MSBS Grot: The Complete History of Poland's New Army Rifle
Forgotten Weapons
•
29m
The MSBS Grot is Poland's current military service rifle, and has gone through several iterations in the many years of its development that led to its current 2nd generation form. It is best known in the US as a rifle designed to be interchangeable between standard and bullpup layout, although that capability was dropped when the Polish Army opted not to adopt it. Fundamentally, the Grot ("Arrow" or "Spear") is a short-stroke gas operated, rotating bolt, 5.56mm system derived from the AR-18 system. It spent several years tied up in bureaucratic limbo as part of Project Tytan - Poland's version of a Future Soldier program. It was finally dragged into mainstream adoption when the newly formed Polish Territorial Defense Force adopted it.
Today we will be tracing the development of the Grot from its very first mockups through the preproduction prototypes, the first generation rifle, and the now-standardized second generation - plus a look as the grenade launchers developed alongside it. I would like to give a very big thanks to Fabryka Broni in Radom, Poland for the full access they gave me to this rifle. While the teething issues the Grot had in development are typical of new rifle designs, not many companies are willing to share the whole project history, warts and all. I really appreciate that FB did!
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Literature Review: Books on the MAS-36
Jean Huon recently released a new two-volume set of books specifically on the MAS-36. I figured that rather than look at it along, it would be more useful to compare it to the other books available on the MAS-36. So, here's a comparison of the five different books I am aware of with major materia...
-
Book Review: Guns of the FBI
"Guns of the FBI" was written by retired FBI Special Agent Bill Vanderpool, who spent many years on the FBI Firearms Training Unit and has a perfect background to write a book on this subject. This is not really a typical reference book; it reads much more like a series of oral recollections. Tha...
-
What Would Browning Do: FN's New High...
It seems like everyone is making a copy of the Browning High Power these days, and FN themselves have jumped into the arena as well. What FN is making isn't just a clone of the original pistol, though - they have built something largely new, taking inspiration and design cues from the original BH...
