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Latest update 10.03.2001

G.O.W. Kickback:

Questions and Answers, Part 11

Answered by: P. T. Kekkonen

Information Wanted

HUSQVARNA/BASTMAN rifle

I am looking for any information I can find on the man whose name is engraved into the barrel of the Husqvarna Model 35 I just bought. The company tells me it was made around 1930, and that GEORG A. BASTMAN, whose name is engraved on it, was the proprietor of a famous gunshop in Stockholm that no longer exists.

It has an octagonal barrel and three leaf sights, not the two shown in the illustration we found on the Web. Do you know if he made this one, or had it made for him, or what his name on it means? Does any literature exist on the man's work? Do you know how many of these were made? It is quite accurate, and the workmanship is beautiful. It's in very good shape. Naturally, if you have any idea of its value, we would listen with both ears!

A.R. Texas, USA.

  I have not literature about Husqvarna firearms easily available here and now. The only book I know is "HUSQVARNA HAGELVAPEN" about shotguns and some combination guns made by Vapenfabrik Husqvarna. We have, however, some visitors in Sweden, who are presumably able and willing to help us, I hope so. Next lines for them are written in Swedish:


*************************************************************

GIV AKT, visitörerna i Sverige: Om ni har kännedom av Georg A.Bastman i Stockholm och Husqvarna gevär modell 35, var så god, omtala det till GOW. Kännedom även på Svenska är välkommen. Jag kan översätta Svenska till Engelskan med allra lätthet.

*************************************************************


I have not yet idea of your rifle's value, because you didn't tell it's kind of action and it's caliber: "We cannot give any diagnosis without sufficient anamnesis".


0703 MMI; PT



GASSER-made "De Luxe" rifle

I have come across a rifle made by Gasser, but I cannot find any information on the rifle. It looks to be written in German as follows: "Ralf Hofner or Hafner - Koniglicher Hofbuchsenmacher - Gasser". It has a double trigger, single shot and a lot of scrolls designs on the chamber, and it has a octagon barrel. I hope that you can help me with some information on this or direct me to someone that does.

F.P.

  My available literature is, unfortunately, unable to tell anything about "Royal Court Gunsmith RALF HOFNER or HAFNER". Firm GASSER was Austrian manufacture of firearms, especially revolvers, since licensed copies of British BEAUMONT-ADAMS handguns in 1862 until 1st World War, when demand of the army revolvers was faded due to general adoptment of the selfloading pistols. Gasser was in the business until 1918. Once upon a time produced Gasser 100 000 revolvers per annum for Austro-Hungarian armed forces and police plus for export especially to Montenegrian kingdom.

King NIKITA of Montenegro was a stockholder of Gasser plant. He gave a legendary Royal Dictate: "Every full-grown male citizen in Montenegrian Kingdom is not only justified but also obliged to own at least one 11 mm Montenegrian Gasser revolver!" While empire of Austro-Hungary was reigned over Austrian emperor FRANZ JOSEPH (since 1848 until 1916), Hungary was still a semi-independent kingdom, and independent kingdom since 1916 until 1918. Monarch over Hungary was a king KAROLY IV. I think that your rifle is made durig his short era of administration, if it is a breechloader. It is a high-priced collector's item, of course! Not so many gunsmiths were "Königlicher Hofbüschenmachers" in this era, and fading Gasser was constrained to yeild all the firearms ordered from them, also exclusive models designed by individual gunsmiths.

0603 MMI; PT



Shooting experiences with Swedish Suomi Gun

I forgot to mention that I have reactivated a Swedish M37-39 that was cut to pieces by some unreasonable cur. The barrel length is much shorter than the Finnish version and the sights are different but the operation seems the same. Using Israeli surplus and British WWII surplus ammunition the gun was timed at 1007 RPM but it should be noted that this ammunition increases the rate of fire in any SMG I have used it in.

Surplus Finnish ammunition (SAKO I think) resulted in a more reasonable rate of 825 rpm avg. The gun works quite well and the only problems we had with it were related to the ammo and 1 of the drum mags I was using. It tended to feed poorly when getting low on ammo so I suppose I need to increase spring tension. The Swedish 50rd coffin mags worked quite well loaded with 45 rds and were not too bad to load with the supplied loader.

Thanks for the great website. It helped a lot in this project.

Frank

Comments: Barrel and jacket of Swedish-made SUOMI submachine gun M37-39 are not "sawed-off" afterwards, but made shorter in factory. Israeli and British ammunition are presumably loaded for submachine gun use. (If the headstamp of British cartridges is "9 MM" with black number and capital letters, they are actually loaded in Canada: Very strong medicine, able to ruin some weak handguns like Luger P-08). Finnish surplus cartridges with headstamp "SO" are presumably loaded for handguns like P-08 and Lahti L-35 with usual 9 x 19 mm powder charges. That's why the lower firing rate.

1000+ rpm seems to be unusually high rate even when the submachine gun loads are used. Have you examined, whether the vacuum valve in breech-cap of your gun works? It's spring may be weakened, or removed by some cur. There may be also some dirt in the valve preventing proper functioning of it. A "phonograph spring" of your troublesome drum magazine may be weakened by age or improper disassembly & re-assembly of magazine. It is not difficult to increase it's tension if you are able to disassembly the magazine, but don't overdo this action! Otherwise you cannot load the magazine to it's full capacity. (Actually it is advisable to load old 70 rds drum with fifty rounds only, or just 35 rds, filling the inner feed groove only. Spare feed spring may be hard to find nowadays if you manage to break it).

The coffin magazine is advisable to load with no more than 40 rounds. I loaded it just with 30 rounds with my "do-it-yourself" filler device, made from a screwdriver. I've shot ca. 3000 cartridges from a coffin without any feed jams, but I was ground and polished all the burrs away from the lips of my magazine. (A routine, needed for all mass-produced clips or magazines, but again I must warn: Don't overdo it!). Also I took care that the feed springs were assembled correctly: Left one to left side of a partition and right one to right side. Unless essential, do not detach the springs from the zinc-alloy magazine followers.


A MANNEQUIN OF TIKKAKOSKI Oy

Famous Finnish hero of wars 1939 - 1944, VILJAM PYLKAS (1912 - 1999) with a KP/31. Note a coffin magazine. Name "ANTTI ROKKA" was given to him by writer VAINO LINNA, author of novel "TUNTEMATON SOTILAS"/ "THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER", published in 1954, and the "SOTAROMAANI"/ "A WAR NOVEL" (actually an uncensored version of "Tuntematon Sotilas"), published in 2000. V. Pylkas introduced himself as: "A farmer from Carelian Isthmus. Nowadays a mannequin of Tikkakoski". A book "Tuntematon ROKKA" by Petri Sarjanen is published in 2000. Not yet translated to English. "The Unknown Soldier" (censored version) was published in English sometimes in 1950s or '60s. It has been out of print more than four decades ago.


My opinion is that not the faults of design but unskilled use was a reason why the coffin magazine was abandoned in Finland. Some feed springs, imported from Sweden, were also of poor quality, presumably as consequence of sabotage or carelessness of tempering. There were "commies" also in Sweden during Third Finnish Independence Struggle 1941 - 44.

2802 MMI; PT



New Birth of L-39

Hi PT, its been a while but progress is being made on the reactivation of my L39. My original plan of sleeving the chamber was shot down by a friend who asked some rather good questions. The Chamber walls end up being too thin to support the sleeve properly and filling of the drilled holes is not reasonable without welding. I did not want to heat the barrel like that as it would create hard spots in the metal that might lead to fractures. The end result is that I wrote a CNC program to make an entirely new chamber section 241mm long . The barrel is cut down in diameter and threaded into this piece and the chamber is polished to blend and finish it. It sound pretty simple but the measurements are difficult as the 3 barrels I have had access to are all different external dimensions.

The first barrel is assembled and I need only to finish the chamber so that it can be installed. Then the extractor groove can be located as well as the anti-rotation screw hole. My barrel is next. I am putting together a package of drawings to send to you that shows in more detail what I am talking about. I feel that this will be the safest way to get the old beast roaring again. I think when you see the drawings you will agree that this should be about as strong as the original setup. Steel used is 4140 normalized, I checked the Rockwell hardness of it and the original barrel and they are close. My piece is 28 on the Rockwell C scale and the original is 24.

The 28 reading indicates that my piece has a tensile strength of approximately 135,000psi ( 9500kgf/cm) and yield of 112,000psi (7875kgf/cm) I have now a loading press to finally load my brass with. The loading that most of the shooters I know are using is 35.6gram (550grains) of Winchester WC872 with one of my 154 grm brass bore-rider bullets. I have loaded a small number already with a somewhat lighter bullet to test fire initially. Bullets are 89 gram US 20mm projectiles with the driving band turned down slightly. Powder charge is the same 35.6 gram. I was told by the veteran shooters that this charge with the light bullet will give a bit of a muzzle flash but loading any less powder is asking for trouble. The space in the cartridge is taken up by a piece of tissue and a styrofoam packing peanuts. Both loadings have been fired and the brass does not show any signs of overpressure. Does all this sound reasonable?

Things are going and I am anxious to get out and send some heavy metal downrange....

Frank

Yes, all this sounds reasonable. I have just finished an article about 20 x 138 mm special loads of L-39 for GOW/ Finnish site, including all available information about projectile weights, velocities, penetrations of Italian (BREDA Model 1935) and Finnish (VKT) AP projectiles, filling charges of Finnish high-explosive (TNT) and incendiary (White Phosphorus) shells, sensitive and sensitive/retarded point-detonating fuzes of those shells (Ti - 15/18) with usual and improved German DUPLEX detonators. Also there are listed powder charges of these cartridges plus (NOTA BENE!) the initiative charges of blackpowder or blank cartridge powder in the small silk bags behind the main charges.


It was a rule rather than exception to use a "duplex charge" in 20 x 138 mm Solothurn Long cartridges. Usual main charge was ca. 38 to 43 grams of "coarse" single-base powder and half gram of fine blackpowder as an initiative charge in Italian or German cartridges and 0.30 gram of PaPP (today N310) powder in Finnish cartridges. Your cartridges with 89 grams shells seems to need some "booster" between the primer and main charge because of it's light projectile. Weight of lightest Finnish shell (high-explosive; TNT-filled; with an aluminium-body fuze) was 117 grams.

Powder charge was 43 grams + 0.30 gram of PaPP as an initiative charge. I presume, you may use some 0.40 gram of HODGDON HP-38 as a booster, bagged into small cotton-gauze bag and rammed into bottom of the case. With this booster you may reduce the main charge to 30 grams without risk of detonation. Most heavy Finnish VKT AP "blue bullet" (without a tracer) had weight 150 grams. Main charge was 40.7 grams and weight of initiative charge was 0.30 gram of PaPP powder.


Your brass bullet is somewhat heavier. So your main charge 35.6 grams may be OK, but if you note signs of incomplete burning of powder (excessive muzzle flash; unburned kernels in the bore; "sluggish" autoloading; hangfires), you may use an initiative charge without any hazard, let's say 0.30 gram of bagged HP-38 in your cartridges. Blackpowder booster charges are not recommended for firearms with a gas piston action. Germans preferred blackpowder initiative charges, but they had machine cannons and Solothurn anti-tank rifles, all with short-recoil actions.


Italian AP bullet with a tracer. Originally designed for 20 mm BREDA machine cannon but fit for L-39 too. Suitable for shooting down Russian armored IL-2 aeroplanes, due to the incendiary effect of a broad tracer flame and sufficient armor penetration. Color code: Bullet painted black. Yellow ribbon denotes existence of a tracer, burning to 2.5 kilometers horizontal range. Muzzle velocity was 850 meters per second. Projectile weight 147 grams.


I'll try to translate my article about special loads of L-39 to English when I'll get some spare time. Finnish officials and "Association of Responsible Importers and Dealers of Sport & Hunting Firearms" are (once again) trying to suppress our GOW/Finnish site. If they'll manage this time to blackout the screens in Finland, I have more time to create articles for GOW/Universal site and offer more "private only" information service to our Privileged Visitors. Nowadays is 50 % of information E-mailed to individual visitors and 50 % published by GOW.


GOW archive photo: A selection of 20 x 138 Solothurn Long cartridges.


"Verily I say unto you: No prophet is accepted in his own country."/ NEMO PROPHETA IN PATRIA!    St. Luke 4: 24.

2802 MMI; PT



Less known pages of history:

Concept and birth of the Soviet PPS submachine gun

Lieutenant I.K. Bezruchko-Vysotsky was one among about 20 designers, who started development of a new submachine gun early in 1942, when the Head Artillery Department of the Red Army announced a contest for this kind of a gun. At the second stage of this competition only 7 models left, including this one of Bezruchko-Vysotsky. Finally 2 models were selected for finishing: PPD-42 by Degtyarev and M1 by Bezruchko-Vysotsky. But at the same time A.I. Sudaev, Military Engineer of the 3rd rank, received an order to start development of his own submachine gun. He really used the general layout and many the most succesfull units from B-V M1 and from that time one two main competitors were Bezruchko-Vysotsky and Sudaev.

They both made some improvements in their guns, but the results of final firing practice ( 3rd round of trials) were in favour of Sudaev, his submachine gun proved to be more reliable, as M1 by Bezruchko-Vysotsky had some functional problems ( extraction of spent cartridges was too tight). That's why PPS (Pistolet-Pulemet Sudaeva) was put into service, first PPS-42, then PPS-43. As for Lieutenant Bezruchko-Vysotsky, he received Order of the Red Banner for his contribution into development of a new submachine gun. So, for that period of time everything was more or less OK with him, which was proved by high military award. But his later destiny is unknown to me.

Alexei I. Sudaev, as you probably know. died in 1946, at the age of only 34, his submachine gun outlived it's creator. *)PPS-43 was converted not only into KP M/1944, but later on produced in Spain DUX-53 and DUX-59 (full copies of Suomi M 1944) were used for many years by West German Border Guards and Police.

Sergei (Colonel; retired), Russia


Comments: Again many thanks to Sergei for valuable information with just one slight correction: TIKKAKOSKI's considerably redesigned copy of PPS 42/43 was no more SUOMI Gun but simply KP Model -44, or a "Sheet Henry"/ "Pelti-Heikki" in unofficial Finnish nomenclature. Main stockholder of Tikkakoski Oy, WILLI DAUGS, was a citizen of Germany. He fled from Finland in the autumn 1944, first to Sweden and then to Spain. (Finland and Germany were co-belligerents since 1941 until September 19th 1944. Former friends became enemies almost overnight). Willi Daugs possessed all the drawings of KP -44 and it's production line, presumably micro-filmed. So it was easy to reconstruct a production line of guns in Spain. The trademark "DUX" is derivation from name DAUGS.

West-German variation DUX-59 was designed further by engineers of Anschütz firearms manufacture. Many original ideas of I.K. Bezruchko-Vyisotsky, Alexei Ivanovich Sudayev and Tikkakoski Oy's designers were lost in Germany. DUX-59 was no more fit for inexpensive mass-production and the magazine-well was no more fit to accept all kinds of Suomi magazines (including 70 rds drums), but slightly arched Anschütz staggered-row magazines only. According to IAN V. HOGG: "Willi Daugs left Germany and withdrew the licensing rights from Anschütz". He vanished to South America. His later destiny is also unknown to everybody.

*) According to JAROSLAV LUGS, Czechian author of a book "HANDFEUERWAFFEN", the firearms designer ALEXEI IVANOVICH SUDAYEV was born in August 1912 as a son of a telegraph mechanician in Alatyr. He passed away in August 18th 1946. J. LUGS do not mention lieutenant I.K. BEZRUCHKO-VYISOTSKY at all on his book.

PS. My way to write Russian names and other words is "phonetic" or based on the way how the words are pronounced. Therefore I wrote "Vyisotsky" and "Sudayev" contrary to usual transcription from Russian to English. In Finnish I write those names as "Vjisotski" and "Sudajev", also phonetically.

2102 MMI; PT



Suppressed Nagant once again

Dear PT, I read with interest the letter from Colonel Sergey on my Nagant article. His suggestion of a Third Reich connection makes a lot of sense. I knew that the Nazis commonly used captured arms and equipment, this is one I never heard about. Do you know if it was their practice to deface the national/arsenal marking on the weapons before using them? Perhaps he could share his information with us, since the book he mentioned is unavailable in the West (as far as I know). The only other silenced Nagant I've seen is the drawing in Huebner's book. The silenced Nagant would still be an excellent weapon even at the turn of the century. It is superior to the Welrod, using a heavier bullet with a faster rate of fire.

Best regards, Dave

Those special purpose firearms designed and made by Arms Academy of SS-troops were intented for most "dirty" clandestine operations. Therefore it was needed to puncture the serial numbers over. (Grinding them away is not a sure method). There were also never German stamps, like proof marks or "WaA" (Heeres Waffen Amt) stamp with an eagle over a swastika on these firearms. In general: Anything pointing to German origin of them was absent.

Use of Russian Nagant was a very clever way of misleading: If somebody was shot with a Nagant revolver, the Soviet agents (not German spys) were suspected. German agents had suppressed CZ vzor 27 pistols issued for usual clandestine operations. They were made in Bohemian-Moravian Protectorate by Ceska Zbrojovka, bearing normal stampings, usually "fnh". Nagants were intented for some VERY special missions, presumably in neutral countries. I don't know, whether they were ever actually used.

The Soviet-made muzzle-can type suppressor for Nagant is also mentioned on Russian periodical magazine "Technics for the Youth" some years ago. (I have no more this very issue of that magazine in my possession. So I am unable to recall Russian name of it). Text of it is in Russian. Drawing of bayonet-mounted Nagant suppressor on it is similar to that published on HUEBNER's book, but the spacers between nine rubber wipes/baffles were drawn more circumstantially on the Russian colored illustration, than those on a book "SILENCERS FOR HAND FIREARMS" by Siegfried F. Huebner (fig. 20e on page 51).

2702 MMI; PT



Suppressor for Spectre

Dear PeTe, do you have a detailed drawing of a Suppressor or Silencer for the Spectre 9mm SMG (manufactured by SITES/Italy)? Is there any possibility for foreigners to buy Suppressors in a shop in Finland while in holiday, since in Switzerland it's nearly impossible to buy them from official Gun Dealers.

Sincerely yours; Chris, Switzerland.

ANYBODY is able to buy a suppressor in Finland, but I don't know whether our manufacturers have designed mounts for SPECTRE SMG. (This very gun is almost unknown in Finland). Designers of BR-TUOTE or ASE-UTRA can easily construct an exclusive suppressor mount for Spectre, if they'll get information about dimensions of it's muzzle end. Both of these suppressor manufactures lies in Joensuu; eastern Finland. (More eastern than Istambul in Turkey). Joensuu is also my home town. Welcome to holiday in next summer!

You may also ask your official Gun Dealer whether he/she is inclined to import Finnish suppressors from BR-TUOTE for wholesale distribution. It shall be a profitable business in Switzerland, where domestic production of these devices is almost nil, but there are not legal restrictions against private possession of suppressors/silencers for firearms; as far as I know.

2802 MMI; PT



Support from America

Hi I'm interested in helping out, $10 is quite minimal and I appreciate your efforts. Is it sensible to send a check, or should I send cash? One method of payment/money exchanging becoming popular across the Internet is something called "Pay-Pal" where a credit-card can be used safely - they extract a fee but it doesn't seem too bad and this method might help others to be able to do more support.

Good luck and keep up the good work! Keith.

  No other means but cash seems to arrive to us from countries other than Finland. No checks, please! Exchance of $ 10 check pays to us expenditures equalling $ 12:00. "Pay-Pal" does not presumably work, since our bank account is the cheapest one, without any kind of international credit-card connections. I presume, it is possible to pay "Debts of Honour" only from Finland to our "Poor Man's Account". Many Finnish patrons of GOW prefers payments in cash to our P.O.Box: It is a most SENSIBLE, most SAFE and - definitely - a most SURE way!

PS. Many thanks for your letter, stamped in Feb. 21th '01. It arrived today to our P.O.B. as a confirmation to my previously mentioned "S.S.S. assertion". Postage was mere USD 0:34 from CA, U.S.A.

2602 MMI; PT



Silencer for .222 Rem.

I want to make a silencer for a .222 Remington. Do you have a detailed drawing or do you know where I can get one?

Thanks; Benny.

  If you're planning to make a real SILENCER for .222 you should load cartridges generating subsonic bullet velocity. If you shall use full-power .222 Remington ammo, name of the design is a SUPPRESSOR. Flight noise of supersonic bullet is an unavoidable evil. Design of a suppressor and a silencer may be similar, but if you are planning to shoot subsonic cartridges only, your silencer may be about similar to the "sound moderator" designed for a .22 rimfire (non-Magnum) rifle: Outer diameter ca. one inch (25 millimeters) and length of jacket tube 7 to 8 inches.

A suppressor for .222 Remington rifle, shooting full-power ammo, should be somewhat longer and bigger in diameter, say for instance 30 mm and eight to nine inches. Suppressor is unable to eliminate "ballistic crack" of flying bullet. Shooting noise is about as loud as that of a report of .22 rimfire rifle loaded with High-Velocity ammo. Muzzle report may be almost eliminated by use of suppressor but this f**king bullet's flight noise is always present, unless bullet velocity is reduced to level 300 meters per second average (plus 5 mps minus 10 mps). When you'll shoot subsonic (hand)loads through a suppressor, designed for use of full-power cartridges or loads, your apparatus plays as a silencer.

Snap of a hammer or striker may be the dominant "shooting signature". There is, however, nothing like a "definitely silent projectile-throwing weapon" existing. A sling or even the blowpipe generates some noise. String of a longbow twangs and the string of a crossbow snaps giving as loud noise as a .22 LR rimfire rifle, loaded with Standard Velocity ammo. Designs of a silencer or suppressor for .222 Remington you may find from our title side "REFLEX SUPPRESSORS" or from the book "SILENCER HISTORY AND PERFORMANCE" Vol. I by ALAN C. PAULSON, published by PALADIN PRESS, also publisher of a booklet "SILENCERS FOR HAND FIREARMS" by SIEGFRIED F. HUEBNER.

You should design your silencer or suppressor without detailed drawings, by trial & error method, because you didn't tell to me whether you'll shoot subsonics or full-power loads, barrel length of your .222 Remington rifle or handgun, or frankly speaking: No needed "anamnesis" about your plan. I need exact information for exact answers. This is my "exactitude", known by our Finnish visitors but not yet known to GOW/Universal visitors. (Excuse my severity, but I have simply not enough time to issue answers of questions without including "anamnesis": A medical term in Latin, meaning "knowledge given in advance").

1802 MMI; PT


Sight of Valmet Bullpup M82

I have a question about the Valmet M82 Bullpup. I've noticed the rear sight for this rifle does not line up with the front sight and is canted to the left. I'm assuming the front sight is view by the right eye and the rear sight matches up with the left eye. I tried to make a simple mock up this sight and, at 30 feet, the individual points did not match up. How does this sight work and how accurate is it?

Avery

  VALMET M82 was a notorious "design bug", developed for use of Finnish paratroopers (Airborne Jaegers; a small elite unit) but soon rejected, because it was ill-balanced and it's rear sight hit the front teeth of unfortunate paratroopers away from their mouths. It was (usually) also inaccurate, because of it's offset sights, when shot to variable ranges, although the groups were small when shot to the consistent ranges. Frankly speaking: The Kalashnikov-based action is unfit to become a Bullpup action by short cuts.

The only specimen I've tested was accurate. It was selected for test sometimes before the end of it's short-lived production as a "historic curio without any future". Manufacturer Valmet Oy Tourula Plant has been out from firearms business since late 1980s.

1902 MMI; PT


Semi-auto STEN Mark III

Is it possible to produce a semi-automatic Sten Mark 3? Do you know of available information on this subject? I would like to produce a legal Sten from a parts kit.

F.M.O. III.

  You didn't mention your nationality. So I am unable to tell the legal demands of semi-automatic firearms in your home country/ home state. STEN guns have a POSITIVE disconnector like that of selfloading pistols. Welding of the fire selector permenently to position "R" (= "Repetition"; semi-automatic or selfloading fire) is - technically - a sound method to produce a STEN gun definitely unable to shoot full-automatic fire.

Disconnector mechanism is designed to disconnect the trigger from a sear when the breech-bolt is moving forwards and another time when the bolt is moving backwards. Therefore the word "POSITIVE" is justified, and some more complicated mechanism of a breech-bolt (like an independently moving striker) is unnecessary.

1402 MMI; PT


Dimensions/drawings of a BARRETT rifle

Please can you tell me the external dimensions of the Barrett M82 A1 rifle? I am trying to make a 1 : 1 scale air powered replica. The dimensions I need are as follows: barrel, muzzle brake, main receiver, scope mount, pistol grip, butt pad, etc. Drawings with dimensions would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks M.J., Coventry, England. PS: I think your website is top.

  Sorry; I have never seen Barrett M82 A1, except on the photographs, and it is presumably impossible to get dimensional drawings of this very rifle from any other sources but from the manufacturer of original Barrett rifle, which by our repeated experience does not bother to answer questions of unpotential customers. And I don't know, whether this manufacturer is still active. I hope that some visitor of GOW/Universal is able and willing to assist you. Our policy is an open interactivity.

1002 MMI; PT


Additional Information

About the suppressed Nagant

It was very interesting for me to came across the article published by David Harber. I also study the history of Nagant revolver and such information I see for the second time. First I had a chance to read about silenced revolvers in "The Arms of Red Army" book by V. SHUNKOV (Minsk, 1999, ISBN 985-433-469-4), but the story sounds a little bit different.

Germans managed to capture at the initial stage of war with the USSR large quantities of the small arms, including Nagant revolvers. They were used by Germans under marking "Revolver 612 (r)". Some of such revolvers were converted into silenced ones at the Arms Academy of SS Troops. Anyhow, it is very good to receive another piece of evidence about such use of Nagant revolvers.

Regards, Sergei, Colonel (Retired), Moscow, Russia


Editors comment: Many thanks for your valuable information! As far as we knew earlier, the Soviet suppressor for Nagant revolver "was attached firmly with a bayonet latch to the foresight on the weapon. It holds nine rubber discs which have to be replaced after two to twenty shots, because the weapon blast becomes louder and accuracy deteriorates" according to Siegfried F. Huebner. I have seen a drawing of this suppressor also on the Russian periodical magazine: "Technics for the Youth".

Do you know, whether the designer of a "chamber suppressor" Colonel HUMBERT (Gumbert) was a citizen of Imperial Russia? He was unable to get his invention protected by the patent anywhere, and just the Czarist Russia was a country without a patent legislature in the late 1890s. Just the Finnish literature and magazine "Technics for the Youth" are mentioned name of Colonel Humbert. Finnish source of information, a periodical magazine "The Science And Life" published by it's chief editor INTO KONRAD INHA, was printed in 1921.

Another question: Do you know destiny of Lieutenant BESRUSZKO- VYISOCHKY, a resident of Leningrad during the siege? Was he the actual designer of a submachine gun known as Pistolyet Pulemyot Sudayeva (PPS), or "the very best invention discovered during the Great Patriotic War in Soviet Union" according to Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov ? In 1944 Finnish designers of Tikkakoski Oy made some improvements to PPS submachine gun, like a magazine-well accepting all types of SUOMI submachine gun magazines, including 70 rds drum, and adoptment of caliber 9 x 19 mm. According to my shooting experience, this Finnish copy of PPS is a very pleasant gun to shoot. Just a rare VOERE AMERICAN 180 submachine gun has been more easy to control when shooting full-automatic fire, but it's caliber is .22 Long Rifle.

0602 MMI; P.T.Kekkonen, Chief Editor of GOW/Universal


More about TOZ rifle

Thanks for your quick reply. I have chambered the Ten X rounds as well as many other brands of .22 LR 40 grain ammo and in all cases the rifling marks come up to the second band on the bullet... and yes, the lands are wider than the grooves. Something else is a bit odd with my barrel.. the bore is not central (.02") with the external diameter... I discovered this when I cut 75 mm from the barrel (now 22") in the lathe and was about to crown the end... I ended up crowning it with a fine 12mm spherical Drammel mounted stone in my battery drill... slow revs, forward and reverse until satisfied with the results... 15 mm groups at 50 M on a good day.

Question: Will the eccentric bore effect any suppressor which I may decide to mount later (when suppressors become legal here - of course)?

Regards, Peter

  It is rather a rule than an exception that TOZ barrels have somewhat crooked bore. Fortunately enough, the Russians knows that a crooked bore shoots as well as straight one. In Finland was an unpleasant practice to straighten the bores by bending of the barrel blanks. With this crude method there were made thousands and another thousands of rifles producing a "walking group" syndrome. Id est: When the barrel is warming up by shooting, it's material "recalls" original un-bend structure of barrel walls and it starts to be bendind, making the bore to become crooked again as long as the barrel is warm or hot.

Barrel of your TOZ shall presumably shoot small groups when cool or hot. You should mount the suppressor with extra care. It is advisable to remove barrel of your TOZ rifle from it's action and mount it into the three-jaw chuck of the lathe-bed, around the rebated rear end of a barrel. The front end of a bore must be centered to the conical spindle or apice of a lathe. So it is possible to turn the thread for suppressor mounting concentric and coaxial enough with the bore. A well-designed suppressor shall not deteriorate accuracy of your rifle if it is mounted along with the bore, and not along with the eccentric outer diameter of barrel.

1002 MMI; PT


Sidearms of Legionnaires

Do you know what kind of handguns that the French Foreign Legion carried in the 1920's in North Africa? I would really appreciate some help on this one!

Thanks, Andria, Dallas Theater Center/Props

Usually 8 mm "LEBEL" revolvers Modèle d'Ordonnance (vintage 1892) but after the First World War a wide selection of selfloader pistols bought from Spain; so called "RUBY" pistols, caliber .32 ACP (at least 50 trade marks) and Spanish "STAR" pistols, caliber also .32 ACP. There were at least 0.7 million of Spanish-made pistols bought from Spain during WWI plus 27 500 US-made SAVAGE Model 1917 .32 ACP pistols from USA until the end of that Big War.

I presume, those 8 mm revolvers were most common issue for the Foreign Legion, but any kind of those pistols mentioned above might be met in North Africa as a weaponry of Legionnaires in 1920s.

1002 MMI; PT


Book about "The White Death" in English?

I see your response about book about Simo Hayha. If you should even hear of it being translated to American English please do your best to let the world know. I had the honor of meeting Mr Hayha September last and it was a moving expierence. One I will remember all my life. http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=196242&a=9545595&p=31414118

There are other photos there if you'd like to see them. Do you know my friend M. R. there in Joensuu?

Michael, New Mexico, USA

I know M. R. very well. He is a secretary of an Arms History Guild of North Carelia. I am a Founder Member of this Guild, but I have no more time to take part of Guild meetigs since February 1999, when I became a Special Editor and, since 6th December 2000, a Chief Editor of GOW sites.

There are not (yet) books about SIMO HAYHA published in English. We are presumably lacking translators able to master firearms technical English and military vocabulary.

05 02 MMI; PT


Arcane

I was very pleased to find your Arcane information. Some of it is what I tried 20 years ago to shoot on 25 meter ranges. I used Red Dot and similar charges to my .357 pistol loads. This was before our fucking (RED) government took our pistols and revolvers from us.

I have once again started to make low power loads in 7.62 NATO and .303 British. To avoid the problems with very small charges 3 grains or less in rifle cases I have filled them with car body filler! Then I drilled out the neck to about the volume of a 32 Smith & Wesson Long case and through the flash hole with a small drill. With 2.5 to 3 grains these shoot 25 mm or less sized groups. I have shot 25 reloads and the cases are still going strong. I tried the above by casting lead in to the cases. It works well but the cartriges are HEAVY. I hope this is of interest to you and my give outhers some ideas

Yours R E G

Comment: Some Finns are also tried case lining trick successfully. One friend of mine lined cases of his .458 Winchester Magnum rifle cartridges with stumps of of plastic (soft PVC) hose for reduced charge loads ca. 20 years ago. I presume, he has those cases still in use. (I've lost his phone number. So I cannot ask). For necked cases like those of 7.62 NATO and .303 the "definitive solution" is a factory-made compression moulded plastic liner, installed to the case before necking. Unfortunately the cartridge manufactures hate my idea about "everlasting cases" and use of reduced charges at all. Your method is O.K. In Finland is the plastic material SIKAFLEX tried for similar purpose. I don't know composition of this filler plastic. So I am unable to predict, how long-lasting it is in this special purpose especially in cold weather.

For the factory-made liners may polyethene or polypropylene polymer be ideal material, because those plastics are somewhat elastic. Liner must be tightly fitting into the case and allow some expansion and shrinkage of the brass case. In Germany are available special cases for reduced charge loads similar to old Everlasting cases but with considerably reduced powder spaces. They are lathe-turned from a brass bar-stock, being heavy and expensive. Your lead-lined cases are somewhat heavier but considerably less expensive. Promising castable lining materials are also alloys of aluminium and magnesium.

0302 MMI; PT


Tried tricks:

Rifling twist of TOZ

Hi Pete, To determine the twist rate of my TOZ 8, I used my cleaning rod which has a rotating knob on the end. I attached a nylon brush to the jag end and inserted it all the way down the barrel. I marked the top of the rod with a marking pen, then pulled the rod out until the mark completed one full revolution then measured the distance between the mark and the end of the barrel....Walla!! 1 in 14" twist.

Attached is a picture of my TOZ 8 after a few mods. I have fitted a 3 - 9 x 40 mm Hakko since this photo was taken. It shoots well with cheap Winchester ammo 1150 fps. 15 mm groups at 50 m are common with the odd flyer. It hates TeneX and will only hold a 50 mm group. I am still experimenting with ammo to find the most suitable. I like your web page....full of great information.

Best regards, Peter, Adelaide, Australia.

and comment: Our ballistician Markus determined twist of his 40 years old TOZ rifle by similar method, using brass brush. It was 1 in 14". We didn't first believe on this reading, because TOZ is able to gyro-stabilize positively bullet of Aguila .22 SSS cartridge. There is, however, another stabilizing factor in the TOZ bore: Very short "leade" or "throat" between the chamber and rifled bore. When the bolt is closed, a shank of bullet enters rifling slowly and gently. Bullet is concentrated into the bore manually before shot. Not after the shot by the force of powder gasses, sometimes after a "free flight" through a throat of chamber. Another dark secrecy of accuracy are dimensions of rifling. Diameters are as usual, bore dia. 5.5 mm, groove diameter 5.7 mm... BUT: The lands of rifling are broad and four grooves of TOZ bore are narrow.

Excessively long .22 SSS bullet may become gyro-stabilized even by 1 in 14" rifling of TOZ, because it is concentric and coaxial to the bore before shooting and the bore is keeping it in a tight embrace. TeneX bullet has presumably too long point. Shank or body of it shall presumably not reach the rifling lands before shooting. There is an easy trick to determine, whether or not some cartridge is potentially accurate in TOZ rifle: Chamber the cartridge and close the bolt. Open the bolt again and examine ejected cartridge. If there are visible rifling marks engraved on the bullet, the cartridge is potentially accurate in TOZ.

Russian .22 LR cartridges had a rather thick and messy dip lube on their bullets. Despite of cheap price they were accurate in TOZ rifles. Many autoloader firearms hated them, of course, because the accumulation of fouling, but for them there were available other brands of cartridges. Have you tried dip lubrication of TeneX bullets? This simple trick may improve accuracy of them in TOZ. A tried lubricant is molten mixture of bovine or mutton tallow (70 to 75%) and white candle stearine (25 to 30%). You may dip 50 bullets at a time. Keep them immersed to the hot lube 15...20 seconds, then let them cool slowly.

0402 MMI; PT


How to cook "the soup" - and survive?

First of all I have to say that you have a very nice web site. Second, I would like to ask you the exact formula on making nitroglycerin, and if it is possible the way of introducing a substance in the place of explosion because of the extremely unstable nature of it.

Thanks: AM

  Nitroglycerin unstable? "Wahoo!" There is a small sample of "soup", made by it's inventor SOBRERO in 1847, still left in Italy. (Stuff is pure). Unstable nitroglycerin contain usually remnants of acids or other impurities. It may start spontaneous decomposition soon after it's production, especially in warm conditions.

Production process is as follows: Mix first an acid mixture, containing 300 grams of strong (fuming) nitric acid and 500 grams of strong (fuming) sulphuric acid in some acid-proof vessel. Let the nitrification acid mixture cool to temperature +15 degrees Celsius/Centigrade. A centigrade thermometer is ESSENTIAL instrument for producer of "soup"!! A glass jar is good nitrification vessel. Put it into a tub partially filled with cold water and keep some ice cubes easily obtainable.

Stir the acid mixture with a PE plastic ladle, making a rapid whirlpool. Pour 25 grams of pure glycerin SLOWLY into the whirling nitrification acid close to the edge of nitrification vessel. Dropping the glycerin (drop by drop) is unnecessary, but flowing of glycerin must be slow. Measure temperature of acid mixture after each addition ca. 25 grams of glycerine. If it is more than + 20 degr. C, drop some ice cubes into the water, surrounding nitrification vessel. (In the names of all the Saints and Demons: DO NOT THROW THEM INTO THE ACID!!!). Wait, still stirring the acid, until temperature is again +15 degrees Centigrade. Add some more ice into surrounding water if needed. Then add another 25 grams or an ounce of glycerine slowly to the acid mixture whirlpool and measure again temperature. Add the ice cubes into surrounding water if necessary, et cetera.. Total quantity of glycerin is 100 grams for 800 grams of acid mixture. Yield is ca. 220 grams of nitroglycerin.

A critical temperature is +30 degr. C. If you are approaching it, my advice is: "RUN SWIFTLY! Say your prayer later..!" Or keep a big tub almost full of cold water adjacent the nitrification vessel. If the thermometer shows a temperature of acid + glycerine mixture ca. +28 degr. C and the red fume starts to rise from vessel, pour the mixture into the water tub. DO NOT throw water into the mixture!!! (This is one of THE GOLDEN RULES of Chemistry). This large tub or vat of water is always present in factories, producing nitroglycerin. It is known in Finland as "A Safety Tub". It's volume must be at least ten times a volume of acid & glycerine mixture and it must contain cold water at least 8 times the volume of mixture 800 grams acids and 100 grams glycerin.

When the last 25 grams of glycerin is added into acid mixture, being alert that temperature of "the soup" shall not rise above safe limit, you have 215 to 220 grams of nitroglycerin floating on the surface of an acid remainders. Stop the stirring and wait at least six hours. You must now "skim" the nitroglycerin from acid remnants. Scoop 135 cubic centimeters of "cream" from the vessel. It is ALMOST pure nitroglycerin, but "almost" is not yet pure ENOUGH to be stable 154 years' period. Add 30 cubic centimeters of water into the NG, stir very gently and filtrate the product through a mixture of 50% sodium bicarbonate and 50% of common cook salt (sodiun chloride). If there are acid remnants still in the soup, repeat the "washing" and filtration. So easy/ difficult is safe yielding of nitroglycerin.

I envy the lucky Americans, who have almost pure ammonium nitrate available in each store selling fertilizers. Mixture of ammonium nitrate (Finnish code-name: "Anitra") and Diesel oil (Finnish code-name: "Antero") is able to make more destruction than nitrolycerine, which does only a hole on the floor and breaks windows. Heavy charge of "Antero" is able to "huff and puff", lifting the roof of a big house sky-high and collapse walls of the concrete building. Another interesting stuff is "Candy Anitra" (in Finnish "Karkki-Anitra"): Mixture of ammonium nitrate and pulverized sugar. These Anitra-based explosives needs rather strong priming with a brisant booster-charge for reliable ignition and detonation. Nitroglycerin is a very good booster explosive.

One of our Finnish visitors is planning to make solid rocket fuel from potassium nitrate (65%) and sorbitol (35%). This mixture is easy to melt and cast into the rocket motor. I don't know yet, whether it is possible to produce detonation of solid saltpeter & sorbitol mixture with strong priming and booster charge. Anitra & sorbitol mixture may also be possible to melt and so get a solid explosive without decomposition of Anitra, which yields nitrous oxidule i.e. the laughing gas.

Source of information: Book "TAVARASANAKIRJA"/ "DICTIONARY ON MERCHANDISE", 2nd edition, published in 1947. Text in Finnish.Cooling method of nitroglycerin is simplified. "Tavarasanakirja" presents method of large-scale nitrogycerin production. Small quantity (220 grams) needs no expensive cooling arrangements like blowing of cold compressed air through acid & glycerin mixture. Temperature control of exothermic nitrification process is, however, essential.

0402 MMI; PT


.22 Remington Auto cartridges

I am trying to find ammo for a Remington .22 Model 16 auto load. Could you please send me any information you may have on where I might be able to get ammo for this gun?

Thank you; Johnny

Remington Model 16 Autoloading rifle was introduced in 1914. Production was discontinued in 1928. Loading of .22 Rem. Auto cartridges was discontinued 55+ years ago. Cartridges are impossible to get anywhere. Winchester designed earlier about similar .22 Winchester Automatic cartridges for their Model 1903 rifles (discontinued in early 1930s). Remington and Winchester cartridges were/are not interchangeable. .22 Win. Auto cartridges were loaded until late 1970s, if not still later - funny enough - by Remington.

Idea of these rifles and special-sized cartridges was to prevent use of .22 Long Rifle cartridges in autoloading rifles, since LRs could be loaded with blackpowder or semi-smokeless propellants. Copper cases were common in .22 LRs and bullets were outside-lubricated with thick messy mixtures of tallow, beeswax and Valvolin Cylinder Oil. Cartridges for autoloader rifles had diameter of their brass cases big enough to allow "inside lubrication" of bullets, because a shank (body) of bullet - no more only a rebated "heel" of it - went into the case mouth. Bullet's visible point was no more lubricated. "Lube grooves" or "cannelures" filled with wax mixture were entirely hidden inside the case mouth.

This trick was actually adopted in 1890 for .22 Winchester Rimfire (WRF) cartridges, designed for Winchester Model 1890 pump-repeater rifles. "Messy lube" on the bullets was found to be a problem when shooting even the manually loaded magazine rifles. A variation of .22 WRF is still among us as a .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire cartridge, with jacketed bullets and lengthened case. Diameter of case and rim dimensions of old WRF and modern smokeless WMR are similar. It is possible to shoot old blackpowder WRF cartridges from rifles chambered for WMR ammo. Shame and scandal is that .22 WRF has been discontinued. A .22 Win. Magnum rifle is lacking versatility: Nothing but rather noisy full-power loads are available for it, while WRF cartridge may be loaded even to subsonic noise level, because of it's slippery lead bullet weighing 45 grains and having a flat point. It was a fine game-getter.

The same bullet weight 45 grains was also chosen for both of these .22 Autoloader rimfire cartridges. Case/chamber length of autoloaders was shorter than those of .22 WRF, because smokeless load of Autoloader ammo needed less space and it was also needed to prevent shooting of .22 WRF ammo (still loaded with black or "Lesmoke" powder) from autoloader rifles, designed during "transitional era". When the smokeless powder became a dominant propellant of .22 LR ammo, along with brass cases and less thick bullet lubricants, the era of transition was over. In 1920s there were invented "dry wax" lubricant and even the metal coatings ("Lubaloy" or cadmium electroplating) for .22 Long Rifle bullets. So the firearms manufactures chambered autoloader rifles also for .22 LRs, and later these rifles are chambered for Long Rifle ammo only.

I presume that ammo manufactures shall never more load cartridges for Remington Model 16. They are hesitant to start loading of some sought-after cartridges even for .22 LR. One example is .22 Autoloading Subsonic ammo with "intermediate length" case and bullet weight 50 grains, fit for any and all autoloader firearms chambered for .22 LR. There were no other rifles but Remington Model 16 chambered to shoot .22 Rem. Automatic cartridges. During 14 years of manufacturing, there were made definitely not enough rifles for re-introduction of it's cartridges. I don't know, whether it is possible to re-barrel Model 16 for shooting of .22 LR ammo. If it is, there are presumably not many Model 16s existing in original chambering, and the worth of your rifle as a collector's item is increasing accordingly.

0202 MMI; PT



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