A problem that often confronts many people when considering buying a machine gun is what to buy. Often (mistakenly), thinking it will be their one and only Class 3 purchase, they want to take their time to be sure they make the right choice. The scope of this article is to cover some of the more popular submachine guns available to a potential buyer in the United States. We’re not covering “Borderline” items like the M2 Carbine, or the Owen, Austen, MAT-49 and early German SMGs, because they are not that common, and this article is a presentation of what the most common SMGs are in the U.S., and this is to help those new to the NFA community as they try to determine what is available.

Factors to Consider

Ammunition

Ammo is one of the primary factors that should be considered for two reasons: cost and availability. Surplus ammunition is usually the most economical way to feed a machine gun though most, if not all, come from foreign sources. In recent years ammunition has increased dramatically in price. With many calibers, the surplus supply comes and goes; a recent example is Russian 7.62x25mm. The 7.62x25mm cartridge was, just a short while ago, cheap and plentiful. However this situation has dramatically changed, with the ammo now becoming hard to find, and increasing in price. Several factors have caused this sudden shortage; conversions kits for the 7.62x25mm were made for several popular firearms, like the AR-15, to take advantage of the cheap ammo; another reason has been the proliferation of semiautomatic “pistols” like those made from surplus 7.62x25mm PPS43 submachine gun kits. Combine that with the large quantities of Tokarev variant pistols that have been imported, and there is a shortage, leading to a price increase.

Availability: many calibers used in popular machine guns are now obsolete, and no longer used by any country’s military, and thus no longer manufactured (in any great quantity). Several surplus rifle calibers that are becoming difficult to locate in quantity are: U.S. .30-06, .303 British, and 8mm Mauser. When certain calibers of ammunition are no longer available, the only other viable option is reloading.

Economics is another consideration; for example how much will ammunition cost? A machine gun firing 7.62×51 (.308) ammo is going to be far more expensive to feed than a 9mm submachine gun.

Another feature desired by many in a machine gun is the ability to easily convert it to fire different caliber cartridges. With today’s escalating ammo prices, one of the most popular caliber conversions, are those for the economical .22 caliber rimfire rounds.

Choices other than economic can be based on personal or military experience with a particular weapon, or one a relative carried while in the military. Other influences can be one’s ethnic background or a weapon seen on television or the movies.

What will be covered in this article will be some of the more popular options, available accessories, parts, and other relevant subjects.

Spare Parts

Another concern is spare parts availability and price; every machine gunner has an inexplicable need to have a lot of spares. Like ammunition, surplus parts come and go, and as they become difficult to find prices increase. Spare parts for many of the rarer weapons, like the Marlin UD-M42 are virtually non-existent, this causes a reluctance to fire such arms, for fear of breaking components; although just about any part can be fabricated by a skilled gunsmith. Yet another concern, if applicable, is the cost of spare magazines, some are dirt cheap while others, like those used in the Ingram Model 6, quite expensive.

Notes on Builds and Conversions

“Tube Guns”

During the 1980s, many older submachine gun part sets were available, less their receivers. The original serial numbered receiver was considered a machine gun and could not be legally imported. Before 19 May 1986, it was legal for a Class II manufacturer, or an individual with an approved Form 1, to fabricate a receiver, and with a part set assemble a working machine gun (after ATF approval for the individual, Class II manufacturers simply send in a Form 2 notice after the fact). The most popular submachine guns were those with cylindrical receivers that could be easily replicated with readily available steel tubing; hence the nickname “tube guns.” Some of the most common models built were the British Sten and the German MP40. While Stens and MP40s with original receivers are considered Curio and Relics, those with a newly manufactured receiver, e.g. tube guns, are not.

Semiautomatic Conversions

Also during the 1980s, semiautomatic-only copies of machine guns became very popular. Some of the most desirable were the Uzi and MP5 carbines. Many of these carbines became popular for conversion to select-fire machine guns. However, back in the 1980s there were virtually no original Uzi or HK submachine gun parts, or part sets available to use in the aforementioned conversions. Original parts, when they could be found, were very expensive. This forced many manufacturers to alter the existing semiautomatic components to function as select-fire parts. This was also a matter of economics, back in the 1980s, a converted submachine were not expensive like today. A typical converted Uzi submachine gun sold for approximately $700. Manufacturers, to maximize profits, used as many of the semiautomatic parts as possible. During that period, buyers were happy just to have a select-fire submachine gun, and knew or cared little about having “correct” submachine gun barrels and other parts. Today, submachine guns are quite expensive, and the buyers better informed. Most want conversions that are as much like the original submachine guns as possible.

Dewat

A firearm that was deactivated by welding the barrel to the receiver and weld-filling the chamber, and performing certain other modifications depending on the model. This was legal to do back in the 1950-60 time period and in the Gun Control Act of 1968 these required registration as De-Activated machine guns. The original receivers remained intact. Dewat represents “De Activated War Trophy.” These transfer without a transfer tax, using a Form 5.

Rewat

A registered Rewat is a Dewat (above) that has been “reactivated” into a functioning firearm. Firearms that qualified as Curio and Relics retain that status. Rewat represents Re Activated War Trophy. An individual can Rewat a Dewat using a Form 1 and paying the $200 “Making” tax (There is no transfer tax on transferring registered Dewats, a Form 5 is used). After approval, he then performs the work to make it a live “Rewat.” The other alternative is to have a Class II manufacturer Rewat the firearm, he does not have to pay the tax, but when he transfers it back to the owner, a Form 4 is used with $200 tax paid.

Reweld

A “Reweld” refers to firearms that have had their original receivers cut into pieces, and welded back together to form a receiver. Often pieces from several different receivers were used. The term “reweld” is inaccurate, as the rebuilt receivers were actually only welded once from a legally destroyed firearms receiver. Machine guns with welded receivers do not qualify as Curio and Relics. Many of the submachine guns that are on this list had individuals who made them by welding cut receiver parts, or making tubes themselves.

United States

Some of most popular submachine guns available to the collector are those that were made or designed in the U.S.

The Thompson Submachine Gun

The Thompson, or “Tommy Gun” is one of the most desired and popular submachine guns made. They were made in a number of configurations and models, which can vary greatly in price. Original Thompsons are all considered as Curio & Relics.

Colt Thompsons

The original Thompson guns were manufactured during the 1920s by Colts Manufacturing Company under contract with the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. There were approximately 15,000 original Colt-made Thompsons produced, all were originally 1921 models. Initial sales were very slow, and many of the 1921 models were modified in an attempt to increase sales; resulting in the introduction of the 1928 Navy Model, with a reduced cyclic rate, and a small quantity of the semiautomatic-only 1927 model. Adding an optional muzzle compensator to a 1921 Model Thompson changed its designation to a 1921AC. The asking price of a Colt made Thompson depends on condition, and the presence of all original parts. The cyclic rate of the Thompson are approximately 800-900 rounds per minute for the 1921 model and 650-750 for the 1928 version.

Pros: The Colts are the “classic” gangster era Thompson, well made and finished. Cons: Guns, parts, and magazines are very expensive. Few original Colt spare parts were made; if any original parts or barrels were replaced with military components, they greatly reduce the gun’s value. And that value is always very high. Many owners won’t fire their Colt Thompsons for fear of something breaking. Not a good choice if you are looking for a submachine gun to shoot all the time.

World War II Thompsons

The U.S. 1928A1

Just prior to World War II the allies needed a submachine gun; the only proven design available was the 1928 Thompson. The Auto-Ordnance Company was resurrected (under new management) and contracted with the Savage Arms Company to manufacture the U.S. Model of 1928A1. Due to the increasing demand, Auto-Ordnance opened their own plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut and began producing additional M1928A1 weapons. The World War II era Thompsons are not as finely finished as the 1920s era Colt guns. The 1928A1 has a cyclic rate of 650-750 rounds per minute. Unloaded weight is 10.75 pounds.

The M1 and M1A1

After production was well underway, the engineers at Savage designed a new, simpler variation of the Thompson, that was easier to manufacture and less expensive. The weapon was adopted by the U.S. and designated as the M1 Thompson; the weapon was further simplified by making the firing pin an integral part of the bolt, and re-designated as the M1A1 Thompson. While the 1921 and 1928 models could use a 50- or 100-round drum magazine, the M1 and M1A1 models could only use the 20- or 30-round box magazines. The cocking handles on M1 and M1A1 Thompsons are located on the right side of the receiver. The M1-M1A Thompsons are only slightly lighter than the 1928 models with an unloaded weight of 10.45 pounds. Cyclic rate is approximately 650-700 rounds per minute.

Pros: Military Thompsons are less expensive than Colt-made examples. Spare parts and barrels are relatively easy to find. Military box magazines in 20- and 30-round capacities are very inexpensive and drums are moderately priced. Cons: While not as pricey as a Colt Thompson, military Thompsons can still cost as much as a new (mid size) automobile. The M1 and M1A1 versions cannot accept a drum-type magazine unless they are modified with special slots, which was done by a few manufacturers back when these were relatively inexpensive. At nearly 11-pounds Thompsons are on the heavy side.

Modern Thompsons

During the 1950s, the Numrich Arms Company of West Hurley, New York obtained the remains of the original Auto-Ordnance Corporation, which included a few 1928 receivers and a substantial number of parts. From these, they assembled some submachine guns and offered them for sale. These Thompsons can be identified by a NAC suffix added to their serial numbers. In 1975, when their supply of receivers was exhausted, the company decided to manufacture receivers, and use their supply of surplus parts to assemble more Thompsons and market them. These became known as “West Hurley” Thompsons, because of the West Hurley, New York address on their receivers. Eventually, the company ran out of surplus parts, and began to manufacture them in-house. The “Modern” Auto-Ordnance Company made approximately 3,306 1928 models and 609 M1 Thompsons.

Pros: Less expensive than Colt and Military Thompsons; they can occasionally be found in new-unfired condition. Both the M1 and 1928 models have been added to the Curio and Relics list. Most parts will interchange with original models. Cons: Many West Hurly made Thompsons have experienced reliably problems, often due to out-of-spec parts. However, most of the problems could be solved by replacing suspect parts with military surplus components. By this point in time, the problems with most WH guns have been solved by their owners, although this may not be the case with new-unfired guns.

The U.S. M3 and M3A1 “Grease Gun”

The .45 caliber U.S. M3 was designed during World War II to replace the more expensive Thompson, and take advantage of the new “stamped steel” manufacturing technology, inspired by the German MP40 and British Sten. The M3A1 model was conceived to address problems experienced with the M3. World War II production was by the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors. During the Korean War, the Ithaca Gun Company was given a contract to resume production of the M3A1 model and the contract was cancelled after the war ended. Despite having an original price of around $8, today transferable grease guns are quite expensive; this is primarily due to the small number available. The grease gun remained in U.S. service as a limited standard weapon until the late 1990s. Guide Lamp production from May1943 to July 1945 was 606,694 M3 models, and 82,281 M3A1s. The 1950 era Ithaca production totaled 33,227 M3A1 models. Unloaded weight is 8.15 pounds; the cyclic rate is 400 to 450 rounds per minute.

Pros: Desirable, historic U.S. submachine guns. Magazines are readily available and very inexpensive. Grease Guns are reliable because of their internal design, and accurate due to the slow rate of fire. Original military M3 and M3A1s are considered as Curio and Relics. Cons: Expensive, can cost as much as a military Thompson, slow cyclic rate of 400-450 rounds per minute (can be considered pro or con). Parts are getting somewhat difficult to locate, particularly barrels and extractors.

Medea Corporation M3 and M3A1 Submachine Guns

A few transferable M3 and M3A1 receivers were made by the Medea Corporation, of Ormond, Florida for the civilian market during 1983. The company did not offer completed guns. The receivers were sold to individuals and manufacturers; there were less than 100 registered and sold. There are usually no manufacturers’ markings on the magazine housing. The serial numbers were hand-stamped and will have a letter A, B or X prefix.

Pros: Less expensive than original grease guns, assembled with all original GI parts, except the receivers. Cons: Reliability may be a problem, as there were a number of different companies and individuals that assembled them. Not considered Curio and Relics.

Other notes on M3/M3A1 Grease Guns

Broadhead Armory registered a large quantity of receiver tubes for Grease Guns, which were disallowed by ATF. A small quantity were allowed, and they have a receiver tube instead of a welded clamshell.

The Reising Submachine Gun

For today’s collector/shooter the Model 50 Reising offers an affordable U.S. .45 caliber submachine gun. The problems encountered with the Reising in combat are generally not a concern in a civilian environment. Original Reising submachine guns also qualify as Curio and Relic firearms. Reisings can be easily found today; many have come from police departments, and have seen little use in that role. A Reising is an inexpensive alternative to a Thompson submachine gun. The Reising is a select-fire weapon that has a cyclic rate of approximately 650-700 rounds per minute. Original magazines were made in 12- and 20-round capacities. Though less common, there is also a folding stock version, the Model 55.

Pros: An original U.S. made submachine gun, which saw limited military use; qualifies as a Curio and Relic firearm. It fires from a closed-bolt and is very accurate in the semiautomatic mode. Moderately priced, and most are in very good condition for their age. Reliable 30-round aftermarket magazines are available, made by Ken Christie. Light weight for a World War II era submachine gun at 6.75 pounds unloaded. Cons: Has somewhat of a tainted reputation, but overstated. Original magazines are not overly common, and are moderately expensive; cartridge capacity is limited 12 or 20 rounds.

The MAC

The MAC-style submachine guns are some the most compact weapons ever produced; there were many manufacturers and variations. “MAC” submachine guns are generally known as “bullet hoses” for their fast cyclic rates. The rate of fire makes them fun to shoot, but not of much use for actually hitting anything that is further than 25 yards away. However, in recent years several companies have been offering upgrade kits to slow-down the cyclic rate and make the guns more ergonomic. The availability of such kits has substantially renewed interest in MAC-style subguns. The name MAC originally was an abbreviation for the Military Armament Corporation that went bankrupt in 1976. The term “MAC” has become a generic term, though often technically incorrect, when used to describe all submachine guns of its basic design. There is a language all its own for MAC owners. A “Powder Springs” MAC was made by Military Armament Corporation in Powder Springs, Georgia. A “Marietta MAC” was made when Military Armament Corporation was in Marietta, Georgia. An “Overstamp” MAC was an original Military Armament Corporation MAC receiver that was bought at the auction, and finished by RPB so it is marked MAC on one side, and RPB on the other. “Texas MACs” were made in Texas and afterwards, “Jersey MACs” were made by Hatton Industries in New Jersey. There are a lot more variants and slang model names.

The Model 10

The Model 10 or “MAC-10” was made by several manufacturers, in .45 ACP and 9mm Parabellum. The .45 caliber MACs use inexpensive M3 “grease gun” magazines, while most of the 9mm versions use the more expensive modified Walther MPL subgun magazines. The cyclic rate of these compact weapons is approximately 900 rounds per minute.

Pros: MAC submachine guns are easy to find, and are on the low end of the NFA price scale. The fast cyclic rate makes them fun to shoot. The .45 caliber magazines are inexpensive. Spare parts are easily located and usually inexpensive. The .45 caliber guns can be converted to 9mm. Cons: The original 9mm Walther magazines can be expensive. Some of the Texas-made MACs have a problem with their welds failing.

The Model 11

The MAC-11 is a smaller version of the MAC-10; it is chambered for the .380 ACP round. The original magazines are a double-stack, single-feed design made of steel. SWD later manufactured a .380 caliber M11 variant that was designed to use their Zytel magazines, called an M11A1. The M11’s cyclic rate is faster than the Model 10. The .380 caliber MAC-11 is often confused with the 9mm, SWD M11/Nine.

Pros: Very controllable on full auto, the quick cyclic rate makes magazine dumps a lot of fun. Not much bigger than a 1911 pistol. Cons: Original magazines are expensive; there are aftermarket mags that may or may not function in any particular gun. The Zytel magazines used in the SWD model are problematic. Quantities of .380 ammunition were difficult to find a few months ago, but that situation seems to be changing, however .380 cartridges are generally more expensive than 9mm.

The SWD M11/Nine

The most common of the MAC-type submachine gun series is the SWD M11/Nine introduced from 1983 until 1986. Many shooters like the small size of the M11/Nine, as well as its increased cyclic rate of fire over the M10 model. The SWD M11/Nine submachine gun is approximately 1.9 pounds lighter (unloaded) than the original 9mm and .45 ACP Model 10, but the overall length of the M11/Nine receiver is approximately .69-inches longer, to compensate for the smaller inside dimensions of the upper receiver and corresponding smaller-lighter bolt assembly. The extra receiver length is required to absorb the recoil energy generated by the 9mm cartridge. As manufactured, the little submachine gun has a quick 1,000 to 1,200 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire. There have been numerous accessories and upgrade products made to enhance the performance of the M11/Nine, making them an extremely popular submachine gun. One disadvantage of the M11/Nine is the magazines. The original magazine designed for the M11/Nine was made of a “space age” plastic material called Zytel. This material proved to be less than ideal for a magazine and a poor replacement for simple stamped sheet-metal. Numerous problems were reported with the early Zytel magazines including splitting at the seams and their feed lips wearing out prematurely.

Pros: Inexpensive, used and even unfired examples can still be found. A number of high-quality after market accessories are available to enhance the weapon’s performance. Steel magazines to replace the Zytel originals magazines are available, as are steel feed lip kits to upgrade the Zytel magazines. Cons: The original Zytel magazines can be problematic

The Smith & Wesson Model 76

The only modern submachine gun manufactured by the famous Smith & Wesson Company; the 9mm Model 76, 9mm Submachine Gun went into series production in mid-1969. In addition to a Navy contract, the Smith and Wesson Company offered their new submachine gun to foreign and domestic law enforcement agencies. Approximately 6,000 were manufactured with production ending in July, 1974. Some early tool room models were sold, these have a letter T prefix on their serial numbers; production guns have a letter U prefix. The Model 76 submachine gun was a basic, but durable weapon primarily made from heavy sheet metal stampings. The receiver tube was produced from heavy .120 inch thick seamless steel tubing. The inside of the thick receiver tube was broached to help prevent stoppages from sand or any foreign debris that may collect inside the receiver. The appendages: the sights, magazine housing and sling loops were all heliarc-welded to the thick receiver tube. The unloaded weight is 7.25 pounds; cyclic rate is approximately 720 rounds per minute. The weapon is fed from a 36-round, wedge-shape dual stack, dual feed magazine.

Pros: Well made by a major U.S. manufacturer, select fire, easy to control, moderately priced, 9mm, qualifies as a Curio and Relic. Inexpensive Suomi 36-round magazines can be easily modified to function in an M76. Cons: Original magazines are expensive, original spare parts can be difficult to locate.

MK760

The MK 760 9mm submachine gun is a copy of the Smith &Wesson Model 76. The MK 760 was first introduced in 1983 under the company name MK Arms, Inc. The MK 760 was produced in limited numbers, primarily for the civilian machine gun market. The early models of the MK 760 submachine gun were produced in Fruithurst, Alabama, under the name Phoenix Arms, doing business as MK Arms. During 1984 the company was re-established as MK Arms in Irvine, California. Most of the component parts of the MK 760 are fully interchangeable with the original S& W M76. One of the few actual differences between the original Smith & Wesson 76 and the MK 760 is the material that the pistol grip was made from. The original Smith & Wesson grip was made of plastic while the MK 760 grip was made from aluminum and later a tough polymer plastic.

Pros: A less expensive alternative to an original Model 76, well made. Cons: Reliability problems have been reported.

Clones of the Smith & Wesson Model 76 were also made by Southern Tool and Die under the name Global arms (M76A1).

Other clones designated as the SW76 were made by Class II manufacturer Jim Burgess. One noteworthy improvement that was implemented into the design of the SW76 is the relocation of the cartridge extractor to a two-o’clock position on the bolt; this reportedly substantially reduces stress, and increases the life of the part. Many of these receivers were made to fit into other designs, using other magazines, in particular a Suomi variant.

American 180

The American 180 was one of the few successful submachine guns to be made in .22 caliber rimfire. The select-fire gun features a top-mounted drum style magazine that is available in capacities that hold up to 275 rounds of ammunition. Firing from an open bolt with a cyclic rate of fire of approximately 1,500 rounds per minute, the weapon could empty the drum in less than eleven seconds.

The American 180 submachine gun evolved from a prototype weapon known as the Model 290 designed by Richard Casull and Kerm Eskelson in the early 1960s. The “290” designation came from the unique drum magazine that held 290 rounds of .22 ammunition. Limited production of the full-automatic-only “Casull Model 290 Carbine” finally commenced in 1965 and were produced and marketed by Western States Arms of Utah. In 1969 the rights were sold to the American Mining and Development Company. Production of the unique .22 caliber submachine gun was contracted out to the Voere Company located in Austria. The Voere firm redesigned the gun for select-fire capability, and the drum capacity was reduced to 177 rounds. The American 180 was marketed in the U.S. by the American Arms International Corporation or AAI. Many of the parts to assemble the “American” 180 were imported from Austria and then assembled in Utah. Later, American Arms manufactured the American 180, this allowed the pre-1986 guns to be fully transferable. After American Arms International went out of business, production of the American 180 was resumed by the Illinois Arms Corporation or ILARCO, in hope of finding domestic and foreign customers. Since the machine gun ban of 1986 was in effect all of the American 180 models produced by Illinois Arms were post-1986 dealer samples intended only for law enforcement and military sales.

There was a brief independent production run of the AM180 submachine gun by S&S Arms of New Mexico; approximately twenty-four fully transferable guns were manufactured. These may be in odd color finishes.

The magazines for the AM180 are the drum type and consists of a drum and a spring motor. The drums come in either an original metal 177 round configuration or the later manufacture Lexan plastic in a 165 or 275 round capacity.

Pros: The AM180 submachine gun is great fun to shoot. The weapon is extremely accurate due to its lack of recoil, and can easily place shots even at 1,500 rounds per minute. Cons: The AM180 is expensive for a .22 caliber firearm, and finding spare parts can be a problem. The drum magazines are time consuming to load, and cannot be changed out very quickly.

Foreign Submachine Guns

The British Sten Mark II

Early in World War II, the British purchased a number of U.S. Thompson submachine guns from the Auto-Ordnance Company. As the war continued, the British government was running out of money, and could no longer afford the expensive Thompsons. They needed an inexpensive weapon that could be manufactured quickly. The weapon that was eventually conceived was the Sten. There were several versions of the Sten; the Mark I, II, III, IV and V. The Mark II was produced in the largest numbers. The Sten MK II has an unloaded weight of 6.65 pounds; cyclic rate is approximately 550-600 rounds per minute. Today the Sten Mark II submachine gun is common and relatively inexpensive. Like many of the other subguns addressed in this article, they are available in several configurations. The most common is the Mark II addressed here.

Original Sten Mark II

For the purist collector, there are original Sten guns available, most registered prior to 1968. In addition to the Mark II model, other versions (Marks) can occasionally be found.

Pros: Original Sten guns are considered Curio and Relics. Magazines and spare parts inexpensive and available. Cons: Can cost considerably more than a “tube gun” Sten. Magazines can cause feeding problems. A magazine loader is needed.

Sten Tube Guns

One of the most popular submachine guns assembled by Class 2 manufacturers during the late 1970s to 1986 was the Sten Mark II. There were large numbers of part sets (less receivers), and new receiver tubes were easy to manufacture. The Stens were also popular with buyers because of their low price, prior to 1986, a Sten “tube gun” could be purchased for around $200. There were a large number of Class 2 manufacturers turning out Sten guns, as well as a few individuals who, prior to 1986 after getting ATF approval, could manufacture a Sten in their garage with some tubing, a Dremel-type tool, and a welder. However, all Stens were not created equal, the quality of the builds were as diverse as the number of manufacturers and individuals who made them. The quality of any build can usually be determined by the welds, the even cutting of the cocking handle slot, as well as cutting of the: sear, trigger, and magazine well openings in the receiver tube. In some cases registered tubes were purchased from Class 2 manufacturers and assembled by individuals. Some of the more common Manufacturer names you might find would be DLO, Erb, Taylor, Pearl, Wilson, York Arms, Special Weapons, Xploraco, and LMO are a few.

Pros: Tube guns are less expensive than an original C&R example, and easily found. Magazines are plentiful and inexpensive. Sten Mark II receiver tubes can be used to build a Sten Mark V, Sterling, or a Lanchester submachine gun clone. Cons: The quality and function depends on the individual, or company that manufactured the tube and assembled the gun.

Mark V Sten Conversion

Mark II Sten receivers can be converted to the later production Mark V configuration.

Pros: Mark V Stens are more ergonomic, have better front sights, and are generally more accurate than a Mark II model. The MK V uses standard Sten magazines. Cons: Mark V part sets are less common; the conversion requires some shop skills; cutting, welding, and refinishing are required.

The Sten-ling

In recent years British Sterling part sets became available, the Sterling receivers are very similar to that of the Sten. A few Class 2 manufacturers (after receiving ATF approval) began to use registered Sten tubes to assemble Mark IV Sterling submachine guns, a submachine gun that is rarely encountered in the U.S. The marriage of a Sten receiver to a Sterling part set soon earned them the nickname “Stenling.” Most of the cocking handle slots on Sten tubes are slightly wider than that of Sterling, resulting in slightly altered cocking handles and modified disassembly procedures. A Stenling’s cocking handle and cocking handle block are modified by drilling a hole in each, so the plunger protrudes through them to retain the cocking handle. The cocking handle itself will have had metal added to it so it fits properly in the wider Sten’s cocking handle slot, and retain the bolt at the correct angle. There are a few Sten tubes that have the same cocking handle slot dimensions as an original Sterling, eliminating the modified cocking handle and disassembly procedure; such guns will usually command a slight premium over the others. A Sterling-Stenling is slightly lighter than a Sten at 6-pounds unloaded; the cyclic rate is the same at 550-600 rounds per minute.

Pros: A Sterling submachine gun is much more ergonomic than a Sten. Sterling magazines are moderately priced and more reliable than those of a Sten; however, most Sten magazines will fit and function in a Sterling. If you convert a working Sten to a Sterling, you can sell the remaining Sten parts to help cover the conversion cost. Cons: Requires a Sterling part set, and a skilled manufacturer to complete the work; a Sten to Sterling conversion can be a somewhat expensive process. Stenlings are sometimes offered for sale, but will cost considerably more than a Sten MKII.

The Lanchester Conversion

Another conversion that has received ATF approval is the Sten MKII to a 9mm Lanchester submachine gun. The Lanchester is a World War II British submachine gun, which was a copy of the German MP28 submachine gun. Cyclic rate is the same as the MK II Sten at 550-600 rounds per minute.

Pros: The Lanchester is a very accurate submachine gun, and uses standard Sten magazines. 50-round magazines were made for the Lanchester; they will also work in a Sten. Cons: Lanchesters are on the heavy side with an unloaded weight of 9.65 pounds; part kits and spare parts may be difficult to locate. The conversion is best left to a qualified Class 2 manufacturer.

German MP40 Submachine Gun

The 9mm MP40 of World War II fame is a very popular submachine gun. They come in two guises; original guns, those having original receivers, and those with “new” manufacture receivers commonly known as “tube guns.” The MP40 has an unloaded weight of 8.9 pounds; the cyclic rate is approximately 500-600 rounds per minute.

Original MP40 submachine guns were either brought back to the U.S. after World War II or imported and sold as “Dewats” during the 1950s. A Dewat is an acronym for Deactivated War Trophy. The most common way to deactivate a submachine gun was to weld the barrel to the receiver and fill the barrel.

Original MP40 submachine guns, with original receivers are the most desirable. Original receiver guns can often be identified by looking at the form that it’s registered on. The manufacturer’s block on the ATF form will list an original manufacturer’s name or will often state “unknown” or “German” for original receiver guns. Examining the inside of the receiver is another method of determining an original receiver. Original receivers will have “ribs” on the inside, the same as the outside surface, because they are made from sheet metal. Tube guns are made from a tube, and the outside is milled to contour, leaving the inside smooth.

Matching Numbers

Most of original parts in German MP40 submachine guns had numbers stamped on them, generally several of the last digits of the weapon’s serial number. An all-numbers matching MP40 is one in which all of the numbered parts match the number on the weapon’s receiver. All matching guns bring a premium over non-matching examples. The original dull blue finish is also important in determining the value of an MP40.

Pros: A World War II classic, original guns are Curio and Relics. Cons: Original receiver MP40s with non-matching parts are less valuable. Magazines prices are moderate to expensive, spare parts expensive. MP 40s are full automatic only. A magazine loader is recommended.

MP40 Tube Guns

The MP40 was a very popular firearm for Class 2 manufacturers to build using new “tube” receivers. All other parts used in assembly were usually original German parts. New manufacture receivers, made from tubing, will be smooth inside. Cosmetic “ribs” were machined onto the outside to replicate the look of an original receiver. Some manufacturers took extra care with their builds, like Charlie Erb, who marked some of the parts to match his receiver serial numbers; for an original look, he also stamped German Waffenampts (proof marks) on his receivers.

Pros: A lot like an original MP40, except for the receiver, difficult to distinguish from an original. Cons: Not considered Curio and Relics. Some manufacturers did better builds than others, a few didn’t bother to machine the cosmetic ribs on the receivers; some guns were Parkerized rather than blued.

Soviet PPSh 41

The Russian PPSh 41 (Pistolet-Pulemyot Shpagina 1941) was designed by Georgi Shpagin during World War II, and was primarily constructed of sheet metal with crude welds. Because of its fast cyclic rate of 900-1,100 rounds per minute, and 71 round drum magazine the, PPSh is an exhilarating, fun weapon to fire. The PPSh type weapons also use double-stack single-feed 35-round magazines; they are difficult to load without a loading tool. A PPSh 41 has an unloaded weight of approximately 8 pounds; a loaded 71 round drum weighs 4 pounds.

The weapon was manufactured by a number of Soviet influenced countries, all using different designations including: Poland, China, Hungary, North Korea and Iran. The PPSh 41 followed earlier Soviet designs that included the PPD 34/38 and PPD 40 that were heavier and more labor intensive to manufacture. The wood-stocked Soviet PPSh 41 was followed by the all-metal PPS43 submachine gun.

Most of the PPSh submachine guns available are original Curio and Relic weapons or “rewelds”, guns assembled from demilled original receiver pieces that Class 2 manufacturers welded back together to fabricate a functioning receiver. An original C&R example will generally cost much more than one with a welded receiver.

Pros: A lot of fun to shoot, easy to control, drums and magazines are very reasonably priced, spare parts are available; can be fairly easy to convert to fire 9mm Parabellum cartridges. Cons: The PPSh 41 can consume large quantities of ammunition very quickly; 7.62x25mm ammunition is getting difficult to find and increasing in price.

The Swedish-K

The Swedish submachine gun, commonly known as the Swedish-K, served as the model for the Smith & Wesson Model 76. The Swedish-K was used by U.S. Special Forces during the Vietnam War.

The Swedish submachine gun is known by a number of names including; the Swedish-Kulsprute M/45, the Carl Gustaf or the Swedish K. When discussion turns to the “best in class” submachine gun the Swedish “K” is usually at, or near the top of the list. The Swedish submachine gun was designed for full-automatic operation only, although single shots can be accomplished by careful trigger manipulation. The automatic cyclic rate of the weapon was designed to be from 500 to 600 rounds per minute, which is often considered ideal for optimum controllability in a submachine gun. The action of the Swedish-K is the open-bolt arrangement commonly used on submachine guns, employing the advanced primer ignition system. Unloaded weight is approximately 7.62 pounds.

The Egyptian government was quite impressed with the Swedish-K, adopting the 9mm weapon for its military forces. The Egyptian version of the Swedish-K is designated as the “Port Said” (pronounced; Sa-eed) model. Outwardly, the Swedish and the Egyptian weapons are identical and the parts are completely interchangeable. They can each be identified by their markings. The Swedish guns have the Crown and C denoting national production, some examples were clearly marked “Made in Sweden”, most of the Port Said parts were marked with Arabic characters.

The Swedish-K M/45 model was originally designed for the Suomi M31 50-round duplex “coffin” magazine. The Swedish-K was also able to utilize the forty and seventy-one round drums of the M31 submachine gun, and an excellent wedge-shaped double stack, double-feed design with a capacity of thirty-six-9mm cartridges. The reliable magazine contributed much to the success of the weapon. The magazine housing (on early models) was secured to the receiver by a steel U-shaped retaining pin, to give lateral support to the later production 36 round magazine, and could be easily removed to permit use of the Suomi 50 round duplex box magazine or either of the drum magazines.

The sights designed for the Swedish-K are considered by many to be complex for a submachine gun. The rear sight had three separate flip-up U-notch leaves calibrated for ranges of 100, 200 and 300 meters. The front sight was a protected post design that was adjustable for windage.

Although the Swedish-K submachine gun was in continuous production for nearly twenty-five years, transferable, original-receiver Swedish-K submachine guns are very uncommon in the United States. The majority of those transferable examples that do exist were assembled with “new” manufacture receiver tubes. Most of the known tubes were manufactured and registered by either Martin Pearl or the Wilson Arms Company. Many of the stripped Wilson receiver tubes were transferred to various Class 2 manufacturers who then assembled them into complete guns. Some M/45s were assembled using original Egyptian Port Said, Swedish M/45 parts, or a combination of the two.

Pros: Accurate, very controllable. Can use large capacity drums and magazines, many accessories are available including a very handy magazine loader and 36-round stripper clips, sub-caliber practice ammunition, and special training barrels. Magazines and drums are widely available and inexpensive. Cons: Original transferable examples are rare. “Tube” guns are not especially common, and are one of the most expensive “tube guns” on the market.

The Uzi

The Uzi submachine gun has become one of the most popular choices for a first-time buyer. Unfortunately this popularity has steadily been driving up the prices of transferable guns. The Uzi came in several models: full size, mini, and micro, but the full-size versions are the most common. The full-size UZI has an unloaded weight of 7.7 pounds; cyclic rate is approximately 600 rounds per minute.

Registered Receiver Uzis

Israeli Military Industries (IMI). Virtually all the transferable Israeli-made 9mm Uzi submachine guns available, with a very few exceptions, were originally semiautomatic carbines, which were converted into a submachine gun, by a number of Class 2 manufacturers prior to 1986. In order to be approved for importation, the semiautomatic carbines had to be designed so that submachine gun parts: short barrels, bolts, and trigger housings could not be easily installed in them.

During the 1980s when the conversions were performed, there were virtually no original submachine gun parts available. This necessitated the alteration, and use, of some of the original semiauto parts. As a result, many original submachine gun parts, such as barrels, bolts and sears will not readily fit in these conversions. Israeli Uzi semiautomatic carbines had a “blocking bar” welded to the inside wall of their receivers; the purpose of the bar was to prevent the installation of a submachine gun bolt. Some manufacturers left the blocking bar in place, and slotted the bolt to clear the bar. These type conversions are not very popular because the blocking bar cannot now be legally removed, and it is illegal to slot a machine gun bolt to clear the blocking bar. This makes repair or replacement of the bolt a problem.

Pros: Made in Israel, can be upgraded to most SMG specifications, parts are readily available and inexpensive. Magazines are currently very inexpensive. Recent manufacture .22 conversion kits are available. Cons: Many original submachine gun replacement parts will not fit without alterations to the receiver.

Group Industries Uzis

Group Industries was a company that manufactured a number of different machine gun receivers, primarily for the civilian market. The company also did a number of machine gun conversions, and gained fame doing a large number of full-auto conversions of the Israeli semiautomatic Uzi carbines. Group Industries also manufactured and sold a number of Uzi submachine gun parts for conversions. These were quite popular back in the days when original submachine gun part sets were not readily available.

During the 1980s, Group Industries made Uzi receivers produced on dies and fixtures they had obtained from the Belgium firm Fabrique Nationale (FN). The Group Industries Uzi was designed with many features of the original Israeli submachine gun, unlike many Israeli semiautomatic Uzi model B carbines that were the foundation for many of the converted guns. The Group grip frame was marked A- R- S, and featured the large “submachine gun” style sear and sights. The receiver was also made without the barrel restrictor ring and with a trunnion that would accept a standard submachine gun barrel. Approximately 4,050 receivers were registered prior to the 1986 ban. The Group guns were registered in 9mm/.45 ACP and .22 caliber. As a witticism, Group Industries designated their Uzi clones the Model HR 4332, this was the number of the House bill introduced by Representative Hughes (NJ) that effectively ended the legal manufacture of transferable machine guns in the United States.

After Group Industries was finally getting their Uzis on the market, a series of unfortunate circumstances caused Group Industries to file for bankruptcy. An auction was held in Kentucky on August 24, 1995 to liquidate the company’s assets. A total of 3,318 fully transferable Uzi receivers and 109 Post ‘86 Dealer Samples were auctioned off, as well as crates of parts.

Vector Uzis

The registered Group Industries Uzi receivers from the auction eventually resurfaced in the spring of 1999, assembled into complete working guns. The former Group Uzi receivers were assembled with a number of surplus South African Uzi parts made by Lyttleton Engineering. The “new” Uzis were assembled and marketed by Vector Arms of North Salt Lake, Utah. The company offered both the standard full-size and mini Uzi models. The Vector Arms Company sold the last of their new transferable Uzi submachine guns in 2003.

Pros: The Group Industry receivers and guns were made to the same specifications as original submachine guns and all parts easily interchangeable. Cons: American made receivers; some prefer the Israeli made receivers.

Registered Uzi Bolts

There were also transferable bolts registered as machine guns. Many of them were original machine gun bolts machined to clear the restrictor ring in IMI semiauto carbines and were slotted to clear the blocking bar. A registered bolt could be used to legally convert a semiautomatic Uzi to a submachine gun.

Pros: Can be moved into different receivers. Cons: Are nearly as expensive as a registered receiver Uzi. Not especially desirable. Broken or damaged bolts can be repaired, but cannot be replaced.

Registered Uzi Sears

Fleming Firearms registered some Uzi sears and these are permanently “married” to the gun that they were installed in, meaning that you cannot move the sear to a different receiver. Qualified made a small number of sears that were not married to specific receivers.

Pros: None. Cons: Broken or damaged registered sears can be repaired, but cannot be replaced.

German MP5 Submachine Guns

The 9mm H&K MP5 is one of the most desirable submachine guns available, and with good reason, they are very smooth and controllable in the full auto mode of operation. Virtually all transferable guns available were converted from semiautomatic HK 94 carbines. With their popularity comes a price, they are on the upper end of the price scale of submachine gun conversions. There were several “types” of conversions performed by a number of entities, like the Uzi conversions, there were few original HK machine gun parts available back when the conversions were legal to do. This often resulted in manufacturers altering semiautomatic parts. An original MP5 submachine gun has a cyclic rate of approximately 800 rounds per minute, unloaded weight is approximately 6 pounds, which varies slightly by specific model.

Registered Receivers

These are conversions where the receiver itself is the registered part. When the HK 94 semiautomatic carbines, on which the conversions were performed, were imported they were subject to guidelines to make the addition of submachine gun parts difficult. In the case of the HK carbines, they differed from their submachine gun counterparts, in the attachment of their trigger housings, and internal components. Submachine gun trigger housings are attached with two push-pins, the front being a swingdown pivot. On semiautomatic carbine receivers, the front pinhole area was replaced by a steel shelf welded to the receiver. The front of the trigger housing was made to slide or “clip” onto this shelf and be secured by the rear housing pin. This alteration also would not allow a submachine gun trigger pack to fit into the semiautomatic housings. As a result for select-fire conversions, the components in the semiautomatic trigger packs were altered to function as a machine gun. This configuration also eliminated the easy installation of the submachine gun paddle-type magazine release.

Pros: None. Cons: Cannot be converted to a submachine gun type, two-pin swing-down trigger housing; cannot use the trigger group in another HK firearm. Most parts in the trigger group will usually be modified semi-auto parts.

Dual Push Pin Registered Receivers

During the time that the HK conversions were being performed, there were few submachine gun parts available to use in the conversions, as a result many semiautomatic parts were modified to convert the firearm to function as a submachine gun. However, there were a few purist manufacturers around that would settle for nothing short of making their work as close to original as possible. They converted the semiautomatic receivers to accept original submachine gun “swing down” two-pin trigger housings by removing the lower attachment block for the semiautomatic type clip-on trigger housings, and altering the forward attachment point by installing a bushing to accept a front push-pin. The primary advantage to this arrangement is being able to attach a submachine gun trigger housing to the receiver; a secondary advantage is the ability to use standard submachine gun trigger group parts. HK 94 carbines that were originally converted to the dual push pin configuration are very desirable and demand a premium today. Although this was an ideal conversion method, it is now ILLEGAL to perform this alteration to any HK firearm.

Pros: The most desired conversion. Original submachine gun replacement parts can be used. Cons: Rare, the most desired and expensive type of conversion. It is no longer legal to convert existing clip-on receivers to the two-pin type.

Registered Trigger Packs

Instead of receivers, some manufacturers registered H&K trigger packs as machine guns. Some of these conversions will have a serial number engraved on the trigger housings. The disadvantage of registered trigger packs is that most of their housings are of the old pressed steel configuration. If the serial number is on the housing, they cannot be upgraded to the newer, and more desirable, plastic housings.

Registered Sears

Many manufacturers simply manufactured new sears, which could be fitted in to semiautomatic trigger packs, and registered them as machine guns. The sear itself will be engraved with a serial number. Common sears are Fleming, Qualified, S&H, and Ciener, but there are numerous others.

Pros: Registered trigger packs, and trigger packs with registered sears, can be moved into other HK firearms, including .223 and .308 models by changing the ejector. Cons: Moving the trigger pack out of an HK firearm with a barrel under 16-inches in length creates an illegal short barrel rifle. This requires that the owner register the short barreled rifle in order to continue switching the sear between firearms.

The HK-93 was a jewel in any 1980s-era gun collection. They were never all that common and after the import ban under George Bush Senior the prices on these pieces grew to outrageous proportions. Today an original pre-ban HK-93 brings at least a couple thousand dollars or more on the rare occasion that they can be found. It is into this sad state of affairs that Century International Arms works their magic yet again.

Century Arms has carved itself a tidy spot in the American gun market by, among other things, resurrecting surplus gun kits on U.S.-made receivers. They offer some unique and fascinating firearms as a result. This author has owned several and has been very pleased with them as reliable shooters that are priced for the common man. The full-sized C-93 rifle was profiled in detail in a previous article. (SAR, August, 2011)

Big Brother Brings a Lot to the Table

The original C-93 is a very nice contemporary rendition of the HK-93 that has been on sale for several years now. The standard C-93 is built from excellent surplus military parts on a new-made U.S. receiver. I have pushed several thousand rounds through mine since the first article and have had nary a hiccup. It is a nice-looking rifle that is as reliable as a ball peen hammer. My copy shoots straight, readily eats any respectable ammunition, and looks great. The purchase price on this rifle is lower today than was that of an original thirty years ago even discounting inflation.

One of the interesting aspects of the roller-locked recoil system used in these guns is that it will function reliably independent of barrel length. Unlike traditional gas-operated weapons that depend upon a pulse of high-pressure gas to cycle a weapon’s action, the HK series of roller-locked rifles will function just fine whether the barrel is one inch long or twenty. As a result HK successfully marketed a line of short-barreled variants of their rifle lineup back in the day as well. The short-barreled version of the HK-33 that spawned the newest Century offering was designated the HK-53.

Origins

American gun laws are just plain ridiculous. The arbitrary definitions of Rifles, Pistols, Shotguns, Machine Guns, and, Lord help us; Any Other Weapons can boggle the mind. As a result of this disjointed mess we do get some fascinating products directed specifically at the U.S. consumer, however. One of those is the classic, for lack of a better term, purpose-built pistol-made-from-rifle-parts.

AR-15 pistols have been around for years. They come in countless configurations from several suppliers. SIG also offers a pistol version of their 550-series black rifle with a short carbine barrel and no stock. There has been any number of Kalashnikov-based handguns floating about as well. The new kid on the block for this odd genre is the Century C-93 handgun.

The Runt of the Litter Still Bites Hard

The HK-53 was in essence a full-sized HK-33 action mated to the slightly modified forend of the MP-5 submachine gun. The resulting gun was compact and maneuverable while still launching full-powered 5.56mm ammunition. The propensity of the 5.56mm cartridge to spill unburned powder out of such a short barrel with the resulting inevitably excessive muzzle flash necessitated the inclusion of a generous flash suppressor to the muzzle. It is in this configuration, sans the shoulder stock, that the C-93 pistol hits U.S. gun shops.

The C-93 pistol is 20 inches long from muzzle to buttcap and tips the scales at 6 pounds unloaded. The barrel is 8.5 inches long. It comes from the factory with two forty-round magazines and a buttcap cum sling swivel in place of a buttstock. The magazines are brilliantly executed with a pair of small ancillary lift springs that are configured to give a little extra boost to the column of cartridges when the magazine is fully loaded.

The C-93 pistol is also built from surplus German parts mated to a U.S.-made barrel and receiver. Most of the parts on my test gun were dated in the late seventies and were in excellent condition. The finish was uniform and robust and the finishing welds on the rear sight base and cocking tube were nice. The bolt carrier incorporates a series of grooves in its right hand side to serve as a rudimentary forward assist. To be fair, the crispness of the receiver pressing is not quite up to the original H&K products and the front sight base is affixed with the tiniest smidgeon of clockwise cant but the gun is, relatively speaking, dirt cheap compared to the originals. Don’t sweat these trivial issues, however. The gun still looks great and windage was spot on during accuracy testing from a rest without any adjustment to the sights.

The gun even comes with a nice assault case. The case incorporates pouches for three spare magazines and a small zippered pocket. The accompanying literature claims that the case will float with the weapon inside. I will admit to not being man enough to throw my gun into our farm pond to test this claim.

But Can You Really Hit Anything With It?

You might be surprised. I was. The 5.56mm round has negligible recoil when launched from such a platform so keeping the gun on target was surprisingly easy. The most effective technique we found in our range testing was to sling the gun over the firing shoulder and keep tension on the sling with the weapon extended out towards the target in the manner of the stockless MP-5K submachine gun. In this configuration we could consistently keep all rounds in the black on a tactical target at reasonable handgun engagement ranges just by firing over the iron sights. The addition of a laser designator or red dot sight makes this task all the simpler. A little “Google Fu” will turn up plenty of railed forends and scope mounting solutions. At the end of the day I was frankly shocked at how effective this firearm was at up-close-and-personal engagement ranges. Shooters of various experience levels tried the gun out and all involved found it to be an intuitive and simple task to consistently hit a man-sized target, even in rapid fire, at reasonable pistol ranges.

In its standard configuration my particular C-93 pistol was completely reliable with a variety of ammunition loads. Steel or brass cased ammo did not make any difference though the fluted chamber leaves longitudinal streaks on the cases, as do all H&K weapons of this generation, and the ejection system launches the empties into outer space.

The C-93 pistol is not the gun for engaging targets at one hundred meters and beyond. To be fair, neither is your Glock. If the threat is loitering out a couple hundred meters off then the original C-93 is your go-to iron. However, for an immensely powerful package that is short, handy, maneuverable, and carries enough onboard ammo to let you get bored shooting it, the C-93 pistol is unbeatable.

Why?

A good friend posed that simple question when I told him I had obtained one of these odd guns. There are countless handguns that are significantly smaller, handier, and more concealable. There are countless rifles that are more effective and comfortable at moderate distances. I have no interest in competing for a Gangster of the Year award though, to be honest, the C-93 pistol would look pretty sharp tucked inside a dapper trench coat. Sometimes I have picked up guns just because they look cool and I didn’t already own anything similar. In this case, however, I think there is a legitimate place for the C-93 pistol in a working gun collection. We live in a weird world and it will only get weirder in the coming years. A standard C-93 pistol stashed behind the seat of a pickup truck down here in the Deep South where I live would sure be comforting if you were stuck out in the middle of no-place when the zombies come. The two magazines that come with the gun hold eighty rounds. If that is insufficient to take care of business during the zombie apocalypse then I suppose it just wasn’t your day.

American gun laws are indeed silly but the Century Arms C-93 pistol is a remarkably clever and effective platform that is launched specifically to comply with them. It has been said that when life gives you lemons you should make a little lemonade. The lemonade in this case is pretty sweet.

Some wag once described a camel as a horse designed by a committee. If that’s true the M1919A6 is the camel of the light machine gun world. It looks like the small arms equivalent of a couple of kids building a dog house from scrap lumber. The combination of events that preceded the A6’s deployment in the fall of 1943 reads like a laundry list of what not to do in a weapons development program.

The U.S. Army concept of a rifle caliber, easily transportable automatic weapon for close support of high mobility troops originated with the Cavalry as far back as 1919. The Chief of Cavalry and his staff, drawing on WWI experiences, realized that in order to remain relevant in modern warfare the Cavalry would have to increase the combat power of mounted troops and proceeded to lobby the Ordnance Department for a suitable weapon. The Ordnance Department, up to its eyeballs with surplus everything, provided a weapon, the M1922 Browning Machine Rifle, which was a modified M1918 Browning Machine Rifle, later known as the Browning Automatic Rifle, with a barrel featuring a series of large diameter annular flutes or fins near the chamber end of the barrel in an attempt to improve cooling and increase sustained fire capabilities. The M1922 was also equipped with a bipod mounted on the gas cylinder tube and butt rest. The M1922 was accurate and reliable; however it had a couple of drawbacks. Even with the finned barrel it was unable to provide sustained covering fire because of overheating and the limited magazine capacity of 20 rounds.

In April of 1929 the Ordnance Committee acting on Item # 7613 responded to a request from the Chief of Cavalry and furnished two air cooled M1919 Tank Machine Guns with shoulder stocks and the emergency tripod, dismounted, and one tank gun with a “modified” barrel to Ft Riley KS for testing. While there is little detail as to the nature of the modification it appears from the test results that the “modified” barrel was some sort of lightweight barrel that was thought to be able to function without the use of the gas assist booster present on the M1919 Tank Machine Gun.

In the February 6, 1930 meeting of the Ordnance Committee, the test report was read into the record as Item #8086. In short, the Cavalry found that that the tank gun with the modified barrel was wholly unsuitable due to overheating, which caused loss of accuracy and got the weapon so hot that it was nearly impossible to handle or pack. They were not very enthusiastic about the unmodified M1919’s either, actually requesting that ground type Lewis machine guns be furnished from stores for further field testing. The Chief of Cavalry also requested the Ordnance Department to develop a weapon capable of sustained fire while maintaining accuracy, being hand carried, able to be readily transported on a pack horse, and equipped with a shoulder stock, carrying handle and a light weight tripod. The Ordnance Committee obliged and recommended shipment of 25 Lewis guns and 250 47-round magazines for further evaluation. It not presently known if these Lewis guns were ever shipped or not.

What was going on here was the Calvary was pressuring Ordnance for a newly designed weapon by finding fault with whatever was furnished. Given budget restraints due to the Great Depression, a parsimonious Congress, ever paranoid of a large standing army and with the huge store of weapons left over from WWI, chances of a new weapons development program were somewhere around zero.

When the harsh realities of the situation dawned on the Chief of Cavalry he changed his tune and on August 22, 1930 he requested that the M1922 Browning Machine Rifle be replaced by the M1919 Tank Machine Gun modified by removing the telescopic sight and brackets, front sight and the auxiliary trigger and grip along with a laundry list of other changes involving front and rear sights and the emergency tripod but retaining the M1919 shoulder rest. On August 26 the Ordnance Department forwarded this request to the Adjutant General adding the proviso that the request be held in abeyance until the Cavalry actually had time to test out this theory.

While all this was going on some enterprising Ordnance officers of the 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Bliss TX had started tinkering with the 4 M1919 tank guns furnished for pack mounting tests by jury-rigging front and rear sights, removing the auxiliary trigger and grip and changing the clamp style barrel jacket mounting of the emergency tripod to a clevis style that attached the tripod by the front mount adaptor holes in the casing. When the Chief of Cavalry arrived for a visit he was suitably impressed and fired off a letter to the Ordnance Technical Committee attached to drawings prepared by the folks at FT. Bliss showing the necessary modifications that the Cavalry considered essential. One of the essentials was an adjustable shoulder stock “firmly and permanently attached.” The eight drawings dated 8-26-30 and one sheet of revisions dated October 14, 1930 was forwarded to the Ordnance Committee, where on October 30, 1930 all of this was read into the record as Item 8523.

In 1931 the Infantry got involved and what would lead to the M1919A2, M1919A4 and the M1919A6 began to gain traction. Somewhere along the line the shoulder rest got the heave-ho. The basic design for the M1919 Tank Machine Gun was the M1917 water cooled. Converting the water cooled design to air cooling opened several cans of worms. The closed-bolt firing system and field stripping for barrel changing in the water cooled M1917 were not a big deal, providing that one kept the barrel jacket filled with coolant. Loss of the water cooling efficiency of the original design required that the barrel mass be increased to help with the heat dissipation problem. This increased the weight of the recoiling parts, which required greater energy to function the weapon, leading to the development of the gas assist “booster” design. There was only so much to be gained solving the heat dissipation problem by increasing barrel mass before the Law of Diminishing Returns took effect. No matter what you did, the air cooled Browning weapon would run hotter leading to the danger of cook-offs and rapid wear of barrels. The cook-off problem in the M1919 Tank guns and its follow-on designs was mitigated somewhat by the installation of the bolt latch which when applied held the bolt to the rear preventing chambering a round in a hot barrel and provided more air circulation for quicker cooling.

The cold hard fact was that barrels on the air cooled ground guns were going to have to be changed much more frequently, which required the weapon to be field stripped and head-spaced for the new barrel. Something designed as an air-cooled infantry weapon from the ground up like the German MG 34 and its follow-on, the MG 42, would or should take changing barrels, shoulder stocks, carrying handles and mounts into account in the original design.

The Cavalry and Infantry apparently decided that something, the M1919A2 and the M2 tripod and the follow-on M1919A4, was better than nothing, but that didn’t keep them from grousing about barrel changing and other shortcomings of the air cooled .30 Caliber ground Brownings. All this grousing about barrel changing led to some experimentation at RIA.

Ordnance was not opposed in principal to acquiring a new light machine gun and even held field trials for the foreign manufactured Hotchkiss and Solothurn weapons. The Ordnance Committee meeting on March 29, 1934 discussed the results of the trial as Item # 11357 noting that the quick change feature of barrels was looked on favorably by the Infantry. The Infantry wanted a relatively light weight weapon that was rifle caliber and belt fed capable of some level of sustained fire and able to be deployed by one man. The M1919A4 needed two men to deploy, the Gunner carrying the tripod and the Assistant Gunner carrying the A4. The M2 tripod/A4 combination weighed in at 48 lbs and usually had to be separated into two pieces to change the weapon’s position. The Infantry was aware of the German MG 34, which featured a butt stock and a bipod mounted on the weapon along with a very effective quick change barrel feature. The weapon could also be mounted on a ground mount if the need arose. This appeared to be the style of weapon best suited to the perceived task. Ordnance wanted to purpose-build a weapon to serve the Infantry’s needs. However the system in use at the time to solicit designs, develop new weapons, and test, field trial, and mass produce took years. The Infantry, well aware of the time required to approve new weapons, needed something to satisfy their needs yesterday, not years down the road.

Much wrangling back and forth ensued with the Infantry suggesting that the M1919A4 currently in production could be modified at little cost using non critical materials to satisfy their immediate needs and some new weapon could be developed at a later date. By early 1943, Ordnance agreed to develop a kit of accessories to be furnished to adopt the M1919A4 to the configuration that the Infantry desired. During development and testing of the new accessory kit, Ordnance discovered that this was not going to be a stroll in the park due to design and parts logistics issues and decided to purpose-build and name the modified weapon M1919A6 Major Item 51-125 and declare it a substitute standard. The business of the quick(er) change barrel resurfaced and got incorporated in the design concept.

The whole business of changing the A6 barrel profile, which made it lighter, is usually wholly misunderstood. It was never about making the weight of the weapon lighter, which it did; it was about making the barrel and hence the recoiling parts lighter and solving one of the M1919A4’s design deficiencies. All of the air-cooled Cal. .30 Browning ground guns were makeovers from the M1917 water cooled design which was a pure recoil operated weapon. The M1917 design used a 3 lb. barrel that was changed by field stripping the weapon. When the air-cooled Tank gun was designed it was necessary to increase the mass of the barrel to aid in heat dissipation. Since the barrel needed support at the muzzle, a ventilated jacket with elongated slots was designed. This heavier barrel increased the weight of the recoiling parts and since the energy from the firing of the cartridge needed to operate the weapon remained the same, Browning had to come up with additional energy from somewhere. Browning developed the “muzzle attachment” later known as the front barrel bearing which besides supporting the end of the 18-inch long 5.6 lb. barrel provided a chamber closed off with a removable “muzzle attachment plug” having a hole that aligned with end of the muzzle. During the very short time the projectile was in this chamber expanding gas from the burning propellant applied rearward force to the end of the barrel adding additional recoil energy and making these weapons recoil operated gas assist.

Coming up with this solution, Browning reached back to his roots and his original “device” which used the combustion gasses exiting the muzzle to move a plate with a hole that the projectile passed through which was attached to a rod to cycle the action of a rifle. When the designers of the A6 lightened the barrel they were doing so to eliminate the need for the gas assist function. By shortening the barrel jacket and adding wrench flats to the muzzle which protruded far enough to allow the barrel to be unscrewed from the barrel extension from the muzzle end and withdrawn from the front and a new barrel to be installed in the reverse manner.

The decision to reduce the barrel mass attempting to get a front change barrel was probably not a good one. The M1919A4 with its 7.5 lb. barrel was already marginal on overheating during sustained fire and reducing the mass did not make a tenuous situation any better. The Saginaw Steering Gear Division of General Motors, the premier quality, low cost and high production manufacturer and, after July, 1943 the only maker in regular production of the M1919A4, was selected to be the producer/developer of the new weapon. Saginaw got busy and fabricated new parts that were cast using an alloy developed by Saginaw Malleable Iron, one of their subsidiary companies. This alloy, a perlitic malleable iron, called ArmaSteel, had been developed pre-war to cast certain automotive parts that were difficult to machine.

A review of the Ordnance Department drawings of A6 specific parts shows a common original date on the majority of the drawings of 7-23-43 and this author takes this to be a convenient date to cite for beginning of production. Other than the added parts, the weapon remains an M1919A4. And just like the A4 with the addition of a pintle, the A6 could be mounted on any tripod that would accept the A4. Like all the other M1919’s, the A6 could use either ammunition supplied in fabric belts or metallic link belts.

The first combat application of the 1919A6 occurred in the Salerno area of the Italian Campaign in the late fall of 1943 and later in the Anzio area in January of 1944. Things did not go well. While engineering assessments showed that the weapon as fielded lacking any booster would function, it failed its combat test. The principal shortcoming was a reliability issue, a lack of reserve power to function the weapon when dirty or firing with the muzzle depressed below horizontal. The lightweight barrel also made overheating even more severe. Ordnance engineers reviewed the problem and decided that even with the lightened barrel maybe John Browning with his idea of the gas assist booster was on to something. Back to the drawing board, literally. Not wanting to forgo the front change barrel concept the designers came up with a cap style booster removable without the need for a tool. This design required a different front barrel bearing and an even shorter barrel jacket.

The cap style booster solved the reserve recoil energy problem but as with all things one problem begets another. The clip that held the cap to the front barrel bearing was easily dislodged allowing the cap to fall off the bearing, and to make things worse, the retaining clip that held the bipod head on the bearing was prone to slipping off allowing the entire bipod to slide off the bearing.

In time all these problems and a few others were solved. A different style booster cap retaining clip with a locking feature replaced the earlier design along with a thicker retaining ring for the bipod head. Development of .30 caliber Stellite barrel assemblies and later chrome lined bores and front barrel bearing surfaces for the A6 improved the wear characteristics of the barrel. Another feature developed late WWII was the design of the flash hider/booster for both the M1919A4 and the A6. However this accessory was not in regular production until 1950.

Post-Korea the M1919A6 got a new look with the new carry handles, originally designed in 1944, which was clamped to the barrel jacket and the M7 booster/flash hider with the locking style clip. This style of wood carry handle was adapted to the M1919A2 BAR and the M1917A1 water cooled Browning.

The M1919A6 soldiered on past the introduction of the M60GP machine gun in 1957 and into the very early stages of the Viet Nam war and with Army Reserve and National Guard units until nearly 1970. The M1919A4 and A6 in stores became fodder for various military assistance programs, especially to Israel.

The Israeli Defense Force proceeded to convert these weapons to 7.62×51 NATO and decided to use the original concept of furnishing a kit of accessories so that any M1919A4 could be become more or less instantly an A6 wannabe. This allowed the use of the standard A4 profile barrel simplifying supply issues and helped with overheating. They re-designed and fabricated a new bipod with fixed length legs and a spring loaded plunger that engaged the holes in the bottom of the barrel jacket allowing the bi-pod to be positioned anywhere on the jacket. The IDF version of the carry handle has a solid plastic handle and the champing bolt is equipped with a wing nut for easier adjustment. The IDF butt stock is a near exact copy of the USGI stock except for Hebrew script on the upper right rear surface.

Total WWII production includes about 44,000 purpose built weapons produced by Saginaw Steering Gear along with an unknown number of conversions from M1919A4s and A5s. Post war and through the Korean War, RIA both rebuilt M1919A4s and A5s into M1919A6s and produced about 8400 new purpose built 1919A6 models. According to the RIA Historical Summary for the period 1 July 1955 to 31 December 1955 the last 3 new built M1919A6s rolled off the RIA production line. The last mention of RIA’s connection with the M1919A6 was the rebuilding of 432 M1919A4 to M1919A6 configuration between 1 July 1957 and 31 December 1957. Following the transfer of engineering and support activities for these weapons back to the Springfield Armory on 12 July 1957 Saco-Lowell Shops produced a small number of purpose built M1919A6’s along with maintenance parts.

As today’s computing power increases at an exponential rate, so does directed energy technology – a close relative. Most think of directed energy in terms of visible light spectrum lasers or perhaps microwave beams, but the directed energy weapons of tomorrow may consist of a mix of many, giving them awesome effectiveness requiring countermeasures so sophisticated and/or expensive the enemy won’t attempt them.

There are a multitude of directed energy possibilities that are being considered for use as a soldier-carried battlefield anti-personnel weapon (see: www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/ADA476320.pdf). These emerging technologies all have pros and cons with respect to capability, lethality, portability, power requirements, sustainability, maintainability, cost, and legality. Additionally, a laser weapon small enough and light enough for individual soldiers to carry quickly thresholds the Law of Physics, which universally dictates what can and can’t be achieved.

In today’s kinder and gentler war fighting environment political expectations demand less kinetic violence. Blood and guts warfare employed in World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam using guns and bombs is now politically incorrect and has been renamed “kinetic action.” The warfare environment of the future demands non-kinetic weapons, even less-than-lethal means of subduing an enemy and that, translated into a soldier-carried weapon, means some sort of non-kinetic directed energy weapon. So the national weapon laboratories like Sandia, Los Alamos and Laurence Livermore are hard at it, as are many of the university applied physics laboratories as well as private industry. All racing to develop and weaponize directed energy technologies for battlefield use.

Perhaps the place to begin is the receiving end – a “soft” (human) target. A directed energy weapon can be used to temporarily dazzle (blind) the eyesight of the enemy without permanent retinal damage or it can be used to permanently blind the enemy. Another can range from making him feel uncomfortably hot to outright burning his flesh like having a bucket of scalding hot cooking oil thrown on him. Man-portable dazzling and blinding lasers (not to be confused with laser target designation) have seen battlefield use by the special operations community for over twenty years thanks to organizations like DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Agency).

In the mid-1970s there was an experimental multi-spectral dazzling laser weapon then known as “Medusa.” Far from man-portable, it was mounted on the top of a Navy amphibious ship taking the place of one of the ship’s massive radar gun directors and was about the same size. It was designed to temporarily blind an enemy looking seaward during an amphibious assault. It was a huge weapon that demanded vast power resources and required everyone to wear special laser goggles to protect their eyesight. Multi-spectral lasers vary their emission frequencies to make countermeasures more difficult and costly. Eye goggles require a separate protective filtering lens for each frequency so if, for example, the laser spectrum varies by a range of thirty different frequencies, the protective goggles will need thirty different filter layers to protect one’s eyes from the effects- and that’s costly. The sheer number of protective goggles on all the above deck ships’ personnel, all the Marines, pilots, etc., not to mention the cost, was impractical, but Medusa did prove its concept feasibility.

A potential less-than-lethal technology being pursued today by a small privately funded firm involved with electro-muscular incapacitation induces a very select waveform into the body’s spinal cord, shutting down the individual’s Sympathetic Nervous System’s “fight and flight” ability without affecting the higher portion of the Autonomic Nervous System’s (ANS) ability to keep a person’s heart beating or one’s respiration. Currently, physical contact is necessary to induce this waveform into the body but there is talk of using a laser to induce this wave form. Obviously, if an attack on a particular part of the ANS is possible, they could likewise attack the part that controls the heart and breathing and with a simple click of a switch, select a stun or kill mode. If this could be achieved using a microwave beam, a weapon such as this could be as monumental to warfare as the atomic bomb, especially if it could be adapted to wide area look down – shoot down UAV aerial delivery.

But will these exotic directed energy weapons ever become mainstream soldier-carried assault weapons replacing bullet launching (kinetic) rifles? The short answer is that it’s unlikely for numerous reasons that include the Law of Physics, the Law of War and affordability. All three are prohibitive for different reasons.

The Law of Physics simply can’t be violated. Scaling a directed energy weapon for man portability has been done and patents exist. Making it small and light is within our scientific and technical grasp. Making an enduring power source the same still eludes our grasp and bumps up against the Law of Physics. There’s only so much we can do capturing chemical energy (batteries) and there is no game changing technology on the horizon, to include energy foraging and piezoelectric generation, that will immediately lighten the soldiers load while at the same time increase power and duration. Laser sophistication may contribute to a future solution by economizing power requirements, but again the Law of Physics prevails and at that point science can do little more than awe at the barrier.

The Law of War is also a stumbling block. When it was written, directed energy was the stuff of science fiction so its use was not specifically spelled out. However, there have been revisions like “The Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons,” Protocol IV of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, issued by the United Nations on 13 October 1995 and came into force on 30 July. This essentially says it’s okay to shoot the enemy; you just can’t blind him or burn holes into him using directed energy. Of course, that has never stopped anyone from special purpose use of directed energy or the anti-missile / anti-aircraft directed energy programs DoD is currently developing that could easily be employed against troops on the battlefield. It is interesting to watch how DoD packages its development of these weapons for public and media consumption. More interesting and never reported is the lack of legal opinion for the use or misuse of such weapons. (Editor’s note: SAR contributor Hays Parks has addressed these situations in his old capacity at the Judge Advocate General’s office, and his educated take is paraphrased as: “In combat you can stick a bayonet in someone’s eye, shoot them in the eye, frag them with a grenade, but you most certainly can NOT blind them with a Laser”)

Affordability is also a major detractor. The M16 costs the DoD about $725 dollars a copy. The Colt M4 variant costs around $1,100 a copy. These are the main assault rifles in use today. They have common ergonomics, fundamentally operate in a similar manner requiring little variation in user training and use common ammunition that is NATO interoperable. They are manufactured by a skilled workforce that is largely similar to those which build automobiles using non-exotic processes and materials. A man-portable general purpose directed energy weapon will need to be able to compete with all the above.

Military-grade spotting lasers, as an example, are built using exotic manufacturing processes that require a highly skilled work force and, as a result, they are expensive. Today’s spotting lasers are low tech compared to tomorrows directed energy weapons so logic dictates that the cost of a man-portable directed energy weapon would far exceed the cost of an assault rifle. Therefore, it is safe to assume a one for one replacement will always be cost prohibitive no matter what the defense budget looks like.

An additional aspect, almost always overlooked, is the degree of training both operators and maintenance personnel will require. If a directed energy weapon requires much more than marksmanship-level training or the depot-level maintenance currently in use today it will likely fail as a main battle weapon. If it’s designated a special purpose weapon and only carried by a specially trained operator it must be assumed that its other unique requirements must be supported as well. An example might be today’s squad automatic weapon (SAW) soldier. Even though a soldier carrying a SAW shoots a unique weapon, anyone in his squad can pick it up and shoot it. SAW ammo can be delinked and used in any M16/M4 or the soldiers can re-link 5.56 ammo for SAW use. Weapon interoperability and low tech operator training is a winning combination in combat. It is hard to imagine a man portable directed energy weapon that would offer the same user friendly qualities.

While size, weight, interoperability and lethality are factors, there are other concerns that limit directed energy weapons and they involve environmental extremes. Today’s bullet launching assault rifles are reliable in all extremes ranging from tropical, to desert, to arctic conditions. They work in rain, snow, dust and fog. You can generally immerse them and they’ll still shoot given a few seconds for the water to drain. They can be covered in mud and they shoot. Solar flares and EMP make no difference – they still work. A directed energy weapon relies on a sophisticated electronic circuit to generate the energy beam. While it can be isolated and shielded from outside influence, that adds weight and another level of sophistication. There is always some sort of lens to calumniate (focus) the beam and that, in most cases is optical. That lens must be kept unobstructed and clean to function properly which is a difficult expectation in many environments. Water vapor mitigates directed energy. Clouds, fog, rain and snow are all enemies of directed energy. Today’s powerful anti-missile airborne systems simply burn their way through, but lower energy man-portable systems won’t have that sort of sustained power and will likely be unreliable in some of these unpredictable battlefield environments.

Finally, with shrinking budgets, is pursuing man-portable directed energy weapons the path DoD should follow? As previously discussed, it has pros and cons but whatever the next generation weapon is, it must “by law” remain NATO inter-operable and within the United Nations conventions we signed. And that’s the real challenge.

Early in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq it was clear to the entire sniping community there was a need for a new updated sniper rifle. Modern semiautomatic rifles show little to no accuracy degradation from the traditional bolt action rifles used throughout the last century. The use of a semiautomatic sniper system not only would provide the snipers with their existing capabilities but so much more. Snipers could engage five targets in at least half the time it would take a sniper with a bolt action rifle. The sniper’s ability to engage multi-targets is vastly increased. The sniper also would have 20 rounds of ammunition rather than the 5 of the standard bolt action rifle. It was time for an update. Onset the XM110 SASS Program (Semi Automatic Sniper System).

There already existed a weapon in the military system that fit most of the requirements, the U.S. Navy’s Mk11 Mod0 sniper rifle. The Knight’s Armament Company rifle is based on Gene Stoner and Reed Knights SR25 rifle – a modernized AR-10 if you will. This rifle began service in 1990 and distinguished itself within the SOCOM community. Based on the well known M16 weapon system, this makes the user feel right at home and comfortable with the feel, operation and maintenance of the weapon system. This weapon was ready to go mainstream to enhance a sniper’s ability to do his job more efficiently and enable him to deal with any situation which may arise.

The SASS program was announced by the military in November of 2004. Several companies submitted entries. This would include companies such as Knight’s, Remington, DPMS and ArmaLite. Mark Westrom of ArmaLite, a retired U.S. Army Ordnance officer, entered a version of his proven AR-10 rifle. He took his standard design and made the needed changes to make his Geneseo, Illinois made rifle compete for the gold. Westrom and ArmaLite are not new to the military market; they have rifles in service in Canada as well as Israel. Westrom knew it would be all but impossible to displace the Knight’s Armament Company rifle already in service.

The ArmaLite XM110 took the basic AR-10 design ArmaLite has produced since it came to market in 1994 and utilized a telescopic 6-position VLTOR club foot stock assembly. The requirement stated an adjustable stock, which could either be a telescopic or a fixed stock with an adjustable buttplate. The rifle was all coyote tan in color per requirement. The rifle was equipped with a match grade 2-stage trigger manufactured by Chip McCormick. ArmaLite designed back-up front and rear sights were used along with an ArmaLite designed free floating handguard with quad Mil-Std 1913 rails. The barrel was chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge with a 20-inch 1 turn in 11.25 inches and was equipped with a mount for a Sure Fire sound suppressor. The gas flow was adjustable permitting normal use, suppressed as well as complete gas shut off. There was a scope requirement but no particular scope was specified. ArmaLite opted for the Leupold 3.5×10 match scope which had been used with confidence on the Mk11 MOD0. The maximum effective range of the rifle was 1,000 meters with a barrel life of 7- to 10,000-rounds depending on maintenance and how it is used.

The AR-10 series produced by ArmaLite uses a modified M14 magazine rather than the original AR-10/SR25 magazine. The ArmaLite AR-10 was introduced to the market after the U.S. Federal Assault Weapon Ban. Westrom wanted all of his customers to be able to have high capacity magazines. There were very few of the original ArmaLite AR-10 magazines or Knights SR25 magazines available in the market and if you could get them they were extremely expensive. Knowing of the extensive stocks of M14 magazines, Westrom opted to design his rifle around this magazine and making a few modifications that included replacing the follower with one equipped with a spring loaded plunger that would actuate the bolt catch when the rifle fired its last round. Over the decade of the ban, ArmaLite offered these modified magazines for sale and would convert customer magazines over if they were sent to the factory. After the sunset of the assault weapon ban, ArmaLite went to work to develop their own magazine, which is based on the M14 design but modified for use in the AR-10. Currently Westrom offers 5-, 10-, 20- and 25-round magazines.

Also per requirement the rifle was provided in a Hardig polymer case which added over $1,000 to the cost of the weapon system. Provided were cleaning materials, spare parts as well as a sling. On September 28, 2005 Knight’s Armament Company was awarded the contract for the M110.

Westrom put much development into his SASS rifle and saw it had potential for other military, law enforcement as well as commercial markets. Now without the restrictions of the solicitation, Westrom went on to develop his AR-10 Super SASS rifle. The Super SASS was revealed to the shooting community at the SHOT Show in 2006. The Super SASS is a suppressor ready rifle. The adjustable gas system has two settings, one for normal use and another for use with a sound suppressor. The valve can be moved with the base of a 7.62x51mm cartridge. The Super SASS was designed to work with the Advanced Armament S3R large chamber suppressor. However, if you are unable to possess a sound suppressor for one reason or another, ArmaLite offers a look-alike which can be mounted on the barrel for cosmetic purposes. The 20 inch match grade heavy triple lapped barrel is ceramic coated AISI 416R stainless steel with a 1 turn in 10 inch twist optimal for 150 to 175 grain projectiles. The ammunition suggested by ArmaLite are the 168 and 175 grain match loads. ArmaLite guarantees 1 MOA out of the box on all Super SASS rifles.

The receivers are manufactured from 7175 T-74 aluminum forgings. The upper receiver is a flattop upper receiver with a Mil-Std 1913 rail. This rifle features the fairly newly released forward bolt assist. The upper receiver also has a fired cartridge case deflector preventing fired cartridge cases from hitting a left-handed shooter in the face. The rifle is equipped with a Precision Reflex Company manufactured gas buster charging handle which prevents rifle gases from coming back at the shooters face when firing the rifle with a sound suppressor on it. There is a standard A2-style compensator provided on the muzzle. The bolt carrier group is modified with forward assist notches and maintains the standard manganese phosphate finish. ArmaLite used the rubber “O” ring reinforcement of the extractor spring. This is good insurance especially when firing the rifle in the sound suppressed mode. Suppressors over-gas the rifle’s gas system making it work much faster. The extra pressure on the extractor increases extractor force giving additional strength in extracting a cartridge case that is slightly optureated still caused by the bolt opening sooner. The rifle is provided with three rail protectors for offhand shooting.

The lower receiver utilizes the Magpul Precision Rifle Stock (PRS), perhaps the finest stock of this kind on the market. The stock has adjustable cheek weld as well as butt plate. The stock has a club foot design enabling the shooter to place the non firing hand on it to lock the stock into the shooters shoulder. The bottom of the stock has a short Mil-Std 1913 rail allowing the attachment of a monopod. The rifle has a National Match two-stage trigger with a first stage of 2.5 lbs and a second stage of 4.5 to 5 lbs. The rifle was shipped with one ArmaLite 10- and one 20-round magazine.

The rifle was provided with a Leupold Mark 4 3.5 to 10x scope with an illuminated reticle. This scope has a 40mm objective and is equipped with bullet drop compensator for the 7.62x51mm round with a 168gr projectile. The illuminated reticle is turned on or off by the user and has 11 increments of brightness. The scope was mounted in an ArmaLite 30mm scope mount.

The overall stats on the rifle come in with a 20 inch heavy barrel. The overall length of the rifle is 44.5 inches and weighs in at 12 pounds. The fit and finish of the rifle was superb. The receivers were nice and snug. The rifle is clearly ArmaLite’s crown jewel and for good reason. The rifle has an effective range of 1,000 meters. The rifle was tested with Silver State Armory 7.62x51mm 168gr (M118) and 175gr OTM (M118LR) ammunition as well as Hornady .308 Win Superformance Match 175gr BTHP (#8077) ammunition. The best group shot was with the 168gr Silver State Armory ammunition at .44 inches at 100 yards. However the other two types of ammunition all grouped between .50 and 1.0 inches. Recoil was mild compared to many autoloading 7.62x51mm rifles. The in-line construction of the Stoner weapon system greatly contributes to this enhancement in handling.

Whether military or law enforcement, the tactical sniper would have everything needed in a sniper rifle with the ArmaLite SUPER SASS. Precision accuracy, reliability, firepower and high quality workmanship are all hallmarks of this rifle. For the commercial customer whether it be a competitor, hunter or recreational shooter you can own a military grade sniper rifle.

Submachine guns saw the first large-scale combat use in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, while during World War II these light automatic firearms proved their effectiveness on battlefields all over of the world. After the war their important role was reduced due to the introduction of assault rifles with versatile intermediate cartridges. These new weapons were often as light and compact as many submachine guns but had the punch of a rifle round.

However, there are situations where submachine guns are the best choice today as well as they were decades ago, not because of their firepower, but because of their undemanding design. This property is of upmost importance in cases when somebody is forced to arm himself with an efficient firearm, manufactured in the shortest time in improvised facilities. Therefore, submachine guns were frequently produced in secret workshops by underground groups during World War II (e.g. in Denmark, France, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia), and also later on in Israel, Vietnam, Algeria, etc. A similar situation, where one party suffered a severe shortage of weapons, happened in Europe two decades ago. In the beginning of the 1990s in the war in Yugoslavia, two northern republics decided to separate from the Socialistic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The war in Slovenia ended in ten days (successfully for it), while fights in Croatia were much heavier and lasted for years. Especially at the very beginning the Croatian units did not have enough weapons, while on the other side the Yugoslav army was “armed to the teeth.” About 75% of the federal army armaments were of domestic production- including small arms, artillery, ammunition, tanks and other vehicles, aircraft and military vessels. Unfortunately for Slovenia and Croatia, only 9.8% of the military industry was located in these republics, while about 44% of all defense plants were in Serbia, 42% in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rest in Montenegro and Macedonia. As regards small arms, not a single manufacturer was located in Croatia. To make the situation even worse, the United Nations proclaimed the embargo on military equipment against all the republics of ex-Yugoslavia.

In such circumstances the manufacture of different simple firearms started in several mechanical facilities, the personnel of which were without any gunmaking knowledge or experience. Several single shot pistols and rifles, mortars, hand grenades and submachine guns were developed in the year 1991. Some items were produced in thousands, some in much smaller quantity. An example from the last group is a little known, primitive 9mm submachine gun called the M.P. 91 Vila Velebita.

Markings on the Weapon

Improvised weapons, produced in clandestine workshops, are often without markings as to the name of manufacturer, model, caliber and serial number. The M.P. 91 is a bit different in this respect, because it bears the following inscriptions: M.P. 91, MK II, “Vila Velebita” located on the left side of the frame, near the magazine housing, the caliber designation “CAL. 9 .PARA.” on the right side of the frame, near the magazine housing, a three digit serial number stamped on the left rear, both on frame and on receiver (in case of the examined gun, the first digit from the left side is zero), letters A and P, denoting positions of the fire selector. “A” means “automatsko” (= automatic in Croatian language) and “P” means “pojedinacno” (= single).

The number 91 means the year of manufacture (1991), which has also been confirmed by the Croat owner of this relic. The meaning of other abbreviations is open to speculation. There are no such general words in the Croatian language which would make these letters make sense. Perhaps they are symbols of the designer or manufacturer of the weapon, however it is also possible that letters M.P. and MK were taken from foreign weapons / languages, like German “Maschinenpistole” or English “Machine Pistol / Mark”.

The words “Vila Velebita” are easier to understand – they mean “Fairy of Velebit”, a mythic being from Croatian history. The Velebit itself is a Croatian mountain chain above the Adriatic coast. “Vila Velebita” is therefore the nickname of the weapon.

The fact that there is no clear name of the manufacturer or at least his location is understandable, because the people involved had to take care for their own safety. It is only known that M.P. 91 was produced in the littoral region of Croatia, close to Split, the capital of Dalmatia. As we were told, about one hundred guns of this model were made.

Design Characteristics

The configuration of M.P. 91. is that of the second generation of submachine guns – with the barrel fixed inside the front part of the tubular receiver and the bolt with the main operating spring behind it. Such configuration, which is typical of classic submachine guns, allows the simplest design. The gun operates in the usual blowback principle, with the weapon firing from the open breech position. The trigger mechanism is simple as well, and it is located inside of the box-like housing under the receiver. The extreme simplicity of M.P. 91. is evident both in general characteristics as well as in details.

The receiver / barrel jacket consists of the sheet steel tube of 30 mm outer diameter. In the front part of that tube the barrel is mounted, while the rear end of the receiver is closed with a cap, fixed in place by a prominent cross-bolt. The bolt is a simple cylinder with a fixed firing pin and cocking handle, which moves together with the bolt. The extractor is located on the upper part of the bolt face, and because the ejector is located centrally as well, the cases are ejected straight upwards. The bolt is rather light and its maximal longitudinal movement is a mere 65 mm, which is about half in comparison with other blowback submachine guns. The consequence of this combination is a high rate of fire.

The Croatian gun can fire in automatic or semiautomatic mode, which is chosen with a fire selector, built as a small lever on the left side of the housing above the trigger. The safety is separately built as a longitudinally moving knob, mounted centrally between the trigger guard and the magazine housing. When the knob is in the front (fire) position, a red dot is visible on the base of the knob.

Probably the most interesting feature of the M.P. 91. is the design of its magazine. Obviously, the unknown manufacturer of the Croatian gun had no access to sufficient supply of factory made magazines from any of the existing 9×19 submachine guns, so he developed his own magazine. Being aware of the rather demanding technological operations needed in production of two-row high capacity box magazines, he developed a simple single-row box magazine with 17-20 rounds capacity. The designer followed the maxim that it is better to have a lower capacity reliably working magazine than a bigger capacity but less reliable two-row magazine.

The magazine retainer is also unusual, built as a lever located in the front wall of the magazine housing. Sights are rudimentary, both front post and rear “U” notch are protected by side walls.

The pistol grip and folding stock are uncomplicated as well. The grip is a flat piece of wood, screwed to the mechanism housing. The one-piece metal stock is of a vertically pivoting design. To fold (or unfold) it, it is necessary to push in its axis, protruding on the left side of the weapon. The spring loaded stock axis acts as a retainer too. The butt plate is just a simple metal strip, welded to the stock’s tubular arm. Welding has been used for fastening of the magazine housing to the receiver, while the trigger mechanism housing is connected to the receiver by pins and screws. Simple production methods were obviously applied as much as possible.

Field stripping follows known paths: after clearing the firearm the rear cross-screw is removed to free the rear cap; then the cap and mainspring are separated from the receiver and the bolt is pulled to its rear position, where the cocking handle must be extracted through the side opening. Then the bolt is removed from the receiver. As a rule, the reassembly is performed in the reverse order.

Conclusion

Several emergency submachine guns were developed in Croatia in 1991, and the M.P. 91. is one of the earliest among them. It is not a direct copy of any factory-made model, and though it is very crude, it provided the user with a much higher firepower than improvised single shot weapons, which were also made in significant number at the beginning of the Yugoslav conflict.

By John Brown

In this third installment of the ATF Weight Loss Plan, we will explore the final portion of an NFA inspection: the NFA portion of your inventory. Our objective is to help alleviate the fears of an ATF compliance inspection by providing you with enough information so that you are well prepared for an inspection.

One of the final things that your inspection will entail will be the thorough review of your NFA inventory. This may be the most painful portion of your inspections through no fault of your own. The inspector will bring a printout of your inventory that is a printout of the National Firearms Registry and Transfer Record (NFRTR) that details the serial numbers of your NFA inventory. That’s right, the serial number. If you were to have to locate anything in your inventory strictly by the serial number you may want to assess how you would find anything in your inventory.

The registry focuses on the serial number of your NFA items and the other information that may help you identify that item in many cases is difficult to decipher from the information that is located on the printout. It is my suggestion that if you have a significant inventory, you list those serial numbers in a way that allows you to search for the number. For example, a simple Excel spreadsheet will allow you to quickly and efficiently find a serial number and retrieve the necessary information that you need to retrieve the weapon for the inspector. Finding the serial number and retrieving the weapon will make your inspection go much faster. If you are using any of the software systems that keep track of your serial numbers, e.g. eBound by Gunderson, your search will be much faster and easier for you to perform. In addition to the search, any notes that you can place about the physical location of your item will also speed up the process.

At this point we will assume that you have a good handle on your existing inventory and that you have the necessary tools to track what you have and where you have it stored. In addition to this portion of your NFA inventory you will also want to make up a list of all of the NFA items that you have dispositioned in the last year. This list will help you quickly and efficiently let your inspector know what is no longer in your inventory that may show up on their printout. In many situations your inspector will ask for a serial number that you may have dispositioned during the last year but it is still showing up on the registry. I would further suggest to save time during this particular process, that you make copies of the Form 3s or 4s for at least the last 90 days to prove the disposition. The inspector will most likely keep a copy of that disposition in an effort to make certain that the registry is correct.

In addition to the forms that have already been dispositioned from your inventory, I would also suggest that you have copies of anything that you have in process for disposition from your inventory. This will help your inspector also know what will soon leave your inventory.

At this point you will have completed the inventory of your NFA items and everything should be accounted for. It will also be at this stage that you will have completed the majority of your inspection and you should be feeling pretty good about the inspection, especially if you have organized your inventory.

Once this portion of the inspection is complete the only thing you have remaining will be your closing conference. If you have done well in your inspection your inspector will finalize your inspection with a summary of all of the issues of your inspection. If you have any violations in your inspection the inspector will cover those violations in detail with you and provide you coaching on how to avoid any similar problems in the future. In addition to covering any issues during the closing conference the inspector will cover a host of issues including any new processes or help that is available in the conduct of your business. Under normal circumstance your closing conference is very detailed. I know you can’t wait for it to be over with, but take your time and listen as this conference contains a lot of good information. Once this is concluded you will sign the closing documents and your inspections will be complete.

If during your inspection you experience a host of problems or issues, you may be summoned to what ATF terms a warning conference. At this conference, held at your local ATF field office, you would be officially warned about issues and specific corrective action that may be required to get your practices in order to comply with all ATF regulations. Rest assured if you attend a warning conference, follow on inspections within the next year will surely be in order. Use your time wisely before the next inspection to put your house in order. You will certainly want to correct issues that were covered in your warning conference and to improve on your overall operations.

Given the fact that your inspection feels like it is finally over, make no mistake, it is not. As certain as the formal part of your inspection is over; the clock is ticking before your local inspectors will return and initiate the process once again. Use this time wisely to learn from your previous experience and prepare for your next inspection.

If all else fails, call the NFATCA and we will gladly provide you with resources that can help your next experience be a little less painful. Come join us and dig into helping the entire community make a difference with the NFA industry. Log into www.nfatca.org and help preserve NFA ownership for you and your family today.

Recently there has been an upswing in interest regarding the weapons of North Korea. This is due not only to the current saber rattling in the region and the changing of the leadership, but to how difficult it is to obtain accurate information as well as the disinformation campaigns that have been successfully waged by the North Korean propaganda bureaus. Heebum Hong and Dan Shea have studied the small arms of North Korea for decades and both consider that many of the indigenously made small arms are of very good quality. They have combined their efforts to make this article as inclusive and comprehensive as possible. The article starts with the elusive Type 73 machine gun, and then takes a more organized historical perspective.

The North Korean Type 73 machine gun is probably one of the most unknown mass-produced automatic weapons in the world. Most Communist Bloc firearms stopped being so secret after the fall of the Soviet Union, but North Korean firearms are still hidden behind a shroud. Even within the mist of secrecy regarding North Korean firearms, the Type 73 is still clouded in mystery. Vague pictures showing parts of the Type 73 as soldiers carried them were released from time to time in North Korean propaganda films, but no details were ever released. The Type 73 was occasionally spotted in the surveillance photos taken by South Korean or U.S. forces. The reason for the rarity of sightings is, of course, their obsessive secrecy; so top secret in fact, that most of North Korea’s indigenous weapons have no printed manual. Armorers or mechanics have to learn, memorize, and if one really wants to have some kind of manual to refer to, he has to hand-write one. Manuals like this are one-of-the-kind, and hard to get out of North Korea.

Refugees who escape North Korea via China sometimes have information, but that information might have some problems. Because of the rules of absolute secrecy, even those with long military backgrounds usually can’t figure out what’s going on in any other unit so their information is often limited. Many of those refugees also give exaggerated information because they want to make themselves look more important and essential as a bargaining chip in refugee status, or they believe and parrot the typical North Korean propaganda. South Koreans have learned that if you believe all the stories from refugees from the North, you will believe North Korea is a country that has the world’s strongest army, with enough weapons, the skill, and the will to destroy the rest of the world’s armies altogether. It would be foolhardy to not consider the North Korean military and their special units to be highly trained as well as skilled fighters, but the perspective should be kept to scale – the North Korean military is a regional threat. They also have excellent small arms and good quality equipment for their top tier units as well as clandestine exports.

In such an environment, reliable information about the Type 73 is very hard to come by, but the South Korean army has one sample. Another has been captured from insurgents in Iraq. The South Koreans have not revealed how they got their sample, but there is speculation that after a heavy flood in the North, the dead body of a North Korean soldier might have been found south of the DMZ, with this Type 73 machine gun on a sling attached to the body.

The sample viewed reveals some interesting features. First, the Type 73 is outwardly based upon the Russian PKM machine gun, which is not so surprising; but the feeding system is another matter entirely. The Type 73 uses a dual feeding system, and can utilize either a top mounted magazine, or a side fed metallic belt. This is very peculiar, since it’s using 7.62x54R ammunition, not the 7.62×39 round. This means the Type 73 must use its own special 30 round magazine, not an AK47 magazine (in this case it would have been the North Korean Type 58 or 68 rifles). Even though the Type 73 can be used as a magazine-fed machine gun, the gunner has no option to use a magazine from his comrade riflemen. Thus, the Type 73 is an anomaly.

In fact, weighing more than 10kg (approximately 22.05 lbs), and using a full-power rifle cartridge (not lower powered assault rifle cartridges like the 7.62x39mm), with its quick change barrel configuration, the Type 73 is technically close to a GPMG, rather than what are called squad automatic weapons like the RPD or the MINIMI/M249. South Korean military intelligence assumes that the gun was developed at least partially for the SAW role. Using the larger caliber is considered to be a counter weapon to the U.S. M60 GPMG that was prevalent in U.S. and South Korean forces in the conflict zones. North Korea is quite sensitive over what the U.S. and South Koreans use, and the North Korean analysts have closely studied the Vietnam War. Since no one knows the real reasons, we only can speculate.

The North Koreans decided to make a SAW similar to the M60 GPMG though a puzzling addition is the magazine-fed capability. There are several possible influences on this; many of the North Korean army staff during the 1970s had served in the Chinese army before 1945, and even after that, a considerable number of ZB26 or even Bren LMGs (which were lend-leased to China) were in service in the North Korean army for a while through Chinese support. While box magazine feeding limited the firepower, it’s far more comfortable to carry the weapon with ammunition. Having a 100 round ammo can under a PK or PKM is somewhat cumbersome, but the 30 round magazine lowered weight and was easier to carry and fast to reload. South Korean army analysts consider that the Type 73 gunner would be carrying his machine gun with 30 round magazine inserted, and if a threat appears, fire the ammo from magazine immediately. After the ammo in the magazine is depleted, he can assume a relatively stable shooting position and change his ammo source from magazine to belt, which he carried in his satchel or pouch. This is based on observation and sightings of North Korean Type 73 machine gunners carrying the weapon with a magazine inserted.

One more probable reason for the Type 73’s dual-feed adaptation is North Korea’s affiliation with Czech firearms. North Korea has used many Czech firearms from the 1960s on, especially for special operations. Their behind-the-line operatives’ favorite machine pistol was, and still is, a suppressed Vz61 Skorpion and some CZ82s were found in a North Korean spy’s weapon cache. Most of all, the CZ75 was copied by North Korea and used as the officer’s standard pistol. Rumor says that the late Kim Jung Il, who was an avid gun collector, personally preferred Czech firearms. North Korean firearms developers were clearly influenced by the Czech VZ52 machine gun, another dual-feed weapon which utilizes either belt feed or a top mounted magazine.

Whatever the reason for development, North Korean military leadership was not so impressed with the Type 73; while it could sometimes be seen in 1970s propaganda and at military parades, from the early 1980s it’s been more and more difficult to see one in use, although there are many more sightings today in North Korean YouTube videos and other propaganda releases. In 1982, the Type 82 machine gun appeared in service. The Type 82 is basically a PKM copy without magazine feeding capability. It seems that many Type 73s were moved to reserve or militia service, but nobody can be sure. The only thing we can confirm is that the Type 82 is much more visible in active duty North Korean army service, while the Type 73 is very rare today. There’s only one sample each of Type 73 and Type 82 known to the public: a Type 73 is in South Korean Army custody, and a Type 82 is possessed by the Japanese Coast Guard – they recovered one from a North Korean spy ship they sunk in 2002. (One more Type 73 has recently been captured in Iraq.) While the Type 82 is basically a copy of the PKM, you can see some similarity with the Type 73 from its stock, bipod and rear sight.

Lineage of North Korean Firearms

There had been some small production of firearms in the North Korean areas during the 1800s-1946, but it was one-off of early firearm styles. The North Korean military was initially started with Soviet Union supplied rifles – the Mosin-Nagant, the SKS, and small quantities of SVT-40s, as well as a variety of machine guns and handguns. The first weapon manufactured locally was the Type 49 submachine gun, made in 1949. This was a license built copy of the Soviet PPSh-41 or “Pappa-sha.” The North Koreans chose to use the 71-round drums and not the 35-round curved magazines. Speculation is that the ‘Great Leader’, Kim Il Sung, thought the large-capacity drum was intimidating and tactically an advantage. The Type 49 was the main submachine gun of the North Korean army, and they used these extensively during the 1950s Korean War. Their main infantry weapon was the rifle, which was used much more than any submachine gun, but the image of those ‘Burp Guns’ with large drum magazines was so strong, that it became the symbol of the ‘communist intruders’ in South Korea, just like the MP40 became a symbol of Nazi Germany, out of it’s actual proportion of use in the German army.

Handguns

Type 64

The first handgun ever developed and manufactured by North Korea was a Type 64 (1964); but, in fact, it wasn’t actually ‘developed’. It was a very close copy of the FN 1900. The reason why North Korea made a copy of the Browning 1900 during the 1960s, when there were already a bunch of good .32 ACP pistols to consider, especially the PP lineup, is very unclear; perhaps North Korean officers and engineers were very familiar with the gun, which was relatively abundant in Asia during 1900-40s, or maybe it was considered by North Korean leadership as a very important weapon symbolically.

In 1909, a patriotic ex-Korean army officer who lost his position because of the Japanese (the Japanese army forcefully disarmed and disbanded the Korean army in 1905), shot and killed a Japanese politician who had played a major part in the colonization of Korea by Japan. The weapon used at that time was the M1900. Since this incident is very well known in both South and North Korea, it was probable that the North Korean leadership chose the M1900 to be very symbolic for them, especially since North Korea is very proud of their ex-leader Kim Il Sung’s history as an anti-Japanese warrior.

Whatever the reason is, North Korea issued the Type 64 to high-ranking officers while others used the Russian-supplied TT33 (Tokarev). Some of these Type 64s were also fitted with silencers for special operations. Note that the silencer uses an eccentric style where the bore is off from the center of the suppressor.

Type 70

It was very clear that the Model 1900 was already an obsolete design in the ‘60s; and North Korean designers soon had a new design, this time indigenous. It was the Type 70 (1970), a simple blowback .32 ACP pistol with exposed hammer. It’s design was perhaps inspired by the FN 1910, the Walter PPK and Makarov pistols, but it’s single action and very simple (unlike the PPK or Makarov), and has a very strange manual safety- it’s a cross bolt type, but not easy to use because it’s just above the trigger, and the manual safety also works as barrel holding latch. To field strip, one has to pull the safety out first. The magazine holds 7 rounds.

Baek-Du San

Until the 1980s, North Korea’s military used the Type 64 and the Type 70 for high-ranking officers and the Type 68 for others who need sidearms. In the late 1980s, the Type 68 was gradually replaced by a new handgun, the Baek-Du San (White Head Mountain), in 9x19mm. This is a very close copy of CZ75 of that era, but experts doubt that technical support to make it was actually supplied from China as is assumed. The Chinese happened to make a copy of the CZ75 (the NZ75) around that time. Unlike the NZ75, the Baek-Du San is designed very closely after the original CZ75 (rumor has it that this was adopted because of Kim-Jung Il’s personal orders). He was a known collector and shooter of firearms, and he had ultimate power in his country. If he actually ordered them to adopt it, nobody in North Korea would resist. The fact that the CZ75 is an excellent handgun notwithstanding.

While North Korea makes military handguns themselves, they imported considerable numbers of foreign handguns. The most notable one is the Baby Browning, which was occasionally found during the 1970-90s. They were a favorite sidearm for North Korean spies, almost always with a sound suppressor, which is believed to be made in North Korea. Considerable numbers of Canadian built John Inglis High Powers were found with North Korean spies or Special Forces during the 1960-70s. These were probably supplied from a Chinese stock of lend-lease weapons left from WWII. In the 1990s, Czech-made CZ82s were also found with North Korean spies, these usually had the North Korean built suppressor as well. Essentially, there is a very active arms manufacturing community in North Korea.

Submachine Guns

Type 49 (PPSh-41)

The Type 49, or Model 49 submachine gun was made in large quantities in North Korea from 1949 until approximately 1955. This is a direct copy of the Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun in caliber 7.62x25mm Tokarev (7.62TT). The Type 49 is a straight blow-back, open-bolt type submachine gun, with a rate of fire approximately 850-925 rpm, from either 71 round drums or 30 round curved stick magazines. These have been exported to North Vietnam during the war there, as well as numerous other places- and are still in use in outlying districts and sublevels of North Korea. Recognize by the slight oval shape to the rear buttstock, and the marking of a circle with five pointed star within it.

PPS43

While used heavily in the North Korean military, they never made any of the PPS-43 7.62×22 caliber submachine guns indigenously.

VZ-61 Skorpion

The Czechoslovakian made VZ61 machine pistol is reportedly still in use by covert operatives of the North Korean government. These were obtained at various times in the 1960s, 1970s, and possibly 1980s, and have the standard grey paint finish, with 10 and 20 round magazines. Caliber is 7.65 Browning (.32 ACP). These have a high rate of fire, are very concealable, and when the suppressor is used, very quiet. The most recent event in which a Skorpion was found was in 1998, when the dead body of a North Korean spy with diver gear was found on a South Korean beach.

Bolt Action Rifles

There have been a variety of bolt action rifles used by the North Koreans, including French manufacture, but mostly Chinese and Russian variants of the Mosin Nagant Rifle.

Semi-Automatic Rifles

Type 63 SKS

North Korea began their manufacture of the SKS rifle five years after they began building AK-47s. The North Korean version of the SKS, the Type 63, was started in 1963. Many people believed it was to arm second-line militias, and in fact, almost from the beginning the Type 63 SKS went to “Labour-Farming Red Guard” (The North Korean Home Guard), while the Type 58 AK-47s went to the main military units.

SVD Dragunov

The 7.62x54R caliber SVD Dragunov rifle as made by the Soviets and then the Chinese as the Chinese Type 79 are sniper rifles used in the North Korean military.

JeoByeokBoChong M76 type

The 8mm M76 type rifle used by the North Koreans is the Serbian (Zastava) M76 sniper rifle. This is reportedly manufactured in North Korea as Zastava insists that they never sold or licensed manufacture to the North Koreans.

Assault Rifles

Type 58 AK Third Model fixed stock style -1 is underfolder. North Korea decided not to manufacture any other submachine guns, and starting in1958, they began manufacturing the AK-47 under license from the Soviets. The North Korean version of AK-47 is called the Type 58 with a milled receiver, and reliable information says that approximately 800,000 Type 58s were built. The under-folding stock version, the Type 58-1, is included in that estimate. These are not very different from the Soviet original AK-47, only with Korean markings.

In the beginning of manufacturing the Type 58, the rifles appear to have had the receivers made in North Korea, but parts appear to be Soviet. Within a few years all parts appear to be of North Korean origin. The engineers had learned through Soviet consultants, how to build all of the AK parts by themselves. It also became obvious that the milled receiver of AK-47 (Type 58) is too labor intensive. While cost of labor itself wasn’t a major problem in a communist economy, it was too time consuming to make and North Korea wanted solution for it. The Soviets had already experienced the same thing and had a solution: the AKM with its stamped sheet metal receiver.

Type 68 AKM

In 1968, North Korea began their production of the AKM, the Type 68. Unlike the Type 58, which is basically the same gun as the Soviet AK-47 Type 3, the Type 68 is based upon the AKM but has some differences. For example, no rate reducer is used on the trigger mechanism, and the muzzle compensator of an AKM isn’t used. The Type 68-1 (under-folding stock version) stock has many holes, which helps reduce weight but also weakens the stock itself. After the Type 68’s introduction, most Type 58s went to the rear echelon units or Home Guard units. There were also some significant exports of the Type 58 to other Communist countries in Africa and South/Central America, as well as to North Vietnam.

Type 88 and 98 AK74

Type 58 and 68s were used as North Korea’s main rifles for a long type, but starting in the late 1980s, North Korea began to make new small caliber rifle, the Type 88; this is basically a 5.45x39mm version of the Kalashnikov AK-74. There’s no evidence that North Korea obtained a license from Soviet Russia; rather, it’s believed that North Korea received technical support from China to make the Type 88. In fact, the North Korean Type 88 is very similar to the Chinese copy of AK-74, the Type 88. For example, the Chinese Type 88 has a sheet metal magazine, and the North Korean Type 88 has a very similar magazine. There’s no data regarding how many Type 68 and Type 88 rifles were manufactured and fielded. While Type 68s were also exported in large numbers (in Central and South American countries like Peru, North Korean made Type 68s are called “AK Corea” (Korea). The Type 88 had no known export orders (or maybe North Korea isn’t willing to sell these overseas), and to this point, actual samples in Western hands are very rare though there are some known in Japan who salvaged a few of them from a spy ship which they destroyed during 2002.

Chinese CQ and CQA M16 variants

North Korea is also using the M16A1 for special operations. In 1996, a North Korean spy submarine was grounded on a South Korean beach and a few M16A1s were found. They were unmarked weapons, completely without anything to identify them. Nobody really knows where they’re built. Neither of the authors have been able to examine these to determine the genealogy. However, from glimpses seen, these appear to be the Chinese M16 copies. In the photo is a Chinese CQA M4 carbine copy with markings.

Machine Guns

Maxim 1910 Russian or 1924 Chinese

During the Korean War of the 1950s, the Russians and Chinese supplied many weapons into the theatre on the communist side. The belt feds were primarily Maxims and the Russians supplied the 1910 on Sokolov mount (shown) while the Chinese supplied the Type 1924 on standard tripod (not shown). Much of this equipment trickled down from North Vietnam to the Viet Minh and NVA armies in the late 1950s to 1960s.

DP-28

The DP-28 machine gun was a Soviet designed 7.62x54R caliber machine gun, fed with a top mounted 47-round pan magazine. The modernized version called a DPM was exported for manufacturing to China as the Type 53 machine gun. Both the Soviet and Chinese versions were used by North Korea, but primarily the Chinese one. These were replaced by the Type 62 RPD.

Type 62 RPD

The Soviet designed RPD machine gun is a belt fed 7.62x39mm machine gun that has seen service all over the world. It has been manufactured in China, Poland, and numerous other countries, as well as North Korea. The North Koreans exported their Type 62 to North Vietnam during the “American War” as well as Africa and South America. The example shown was captured from Viet Cong in the late 1960s.

Gun-2 Minigun

In 1995, an arms dealer sold 6 here-to-for unheard of “Miniguns” to a Southeast Asian country. These were made in North Korea, and are an indigenous design in 7.62x54R caliber using forward stripping on the links. The links have a built in “ramp” on them to facilitate the heavy rim of the cartridge in forward feed. We obtained a copy of an English language manual for the “Gun 2” but still have been unable to examine a sample of this. This is a basic Gatlin design, electrically powered, and the barrels spin while firing.

DShKM

The heavy machine gun favored by the Combloc countries for many decades was the “Dooshka” or “Dishka.” The North Koreans used Russian or Chinese made DShK in 12.7x108mm in many of their installations.

NSV

The newest heavy machine gun to spring from Mother Russia was the NSV, a 12.7x108mm machine gun that was tank mounted but adapted to infantry use with a tripod and buttstock. This high rate of fire machine gun is in use with North Korean units today, but is not made in North Korea to our knowledge.

KPV

The 14.5x114mm heavy machine gun on its various mounts called “ZPU” is a staple in the North Korean inventory. Recently, two rounds from a ZPU-2 were fired across the DMZ. While there was international speculation that this was done on purpose to create an incident, it is far more likely that the operators were clearing the weapon and popped two rounds, one from each barrel, as they improperly performed their jobs. Both Russian and Chinese KPVs are observed in North Korea, and this twin is from a ship mount from the spy ship sunk by the Japanese. Most North Korean tanks have the KPVT on them.

Grenade and Rocket launchers

B-10 82mm

The B-10 Recoilless Rifle system has been the workhorse of the Combloc countries for over 50 years. It is still encountered around the world, and with the sinking of the North Korean spy ship by the Japanese, an example of the Russian B-10 still in NK service was found.

Type 68 RPG-7

The RPG-7 recoilless rifle system has been around since the mid-1960s, and it replaced the RPG-2 in North Korean service at that time. North Korea manufactures and exports the Type 68. This example was taken from the sunken spy ship off the Japanese coast.

AGS-17 30mm

North Korea advertises the AGS-17 30mm automatic grenade machine gun as manufactured indigenously. We have not seen any North Korean model in action, nor been able to examine a North Korean manufactured one, but North Korean arms dealers issue a brochure showing it made there. The AGS series has a range of 1,700 meters, and is a lightweight, very effective area weapon.

Manpad

This Manpad (Man Portable Air Defense system) IGLA-S 9K38 series was taken from the wreckage of the sunken North Korean spy vessel and is deactivated in Japanese possession.

Eliminate Zombies Quietly with Thompson Machine Suppressor

If you have ever had the need to get rid of those pesky Zombies in your backyard and do it without alerting the rest of the pack, then Thompson Machine has just the tool for you. Their newest suppressor is called the Zombie XL and is in caliber .22 Long Rifle. The Zombie XL is a special edition, limited run, suppressor with only a small number of units being produced. The new suppressor is 6.375 inches long with an outside diameter of 1.125 inches and weighs just 4.5 ounces. Made from 6061 T6 aluminum, this new unit features a mono-core design that allows it to be easily taken apart for cleaning. Both front and rear end caps thread onto the core allowing for a “threadless” outer tube. The end caps also incorporate high temperature “O” rings that completely seal the unit for even better noise suppression and keeps grime out of the internal threads. The tube, end cap and mono-core have a flat black anodized finish to match most Zombie killing firearms. The outside of the suppressor’s tube is engraved with a special “biohazard” symbol that not only let everyone know that this is a special suppressor but also allows for a textured gripping surface to aid in attaching or removing it. The Zombie XL has 1/2 x 28 threads to fit most .22 LR Zombie eliminators. This new suppressor will also be produced without the special “biohazard” markings and will be known as the ISIS 22. The Zombie XL is also full-auto rated and most people that have heard it say that when shot it had a “dead” tone. For more information or to order one of these special suppressors, contact Thompson Machine, 172 Center Street, Panacea, FL 32346. Phone: (850) 408-5161. Website: www.thompsonmachine.net.

CrossBreed Introduces New OWB Mag Carriers

Top quality holster manufacturer CrossBreed Holsters, LLC is proud to introduce the new OWB Mag Carriers for 2012. Carrying spare magazines is always a good idea and frankly, a life-saving decision at times. CrossBreed Holsters is pleased to provide yet another option for doing so. Their OWB Mag Carrier has been completely redesigned for better concealment and, most importantly, easier access to the mags. With a cut down backer, forward rake, and more exposed magazine to grasp, reloads are swift and sure. Great retention ensures your mags stay put and a high ride keeps them concealed under a light cover garment. The OWB Mag Carrier is available for carry of one or two spare mags for all popular firearms. MSRP starts at $36.25. The OWB Mag Carrier comes with their two week try it free guarantee and lifetime warranty, just like all of their other fine products. For more information contact CrossBreed Holsters, LLC, 224 N. Main, Republic, CO 65738. Phone: (888) 732-5011. On the web at www.crossbreedholsters.com.

Volquartsen Custom Redesigns LLV Barreled Receiver

Volquartsen Custom has redesigned its popular LLV upper designed for the Ruger MKII, MKIII and 22/45 target pistols. The LLV Barreled Receiver has been completely redesigned for 2012. A great design has been made even better – better balance, more versatile and yes, even better accuracy! A hard anodized CNC machined billet receiver is the foundation of this lightweight setup. The complete barreled receiver weighs less than 15 oz. The receiver and barrel shroud are precision machined as one piece from aluminum alloy. An integral Picatinny Rail is machined into the top of the receiver. It is then fitted with a 6-inch precision stainless steel barrel that has been machined honed and lapped. The barrel has been contoured to reduce weight without sacrificing accuracy. The barrel features 1/2 × 28 threads on the muzzle end for adding a compensator or suppressor and comes standard with a thread protector. Target sights are also available as an option. Volquartsen Custom offers a complete line of rimfire rifles, pistols and accessories. For more information please contact Volquartsen Custom, 24276 240th Street, P.O. Box 397, Carroll, IA. Phone: (712) 792-4238. Fax: (712) 792-2542. Website: www.volquartsen.com.

Remington Introduces Model 700 SPS Tactical in 300 Blackout

Remington is proud to announce the Model 700 SPS (Special Purpose Synthetic) Tactical 300 Blackout rifle. Chambered for the incredibly popular 300 AAC Blackout, this new rifle features the time-proven Model 700 action and is designed to impress from the bench or in the field at a very affordable price. A long-time favorite of both military and police units, the Model 700 offers the legendary accuracy and unfailing performance you’ve come to expect. At the core of the Model 700 SPS Tactical 300 Blackout is the machined solid-steel, cylindrical Model 700 receiver design ensuring uniformity, strength and solid bedding area. Unique to this precision rifle is the 16.5 inch, heavy-contour clean barrel threaded to accept AAC and all 5/8 x 24 threaded flash hiders, muzzle brakes and suppressors. The tactical-style carbon steel, hammer-forged barrel is the perfect balance between handling in tight spots and delivering pinpoint accuracy. With a twist rate of one in seven inches, this rifle is optimized for accuracy. These specialty, bolt-action rifles are shipped with a thread protector installed. The rock-solid barreled action is bedded in a Hogue OverMolded Ghillie Green pillar bedded, synthetic stock with a semi-beavertail fore-end for added stability. The soft-touch, sure-grip stock is extremely comfortable for extended, long range shooting and assures a positive grip in both stressful situations and inclement weather. The dual point pillar bedding guarantees a solid interface between the action and stock to help insure cold bore accuracy and prevent point-of-impact shifts. Add Remington’s X-Mark Pro externally adjustable trigger, designed to “break-like-glass” and set at 3.5 pounds from the factory, and this rifle delivers surgical-like accuracy. Other key features include a drilled and tapped receiver for the addition of optics; distinctive, laser-engraved “300 AAC Blackout 1:7” roll mark; convenient hinged floorplate magazine with 4-round capacity and a non-reflective, black oxide external metal finish; and sling swivel studs. The Model 700 SPS Tactical 300 Blackout is the perfect tactical bolt-action rifle and available at a very affordable price. Suggested retail price is $817.31. You can contact Remington Arms Company, LLC, 870 Remington Drive, P.O. Box 700, Madison, NC 27025. Phone: (800) 243-9700. Website: www.remington.com.

Wheeler Engineering Develops Anti-Cant Indicator

Wheeler Engineering’s Anti-Cant Indicator improves accuracy by insuring proper gun alignment, which is critical for turret adjustment and hold over for bullet drop compensation. Keeping your scope perfectly aligned is critical to long-range accuracy. Canting your scope left or right only a couple of degrees may cause error in point of impact. With modern “Drop-Compensating” scopes, an Anti-Cant Indicator is a necessity. If your gun isn’t aligned correctly, dialing up the turrets or using hold-over marks will just throw off your shot, causing you to miss your target. The Wheeler Engineering Anti-Cant Indicator ensures that your rifle is always held near perfectly vertical, eliminating any chance for “Cant Error” to cause a miss. The Wheeler Engineering Anti-Cant Indicator is available in both 1 inch and 30mm models. This precision piece of equipment is crafted from machined aluminum with an anodized finish. It easily attaches to a scope tube in the same fashion as a ring. The Anti-Cant Indicator is easy to view from all shooting positions, and when not in use it folds in for protection. Retail price of the Anti-Cant Indicator is just $39.99. For more information about the Wheeler Engineering Anti-Cant Indicator or any Battenfield Technologies products, contact Battenfield Technologies, Inc., 5885 W. Van Horn Tavern Road, Columbia, MO 65203. Phone: (573) 445-9200. Fax: (573) 446-6606. Website: www.battenfieldtechnologies.com.

Morphix Technologies Offers New Training Tool

Morphix Technologies, an innovator in the science of detection devices for dangerous chemicals, has created a Training Kit for law enforcement, responder and agency training facilities and schools in response to the increasing need for chemical awareness training. With a rise in illegal drug and chemical production, toxic chemical spills due to industrial or transportation accidents and chemical suicides, more officer and responder training programs include courses that provide critical knowledge on chemical scenarios and how to respond to them. The Chameleon Training Kit, used during training, helps initial responders learn to identify the presence of toxic chemicals through a training Chameleon armband with special inactive cassettes that show the difference between unaffected cassettes and cassettes that read a chemical in the environment. Also included in the kit are blue training cassettes (50 total) and ammonia ampoules that enable the instructor to demonstrate, in a well-ventilated area, how the cassettes change color when exposed to a chemical. Responders learn how to use the Chameleon Training Kit and find that it is as simple as removing one of the grey cassettes from the Chameleon armband and replacing it with one of the blue training cassettes. The Chameleon can then be put over the forearm or attached to a vest with hook and loop. The trainer then demonstrates how a “real world” color change would occur by breaking one of the ammonia ampoules and waving it underneath the training cassette. If the cassette changes from a solid color to two colors, the Chameleon has detected a hazardous level of toxic gas and it’s time to leave the scene. The Training Kit is identical to the original Chameleon system and it shows officers how quickly and easily they can configure their Chameleon and put it on in less than a minute. Please contact them at Morphix Technologies, 2557 Production Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23454. Phone: (757) 431-2260. Fax: (757) 216-6209. They can be found on the web at www.morphtec.com.

Debuting in 1982, Glock has revolutionized the foundation on which military and law enforcement handguns sit. Glock pistols not only revolutionized the material in which military grade pistols are manufactured but the sheer market share they hold is nothing short of amazing. Entering the market as a polymer frame firearm with the fewest parts of any firearm of its kind with utter reliability and dependability, Glock converted the most diehard steel and aluminium frame pistol shooters into devout disciples of polymer. In the early days the pistol was very disrespectfully referred to as “Tactical Tupperware” due to the type of box in came in as well as the occasional joke of the gun coming with a tube of epoxy for repairs would soon lead all detractors into the world of Glock.

Generation 1

The first generation Glock 17 pistols had a smooth polymer grip. They had a 2-piece spring guide and recoil spring. The magazine was designed so it would not drop free when the magazine release was pressed. Although this proved to be problematic for American users, the Austrian Army required it. Rumour had it that it was so the magazines could not be lost in the snow. To be able to import the gun into the United States a few modifications had to be made. In Europe the serial number had to be on the slide and barrel. In the U.S. it is required on the frame, so Glock moulded a tab into the frame. Also to meet the points for importation, Glock added an adjustable sight. The first generation was in fact the Austrian Army model P-80 although it would be sold else where as the Glock 17 (Gaston Glock’s 17th patent).

The Glock 17 pistol is striker fired omitting any external hammer. The striker has a partial load on it when the pistol is ready to fire. Approximately 25% of the load is taken up. When the trigger is pulled, the remaining 75% of the striker is taken up and released to fire the cartridge. Mr. Glock called his pistol “Safe Action.” No external safeties are used. However, the pistol has 3 internal safeties. To gain a realistic perspective, you must understand that military and law enforcement personnel carried revolvers with no manual safety for many years. This was never deemed unsafe. However, with double action semiautomatic pistols, it is common for firearms instructors to find it difficult to train inexperienced people. Reason being the first heavy pull of the trigger is often a flyer due to the extreme amount of force required to depress the trigger. The follow-up single action shot is often also a flyer due to anticipation of the heavier trigger pull, even though the pistol is now firing in the lighter single action mode. The Glock pistols have one constant trigger pull from first to last shot. Removing the element of anticipation, the shooter has enhanced accuracy and more accurate first shot hits.

The 3 safeties in the “Safe Action” Glock pistol are all passive and function in order. The first safety is the trigger safety. There is a lever in the center of the trigger that unless disengaged prevents any rearward movement of the trigger. The trigger safety is disengaged only by the trigger finger. The second safety is the firing pin safety. The firing pin safety physically blocks the strikers’ movement until the trigger is pulled to the rear. When the trigger is pulled rearward, the trigger bar pushes upward on the firing pin safety disengaging it. The final safety is the drop safety. This is a track which the trigger bar/cruciform moves. When the trigger is pulled all the way to the rear the trigger bar is pushed down, releasing the striker to fire the cartridge. When the trigger is released, all 3 safeties automatically engage. The Glock pistol has been dropped 100 feet in the air from a helicopter with a primed cartridge in the chamber. When examined, it did not fire.

The slide is manufactured from a bar of solid steel and is finished by a process called gas nitration. This clear finish penetrates .05 inches into the metal. The slide of a Glock pistol is so hard it is just under a diamond on the Rockwell scale (55 to 60). This finish is so hard that Austrian soldiers sharpen their bayonets on the slide. This finish is corrosive resistant as well.

The barrel of the Glock 17 is cold hammer forged. After a pilot hole is drilled through the center of the barrel a mandrel, which contains the rifling and chamber, is placed inside the barrel blank. Multiple hammers exert tons of force on the outside of the barrel, forming the polygonal bore and chamber. Unlike conventional barrels with cut rifling, there are no sharp lands and grooves. The bore diameter is tighter than a conventional barrel as well. This does two things. First, due to no sharp lands and grooves the barrel does not wear much at all increasing long term accuracy/barrel life and making the barrel easy to clean. Second is a tighter bullet to barrel seal increasing velocity.

Generation 2

The second generation Glock was made for the desires of the American consumer. First, the grip was changed to add checkering to the front and back strap of the pistol. Additionally slightly rougher sides were added as well. Internally, the recoil spring and spring guide were changed to a captive assembly. Later second generations received an upgrade on the trigger group and firing pin block for improved safety. Glock provided this for free based on the serial number range of the pistol. The pistol was offered with fixed sights, adjustable as well as tritium night sights. Perhaps the most significant change was for the American consumer with the drop free magazine. The internal metal body went around all sides of the magazine preventing the magazines from swelling whether empty or full. With the introduction of other calibers, an additional pin was added to secure in the locking block on all non 9×19 caliber pistols. During this generation calibres in .40, 10mm Auto, .45 Auto, .357 and .380 Auto were introduced.

Generation 3

The third generation pistols brought the Glock into the accessories era in the late 1990s time frame. First is the addition of a rail on the front of the pistol for adding tactical lights as well as laser sights. In 2003, Glock introduced with this pistol a trio of light options. First a tactical light only, then a tactical light/laser sight combo and then a tactical light/visible laser/IR laser combo. Added to the front of the frame are 3 finger grooves and thumb swells on both sides of the receivers. Some pistols were also sold with the Glock extended slide release. The color of the finish would change as well to a more glossy black finish. The long awaited addition of a loaded chamber indicator was introduced as well. This enabled the shooter to run his finger over the extractor. If it was felt it was most probably loaded, if not it was unloaded. Through the beginning of this generation of pistols Glock still used separate frames for 9×19 pistols, later in the Generation 3 all would be switched to the same frame with the extra pin for the locking block. Additionally the frames themselves were strengthened. This came around the development of the .357 cartridge. This caliber required a stronger frame than the Generation 2 so this was built into the Generation 3. If you had a .40 caliber pistol with a Generation 3 frame you could swap out the barrel for a .357 and fire it safely. It was not in the case of the older G22 frame. This Generation would see the introduction of the G35, and G36 as well as in 2002 Glock introduced their internal gun lock requiring a Glock key to engage and disengage.

In 2004, the .45 G.A.P. round came into play in model G37 and in 2005 in the G38 and G39. This is the first cartridge introduced by Glock. Clearly over the past several years, law enforcement trends show a shift back to the .45 Auto calibre cartridge. With this switch, many smaller statured officers have had great difficulty using full sized .45 Auto caliber pistols. Glock engineers took a long look at the 100 year old cartridge and found that there are several changes that could be made to make the cartridge that much more efficient. First the cartridge case was longer than needed with modern propellants. There is a significant amount of wasted space in the powder cup. So the cartridge case was shortened taking advantage of modern propellant. It was found that when firing the same weight bullet the .45 G.A.P. or .45 Glock Automatic Pistol would fire at slightly higher velocities than the legacy .45 Auto. The profile of the bullet was changed decreasing the length of the projectile. Now Glock had a .45 Auto-type bullet in a much shorter package that now could be placed in a 9×19/.40 caliber frame. Officers with smaller hand would have little difficulty with the .45 caliber handgun when using the 45 GAP cartridge.

In 2007, Glock introduce its first SF (Short Frame) pistol the G21 SF. This is a full size Glock 21 .45 Auto caliber pistol with 2 distinct changes. The pistol has a new, sleeker lower receiver with an ambidextrous magazine release button. This required a new magazine. The change was the engagement surface of the magazine catch is on the front of the pistol grip so it had to be on the front of the magazine. Standard G21 magazines will not work. However the G21 SF magazine will work in all other Glock 21 and 30 pistols.

In 2009, Glock introduced their new RTF2 (Rough Textured Frame) pistol. The grip has been the most evolving change throughout the evolution of the Glock pistol. The new RTF2 consists of hundreds of miniature “polymids” on the front, rear and sides including the thumb rest resulting in increased traction.

The Generation 4 Glock

Mr. Glock has as his corporate motto “Glock Perfection,” and there is no question he means it. He understood that to maintain that perfection he would have to always improve his weapon. Though mechanically this is a sound weapon, probably the most durable handgun in history, the evolution would have to continue in order to stay as the number one handgun in the world. The changes that would need to be made were more cosmetic and having the pistol adapt to different shooters hands as well as styles. Glock’s Generation 4 pistols were introduced in 2010.

Shooter’s hands as we all know come in all sizes and it is difficult to make one firearm that will suit all. This is the particular case in a Law Enforcement and a military pistol. You will have the smallest hands of a female officer to the Sasquatch size hands of this author. Trends within the industry were to have removable backstraps that would adjust the grip size for the individual shooter. In true Glock fashion, they responded to the customer and offered the Generation 4 pistol with two backstraps. The frame with nothing is for the smallest hands, there are a medium and a large backstrap. Also in true Glock fashion it is simple to install. The pistol is supplied with a simple punch which pushes out the trigger housing pin, the backstrap snaps in place and the trigger housing pin is replaced. Additionally, the texture of the grip sides and the finger grooves were changed to a better and more grippable square pattern.

A major change was the magazine release of the pistol: it is reversible and the button is significantly larger. In order to make the magazine catch reversible, the magazine was modified so that the engagement notch for the magazine catch is on both sides. It means if you want to move the mag catch to the right side you have to have a new production Gen 4 magazine. If you leave it on the left side you may use any generation magazine.

The mechanical improvement came in the form of a new spring guide assembly. Although the Glock pistol is very light compared to most of its kind, the recoil is very manageable and mild. Glock pistols have always used the strongest and longest lasting flat recoil springs. With the introduction of the mini Glock pistol (G26, G27, G28, G29, G30 and G33) in 1996, a new recoil spring was devised. Dual springs were used softening the recoil and the impact on the frame making the pistols extremely mild in the area of recoil. Glock applied that technology to the larger frame pistols introducing it in the Generation 4 G17 and G22. This required modifications to the slide to accept the larger end of the recoil spring. When comparing a generation 3 and 4 on the range it is clearly evident which is which. The push and flip of the generation 4 is noticeably less assisting in even quicker follow-up shots.

The Generation 4 pistol was released at the 2010 SHOT Show and was accepted with open arms. Soon to follow were the compact and mini pistols. The ones still not converted over are the larger frame G20, G21, G29 and G30 pistols which the G21 GEN 4 is anxiously anticipated by this author. Glock Austria showed prototypes of the G21 Gen 4 at the IWA show in Nuremburg, Germany in February of 2011. This author looks forward to the G21 Gen 4 in 2012.