Know Your Weapons: Russian 6P41 PKP Pecheneg

6P41 PKP Pechentheg: Belt Fed Vodka Blaster

This 7.62x54R belt-fed monster is the most common General Purpose Machine Gun in the third world.

It has the weight of a M249 SAW and packs the punch of a M240B.

Cold War Weapons: The Polish PM-63

November 9, 2020 by The Tactical Hermit in Cold War Era Weapons, Cold War History, Firearms History, Weapons & Ammo and tagged Cold War Era Weapons, Firearms and Ammo, Know Your Weapons, PM-63 RAK

The Peculiar Pioneer Arms PM-63C Pistol

For all you “Cold War Kids” like me that grew up with 80’s action movies, This venerable Cold War classic SMG version (PM-63 RAK) can be seen in such Pre- 9/11 Hijack Action flicks like Delta Force from 1986:

and in 6 Days (2017) about the London Iranian Embassy Siege of 1980.

In one of the most popular Cold War films of all time, Red Dawn (1984) The PM-63 RAK was scheduled to be the sidearm of Colonel Strelnikov but due to a shortage in Poland at the time of filming, a Finnish Jaitmatic is substituted.

The Jaitmatic can be seen in the famous train scene near the end of the film:

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

Dragunov SVD (Chinese Type 85/NDM86) – Cold War Sniper Perfection

March 19, 2020 by The Tactical Hermit in AK Corner, Cold War Era Weapons, Cold War Files, Cold War History, Firearm Training Tips, Rifle Corner and tagged 9-Hole Reviews, Cold War Era Weapons, Range Reviews, Rifle Corner, SVD Dragunov Sniper Rifle

Being a Military Arms Historian and a Cold War History Nut, I am a big fan of 9-Hole Reviews YouTube Channel.

They do some excellent testing of various rifle systems out to practical combat distances.

This is a Two-fer, the first vid is a 13 minute mini-doc on the Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle and the second is the range testing of the rifle.

Military Weapons From the Past: The British EM Series – The First Bullpup Design from the 1950’s

July 13, 2016 by The Tactical Hermit in Cold War Era Weapons, Cold War Files, Know Your Weapons, Military History, Military Weapons from the Past, Weapons & Ammo and tagged British Army Rifles, British EM Series Bullpup Rifles, Bullpup Design Rifles, Cold War Era Weapons, EM-1 Rifle, Know Your Weapons, Military Weapons from the Past, War is Boring | 1 Comment

By late 1947 the British Army’s Armaments Design Department had designed three principal rifles for the Infantry Personal Weapon program. The new rifles got their official designations in January 1948.

They were Stanley Thorpe’s EM-1, the EM-2 designed by Capt. Kazimierz Stefan Januszewski and the EM-3, the latter the brainchild of Major J.E.M. Hall, an Australian.

The three designs shared one common design feature — they all featured the bullpup configuration, with the action behind the trigger. This layout produced a compact weapon ideally suited to close-quarters combat.

Hall began developing his rifle in 1944 as a response to problems he encountered during a small-arms course at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham. He patented his bullpup design in February 1945.

Hall’s rifle was semi-automatic only and used an interesting vertically-sliding block to lock the rifle’s breech. He meant the weapon to fire a rimless .303-caliber round — although, in practice, the rifle was compatible with a range of cartridges. Hall’s EM-3 bullpup fed from a 10-round, detachable box magazine similar in dimensions to that of the Lee-Enfield’s.

Read the Remainder at War is Boring

Military Weapons From The Past: The Soviet 6P9 (PB) Pistol

June 7, 2016 by The Tactical Hermit in Cold War Files, Know Your Weapons, Military History, Military Intelligence History, Military Weapons from the Past, Russia, Russian Corner, Soviet History, Weapons & Ammo and tagged Cold War Era Weapons, Cold War Files, KGB Assassination Teams, KGB Weapons, Military Weapons from the Past, Soviet Military history, Spetsnaz Weapons, War is Boring, Weapons and Ammo

Developed for Spetsnaz and the KGB Wet Teams, the PB was a Suppressed Pistol with some Serious Design Compromises

Developed for Spetsnaz units and the KGB in the mid-1960s, the Soviet PB — also known as the 6P9 — took the proven Makarov PM design and incorporated a two-stage, integral suppressor.

During World War II, the Soviet NKVD had used suppressed weapons, including M1895 Nagant revolvers fitted with clip-on “Bramit device” suppressors. As the Cold War escalated, the Soviets began the development of new silent firearms.

The Izhevsk Mechanical Plant introduced the PB, designed by A.A. Deryagin, in 1967. The PB is basically a heavily-adapted Makarov PM with a shortened slide and a repositioned return-spring. The design retains the Makarov’s exposed hammer, double-action trigger and slide-mounted decocker.

The Makarov PM’s standard return-spring was problematic once you added a suppressor to the basic design. The Chinese recognized the problem and positioned their Type 64’s return-spring above the breech.

In laying out the PB, by contrast, the Russians placed the return-spring in the pistol’s grip and attached it to a swinging lever located beneath the right-hand-side grip panel.

The weapon’s suppressor is semi-integral, with the rear section encompassing the ported barrel, which is wrapped in steel mesh that acts as a heat sink. The longer second section contains three steel baffles held in place by the suppressor’s frame.

For transport, the front section of the suppressor is detachable. This also allows the firing of the weapon with, or without, its suppressor attached.

The suppressor reduces the pistol’s report to approximately 127 decibels. The PB feeds from an eight-round magazine and chambers the standard Soviet nine-by-18-millimeter cartridge.

Fully assembled, the weapon is 12 inches long and weighs approximately one kilogram. Production of the PB was continuous until the mid-1980s. In the early 2000s, there was a surge in demand that compelled production to resume.

The PB remains in service with Russian special forces and intelligence units.

This story originally appeared at Historical Firearms.

Read the Original Article at War is Boring