e2armory

There are some firearms that are immediately recognizable to just about anybody, even if they don't even really know what they're looking at. Everyone has heard of the AK-47 or the Uzi or the Glock; most people would immediately recognize by sight a TEC-9 (the ubiquitous submachine gun used primarily by "thugs" in movies like Robocop or in basically every episode of Miami Vice) or a Smith & Wesson Model 29 (this is the revolver Clint Eastwood used in the Dirty Harry films and the very large one Robert De Niro used in Taxi Driver). It's ironic, then, that one of the most widely-produced and easily procured weapons in the world right now is also one that has one of the lowest rates of recognizability among the general public (at least in the West). The venerable M91/30 is probably the best deal around right now for someone looking for a reliable bolt-action rifle, though in some circles it has something of a bad reputation owing to its lineage.

Most people who aren't into guns who know about the M91/30 are familiar with it by virtue of the film Enemy at the Gates. More commonly known as the Mosin-Nagant (and I'll use the terms interchangeably), the M91/30 is a gun of Russian manufacture and is currently widely available in the United States by the crate-full. Individually, these guns sell for around $120 at the most, but a box of 20 can be purchased for less than $1500 (depending on freight). The 7.62x54mmR (for "Rimmed") ammunition used by this weapon is still in use in other, more modern firearms and is available (fairly inexpensively) just about anywhere ammo is sold. This particular round has been with us since its original development in 1891, thus making it the oldest military cartridge in continuous use in the world.

Development

As the name implies, the M91/30 was introduced into service in 1891. It was the result of more than a decade's worth of soul-searching by the Imperial Russian military over the stunning losses incurred during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. At the time, most infantrymen in the Russian military were equipped with the Berdan, a single-shot rifle chambered in the ungodly large 10.75x58mm cartridge. The Turks were armed with American Winchester Model 1873 lever-action repeating rifles. What this basically means is that while the Russians could only load, fire, and extract one bullet at a time, the Turks could load their weapons with ten (or more, depending on caliber) rounds before running out. While the Turkish rounds were not as powerful as the Russian bullets, their sheer volume overwhelmed them. While Russia was ultimately victorious, the fact that an American hunting rifle outclassed their heavy-caliber gun made them realize that quantity has a quality all its own. The Russians had an irrational love of the Berdan and attempted to retrofit existing models with higher-capacity magazines, but all such experiments ended in failure. By 1889, there were essentially two rifles left in the running to replace the Berdan, one designed by Sergei Mosin, and the other by Léon Nagant.

Nagant's design was initially favored and indeed was probably better suited to Russia's needs because of its high quality components and larger caliber projectile, but political and financial concerns eventually led to the selection of Mosin's gun instead. As a member of the Russian army, Mosin would not have to be paid to license the weapon beyond the initial amount promised to the winner of the trials. By contrast, Nagant was a Belgian civilian arms designer and so would have been able to license the weapon in Russia and then sell it abroad as he pleased (German arms designer Paul Mauser would base much of his company's success on such a business model). Mosin's design was also much less complex than Nagant's, meaning that it could be manufactured and distributed at a significantly lower cost. Before Mosin's weapon was mass-produced, however, the army made some relatively minor changes to it to improve its reliability. Unfortunately, one of those changes happened to be in violation of a patent owned by Léon Nagant...which was in turn "borrowed" from Mosin's original design.

At issue was a system designed to prevent more than two rounds being fed into the chamber at the same time (the eventual weapon was capable of holding five rounds). Nagant's submission had lacked this feature and experienced the failure routinely, causing Mosin to adjust his design to compensate for it. Seeing an opportunity (and aware that Mosin was legally precluded from patenting such a device), Nagant promptly patented the system himself and then threatened to sue the Russian military if he was not given proper credit. To shut him up, Nagant was paid an amount equal to the prize money awarded Mosin as well as a lucrative contract to design the Russian army's standard-issue sidearm, the hideous and overly complex 1895 Nagant Revolver. When the dust settled, the Three-Line (i.e. the Russian term for .30 caliber) Model 1891 entered into service with neither man's name attached to it.

History of Use

The first test of the M91 came in 1904 with the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. The transition from the Berdan to the Mosin-Nagant was an extremely difficult one, with most soldiers eventually going back to using the older design. This was likely related to operator error and improper cleaning techniques. Depending on the way they're manufactured, loading a Mosin can be a real challenge. The rimmed 7.62x54mm cartridge is somewhat cumbersome and not the easiest thing to load even in perfect conditions. An excessively fouled or gunked-up receiver can cause both loading and extraction problems. The bolt is extremely durable but also awkwardly designed, and even minor (and largely unintentional) misadjustments of the firing pin can cause the weapon to fail to fire. Similarly, rotating the bolt on a Mosin is an adventure in and of itself: it is not uncommon to have to repeatedly smack the bolt upwards in order to pull it back and extract a spent shell or a dud. Compare this to the more complex but ultimately more functional Mauser bolt system that almost never fails to function quickly and efficiently.

By the time the Great War rolled around in 1914, Russia was completely unequipped to deal with the massive demand for infantry rifles. The infrastructure for the massive changeover was simply not in place and was one of the contributing factors to the country's inability to have anything resembling success against the Germans and Austrians during that conflict. To make up for this, Russia turned to Remington to manufacture large quantities of the M91 in America and then ship them over. The contract was abrogated by the events of the Russian Revolution and the end of their participation in the war in 1917, leaving massive quantities of Mosin-Nagant rifles in the US. Most of these were ultimately sold to either private collectors or to the White Russian forces still resisting against the Bolshevik Red Army. Still more wound up in Finland due both to that country's status as a duchy of Imperial Russia and widespread local manufacturing.

In the 1930s, the issues surrounding the fabrication of M91s were resolved. First, the gun underwent a slight redesign to make it easier to manufacture, leading to the more technically correct M91/30 designation it bears today. Second, Josef Stalin's leadership of Russia's successor state, the Soviet Union, emphasized rapid and massive industrialization at the expense of pretty much everything else. The increased focus on infrastructural development in peacetime helped solve the issue. While the Soviet army was not anywhere remotely near being prepared for the German invasion in 1941, there was at least the capability to provide infantry arms. Mosin-Nagants made during the war are of noticeably lower quality than earlier examples, bearing as they do manufacturing scars and poorly stamped marks on their receivers. That being said, a large number of them were never even issued, but rather held in reserve just in case they were needed.

It is estimated that about 40 million Mosin-Nagant rifles have been produced over the course of the weapon's lifetime, the majority of which were created immediately before and during World War II. This is the primary cause of there being a glut of them on the market today. Likewise, it was clear by the end of the war that the standard bolt-action rifles almost universally used by the world's militaries would not really have a place in future warfare. With the Soviet adoption of more advanced weapons like the semi-automatic SKS or the fully automatic AK-47 assault rifle, huge quantities of Soviet-made Mosin-Nagants were either given or sold extremely inexpensively to friendly countries and communist rebels worldwide, leading to their proliferation in places as far flung as South America, Vietnam, and Afghanistan (and almost literally everywhere in between).

Modern Analysis

Ironically, the utilitarian advantages of the gun are the primary reason it is not particularly in vogue today. There are literally millions of these guns just sitting around, waiting to be bought, which is naturally why they're so inexpensive, especially when compared to other military surplus weapons like the Mauser Karabiner 98 ($500+) or the M1 Garand ($900+). Their perceived lack of quality is similar in some ways to the attitudes about AK-pattern rifles, namely that even though they're reliable, they're also mass-produced pieces of crap that can't shoot straight. Mosin-Nagants are definitely not the most beautiful weapons; compared to elegant contemporaries like the Mauser K98 or the Winchester Model 94, they're actually somewhat aesthetically displeasing. Likewise, operating the gun is virtually impossible if the receiver isn't cleaned regularly, so this might be a turn-off for people who don't particularly care about cleaning their weapons (as an aside, anyone who has this irresponsible attitude should not own a firearm since a dirty weapon is also an extremely unsafe one). Almost all surplus M91/30s come caked in cosmoline, a vaseline-like substance that is used to combat rust on old guns; removing all of the cosmoline from inside the firearm is essential to ensuring safe and proper operation. Like all full-sized, non-carbine rifles of the era, Mosin-Nagants are also very heavy and can be awkward to hold and shoot at first.

All of that being said, however, the anti-Mosin brigade is very much in the wrong. Despite everything else, it's important to remember the simple fact that the M91/30 is the gun that won World War II for the USSR (or as it's called in Russia, the Great Patriotic War). Even going up against the extensively technologically advanced weaponry of the Third Reich, the Mosin-Nagant proved its worth time and time again. Even the production lines of 1943 and 1944 -- probably the worst of the lot -- still functioned in the way they were intended with minimal failures. It is a rugged weapon, capable of withstanding sustained bouts of abuse (so long as the receiver and bolt stay clean, of course). The fact that so many of these guns are still in existence -- and that they still work -- is not so much a testament to their ease of production but rather their reliability.

The 7.62x54mmR round used by the Mosin-Nagant is one of its main selling points as well. As a .30 caliber bullet, it is well-suited for just about any purpose. Long-range, short-range, it doesn't matter: it is a powerful projectile with a large amount of energy behind it. As a military round, its most obvious function is that of offense, but it is also extremely well-suited to hunting and will bring down just about any game you can imagine. As mentioned earlier, ammunition is plentiful and not at all expensive. One of the primary concerns for anyone thinking of purchasing a firearm should be the availability and cost of ammunition, which makes the Mosin-Nagant extremely appealing.

Concerns about the accuracy of the gun are ill-founded as well. Anecdotally, I have owned and shot both Mausers and Mosins, and I can personally say that even though the Mosin is somewhat more unwieldy, it is generally as accurate as other similar weapons if not moreso. Part of the reason for this has to do with the long barrel of the gun and the corresponding long sight radius (i.e. the distance between the front and rear sights). Longer radiuses generally result in improved accuracy, which is one reason why AK-pattern guns are usually less accurate (the sight radius on a standard M91/30 is about four or five times that of a standard AK). Simo Häyhä, a Finnish marksman of the World War II era, still holds the record for the highest number of confirmed sniping kills in the world. Using his Finnish-made Mosin-Nagant (called the M39 there), he killed 505 Soviet soldiers (that we know of) at distances of up to 2000 meters without the benefit of a scope. While obviously being a talented marksman helps, this feat would have been impossible if the gun were as unreliable and inaccurate as everyone says. Aside from user expertise, the biggest determinants of accuracy are going to be the condition of the gun's bore as well as the type of ammunition used. Since many M91/30s on the market today were either unissued or used sparingly, many of them have barrels in extremely good condition and thus have the potential to be very accurate weapons.

While I'm definitely not one of these zombie apocalypse people preparing for an event that will almost certainly never occur in our lifetimes, the reliability and economy of these rifles -- especially when purchased in bulk -- make them ideal for at least having something that your whole family can quickly and easily learn to use if there was ever a circumstance that warranted it. You can arm yourself and 19 of your closest friends for about $1500 -- less than the cost of two high-end brand new .30-caliber rifles that are unable to take the same kind of abuse as a Mosin-Nagant. Almost all of these come complete with slings, bayonets, ammo pouches, and oil cans. Again, I don't really have any personal interest in stockpiling guns just for the hell of it, but if you really had a need for it, the Mosin-Nagant would be the way to go.

If you're not entirely sold on the idea of buying 20 World War II-era rifles "just in case," I invite you to consider it as an investment opportunity. For years, Mauser K98s were as plentiful and as cheap as Mosin-Nagants are now. In mediocre shape, German-made Mausers sell for $500. In great shape, they're closer to $1000. AK-47s -- which exist in greater quantities than M91/30s -- have gone up in price on the collectors' market in the last five or six years as well. The average price of a civilian AK in 2006 was around $350; they sell for around $550-$600 now. In the same period of time, Mosin-Nagants have increased in average retail price from about $75 to the current $100-$120 range. Who knows where they'll be in 10 or 20 years? I'm definitely not advising anyone to go out and buy $10,000 worth of guns, but there are worse and less useful investments out there.

In general, though, Mosins are excellent military surplus weapons. For people who are just getting interested in firearms and/or who do not exactly have a ton of money to spend, you could definitely do worse. It's easy to learn the fundamentals of shooting and gun ownership with a Mosin-Nagant since it's not a huge financial investment (unless you buy several crates of them) and they are well-suited for sporterizing. There are a variety of replacement stocks available for the gun, most of which are lighter and significantly more comfortable than the production stocks. While most M91/30s were not built with the intention of ever being able to accept scopes, there are several extremely affordable modification kits available to turn a standard issue Mosin-Nagant into a modern and effective long-range hunting rifle. I'm generally not one to recommend sporterizing old military weapons, but given the extremely common nature of the M91/30, it doesn't seem harmful.

There are dozens of variations of the gun, some of which are considerably more valuable than others. Hexagonal receivers, sniper variants, Finnish-made models, carbine-style versions, and pre- World War II examples tend to be more expensive than the run of the mill M91/30 and are really only purchased for the benefit of being able to say one owns them. I wouldn't really recommend buying these types of guns unless you're prepared to spend a lot of money for something that functions identically to the original version with perhaps slight cosmetic and compatability differences. Beyond that, I suggest the M91/30 to anyone interested in owning a rifle but who doesn't feel the need to spend a ton of money on one. And who knows? Maybe it'll make you rich one day!

The Winchester Model 74 is a rifle. Specifically, it is an 'economy' model of semiautomatic rifle which was introduced to the U.S. market in 1939, firing a .22 Short cartridge. In 1940, a version was offered which took the still-familiar .22 Long Rifle cartridge; the .22 Short version was discontinued in 1952, and the .22 LR in 1955. Over 400,000 of these guns were sold.

In 1941, the Model 74 (its full name was the 'Winchester Model 74 Automatic (Self-Loading) Rifle') was sold at retail for approximately $18.50, although this varied by a up to a dollar either way depending on which caliber and which sight option you wanted. Both calibers were available with either an elevating peep sight for accuracy at range or an open 'sporting' sight for smooth and quick use in the field. With so many of these manufactured, they can be found today in used markets with little effort. Depending on their condition, prices range from around $100 to over $500.

I was digging through my Dad's house recently (well, digging through the closet in my room in Dad's house) and I came across one of these. I recalled it, because he had given it to me a decade or so ago - he mumbled something about "my gun when I was younger" and handed it over in a crumbling leather sheath. I opened the sheath and found a slightly rusted, frozen solid gun, its stock dull and dark. I remember sitting on the porch of the house, knowing almost nothing about how guns worked (especially self-loaders) but being willing to learn. I had a bottle of Rem Oil, a can of WD-40 and some Break-Free, along with some polishing cloths and various small brushes and tools from the cleaning kit I used to clean our more modern Savage-Anschütz .22.

The Model 74 is fed from a tubular magazine in the stock. There is a gate (a hole drilled in the right side of the stock at an angle) for feeding in cartridges. The magazine follower - a long tube with a spring-loaded plunger at the end - is unlocked in the butt and withdrawn far enough to clear the gate, and cartridges can be dropped in bullet-first. When the last bullet remains visible in the gate, the tube is reinserted, and the spring inside it will lock the cartridges up against the bolt and feed them into the chamber when their turn comes.

The bolt of this gun is a little unusual. It is in two pieces, and it can be extracted from the gun by depressing the button safety - which slides across the rear of the action, behind the bolt - all the way to one side and sliding the bolt out the rear. This makes cleaning it relatively easy.

The problem is that the way the bolt is constructed, it is fairly easy to "dry fire" the gun, and when you do, it is very easy to damage the firing pin. These pins are apparently hell to find these days, and I recall vividly that when I took the bolt apart (managing to do it without losing any pins or springs, which is a miracle) there were indentations on the bolt surface which indicated that at some point in the gun's past, the action had been fired with the firing pin misaligned from the chamber - causing it to actually punch a notch in the metal of the bolt. Ugh.

I remember, ten or twelve years ago, that I got it to fire, but I never got it to load properly. I'm not sure why. But I intend to revisit this gun, and to fully disassemble it, and maybe see if Gun Mentor and I can get it to work properly. That'd make me happy.

The Model 74 wasn't just a civilian plinking rifle. During World War II, as part of Lend-Lease, a number of these rifles were sent to the United Kingdom. They were used for two purposes - first, for training soldiers through the use of much cheaper .22 LR ammunition, rather than full-caliber Lee Enfields. The second, though, was more interesting. When the UK expected to be invaded by the Third Reich, during the Battle of Britain, British 'guerrilla forces' were set up. Each coastal county facing the Continent had a roughly 500-man force, dubbed 'Auxiliary Units' of the British Resistance Organisation. Soldiers in these units would be hidden, along with supplies, in underground bunkers and would wait for invasion forces to pass them by before surfacing and beginning a harassment and sabotage campaign.

One of the weapons they were given was a consignment of some 660 Model 74 rifles, modified with telescopic sights and silencers. These were to be used by trained snipers to kill German unit officers and sentries quietly, as well as (if necessary) for hunting for food supplies.

This gun is an integral piece of American shooting history from the mid-twentieth century. I hope I can get it to work; it's a light, small, easily-held rifle - and I'd love to see it shoot again. I'll update this node once I get a chance to work on it and (hopefully) shoot it.

Update:

I got the gun apart. It doesn't look too bad, actually. The action seems to work; all moving parts move except for the bolt retaining rod and bolt spring which are gummed/rusted in place. I am soaking all the metal bits in Hoppe's No. 9 for the night (and a couple of bits in Break-Free where threaded parts are stuck) to see if that lets everything work loose. Here's a picture of the gun. From top left clockwise, the parts are: magazine follower, bolt assembly (containing the bolt sections, extractor, firing pin, sear, timing rocker, operating slide and several springs and pins), the barrel in the top center with the mounting lug on the bottom and the cartridge acceptor at the bottom back, two buttplate screws, the stock and trigger, and the internal magazine assembly.

I also have a smidgen of an idea of what might have been causing it to misfeed. The magazine assembly comes through the butt and into the are just above the trigger at an angle. The cartridge acceptor (the black piece sticking out of the bottom of the barrel) is a ring attached to a small ramp which feeds the bullet into the chamber when the bolt is back. Underneath the magazine assembly, seated inside the butt, is a small but stiff spring which holds the magazine up against the acceptor. It is possible that this spring has weakened over time, and the magazine is no longer being held firmly in alignment with the bottom of the barrel. I'll test this hypothesis when we re-assemble the gun.

Update II:

It turned out that the problem was more serious. At some point in the past, this gun has been dry fired and I myself did so once while cleaning it. During one of those times (and it could have been me) the firing pin rotated and struck the chamber lip. The firing ping is not supposed to rotate, as far as I can tell - it's in two pieces but they're not supposed to spin relative to each other - so there is additional contributory cause. The upshot, though, was that the reason the gun wouldn't load to battery was because that pin strike at the chamber lip had created a tiny divot of metal into the chamber which was blocking the bullet from entering.

I ordered a replacement firing pin and a chamber ream and we'll see how that goes.

Update III:

Finally got time to sit down and work on the 74. Using the chamber ream, I managed to clear the chamber of obstructions. A round will now smoothly seat in the chamber. Next step will be to replace the firing pin with the new one I received. This one has two sections just as the original does; however, this one will not allow the two sections to rotate. In addition, however, the end of this pin is a constant cylinder where the original pin was spatulate, ending in a squared-off punch. We'll see if this pin works as-is, or if it will need some modification.

Update IV:

Well, I didn't manage to get all the way. I ended up taking the gun to a local smith and machinist. They, to my relief, were able to reassemble it smoothly so that it functions again. It'll never be super accurate, but it works - and it's Dad's .22.

Sources:

Historic Arms Resource Centre: Miniature-Calibre Rifle Research Site (UK)
The History of Winchester Firearms 1866-1992. Henshaw, Thomas; Winchester Press, Clinton NJ, 1993. pp 121-122.

The Saiga 12 is an assault shotgun.

The assault shotgun is a growing family of weapon systems that has many fearsome entries as law enforcement and the military have come to fully appreciate the unmatched superiority of the shotgun as a close quarters force multiplier. Gun manufacturers have begun to innovate to meet the demand.

Back in WWI, the German government issued a diplomatic protest against the United States for their use of shotguns in the trenches. In the hellscape of trench warfare, where dug in lines cowered in the mud and fired at each other across a killing field with withering machine gun fire, high powered bolt action rifles and tried to lob explosives into each others narrow ditches, the Americans developed a technique. A few would brave no man’s land at night, drop into the German trenches, and use the Winchester Model 1897 to eradicate the enemy soldiers. Pistols and the rifles were poor defense against a 12 gauge pump gun at such close ranges, and the deadly effectiveness of these sweeps, caused the Germans to officially protest. It was decided that the shotgun did not fall under the rule of war that states “It is especially forbidden to employ arms, projections, or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering." Apparently, it was decided that the suffering delivered from the mouth of a shotgun was necessary as far as Germans were concerned. The shotgun was something even Germans were afraid of. I love to imagine how they would have felt about the Saiga-12.

Introduced in the 1990’s, the Saiga-12 is a fine example of the Soviet Union’s dedication to the engineering principal;
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
For over 60 years the venerable Kalashnikov design has been used and re used and re vamped and re chambered into a dizzying array of rifles that share the same basic design and operating principals.

The Saiga 12 is essentially an AK-47 semi- automatic chambered in 12 gauge.

(If you don’t know what an AK-47 is, then I recommend you read the excellent node, and I don’t know, maybe watch the news, an action movie, or play a video game.)

Semi automatic shotguns commonly suffer from two major drawbacks: reliability and magazine capacity. The varied sizes and powers of 12 gauge ammunition available as well as the dirt and debris of the battlefield pose problems for the over engineered semi auto configurations, and the traditional tube magazine capacity (3-5) can only be expanded as far as the barrel is long (8).
The Saiga-12 suffers from neither of these limitations.
The AK rifle is famous for its incredible reliability, and this parentage has made the Saiga-12 one of the most successful semi-auto shotgun designs. The loose operating tolerances typical of the design allow for all sorts of real world factors such as dirt and water to be present without hampering the operation of this machine. The gas system of the Saiga-12 is adjustable so that high powered loads and low powered “less than lethal” rounds can both be employed without malfunction or damage to the shotgun. This shotgun does not utilize a tube magazine as does many of its counterparts, it is box fed like the AK. 3,5,8,10, and 12 round box magazines are available as well as 12 and 20 round drums. The 10 round box has nearly the same size profile as the 30 round “banana” mag of the AK. While 10 rounds may not sound like a lot, it is typically 2-5 rounds more than the longest standard tube mag, and the reload time is a bare fraction of the time needed to cram shells into a tube one after another. Each round of 00 buck shot is essentially 9 rounds of .38 special, making a 10 round mag more like 90. When that is taken into consideration, the Saiga-12 further distinguishes itself from the crowd. It will feed every available length and power of 12-gauge ammunition on the market.

In order to be imported to the US, the Saiga-12 must undergo modifications. The trigger group is moved slightly toward the rear, and a traditional style synthetic rifle butt is installed. Once here, and in compliance with 922(r) laws, there is a rich after market of goods made in the United States to transform your unassuming long gun into a terrifying engine of death. When re-configured with an adjustable stock, pistol grip, and accessory rail, this assault shotgun really begins to look and act the part. Many shops will further convert and customize the Saiga-12 by moving the trigger group forward where it belongs, upgrading the trigger and gas system, modifying the charging handle, bolt resurfacing and even shortening it to a restricted SBS short barreled shotgun configuration with an 8 inch barrel that requires a lengthy registration process and a $200 tax stamp to own.

This weapon is made in the Izhmash factory in Russia along side military AK manufacture. The Saiga line of rifles are made for export (though the S-12 is used by the Russian military) and available in .410, 20 gauge, .223, 5.45x39mm, 7.62x39mm, and .308 (7.62x51mm).

I have found this to be a pleasurable shotgun to operate, very pointable from the hip, and the gas operation uses sufficient amount of the recoil to cycle the action, making only the hardest hitting magnum loads a little uncomfortable to shoulder. I have never encountered a malfunction in the 300 or so rounds of varied types of ammunition I have run through it. AK magazine quick change techniques translate to this shotgun well. I have been able to place rifled slugs center of mass on a man sized silhouette consistently at 100 yards off the shoulder while standing. There is both an intoxicating feeling of power, and a sobering realization of the responsibility of holding something so capable of erasing several lives with such hideous ease.

I highly endorse this product and/or service.

For those of you who just require the facts:

Gas Operated

Rotating Bolt

Self loading

Detachable Box Magazine Fed

Smoothbore

Shotgun

It is encountered in a variety of weights, lengths, and capacities depending on variants, modifications, and equipment. If you simply must know, then I encourage you to look into it.

The Personal Defense Weapon (PDW) is a relatively new type of firearm that has become available to the world's armed forces over the course of the last 25 years. As the name implies, the PDW was originally intended as a purely defensive weapon. Its characteristics made it ideal for a military's support personnel not typically engaged in frontline combat (e.g., medics or technicians). In recent years, however, PDWs have taken on a primarily offensive role, specifically in the fields of law enforcement and special operations. To fully understand this change in thought, one must understand the innovations in military philosophy over the last few decades.

Background: Generational Warfare and Military Philosophy

In 1989, the United States military establishment undertook a semi-comprehensive assessment of the history of warfare up to that point and divided the prior 400 years or so into what were termed "generations" of warfare. The first generation was typified by states creating standing armies that fought one another in fairly static, standardized columns of large groups of soldiers (for example, the Napoleonic Wars or the American Revolution). The second generation also featured massed armies but also saw the advent of smaller units of fighting men simultaneously trying to achieve military objectives outside of the larger mass of forces using technologically advanced weaponry (the American Civil War or World War I). The third generation was ushered in by Germany's innovative blitzkrieg (literally, "lightning war") tactic that called for massive and overwhelming movement at an inconceivably fast rate to the enemy's rear, thus cutting off supply routes and encircling the foe. The fourth generation is typified by states struggling against non-state actors (i.e. terrorists) across national boundaries with all available non-militarized resources (e.g. media, hacking, psychological warfare, international law, etc.) and includes urban warfare. According to this philosophy, the conflicts of the world today are generally lumped into the "fourth generation" category, at least by the standards of the U.S. military.

Submachine Guns and Assault Rifles

Accompanying each generation of warfare (if one accepts the terminology, which is not without controversy) is a different range of weaponry. During World War II, the German Wehrmacht created what is essentially the standard by which units in most of the world's armed forces are organized today. The individual unit was centered around the heavy machine gunner, who carried a selective-fire weapon capable of firing what is considered a "full sized" rifle round at high rates of speed (typified by the MG 42, which fires at a rate close to 1500 rounds per minute, rendering the human ear unable to differentiate between individual shots). The NCO in charge of the unit typically only carried a pistol and the other members were armed with bolt-action rifles (likely firing the same round as the machine gunner) and submachine guns (SMGs, fully-automatic weapons firing a smaller, pistol-caliber round) and filled supportive roles, both offensive and defensive. As an illustrative example, in the German context, machine gunners used MG 42s (7.92x57mm), riflemen had Mauser Karabiner 98ks (using the same round as the MG 42 to promote interchangeability), sub-machine gunners had MP 40s (9x19mm, the same bullet that is generally just called "9mm" today), and the NCO had either a Luger P08 or Walther P38 that used the same 9mm round.

In most modern militaries the same general idea still applies, although obviously frontline soldiers do not generally use bolt-action rifles incapable of semi-automatic or fully automatic fire. Instead, the roles of the rifleman and the sub-machinegunner have been combined and the primary weapon of choice is the assault rifle. Assault rifles differ from standard rifles in that they fire smaller rounds than the aforementioned full sized weapons such as the MG 42 or the K98k. Again, the Germans created the concept of the assault rifle during World War II, releasing a fully-automatic weapon that bridged the gap between machine guns and sub-machine guns. This weapon, called the Sturmgewehr (literally "assault rifle") fired a 7.92x33mm round that had the same penetrative and explosive effect of the larger round but at a shorter distance and with more controllability by the user in fully automatic mode. While the MG 42 usually had to be mounted on a complex tripod and supported by a group of nine other men, a Sturmgewehr could be fired from the shoulder and easily carried and used by anybody. Many experts believe that the relatively small supply of Sturmgewehr weapons and ammunition was one of the few things keeping the Nazis from winning World War II.

The first mass-produced assault rifle was the famous AK-47 developed by the USSR. The AK-47 is similar in many regards to the Sturmgewehr, both in its method of operation and its outside appearance (likely because one of the designers of the weapon was captured and forced to work in the Soviet Union after the war), but it was significantly cheaper and easier to produce than its predecessor. The AK-47 fires a 7.62x39mm round, and while not horrifically accurate at longer distances, it is almost indestructible and enjoys a decently high rate of fire. The AK style rifle is ubiquitous to the point that conservative estimates say that nearly 20% of all firearms currently in existence are AK-pattern rifles. They are so common that in certain parts of Africa, AKs can be purchased for the equivalent of roughly $6 (six U.S. dollars). After experiencing the devastating effects of the AK-47 in the Vietnam War when matched against older weapons such as the M1 Garand or the M14, the United States in the 1960s adopted the AR-15 as its primary infantry rifle and called it the M16. The M16 fires what is called a Small Caliber, High Velocity (SCHV) bullet, namely the 5.56x45mm round. While the 5.56 round does not cause the same level of damage as the 7.62 bullet, it is more accurate over longer distances and weighs significantly less, allowing individual soldiers to carry more ammunition than if they were carrying equivalent AK rounds. Seeing the utility and effectiveness of the SCHV concept, the Soviets engineered the 5.45x39mm round in 1974 to replace the heavier and less accurate 7.62 bullet in 1974 for use in their new AK-74 assault rifles; China followed suit in the 1980s with the 5.8x41mm round. Assault rifles like the M16 or the AK are generally around one meter in overall length and are meant for engagements within 300 meters, although they usually have effective ranges of about twice that distance.

The First Personal Defense Weapons

While this might seem to be extremely unnecessary background information, all of this is important to understanding the development of the PDW as well as its defining characteristics. The PDW exists in a somewhat nebulous area between the SMG and the assault rifle, and there is a certain amount of overlap between the three groups, prompting some to dismiss the PDW label and categorize individual weapons as either SMGs or assault rifles. Generally speaking, Personal Defense Weapons are compact, lightweight, selective-fire, and often chambered in either experimental or proprietary calibers that are halfway between pistol cartridges and assault rifle rounds. Other common features include short barrels and retractable or collapsible buttstocks. The first PDWs were basically more compact SMGs, which makes sense when you consider that SMGs like the Tommy gun or the aforementioned MP 40 are about as big as standard carbine-sized rifles and were originally meant to be used in a close-range offensive context. The ideal PDW is one that can be easily stowed in an armored vehicle and quickly reached and readied in the event of an emergency. PDWs theoretically should also be easily and comfortably fired with either a one or two handed grip. Generally speaking, PDWs are about half to two-thirds the overall length of comparable assault rifles. The effective range of most PDWs is less than 200 meters.

The first PDW really worth mentioning was the Czechoslovakian vzor 61, commonly known as the Skorpion (the meaning of the name should be somewhat obvious). The Skorpion fired the 7.65x17mm round, also called the .32 ACP. It was designed in 1959 and entered service in 1961, hence the vzor 61 designation (literally "model 1961"). The Skorpion features a top-folding stock and is not much larger than many normal pistols. It is, however, capable of fully automatic fire at a rate of roughly 800 rounds per minute (for reference, emptying the gun's 20-round magazine would take less than 3 seconds if the trigger was simply depressed until empty). It is still in use in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia mainly by special forces groups and has been licensed for production in other countries for the same purpose.

The next important pistol-caliber PDW was the famous MAC-10, an American weapon produced in both 9mm and .45 ACP variants. It is roughly the same size as the Skorpion but with a significantly higher rate of fire (approximately 1000-1100 rounds per minute) and more maneuverability owing to the fact that the magazine is stored in the pistol grip rather than in front of it like its predecessor. Officially, it was issued during the Vietnam War to special forces teams sent behind enemy lines. Because of its simple design and relatively small production cost, it is one of the most copied and most utilized weapons throughout the world, both by state militaries and non-state actors.

Modern Personal Defense Weapons and Changing Applications

In the 1980s and 1990s, a general trend toward downsizing both bullets and their cartridges resulted in the development of specific PDW calibers. This trend was due in large part to the advent of the above mentioned fourth generation warfare, which centered around relatively small units quickly accomplishing their objectives at fairly short ranges. The modern American military philosophy is called "rapid dominance," which is perhaps a more politically correct way of saying "blitzkrieg." In traditional military tactics, the main mass of infantry would be the spearhead of the assault, augemented by heavy artillery and air support if possible. The opposite is true today, with artillery and air power representing the main offensive thrust and being supported by decentralized infantry units engaged in closer range mop up operations. While the assault rifle would still continue to be the standard-issue infantry weapon, the intermediary PDWs took on an increased offensive importance with the advent of serious urban warfare (even to the point of fighting room-by-room in individual buildings).

One of the best examples of an effective PDW is the Belgian-made Fabrique Nationale P90. Designed throughout the late 1980s and introduced in 1990, the FN P90 was engineered around an experimental 5.7x28mm round. While the casing was longer than that of the standard NATO 9x19mm pistol cartridge (storing more powder and thus allowing it to travel farther), it used a bullet dimensionally similar in most respects to the 5.56x45mm SCHV assault rifle round. The result was a similar performance up to roughly 150 meters but with significantly less weight, allowing more rounds to be carried by the individual user. Complementing the P90 was the FN Five-Seven semi-automatic pistol which used the same round, promoting a higher degree of efficiency and economy through interchangeable ammunition for both primary and secondary weapons. The P90 fires at a rate of roughly 900 rounds per minute, outperforming most assault rifles by a significant margin. While the P90 never really caught on with its intended market -- that of support personnel -- it has been widely adopted by special forces groups throughout the world and is probably the most popular PDW in existence. It is highly modular, allowing for a variety of configurations using available first-party and aftermarket accessories that can be installed generally without requiring special tools or (perhaps more significantly) much time. Its standard configuration is extremely ergonomic and well-balanced, allowing it to be used effectively by just about anybody. Despite (or perhaps because of) all of this, the P90 has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the ugliest firearms ever made. Its performance, however, speaks for itself.

There are several reasons why PDWs are preferred to assault rifles in close-range engagements (specifically in the realm of urban warfare). First, if members of a special operations team are grouped tightly together, even shorter carbine-length weapons will prohibit maneuverability, never mind full-sized rifles. Second, SCHV rounds are generally over-powered for fire-fights taking place in close quarters and in the context of a battle inside a building, walls don't generally stop the bullets, increasing the likelihood of civilian casualties (which I hope everyone agrees is something to be avoided). Third, the smaller rounds produce less recoil, which increases accuracy and stability. Finally, the higher rate of fire allows engagements to end more quickly (as studies have shown that the number of shots fired in a shorter amount of time more strongly correlates to killing or disabling an opponent than does pinpoint accuracy) and reduces the chance of casualties on the assaulting group. Since most special operations occur at short ranges, this explains why PDWs wind up being the preferred weapons of choice for special forces members.

Given the success of the P90, other arms manufacturers sought to take advantage of the emerging Personal Defense Weapon market. Heckler & Koch, one of the premier arms manufacturers in Germany, created the MP7 PDW to compete with the P90. The MP7 fires a proprietary 4.6x30mm round and is smaller than H&K's best-selling MP5 SMG as well as the FN P90 while still retaining the latter's modularity. Another competitor is the Czech-made CZW-438, which fires an even smaller 4.38x30mm round. In response to Western trends toward smaller calibers, China created the QCW-05, which uses a 5.8x21mm round and is essentially a shortened version of their 5.8x41mm assault rifle ammunition. The United States military has yet to designate an official PDW and as such relies on mission-specific requirements to determine which one to use.

Criticism of the Concept

The main problems with the Personal Defense Weapon are as much theoretical as they are practical. Most obviously, the name is not an accurate reflection of their actual method of use, which has very little to do with defense. It raises the question as to whether or not a class of weapons designed around defense is appropriate for offensive use. That is to say, are armed forces simply making use of an available technology with obvious shortcomings without looking at alternatives more suited to their purposes? Next, while it's clear that PDWs have certain advantages over assault rifles in certain situations, they're not really that much better than SMGs in a lot of instances. While it is true that the 5.7x28mm round is more capable of passing through modern body armor than, say, the 9x19mm pistol round, I imagine that most people who are going to be on the receiving end of a shot from a PDW are not exactly equipped with the cutting technological edge of arms or armor. Realistically, modern PDWs are used mainly against insurgents, terrorists, guerrillas, and other likely poorly-funded individuals. Indeed, the idea has not caught on in Russia, where PDWs are basically of the Skorpion type, meaning that they use enhanced versions of established pistol calibers and are basically compact SMGs. The 9mm rounds used by Russian weapons like the PP-2000 are as effective at defeating body armor as the smaller proprietary rounds in other PDWs but are compatible with a wide range of already existing weaponry. The final major issue with the PDW is the proliferation of bizarre and completely non-standardized calibers. There is going to be almost no difference in performance between the 4.6x30mm and 4.38x30mm calibers mentioned above and no other weapons use them; what's the point? The 5.7x28mm is the only PDW round that has come close to being accepted by NATO as a standard caliber (along with 5.56x45mm and 9x19mm) but Germany balked at its acceptance over their own 4.6x30mm submission and so the process is in limbo, allowing for more of these relatively pointless calibers to come into being for no good reason. Fabrique Nationale is one of the largest and most influential arms manufacturers in the world and is almost definitely the most prestigious in Europe...and yet there are less than ten known weapons chambered for their 5.7 bullet, including the P90 and the Five-Seven. Perhaps concerned about the future of the project, FN in 2001 released the F2000, a virtual clone of the P90 chambered in 5.56x45mm.

The PDW is the perfect weapon for the fourth generation of warfare, if such a thing can be said to exist. Some have argued that the idea is phantasmal at best as it basically describes insurgencies and attempts to apply them to the broadest of historical contexts and that the basic fundamentals of state vs. state warfare haven't changed all that much since World War II. While certainly useful, the PDW concept has to move beyond its shortcomings and unite behind either a common caliber or make do with more widely used ones before it is able to stand out and make a real impact. Of all the PDWs out there, the P90 (or perhaps an improved version of it) probably has the best chance of saving the concept if only because it has already been widely dispersed around the world (particularly in NATO countries). But then again, perhaps Liechtenstein will create a new gun chambered in an experimental 4.83333x25.5mm round that will blow the competition away...

The M1924 (Model 1924) is a Yugoslavian variant of the Mauser Karabiner 98 rifle that was in turn based on the older, larger Gewehr 98. It was produced between 1924 and 1941, originally under contract from the Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale. Physically, it is similar in most regards to the K98 kurz ("short"), although it was more directly based on the Czechoslovakian vz.24, made in the same year. Like all derivatives of the original G98, it is a bolt action rifle with a magazine capacity of five rounds. Like most Central European versions of the gun, it is chambered for the 7.92x57mm bullet, although a more common name for this caliber is 8mm Mauser.

From an historical standpoint, the K98 is one of the most fascinating and significant guns out there. It would be almost impossible to compile a full list of K98 variants, but the basic design was either licensed, copied, or used by essentially every country in Central and Eastern Europe, many countries in South America, all of Scandinavia, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Egypt, China, Japan, and countless groups and individuals in various armed conflicts. It is also the basis for several types of hunting and sporting rifles. Considering that the K98 was widely dispersed throughout Europe by Germany during both world wars, you'll understand why it and variations of it came to be so prominent. The K98 bolt action was not the first of its kind, but it is regarded as one of the smoothest and best designs out there, so even into the modern day, companies such as Winchester and Remington still use it as a template for their designs.

The M1924 in particular is a great example of why the K98 design flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For centuries, the Balkan region in Southeastern Europe has been a hotbed of conflict. In ancient times, the Roman Empire frequently fought wars and suffered Barbarian invasions in the area. The Byzantine Empire had to constantly fend off Slavs encroaching on their territory from the Balkans. By the medieval era, the Balkans served as the primary battlefield between the Christian West and the Muslim East, as the soldiers of Islam sought to expand their caliphate into Europe. By the 18th century, the region was the source of several controversies and diplomatic crises acted out by the Great Powers of the day, such as Russia, the Ottoman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and other interested parties. By the time the Second World War rolled around, the old players were dead, gone, and partitioned, and the region tasted something it had not known in a long time: independence. Yugoslavia was born out of the fall of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, having its start as the State of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, before becoming the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and (after a merger with the Kingdom of Serbia) finally the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The latter territory encompassed the modern day states of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina (as well as modern semi-autonomous entities in those territories such as Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Republika Srpska).

Considering that World War I had started as a result of something that happened in an area controlled by the new Kingdom -- namely the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo -- and given the long history of domination and use by outside powers, it seemed incumbent upon the young country to make provisions for defending itself. For a basic infantry rifle, the government settled on a K98 variant to be produced by the aforementioned Belgian company. It's easy to see why: it was relatively inexpensive to produce, it was extremely accurate, and (because of the ubiquity of the parent designs) there were a ton of spare parts and surplus ammunition floating around to be had for next to no cost.

The first run of the M1924 rifles were made in Belgium and exported to Yugoslavia and can be easily identified by the "FN" stamp indicating that they were produced by Fabrique Nationale. Zastava Arms began manufacturing the M1924 locally in the Serbian town of Kragujevac the same year, and these models will have name of the town in Cyrillic script stamped onto the left side of the receiver. Guns produced before 1928 will also have "Kingdom of SCS" in Serbian stamped on the receiver as well as royal insignias for whichever king ruled at the time of production (generally, this was a small picture of a crown followed by the king's Cyrillic first initial). Models produced after 1928 say "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" and replace the king's personal stamp with a crown above a Cyrillic J, also meaning "Kingdom of Yugoslavia."

Early M1924s generally have straight bolts while those produced in the years immediately before Yugoslavia's unintentional entry into World War II are bent and have additional sling posts to make mobile use significantly easier. The entire line of M1924s is of considerably high quality, especially when compared to the standard issue bolt action rifle of the Soviet Red Army, the Mosin-Nagant 91/30, or even the German K98k produced after 1942. When the Germans overran Yugoslavia in 1941, they captured the Kragujevac arms factory and used the same presses and equipment to manufacture replacement guns and parts for existing K98ks already in the field. They also captured large numbers of M1924s and reissued them to their own soldiers. For obvious reasons, no more M1924s were manufactured under that designation after the seizure of the factory.

After World War II, the communist government of the new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia decided to recall as many M1924s as possible to refurbish them and to bring them up to some sort of uniform standard to improve the interchangeability of parts; this also included a large number of Czech vz.24s which had been sold to Yugoslavia before production of the M1924 had started as well as captured German K98ks. This process ran from 1947 to 1951, and included the complete dissassembly of the guns, destruction of unsalvageable parts, stamping out old serial numbers and insignias (such as the Royal Crest of Yugoslavia, the German eagle and swastika, Czech manufacturing information, etc.), and then reassembling the leftover parts with new serial numbers and the communist crest of the SFRY. This process was again repeated in 1952. These guns are known as M24/47s and M24/52s, respectively, and the refurbishing process was carried out at the Kragujevac plant, which can be gleaned from the fact that all of these guns were stamped with "Preduzece 44" (occasionally the Cyrillic variant was used) which was the designation for the factory during the communist era.

Beginning in 1948, Zastava began to produce the Mauser M48, which featured a shorter action than previous models, a small hood over the front sight to reduce glare, and a virtually nonexistent degree of compatability with parts from older models. Most of the remaining M1924s and their descendants were warehoused or sold off to other countries in favor of the M48s. This is not to say, however, that the M1924 was dead; during the early 1990s, the wars that took place during the breakup of Yugoslavia created a need for cheap and readily available arms. Though unused and shoved away in attics and dusty armories, M1924s were plentiful and came out of retirement for the bloodiest conflicts in Europe in almost half a century. Legendary for their accuracy and effective range of almost a kilometer, many M1924s and M48s were modified and used as sniper rifles by Muslims defending themselves in Bosnia during the Serbian attempts at ethnic cleansing in that country.

In the past ten years or so, Mausers of all types have become increasingly rare on the collectors' market. An unmodified and complete German K98k with the original Nazi markings will routinely sell for thousands of dollars; not out of any sort of love for the Third Reich, but simply because they're becoming so hard to find. At one time, these guns could have been easily and readily acquired for less than $200 online or in most pawn shops. For people who aren't interested in historical necrophilia but who want to shoot a Mauser, the Yugoslavian models have become a very attractive alternative. True M1924s (i.e., those that escaped the refurbishment process in the 1940s and 1950s) aren't the hardest things to find, but they aren't exactly the most common ones, either. In good condition, they usually run about $500. The M24/47s, on the other hand, are quite abundant and can be had for some extremely reasonable prices. I haven't seen one for sale that costs more than $300, although an average price is closer to $200, depending on the condition. Because of the lack of any real historical or collectible value in the M24/47 (at this point, anyway), they are popular for shooters interested in sporterizing or otherwise modifying a Mauser but who would feel bad about chopping up an original German model (especially after spending what was likely an obscene amount of money on it).

There is, however, a downside to the cheap availability of M24/47s. As I said at the beginning, most Mausers are chambered in the 8mm Mauser caliber. Even if you don't know a lot about guns, you've probably at least heard terms like "nine millimeter" or ".38 special" or ".357 magnum." You probably also get the basic idea that these numbers refer to types of bullets. When was the last time you ever heard of an eight millimeter bullet or, to be more accurate, a 7.92 millimeter bullet? This is an exceptionally hard round to find for a good price. If you try to go to a store and buy 8mm Mauser bullets, you'll likely wind up spending between $1 to $2 per bullet, which should outrage you. If you want to use a Mauser for hunting, you'll have to grit your teeth and spend that much anyway, since there are only certain types of bullets you are legally permitted to use for that enterprise and -- surprise! -- they're all expensive. This is one reason why one of the most common civilian modifications made to a Mauser is re-chambering it for a different caliber; in the U.S., the most common is probably 30.06 Springfield because it is almost identical in size to 8mm Mauser, but significantly cheaper. Other common re-chamberings include 7mm Mauser, 7.62 NATO and 7.62 Russian.

If you're more interested in target shooting or attempting to start your own company of mercenaries, you'll want to buy surplus ammunition. I can tell you from experience that if you want to buy surplus 8mm Mauser ammo, it will be like going into a time machine and traveling all around the world at the same time. The most expensive type of surplus Mauser ammo you can buy is, of course, the German type. This strikes me as bizarre because it's not as if the bullets have Totenkopf inscriptions or anything, they just come in small boxes with 15 rounds; these usually go for about 80 cents a bullet, so it would be wise to avoid them since there's absolutely no reason for a surplus round to cost that much. Also, these were made in the 1940s, so who knows if they'll even work? I have found and purchased Yugoslavian, Romanian, and even Iranian surplus ammo for between 28 cents and 40 cents a round, which is significantly more reasonable. The Romanian bullets have probably been the most reliable that I've used; they come set up in stripper clips and I've never had one turn out to be a dud. Yugoslavian ammo is ok -- the stuff I have is from 1953, so it's iffy, but generally fair (about one out of 20 is a dud). I haven't fired any of the Iranian rounds yet, so I'll update this when I choose to do that. All surplus ammunition is corrosive, meaning that every time you fire a round, your gun will smell like a glue factory and the inside will be covered with acid. You'll need to clean the gun very thoroughly after every session using surplus ammo.

I personally own an original M1924 that was made sometime between 1928 and 1935; that's about as specific as I've been able to narrow it down. It was the first gun I purchased and I have neither made nor intend to make any modifications to it. I often wonder about the personal history of the gun. Who was the original owner? Did he use it in the war? Is that dried blood or rust on the metal butt plate? Why didn't he turn it over to the Yugoslavian authorities when they were refurbishing the guns in the '40S? What happened to the bayonet? The gun came to the United States at some point before all international arms were required to be stamped with their country of origin on the receiver, so when did it get here and why? There are a series of unknown and unknowable facts out there about how this gun started out in a village in Serbia and ended up in Florida almost 80 years later, but part of that mystery is what attracted me to it. It's a fascinating piece of a history I can never know and that makes it all the more interesting to me.