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Submachine Guns

Submachine Guns

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Submachine Guns

ZB47: A Truly Weird Czech SMG

The ZB47 was developed at Brno as a contender for Czech military submachine gun adoption in the late 1940s. The Czech Army had technically adopted a submachine gun prior to World War Two (the vz.38; video on that is coming a bit later) but production did not begin before the arrival of German tro...

STEN Mk.2, Mk.5 and Sterling On The Range Comparison

Eric, @neutral_af and Mike went to Kudu Tir in Sion, Switzerland, and had a chance to shoot Mike's STEN Mk.2, Mk.5 and L2A3 Sterling Mk.4 alongside each other. These are all open-bolt blocked-at-semi subgats, and are a lot of fun! Plus it was Eric's first experience on a STEN, he's more of an U...

Sten MkII vs Ingram M10/9 (w/ John Keene)

If you had to pick one, would you take a Sten MkII or an Ingram M10/9? This applies specifically to the guns in their original factory configurations; no Lage products allowed! It's hard to come up with a mass-production SMG that isn't obviously better than a MkII Sten, but the stock Ingrams migh...

Beretta M38A vs Suomi kp/31 (w/ John Keene)

If you had to pick one, would you take an early Beretta 38A (with bayonet), or a Finnish kp/31 Suomi? Both have semiauto selectors, although the Beretta's its easier to use. The Suomi has a higher rate of fire and larger magazine capacity, but is slower to use. Both have roughly equivalent sights...

Berettas With Bayonets: The Very Early Model 38A SMG

The initial model of the Beretta 38A had a number of features that were dropped rather quickly once wartime production became a priority. Specifically, they included a lockout safety switch for just the rear full-auto trigger. This was in place primarily for police use, in which the guns were int...

Sterling vs Uzi: An On The Range Comparison

Sterling Mk.4 / L2A3: the ultimate angry toob. Uzi: the ultimate angry box.

Mike owns a Sterling and Eric @neutral_af owns an Uzi. Both open bolt, both blocked at semi. What do they think of each other's gats? What if we throw a closed bolt Sterling Mk.6 into the mix? And for a final compariso...

Development of the Uzi Family: Standard, Mini, and Micro

The Uzi was originally designed in the 1950s, and it was on the technological cutting edge at the time. The stamped receiver, telescoping bolt, and compact magazine-in-grip layout made it an inexpensive and effective weapon. Its sedate 600 round/minute rate of fire helped as well, making it easy ...

The CIA's shady suppressed Vietnam-era sub machine gun: The Carl Gustav M/45

Filed off markings and serial numbers usually point to one thing: whoever used this gun didn't want you to know who they were. With our records indicating this rare and intriguing example was sent to us by no one other than the CIA, Jonathan has a lot of digging to unpick this covert creation.

B&T APC-9: The Swiss Answer to the MP5

B&T owner Karl Brügger is a big fan of 9mm PCCs and SMGs, and decided that his company ought to offer an alternative to the MP5 and this was the Advanced Police Carbine (APC). In order to compete effectively, it needed to be simple to manufacture, since manufacturing costs in Switzerland are exor...

MP9 and TP9: A Complete History From Steyr to B&T

Steyr introduced their TMP (Tactical Machine Pistol) and its semiauto SPP counterpart in 1989, but it was never a very popular item. After the company was purchased, the new ownership decided to scrap the TMP (along with other low-performing product lines). At that point, Swiss firm B&T purchased...

Estonia's Domestic Arms Production: Arsenal Tallinn SMG

At the end of Estonia's war of independence in 1920, the new nation's government began working on military infrastructure. One thing it would need was a repair depot to maintain military equipment, everything from barracks furniture to arms and vehicles. A large building was obtained in Tallinn (...

Friends Don't Let Friends Overhype the MP7

Even real top-tier operators can be taken in by the hype...just remember that it was designed to be a truck driver's gun 25 years ago.

US Military 25m ALT-C Qualification Course... With An Open Bolt Sterling Mk.4?

A number of years ago now, Henry of @9HoleReviews challenged me to try to do the rather lame 25m ALT-C rifle qualification course with an open-bolt 9mm Sterling Mk.4 / L2A3. Did I manage it? Did I redeem my honour with my KP-15 / CMMG PCC? What about the closed bolt Sterling Mk.6?

Mini-Ero: The Croatian Hybrid Small Uzi

After producing the Ero, a nearly exact copy of the Israeli Uzi, the Croatia firm Arma started making some design changes. With the Mini-Ero, they picked a size in between that of the Mini-Uzi and Micro-Uzi, and also used a stock taken from the vz.61 Skorpion (Model 84 in Croatian service).

A bi...

Tale of Two Sterlings: Mk.4 (open bolt) vs Mk.6 (closed bolt) First Impressions

Thanks to supporters, BotR now has a second Sterling SMG subgat! This one is a factory original Mk.6, the factory closed bolt version. Bloke has been doing sterling work (geddit?!?) with his open bolt Mk.4 for a number of years now, and the opportunity to add a closed bolt Mk.6 to the channel col...

Sten Mk5: The Cadillac of the Sten Family

The Sten Mk5 (sometimes written Sten MkV) was really the Cadillac of the Sten series. It was designed in 1943, and featured a full wooden buttstock patterned after the No4 Enfield rifle, as well as a front sight abductor bayonet lugs for the Enfield. It has a wooden pistol grip as well (and earl...

PAM-2: Argentina's Improved 9mm Grease Gun

The Argentine factory FMAP-DGFM was first set up to produce a copy of the Colt 1911, and in 1954 they began production of the PAM-1 (after demonstration of the first prototype in 1950). The PAM-1 was a copy of the American M3A1 "Grease Gun" chambered for 9x19mm Parabellum. Production ran until 19...

Sten MkIII: A Children's Toy Company Makes SMGs

Lines Brothers was a company in the UK that made sheet metal childrens' toys prior to the war. When production of the Sten guns began, Lines Bros was a parts subcontractor. Their engineers analyzed the design alongside the machinery the company had available and redesigned a version of the Sten t...

Romania's AK-Based SMG: the LP7

In the mid 1990s, UMC Cugir began looking at ways to adapt its AKM production tooling to make a 9mm submachine gun. What would become the LP7 was first prototyped in 1998, and went into limited production in 2003, with an order of 200 made for the Romanian Interior Ministry. Romanian Gendarmes de...

Sten MkII: Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Simpler

The Sten MkI had barely been approved for production when the Sten MkII was born. Initially requested to produce a version of the gun suitable for paratroopers, in March 1941 Harold Turpin redesigned the front end of the Sten to have a quickly detachable barrel and a rotating magazine well (for c...

Sten MkI & MkI*: The Original Plumber's Nightmare

The Sten gun was designed by RSAF Senior Draftsman (sorry, Draughtsman) Harold Turpin in December, 1940. He sketched out a simple trigger mechanism on December 2, showed it to Major Reginald Shepherd the next day, and then finished out the rest of the submachine gun design that week. The first pr...

UK Gangster Gun: The rare British MAC-10 with firearms expert Jonathan Ferguson.

What do you get when you combine a Micro Uzi magazine, an Australian fixed rifle stock (in this instance) and a well recognised American firearm? A British M10.

Watch this week as Jonathan delves into the history of this firearm which includes a tangle with the James Bond film 'Casino Royale'.

...

Type 100 / 44 (Late Pattern) Japanese SMG

The Japanese never really embraced submachine guns during and before World War Two. A series of development programs in the 1920s and 30s led nowhere, and there never really seems to have been much motivation behind them. Some small batches of guns were purchased from abroad for units like the Sp...

M1 Thompson: Savage Simplifies the SMG

The Thompson submachine gun struggled to find a market when it was originally produced, with the first batch of 15,000 Colt-made guns not finally all selling until the late 1930s. By that time, the clouds of war were gathering, and demand for submachine guns finally began to really grow. The US m...