IMAGE: YouTube / Калашников
Kalashnikov Concern gun experts have put an iconic WWII-era PPSh-41 submachine gun through a stress test, trying to destroy it with continuous full-auto shooting. The 78-year-old weapon, however, did not give up easily.
The renowned gun maker produced a new video in its ‘Destroyers of Weapons’ series. Unlike previous ones, Kalashnikov did not put one of its own guns through a full-auto torture, testing a true classic instead – a legendary wartime PPSh-41 submachine gun, designed by Georgy Shpagin back in 1941.
A whopping 913 7.62×25mm Tokarev rounds, packed in box and drum magazines, were prepared for the test to try and put the veteran of a gun to a fiery demise. Yet, the submachine gun – that was manufactured back in 1942 – chewed through all of them, experiencing troubles only with the last 71-round drum.
The issues were apparently linked to the magazine itself – the PPSh mags were not very reliable and often were not interchangeable between different guns.
The only change in the gun’s behavior, that the expert noted, was an increase in its rate of fire around the 500th round, when the PPSh apparently got all warmed up. The post-test examination showed that the gun sustained no damage at all and was ready for more after cooling off a bit.
Over six million pieces of PPSh-41 were produced by the Soviet Union during WWII and it became the most used submachine gun of the war. While the gun was quite heavy and not very wieldy by modern standards, it was significantly more suitable for mobile infantry warfare than classic bolt-action rifles and carbines which were the main weapons of the Soviet Army when the war began. In 1945, over a half of all the Soviet infantrymen were armed with PPSh submachine guns.
A very thick barrel (comparable to a barrel of an AKM), a minimum of contact metal and wooden parts, and use of a quite weak pistol round make this iconic gun virtually indestructible. The only way to make it jam, apparently, is to shoot so many rounds that powder discharge blocks the barrel completely. And try not to bash your enemies too hard with it, so as to not break the vintage gun into pieces.
This was a very unreliable machine gun. That is the reason, why was as soon as possible changed to kalashnikov.
It was replaces because what was needed was a crossover between the submachine gun, which could fire a lot of rounds but which lacked accuracy at longer ranges, and the traditional bolt action rifle, which was more accurate at longer range, but couldn’t fire as many rounds, nor was as useful in close quarter fighting. Which is why armies moved away from having two different kinds of weapons and instead standardized on the assault rifle, the combination of submachine gun and rifle into one.
papa, i was soldier in warsaw pact. we learned, that was a shit machine gun. when the ussr wrote told this, you can be sure, it was junk gun.
Well if you read the article, the article claims the GUN is good , the problem was the magazines.
Please use your experience to expand on this point.
Thanks.
of course. one of thousands. and?
i learned oficially, that due to problems with this gun died tens of thousand of soviet soldiers.
the yanks had similar problems with their machine guns in vietnam.
i am only against gloryfying of the machine gun.
AK-47 remains the king of the battlefield 70 years onwards.
In 1945, over a half of all the Soviet infantrymen were armed with PPSh submachine guns.
Makes perfect sense if you realize that by 1945 the Red Army was doing a hell of a lot more urban warfare in the cities of Germany then before. And close quarter combat is perfect for submachine guns.
Seems ak 103 that they test before had near the same result, only its plastic handle got melted and need to be moved away, and somehow the barrel got downward a bit but still able to fire, in the end the tester just give up. Only different is AK74M, this thing use more high pressure small bullet that make it destroyed around intersection between barrel and gas channel, but still unachiveable condition in the battlefield because it need to fired hundreds upon hundreds ammo to destroy it