat, since the SP-4 bullets are of pure cylinder shape, and thus cannot self-align itself with the barrel upon firing, unlike most conventional bullets that have conical or an ogive nose shape. Since SP-4 ammunition is rimless, it is loaded into the OTs-38 using special flat clips that hold 5 rounds together. As said above, the OTs-4 is fitted with an integral laser sight. It is also fitted with traditional fixed iron sights that have contrast white inserts.

PSS Specifications:

Caliber: 7.62×42 SP-4
Weight unloaded: 880 g (with integral laser sight)
Length: 191 mm
Barrel length: n/a
Magazine capacity: 5 rounds in special flat clip

OTs-38 Specifications:

Calibre / ammunition used: 7.62×42 SP-4
Weight, empty: 850 g empty
Length: 170 mm
Barrel length: n/a
Magazine capacity: 6 rounds

The SHOT Show is the world’s largest gathering of shooting, hunting and outdoor gear manufacturers. In fact the acronym SHOT stands for Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade. Manufacturers display their wares for thousands of retailers, law enforcement, military and media types from all over the world. They also pick the SHOT Show to introduce their new products for the coming year. This year the show was located at the Sands Expo and Convention center in Las Vegas, Nevada. As the Venetian Hotel connects to the Sands Expo center there were booths in that hotel’s meeting rooms as well. The Sands/Venetian is probably not the best place for the show as this year it took two maps to try and find your way around. Even with the maps in hand, navigating the show was problematic at best. The show runs four days and even with that much time it is almost impossible to see everything. In covering this years show this author tried to uncover as many new products as possible, especially products that the readers of Small Arms Review would be interested in.

The Law Enforcement section of the show seems to grow tremendously every year. New products in the tactical and military field are driven by the need for them in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and mean streets the world over. Manufacturers of military and law enforcement firearms have been producing civilianized versions of the same firearms because of public demand either for self defense, sporting competition or simply collecting. If you don’t think that these guns are popular just take a look at the cover of any firearm related magazine. Small Arms Review has been known for covering these types of firearms since day one.

New firearms exhibited at the show always seen to create the biggest buzz. This year Bushmasters new rifle was probably talked about the most. The ACR (Adaptive Combat Rifle), which is a joint product of MagPul, Bushmaster and Remington Defense, has been in the works for several years. It is now finally scheduled for production, starting with the first Basic models in March and followed by the Enhanced version in May of this year. This rifle has several noted features that include a totally modular design with major components being able to be swapped out in seconds to include barrels of different lengths, stocks, forearms and even the trigger group. This piston drive rifle is adaptive for any situation with four different barrel lengths, two stock options and even different calibers. With the ability of changeable barrels and a bolt that is multi-caliber, the rifle can be switched from one caliber to another in minutes. The rifle will initially be available in 5.56 and 6.8 SPC. Other calibers will follow at a later date. The ACR is fully ambidextrous and accepts standard AR-15 magazines. (www.bushmaster.com)

LWRC International was on hand with their full line of fine rifles. New this year is the R.E.P.R. (Rapid Engagement Precision Rifle), a short stroke piston driven 7.62mm that can be configured for a variety of roles. It can be used with a 12 inch barreled upper in an assaulter role or by switching to a 20 inch barreled upper it can be used as a sniper rifle. The theory here is that carrying another upper in a backpack is more convenient that carrying two rifles. The rifle has a side-mounted charging handle that enables the operator to reload without removing his eyes from the target. Also, with a side-mounted charging handle the rear of the upper receiver has no opening that might allow gas to be blown into the shooters face when the rifle is equipped with a sound suppressor. The R.E.P.R. will be available in four models: the standard with either a 12 or 16.1 inch barrel, the Designated Marksman with an 18 inch barrel or the Sniper with a 20 inch barrel. (www.lwrci.com)

POF (Patriot Ordnance Factory) USA was on hand to introduce their new P-416 PDW. This gun is a 7 1/4 inch barreled piston driven .223 rifle that weighs right at 6 lbs. This tiny gun is just over 20 inches long with the stock collapsed. The gun features the MMR (Modular Railed Receiver), a free float barrel and a 3/4 inch shorter buffer system. Also new for POF this year is their new 25-round .308 magazines that will fit not only their P-417 series guns but also the Remington, DPMS, LWRC and the SR-25 rifles. Another new product from them this year is their Roller Cam Pin kit. This kit contains a new cam pin with a rolling head, a modified bolt carrier key which allows the new cam pin to be removed without removing the carrier key and new screws as well. The complete kit will retail for just $45. (www.pof-usa.com)

FNH USA chose the SHOT Show to introduce several new firearms as well as a couple of new less than lethal guns. The gun that drew the most attention was their new semi-auto version of the SCAR Heavy designated the SCAR 17S. Following last years introduction of the SCAR 16S that is the civilian version of the .223 Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle, the SCAR 17S is the .308 version. This piston driven rifle is totally ambidextrous with a magazine release and fire controls on both sides as well as a reversible charging handle. The SCAR 17S also has a folding, collapsible stock with a 2-position cheekpiece that allows the shooter’s eye to be aligned higher for optics or lower for iron sights. The gun can also be fired with the stock folded. Also new this year was FNH’s series of handguns called the FNX. The FNX is available in either 9mm or .40 S&W. The pistols feature either double or single action and have a decocking lever that allows the pistol to be carried either cocked and locked or hammer down in the decocked mode. A modular grip is another feature of the FNX and comes with several backstraps with different checkering and different profiles to fit just about any size hand. These new pistols were designed with a different grip angle and position so that the bore sits lower in the hand thus producing less recoil and reduced muzzle flip. (www.fnhusa.com)

Smith and Wesson has supplied duty weapons in the form of handguns for just about as long as anybody can remember. In recent years they have enhanced their line of law enforcement firearms with the M&P 15 series of rifles. The M&P logo designates Military and Police. This year they expanded the M&P 15 line with several new versions of this rifle. The first will be equipped with the MagPul MOE stock, MOE grip, MagPul P-Mag, MagPul folding sights and the Troy Industries TRX Extreme rail forearm. The new rail is very thin and light and only comes with a top Picatinny rail. There are mounting points located in various positions along the forearm to add rails. This allows the shooter to place rails just where they are needed and still have a smooth forearm gripping surface without the need for rail covers. This gun is equipped with a 14.5 inch barrel with a permanently attached muzzle brake to bring it to legal length. Another new model of the M&P 15 is their new piston driven rifle which will be available with either a standard M4 forearm or a railed forearm. The new rifle uses the excellent Adams Arms piston conversion that has a railed gas block. Adams Arms has a proven design that is well made and works every time. Smith & Wesson has also updated the M&P 15-22 that was introduced last year and is their entry into the .22 LR black rifle market. It features polymer upper and lower receivers and a full sized .22 LR magazine that makes the gun look just like its full-sized counterpart. The new model of the M&P 15-22 now has a railed forearm, MagPul stock and pistol grip and now also a threaded muzzle that will accept different muzzle devices as well as a suppressor. The M&P 15-22 has had rave reviews and now this upgraded model is bound to be a winner as well. (www.smith-wesson.com)

Several companies picked the show to break the news of their new .22 rimfire guns. Among them, Umarex USA will be bringing to market a new line of Heckler & Koch licensed .22’s. These will include semi-auto rimfire copies of the H&K 416 battle rifle and the H&K MP-5 submachine gun. Two versions of both will be available. There will be a standard MP-5 with a dummy suppressor shroud that will cover its 16 inch barrel and also a model with what appears to be an MP-5 SD with an integral dummy suppressor covering its long barrel. As far as the 416 goes, it will be produced in a standard rifle configuration as well as a pistol version with a dummy suppressor. Both models are sure to be hot sellers. (www.umarexusa.com)

Barrett Firearms announced their newest heavy hitter. They are now producing their Model 82 A1 in .416 Barrett caliber. Their original Model 82 A1, in .50 BMG, has become feared the world over as the shoulder fired cannon that can reach out and touch someone or something at extraordinary ranges. Now this same platform will be produced in their latest caliber. This .416 caliber alternative further adds to the mystic of the Model 82 A1. With enhanced accuracy and stability, not to mention a significantly higher muzzle velocity, the .416 offers extreme long range accuracy. Like the original M82 A1 this rifle comes with a 29-inch chrome-lined barrel, carry handle, optics rail, flip-up iron sights, detachable bipod and cleaning kit all in a fitted Pelican case. If you want a heavy caliber rifle but live in a state that doesn’t allow it, this is your rifle. (www.barrettrifles.com)

New accessories abound at the SHOT Show and many retailers visit the show for just that purpose to have the newest and neatest accessories that the industry has to offer. With over 1,800 exhibitors plying for the business, most dealers will run out of money before they run out of things to stock up on.

Suppressors have become big business with the tactical market expanding the way that it has. A relatively new suppressor company called Silencerco was there explaining the merits of their new suppressors. Classified as their Osprey line, the new handgun suppressors utilize a revolutionary eccentric design which means that the internal bore of the suppressor does not run exactly through the center of the outer tube but instead runs through the top of the tube. This allows for a slimmer, flat sided suppressor tube that still has the internal volume of a round tube. Because of its slimmer form it can be holstered while still attached to the host firearm. Another feature of these suppressors is a Nielsen device that is integrated with a cam-lock mounting system. Interchangeable pistons in the locking system allow one suppressor to be used with multiple host weapons. With an eccentric design these new suppressors allow an unobstructed sight picture without having to use extremely tall sights. They also offer safe hearing protection without the use of water or grease. The Osprey suppressors are available in 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. (www.silencerco.com)

Gemtech has long been known for their line of fine suppressors and this year they have added some new 100% titanium suppressors. These new suppressors still provide the optimum sound suppression but with the substantial weight reduction and strength of titanium. These include the PSR (Precision Sniper Rifle) in .338 Lapua, the QUICKSAND in 7.62 NATO, the G5-Ti in caliber 5.56mm and the TREK in 5.56mm. Also new for 2010 is their G5-22, a .22 LR suppressor that has been designed to be correctly proportioned for the .22 caliber full-sized copies of famous assault rifles. It looks just like their 5.56mm G5 but made for .22 rimfire. It can be 100% user disassembled and has zero first round pop. They also have now introduced their new ALPINE .22 LR suppressor. This suppressor was designed for shooters who wanted a suppressor for their .22 rifles and pistols that could be taken apart. The only tool needed for disassembly is a U.S. coin. Gemtech is also now providing suppressors in Realtree and Desert Digital camouflage. (www.gem-tech.com)

Leatherman introduced one of the neatest accessories for all of the AR shooters out there. It is a new multi-tool called the MUT that functions as both a tactical as well as a practical tool for military, law enforcement and civilian shooters. It comes in either a utility model or the EOD model. The utility model has 18 tools plus a 3 piece bit kit and the EDO model is equipped with 17 tools as well as the 3 piece bit kit. The MUT has several tools specially designed for servicing the AR-15/M16 rifle. There is a bolt override tool, a firing pin removal tool, a takedown and retaining pin removal tool, a bronze bolt carrier carbon removing tool, cleaning rod brush attachments and optic mounting and adjustment tools. Both tools feature a removable pocket clip and a MOLLE Sheath. Everyone that owns an AR-15 or M16 needs to have one of these. (www.leatherman.com)

Optics have not been left behind when it comes to the tactical arena and several of the major players have introduced “Tactical” lines of their scopes. This year Leopold brought out their new Tactical Optics line. This new line features the newest Mark 4 ER/T riflescopes. Leupold’s Mark 4 Extended Range/Tactical M1 Front Focal riflescopes are designed to let you take advantage of the reach and power of today’s long-range hunting, target and tactical rifles. At 20x or even 25x, you’ll have the superior clarity needed to positively ID targets, and the generous range of windage and elevation adjustment that gives you the accuracy and precision that you need at the most extreme distances. They also now have a full line of tactical mounts and bases so that mounting these new optics to any rifle is not a problem. (www.leupold.com)

All in all, this years SHOT Show proved to have just about anything that anyone in the industry would have an interest in. This article in no way covers every new item that was represented there. It would take hundreds of pages to cover them all. Just be sure to watch future issues of Small Arms Review as we cover a host of new and interesting products from the shooting industry.

On April 11, 2010, I traveled to Harrodsburg, KY where I met with my good friend, Howard “Buddy” Howells. Buddy is the only grandson of the famous Col. George M. Chinn, author of the five-volume series entitled The Machine Gun. The last time I was in Harrodsburg was in 1985 when I met with Col. Chinn and Buddy at their office. I was working for FN and went there to discuss the Mk19 and to get Chinn’s opinion on the maturity of the design and the producibility of the weapon using the drawing package developed by the Navy.

George Chinn had accumulated a wealth of firearm information through the years and was inspiration to many of us in firearm design. The Colonel made great contributions to firearm design and usage, and his historical reference book series is a classic of the last century. Buddy worked with his grandfather on some firearm designs and has an amazing memory of historical facts.

Buddy suggests we begin our meeting in the office used by George M. Chinn. Upon entering I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Chinn’s favorite pictures, letters, commendations, and other memorabilia still adorn the walls. Pencils, Rolodex, pads of paper and reference material are out on his desk. It was if the old master would return at any moment. Unable to resist the urge, I sit in the Colonel’s chair. Now was a good time to begin the interview.

George: Before we talk about George M. Chinn, could you give me a little insight into the Chinn family history.

Buddy: The Chinn’s are an old pioneer family with roots in Mercer county Kentucky. I know you remember my grandfather joking about being Chinese, but our ancestry is French. George’s Grandfather Jack was into horse racing and even owned a Kentucky Derby winner. Politics, farming, and Calcite mining were also family businesses.

George: So, as pioneers and frontiersmen, the Chinn family must have been around guns all the time.

Buddy: Actually, they were familiar with both ends of a gun. Back in 1900 Kentucky elected William Goebel as Governor. Just one day before his inauguration, Goebel was standing on the capitol steps between his two bodyguards, one of them Chinn’s Grandfather Jack, when a shot rang out. A sniper shot Goebel, fatally wounding him. Following his passing and true to the Kentucky sense of fairness, for the first time in U.S. history, a dead man was sworn into office. George: What about George Chinn? Did he have an interest in firearms when he was a youngster?

Buddy: Chinn’s father was the warden of the prison in Frankfort, Kentucky. This gave George many opportunities to disassemble guns from prison assets. Chinn had access to explosives too, from the family’s calcite mine. He led a charmed childhood and like most kids of that era, he enjoyed target shooting and plinking.

George: Tell me about George Chinn’s early education and his career plans.

Buddy: George went to a Millersburg Military Institute, a boarding high school where he was a member of the “Saturday Afternoon Tea Club.” That’s what they jokingly called the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. He graduated in 1920 in a class of nine. Since he was in ROTC at the close of WWI, he received a WWI victory medal even though he was never in theater.

George: I read where Chinn graduated from Centre College where he claimed to have majored in “football and penmanship.” What can you tell me about his football career?

Buddy: As a freshman George played lineman on the Centre team that won what would today be recognized as the national championship in 1921 after beating Harvard 6-0. It was a huge upset. The Centre team was coached by two of the greats in football history, Charlie Moran and Robert Myers. These men greatly influenced George. Their coaching style and football experience itself made a huge impact on his life. Also significant was the relationship he developed with Albert. B. “Happy” Chandler, a guy who was a kind of team “groupy.” Happy rode along on the football trips and in later life became Governor of Kentucky – twice. He also served as a U.S. Senator, giving George an important political connection during much of his adult life.

George: What did Chinn do after college?

Buddy: He coached football; assistant coach at Bucknell and head coach at Catawba. His coaching experience was very valuable throughout his career. He refined his coach’s instinct and he knew how to prepare a team for an “operation” by making sure his players knew what to do, how to do it, and had the right equipment and training to get the job done right. This mentality served him well in later years when he helped Naval aviators and Marines with the operation, repair, and maintenance of automatic weapons.

George: But he didn’t stay in coaching – what happened?

Buddy: While he was vacationing in North Carolina he had an opportunity to visit a tourist attraction there called the Bat Cave. The sight of all those tourists buying food, drinks, and souvenirs got him thinking. He owned a piece of property alongside the road near the Brooklyn Bridge that crossed the Kentucky River. So near this scenic river, George knew it would be a good place for a tourist stop except that the property was a sheer cliff: almost all rock, and nearly 150 feet high. Chinn had the perfect spot and all he needed was a cave. That part wasn’t any problem at all as he knew an explosives expert named “Tunnel” Smith and had him blast a hole at the base of the cliff. The tunnel went straight in about 20 feet and then veered to the left about 100 feet. At the front entrance he built a grill with a snack bar counter on the left and directly across from it was the bar. Chinn designed the bar in a particular way that discouraged people from hanging around it. George wanted customers to buy drinks, but he didn’t want to make a hangout for potential troublemakers. Out in front were tables for people to sit after they’d gotten their food and drink. Through the years there were several modifications, including a pair of columns that were made from the same stone as Chinn’s house.

George: This had to be during the depression. There couldn’t have been the same level of tourist traffic that Bat Cave had in those years, did he make any money?

Buddy: George did very well there. My grandmother made delicious sandwiches for what could be called a “giveaway” price. These were prohibition years; the real money was made from liquor and slot machines.

George: Slot machines?

Buddy: He had penny and nickel slots in the back part of the cave. Chinn was doing great until the law caught up with him. He was charged with running “a game of chance” at Chinn’s Cave House. In typical self-assured Chinn fashion, he defended himself and was able to convince the court that “you didn’t have a chance” when you gambled at Chinn’s.

George: It sounds like George has led a charmed life. Did this magic continue?

Buddy: Well, no. A life-changing event happened at The Cave House near the end of its operation. George got into an argument with the owner of the business across the road. Somehow it escalated to the point of violence when the neighbor entered the Cave House and shot George in the leg. George was wearing his .38 revolver at the time but he didn’t want this thing to escalate so he didn’t go for his gun. George’s wife, Cotton, however, tried to get Chinn’s gun away from him. It was all George could do to keep his wife away from that revolver. My grandmother was a crack shot and George was certain she would have killed the guy. Accompanied by his wife and daughter, Ann, Chinn went immediately to the hospital to get his wound cared for. My mother Ann, who was quite young at the time, recalled she had never seen so much blood in her life. Chinn got patched up and carried that slug in his leg for the rest of his life.

George: What did Chinn do after the Cave House?

Buddy: George was a pretty tough guy in his youth. His friend “Happy” Chandler described Chinn as, “That tough little river rat from Murdy’s Landing,” and hired him to be his bodyguard during his first term as Governor of Kentucky. Chinn also served as Sergeant-at-arms of the Kentucky legislature. You know, he had a flair for the unusual. Instead of buying a house in Frankfort, he bought an old ferry boat and converted it to a houseboat. George picked up other odd jobs too, like serving as Jack Dempsey’s bodyguard whenever he was in the area. (On the wall is an autographed picture of a young, rugged George Chinn standing with a group of men, one of them is Jack Dempsey. Jack’s inscription thanks him for his service.)

George: With a few exceptions, he seems to have led a charmed life to this point.

Buddy: George always said “I have lived my life in reverse.” He was too young for the First World War and lived a carefree life between the two wars, even though it was during the depression. In the late 1930s when our allies were looking to us to supply them equipment to fight the Germans with, Chinn took a job with the U.S. Government, as an inspector at Frigidaire in Dayton Ohio. He worked in the weapon section where the .50 cal. aircraft machine gun was in production. Through the years, Chinn had become even more interested in guns and collaborated on a book with his cousin, Bayliss Harden. (Buddy points to a framed letter from J. Edgar Hoover thanking George for the book, the Encyclopedia of American Hand Arms, he had received from Chinn.)

George: George was pretty old when the U.S. entered WW II. Did he try to enlist?

Buddy: He did. Prior to the war, a military recruiting train came through Harrodsburg taking applications and collecting résumés, and George submitted his, but he was already 37 years old. He knew he was not likely to be called up, and he wasn’t.

George: So, how did he get into the U.S. Marine Corps?

Buddy: He called in a political favor. His buddy “Happy” Chandler had moved on to become a U.S. Senator. Happy was not at all in favor of Chinn entering the military at his age. Chandler told him: “George, you are too big and too old to get into the military now. You’re going to get somebody hurt.” But Chinn insisted, and with Chandler’s help he enlisted into the Marine Corps, graduating from Aviation Ordnance School in 1943. (Buddy motions me over to a photograph on Chinn’s wall. It’s George’s graduation photograph from Aviation Ordnance School with our star graduate obviously older and substantially heavier than the other grads.) You know, George thought the whole thing about his weight and age was all very funny. Almost monthly, a Navy doctor would notice him on base and order him to come in for a physical exam. You see, any Marine perceived to be out of shape was a reflection on the competency of the Navy medical corps.

George: So it’s World War II, Chinn is an Aviation School graduate. Where is he assigned and what does he do?

Buddy: Most of the time he’s at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, but he was on something akin to a permanent TDY (temporary duty). He traveled around to various military installations checking out problems with guns and seeing if he could help with a solution. Whether it was a tool, a muzzle device, an operation or maintenance issue, or a design change, George was on the spot to help. His work was obviously appreciated as he received a number of commendations and promotions as a result. Chinn had a priority card that let him take flights and bump other people whenever there was a gun problem he was called in to review. Others had cards with higher priority but he told me he used that card for many years and only got bumped once; by the Manhattan Project Oppenheimer’s people.

George: After the War, Chinn is still in the military, and Korea starts up. What does he do then?

Buddy: Again he served as a troubleshooter for field problems. He traveled a lot, solving field problems, developing gages, tools, and helping with designs changes. He was called in to help with an engine flameout problem on the F7U aircraft caused by the ingestion of gun gas. The test pilot was none other than John Glenn. Chinn designed a muzzle device that solved the problem and was ultimately patented. Chinn is remembered in John Glenn’s memoirs for this brilliant and expedient solution. George had befriended John Glenn and baseball great, Ted Williams, as well, as they were both fighter pilots during the Korean War. (Buddy digs through a box of parts and retrieves a sample muzzle brake and shows me a copy of a patent that is framed and hanging on the wall.) It was also during the Korean War years that the Navy Department got George started writing The Machine Gun book series.

George: Let’s talk about The Machine Gun book series for a moment. I’ve always wondered how Chinn was able to get so much design information on all of those weapons – especially the foreign ones. It was before the information age and there was no internet to help him.

Buddy: Chinn made extensive use of the U.S. Patent Office. Patents on various guns, components, and feed mechanisms gave him a wealth of information about the theory and the design approach because that’s what patents do. It turns out that foreign patents were filed in the U.S. Patent Office as well so the foreigners could protect their concepts in the U.S. Chinn had a whole team under his direction researching patents. During their research they ran into some patents they believed could affect national security and should have been assigned a security classification, like Top Secret, or at least Secret. Chinn, a Major at the time, reported their findings and was told by his commanding officer: “If what you are saying turns out to not be true, it will be your last day in the Marine Corps.” This had Chinn worried for a while, but he trusted his own judgment and that of his team. Sure enough they were correct and the security leak was plugged.

George: After he left the USMC what did he do?

Buddy: He was called back into the Marine Corps and went to work at the Naval Ordnance Station in Louisville. Bill Schnatter, Walt Cashen and George made up the design team that was awarded a patent on the Mk19 mechanism. He developed the 20mm/30mm Mk22 canon there too.

George: And after that?

Buddy: In later years, Chinn was like a guru for guns. People would come from all around to check out their designs with Chinn. Even the U.S. Government ran new designs by him to get his opinion on their viability.

George: Did Chinn ever get involved with hand-held small arms?

Buddy: Because of his vast experience, the U.S. Army JSSAP (Joint Service Small Arms Program) tried to get him to work on a new military rifle. Chinn wasn’t real excited about the idea but the JSSAP people kept after him, even sending down representatives from the Navy at Crane and their top gun guy in Washington DC. I guess they figured if the Navy asked, Chinn might work on it. All of his life Chinn had worked on bigger guns and there is a difference between guns fired from hard mounts and guns fired from the shoulder. He finally conceded, going along for a little while to see where it would lead. In considering the new rifle, George decided to use recoil operating cycle rather than a gas drive. George knew that recoil operated weapons didn’t have the guns gas residue and erosion problem and plus you could fool with the operating cycle and maybe even reduce the recoil. For his prototype he started with an old Remington Model 8 recoil operated rifle originally chambered for .35 Remington. First we converted it to fire 7.62mm and made some other modifications. When we had the design completed, we went over to Ft. Knox to demonstrate it. Due to time constraints and our limited manufacturing resources, we decided against converting our sample to fire full auto. Instead, we bought one of those inexpensive BMF activators – you know, one of those hand crank devices that attaches to the trigger guard and pulls the trigger multiple times for every rotation of the crank. We went out to the range and unexpectedly found our friend Bill Schnatter. He was there demonstrating the Mk19 and we were requested to share the range to demonstrate our rifle. We shot it semi-auto for a while and the gun worked perfectly. Then we decided to show the “full auto” capability, even though the rifle only had a five-round magazine. We spun up that BMF and cranked off a 5 round burst. Bill Schnatter looked up from his test site and yelled out: “Looks like the Colonel has done it again.”

George: Buddy, as you think back on your grandfather’s long association with machine guns, who did he admire most?

Buddy: Without a doubt, he most admired John M. Browning. He had met members of the Browning family and was presented with a medallion from Val Browning, John’s son. This plaque was one of his most cherished possessions. Chinn was more than dismayed by the lack of progress made in gun design since Browning and was often heard to say: “We ought to dig up John M. Browning and see if he might have left us another gun design in his vest pocket.”

George: I seem to recall a similar comment he made about German machine guns.

Buddy: Yes, it’s in one of the books in The Machine Gun series where he compared our development programs to the German’s. He said: “True to the German military tradition, they sought to build tomorrow’s weapons today. In contrast, it has always been our custom to build yesterday’s weapons soon.”

George: George M. Chinn is remembered for his wisdom and sage remarks. Can you recall some examples so we can get a better insight into the man?

Buddy: That’s a tall order, but I’ll try. Even though George Chinn was not above calling in a political favor from time to time, he actually had no use for politics. He was incensed when politics affected the gun business and he’d say that it had no business there. Chinn’s success was characterized by a man who had a keen insight into knowing when to quit. Whether it was a business venture, horse racing, drinking whiskey, or pursuing a design approach, knowing when to pull up stakes and move on was a human character trait that served him well through the years – like his decision to give up drinking whiskey. Chinn believed that the proof of any good design was to put it into practice. He was known to remark: “I’ve never had a malfunction on paper.” That being said, he and his co-workers would make every effort to make their designs fool proof, but were always confounded by users who would still find a way to cause a failure or a malfunction. This led to one of his favorite expressions, though not original: “You can make something foolproof, but not damn fool proof.” George Chinn had a lot going for him but he never let it go to his head. He would jokingly say, “I am thought of highly in low places.” Of course, this was much earlier than the country tune with the same theme.

On our way to lunch, Buddy took me past some other buildings with Chinn connections. The old family house is possibly one of the oldest in Harrodsburg and was built from two log cabins that were merged into a single house where parents live. Buddy and his father have been working together restoring the house, room by room, starting with the living room where Chinn and his wife Cotton were married. Around town, construction sites mark the landscape of this historic city. A historic marker, near the war memorial, memorializes George M. Chinn for his contributions to the field of small arms.

Late in the afternoon, Buddy and I drive a winding road that leads to the Brooklyn Bridge and the Cave House. As we near the river, the road hugs a sheer cliff on the left that faces a lush riverbank on the right. A chain link fence marks off the grounds and prevents intruders from entering the remains of the cave house. It is evident that the roots from a number of large trees have lost their grip on the thin soil in the cliff above and have come crashing down into the Cave House compound. Buddy and his son have been clearing them out. Even in its present condition the Cave House is impressive. Buddy: (Buddy points to a large storage box at the Cave House entrance.) When Chinn was working on the Mk19 he leased the Cave House to the Navy for a dollar a year. They did their testing inside and stored their ammo in that box at night. George: (Fast moving vehicles slow to rubberneck when they see the two of us – and me with a camera – examining the Cave House.) Do you suppose they’re looking for a sandwich or a little slot action? Buddy: No, I’ll be answering a lot of questions from the locals. Around here, there is a certain mystique about George Chinn and amazing rumors have developed surrounding the Cave House and Chinn’s home. There are people who believe George had machine guns mounted on his roof and other outrageous things.

As the sun sets over the Cave House, I feel a bit guilty of taking up so much of Buddy’s day. I thank him for sharing his insight into the life of a man we have long admired.

During the latter days of World War II, Winchester produced a semiautomatic rifle in .50 cal. BMG based on David Marsh Williams’ short stroke tappet piston design. In a testament to John C. Garand’s strong design, they used his M1 action, beefed up for the potent round.

No one knows what prompted them to develop a .50 caliber semiautomatic rifle except possibly to prove the upper limits of this system as by this time no one except the British were using this caliber for single shot use.

The rifle weighed over 25 pounds, was 62 inches long with a barrel of 36.5 inches: a massive rifle. The worst of it was the short metal buttstock with a tang that hung over the top of the shoulder. It must have been horrendous to fire.

Only one was ever produced and it shows signs of extensive use. It had been sent to the Frankfort Arsenal where it was used for the testing of the .50 BMG caliber rounds produced there.

(The author would like to thank Donald G. Thomas for supplying the original information and the Winchester .50 comes from the publication ARMAX, The Journal of The Cody Firearms Museum, in an article published by the late Konrad F. Schreirer, Jr. titled Winchester Center Fire Automatic Rifles, of Volume III, Number 1, 1990.

WKW stands for Wielkokalibrowy Karabin Wyborowy. Let’s just say that it loosely translates to “Large Caliber Rifle” in English. It first saw the light of day in 2005 in Poland when designer Zaklady Mechaniczne TARNOW S.A. factory introduced it to the Polish army. Alexander Lezucha was instrumental in engineering this rifle and the 7.62mm “Alex” sniper rifle. It is designated “Tor” by the military. This is Poland’s first true anti-material sniper rifle. There were Polish sniper rifles in World war Two, but they were just accurate Soviet Mosin Nagant M91/30 refinished with a scope added.

Built on a bullpup design, the magazine and bolt are behind the trigger pack. Caliber is 12.7mm (.50 BMG), and the detachable magazine holds seven rounds. As in many other large caliber rifles, there’s a monopod fitted to the buttstock and a bipod/carrying handle on a tube below the barrel. There is no forend. The barrel stands free-floated and is attached directly to the action in a fairly simplistic design similar to the German company DSR Precision’s DSR-1 and the Barrett M95. A Barrett-type muzzle brake is fitted.

A Schmidt & Bender X3-12 P/MII scope is mounted on a raised rail situated above the action extending forward and over the barrel. Overall length of the rifle is 53.1 inches with a 34.6 inch fluted barrel. It’s not a very heavy rifle at 35.5 lb and can easily be carried and operated by one soldier, providing that the ammunition load-out isn’t too heavy. A fitted case that will take the scope is standard.

When firing the 12.7mm SLAP (Saboted Light Armor Penetrating round), the TOR can defeat up to .9 inches of armor at 1,200 meters. Present production is less than 50 units in service with selected units of the Polish army.

The 12.7mm round’s specifications are standard .50 BMG; that is 2,850 feet per second and 13,350 ft-lb of energy (the 12.7mm SLAP is rated at 4,000+ feet per second.) Normally rounds are fed from the magazine; however single shots can be accomplished by feeding in one round at a time. Other than the muzzle brake, no anti-recoil devices are fitted. Subsequently, recoil is moderate to severe and time-on-target for repeated shots is slow.

Specifications

Caliber: 12.7 x 99mm (.50 BMG)
Length: 53.1 inches (1,350 mm)
Barrel length: 34.6 inches (880 mm)
Magazine: Seven round steel
Sight: Schmidt & Bender X3-12 P/MII (No iron sights fitted)
Range: 1,500 meters
Operation: Rotary bolt
Muzzle velocity: 2,800 feet per second
Muzzle energy: 13,350 foot-pounds
In service: 2005-current
Designer: Alexander Lezucha

Usually when an infantryman fires a rifle, he wants to be able to touch off a round without doing serious damage to himself. The hope is that the end with the hole in it will do more damage than the part that fits against the shoulder.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War Two, the Empire of Japan, in the guise of the Imperial Japanese Army, saw a need to develop a weapon to be used primarily against the lightly-armored equipment being fielded by the Allies in the Pacific Theater. The Type 97 20mm anti-tank rifle was the end result. It had a semiautomatic action that was fed seven rounds from a top-mounted detachable box magazine. Rate of fire was said to be 12 rounds per minute, but that was seldom, if ever, achieved.

Total weight of the Type 97, when fitted with an armored shield, pushed the scales to near 150 pounds. A bipod and rear-mounted monopod aided in recoil control, but the Type 97 was not an optimal rifle to shoot. It took four Japanese soldiers to carry the gun, ammo and related equipment. Two troops were needed just to fire the Type 97, a loader and an operator. Some versions were fitted with handlebar-type cross bars to facilitate transporting.

The procedure was to locate the butt monopod on the ground, set the bipod mounted on the front of the action into the dirt, load the seven-round top-loading magazine, cock the action, sight the armored target, then touch off a round. Any combination of armor-piercing, tracer, ball, incendiary, self-destruct or practice projectile could be loaded in any order. It sat low to the ground and had a small blast signature compared to other 20mm rounds like the Hispano-Suiza 20mm x 110mm cannon.

A said above, total weight of the rifle and optional armor shield ran close to 150 pounds. However, even at that weight, recoil was extremely violent. The 20mm x 124mm round had a muzzle velocity of 2,460 feet per second. Muzzle energy was quite impressive. Ten feet from the muzzle a foot-pound reading in excess of 32,000 was recorded.

Interestingly, the Type 97 was initially designed to be fired from the operator’s shoulder. As the average Japanese soldier of 1941 weighed less than 150 pounds, this proved to be both dangerous and impractical. The recoil force was so fierce that firing the first shot caused the soldier to take some quick steps backwards. When fired from a prone position, heavy bruising was almost always guaranteed. Also, the recoil created so much pain that, even though the weapon was semiautomatic, follow-up shots were very slow in coming. A muzzle brake was fitted, but did little to tame the ferocious recoil. The Type 97 was designed in 1937; however, by 1942 the rifle was relegated to strictly a defense weapon.

The 20mm x 124mm round was capable of piercing up to 300 mm of armor at 250 yards, down to 200 mm at 700 yards. During the Pacific Campaign of World War II, the Type 97 was used against light tanks with moderate success, but once heavier tanks, like the M4 Sherman appeared on the battlefield, the Type 97 became a second echelon weapon, used mostly against half-tracks and Duce-and-a-half trucks.

The Japanese Army didn’t have a surplus of modern weapons, so rather than retiring the Type 97, they turned it into an emplaced weapon on islands like Gavutu, Tulagi and Tanambogo, where it was used against U.S. amphibious forces during the Solomon Island Campaign, May-August 1942.

Later in the war, the Japanese Imperial Army tried to increase the rifle’s anti-tank capability by adapting the Type 97 to launch grenades. The muzzle brake was removed and a grenade launcher cup was secured to the barrel by a locking bar. Somewhat successful, the idea was subsequently dropped when it was found that a standard Arisaka rifle could launch grenades as well as the heavy, complicated Type 97.

Simultaneously with the anti-armor use, the Type 97 was modified for aircraft use as the Ho-1. It was mounted in the dorsal turret of the Nakajima Ki-49 Donryu (Storm Dragon) twin-engine bomber.

Production of the Type 97 tapered off to a great extent when the Allied Eighth Air Force and Twentieth Air Force embarked on their urban renewal project on the Japanese home islands from late 1944 to end of war August 1945.

Type 97 20 MM Anti-tank Weapon

Designed
1937
Number manufactured
c. 400
Caliber
20mm x 124mm, seven round detachable magazine
Weight (traveling)
148 lb
Muzzle velocity
2,600 fps
Muzzle energy
32,000 ft-lb
Action
Gas operated semiautomatic
Barrel length
47.2 inches
Overall length
81.1 inches
Magazine capacity
Type 97 – 7 rounds; Ho-1 – 15 or 50 round double drum (depends on type of mount)

20 mm x 124 mm Ammunition
Type of projectile
Armor-piercing, tracer, incendiary, high explosive, inert, self-destruct
Projectile weight
High explosive, incendiary – 4.5 ounce; Armor-piercing, tracer – 5.7 ounce
Range
1,000 yards
Rate of fire
Theoretical – 400 rounds per minute (rpm); actual – 2-3 rpm

Beginning in 1921, a new program was established for the armament of the French infantry that included a submachine gun. The submachine gun was then considered, “as a weapon of crisis, which must allow the fast organization of resistance. From its action of immediate response it should be entrusted only to people on courage and the coolness of which one is in right to count: to officers and NCOs.“

The development proceeds rapidly and in 1924 two prototypes were ready: that of the Technical Section of the Army (STA) and that of the Saint-Etienne National Weapons Factory (MAS).

These two models are very close to one another – they appear as a small carbine, with a wooden stock, a tubular frame, a curved magazine and chambered for the 9mm Luger cartridge. The STA 1924 was manufactured in small numbers for tests by troops. It was used in Morocco and some specimens still appeared in the armament of the Corps Francs (commandos) in 1939-1940.

The development of other models continued, particularly at the MAS factory where the STA 1924 was improved. It received two triggers to allow single shot or full automatic burst. This weapon led to another new prototype which precedes the MAS 38. It still uses the 9mm cartridge and has a perforated cooling jacket. But Headquarter directs a new calibre and from 1927 the prototypes are constructed for the .30 Browning Automatic Rifle cartridge (.30 Pedersen), which will be renamed 7.65mm Long.

Other prototypes follow but years pass and no decision of adoption is made. One can attribute this delay to the reduction in the military budget in the 1930s, the uncertainty of soldiers who do not manage to define coherent choices and to doctrines of use which suggests that the Châtelleralt M1924 M29 LMG could replace the submachine gun.

By 1935, three guns were in consideration: the prototype developed by the Service des Etudes of the MAS, the SMG made by the E.T.V.S. in Versailles, and another invented by Charles Petter and made by SACM.

The S.E.-MAS 1935 was adopted in 1938 as the MAS 38 and the Petter is also adopted in 1939 but it was never produced. The result is that during the 1939-1940 campaign, French troops did use a few S.T.A. 1924s, some S.E. MAS 1935s, 700 or 800 Erma Vollmers seized from the Spanish Republican troops, and 3,750 M1921 Thompsons delivered in February and March of 1940.

Production

The MAS 38 is adopted in 1938, but its production began in April 1940. Manufacture is continued on a small scale for the Vichy Forces and after November 1942 for the Germans. They received approximately 20,000 or 30,000 weapons designed MP 722 (f). The provisional technical note of the weapon is published in April 1940 and the final technical note in March 1941. Normal production restarts in October 1944 and ceased in February 1951, after 203,000 were delivered.

The French Task Force in Indochina jointly used the MAS 38 with others foreign weapons (Sten, Thompson, MP 40) and the weapon also equips the young Vietnamese Army. The gun remained in service in Algeria, the Police in Paris and for instructional purposes in the Air Force until the 1960s.

Description

The MAS 38 is manufactured according to traditional methods. Its triangular stock is made of wood and is provided with a sheet metal butt plate and has a bar on the left side for the fixing of a sling. The stock also contains the recoil spring. The assembly of the stock on the receiver is carried out by means of a bayonet catch that is locked by means of a spring lever located at the bottom of the front of the stock.

The receiver is of machined steel. The ejection port is on the right side and can be closed by a sliding plate attached to the cocking lever. It is retained at the rear position during shooting with a spring. On the left side of the receiver is a ring to fix the sling and its screw is used as the ejector.

The bolt is cylindrical in shape and receives the extractor and the firing pin. This bolt does not move along the axis of the barrel; it is off-set approximately 6 degrees, which corresponds to the slope of the stock. The recoil spring is spiral and there is a recoil spring guide to assist its guidance on part of its length.

The pistol grip has two smooth wooden plates affixed by two screws. The grip comes to be assembled with the lower part of the receiver by two T grooves. The trigger mechanism is composed of the trigger, the sear, a trigger and respective pins and springs. There is no selector switch as the weapon fires in full automatic only. A variation with two triggers was proposed with the S.E.-MAS 1935 but was not adopted. The safety is located inside the trigger mechanism and is actuated by pushing the trigger forward and it acts by blocking the bolt head in the open or closed position.

The barrel is screwed to the front of the receiver. Its calibre is 7.65mm (.30) and it has four right groves with one turn in 250 mm (9.84 inches).

The gun receives a 32-round straight magazine that is locked in place with a push button located on the left side. A folding plate makes it possible to close the magazine housing when the magazine is not in place.

The rear sight consists of two peeps bored out of two folding small strips set for 100 or 200 meters. The front sight is a simple post attached to a band around the muzzle. The sights are not aligned along the center axis of the gun but slightly on the left side of the weapon.

Marks

Markings are located on the left face of the receiver and indicate the calibre, model designation and the serial number. (Example: CAL. 7.65 L MAS Mle 1938 F 82843.) The serial number can also be seen on the left face of the stock, close to the rear sling attaching bar.

Serial Numbers

The MAS 38 was numbered: F 00001 to F 10000, G 00001 to G 10000, and H 00001 to H 03000. Some guns repaired or built from spare parts have a serial number with prefix FG, GH or FH.

Operation

Open the plate closing the magazine housing and introduce a loaded magazine. Select the appropriate eyepiece for range before shooting. Pull the cocking lever to the rear until the bolt is locked on the sear. Pull the trigger to shoot. The gun works with a blowback bolt operation will fire until the trigger is released or the magazine is out of ammunition.

Characteristics – MAS 38

Calibre: 7.65mm (.30)
Ammunition: 7.65mm Long
Overall length: 0.630 m (24.80 inches)
Barrel length: 0.220 m (8.66 inches)
Weight w/o magazine: 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs)
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds
Cyclic rate: 700 rpm

Disassembly

Remove the magazine and clear the gun. Place the bolt in the forward position. Press the latch bar of the stock and turn it a quarter of turn. Separate the stock from the frame. Extract the recoil spring and the bolt. Separate the grip/trigger unit from the frame. Reassembly is carried out in the reverse order.

Variations

• MAS 38 used by the Police of Paris. The wooden stock is replaced by a metallic telescopic wire stock. A grip safety replaces the folding trigger device. Magazine housing receives an extension that can be folded under the barrel. A perforated cooling jacket is placed around the barrel. A selector switch lever is placed on the left side of the receiver above the trigger that permits single shot.
• Accuracy submachine gun, for night shooting, with long distance sights and folding bipod (prototype).
• MAS 38 with folding wooden folding stock (prototype).
• MAS 45, 9mm prototype with wooden stock or moulded light alloy stock.

Accessories

• Black or natural leather sling.
• Cartridge pouch common to the MAS 38 or Thompson magazines (Vichy Forces).
• Black or natural leather cartridge pouch for four magazines.
• Canvas sheath transport.
• Cleaning kit: M1915 oil can, rod in two parts, bore brush, pin drift, wooden scraper.
• Replacement parts: extractor, extractor spring, extractor pin.

Evaluation

We tested the MAS 38 numbered F 23938. The weapon is light and easy to handle though the pistol grip is small and the stock a little bit too short. Trigger pull is 5.5 kg (12 lbs), which is correct for a submachine gun. There is no selector switch allowing for single shot operation. The safety consists of pushing the trigger forwards. The recoil is soft and the gun is very accurate. Unfortunately, old cartridges were used resulting is operational problems with the gun. This was the fault of the cartridges, not the gun.

Users of the MAS 38 appreciated his lightness, its handiness and its accuracy, but unfortunately the weapon does use ammunition which lacks power.