Experimental Ukrainian firearms. Part of 1. Pistols PSH and "Gnome"
Pistols Shevchenko PSh-4, PSh-45 and others
When it comes to Ukrainian pistols, the Fort in all their variants is first of all remembered, however, Shevchenko pistols are familiar to the Ukrainian consumer, though not at all in the form in which they were originally developed. It would be unfair to bypass the topic of the traumatic PN pistols, thanks to which some confusion has arisen and is now often mixed in a heap and that which relates to military weapons, and that which refers to "rezinoplyuyu." In short, the main feature of the traumatic PN pistols is the so-called direct feed of cartridges into the chamber. That is, the first cartridge in the store is located opposite the barrel axis, the bolt, pushing the cartridge, enters the store, and only after removing the spent cartridge case, the cartridges in the store rise one up. Usually, this design is praised for the fact that the weapon shop has a large capacity while maintaining the pistol's low handle, but, in my opinion, the main advantage of such a decision is somewhat different. Cartridges for traumatic pistols have a bullet deep in the cartridge case, respectively, very often there are problems with feeding the cartridge into the chamber due to the stitching. In this case, such a problem can not arise. But not about the controversial means of self-defense is now talking.
The most popular version of the reason for the emergence of pistols PN-4 and PSH-45 is the creation of weapons for participation in the competition for a new pistol for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, at least, this is very often mentioned. In fact, this gun was originally planned to be positioned as a personal weapon for pilots, since the cartridge 9x18 is clearly insufficient to meet the bear, however, both 9x19 and .45ACP are clearly unsuitable for such meetings, but in any case, better. The main problem that the designer tried to solve was the low burning rate of the powder composition at extremely low temperatures. The simplest solution to this problem, when using non-special ammunition, would be an increase in the barrel length of the weapon, and, of course, the use of cartridges exceeding 9x18 in their parameters.
Subsequently, the weapon was retrained in a full-fledged combat pistol. Separate emphasis was placed on the fact that, thanks to the longer barrel, the bullet accelerates to greater speed, and as a result, will have higher armor-piercing qualities. The statement is certainly true, but practically a speed increase of a couple of tens of meters per second will have very little effect on the final result of the hit, but advertising is advertising.
Regarding the participation of this gun in the competition for the new weapons for the FBI, it is impossible to say anything concrete. It is possible that the Design Office of special equipment did apply for participation, but at least there is no evidence to confirm the participation itself. Nevertheless, even just submitting an application to participate in the contest played into the hands of the weapon, since it’s an advertisement back, because now it’s not just a Ukrainian pistol, but a pistol that could become a weapon for the employees of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Despite the fact that much was written about this pistol, even too much, the weapon did not find recognition either at home or abroad. But, it is impossible to ignore the fact that at the moment Boberg Engineering is producing a gun with a similar ammunition supply system, although this weapon has nothing to do with the PN except for the ammunition supply system. These pistols are positioned as a small-sized weapon with the barrel length inherent in full-sized models of pistols.
The appearance of the gun Shevchenko
The appearance of the weapon, by modern standards, can hardly be called presentable. If we consider this gun as a full-fledged combat gun, then immediately two questions arise: will a toothbrush be suitable for cleaning dirt from the external surfaces of the gun and after how many days will the protective coating of the weapon begin to peel? But the pistol has a really interesting and memorable angular appearance, due to which it cannot be confused with any other model of weapon.
It is worth noting that for all the time that Shevchenko’s pistols were working on weapons, separate elements appeared and disappeared, for example, an element such as the cocking button of the firing pin, located under the middle finger of the hand holding the weapon, and a clip around it. Changed the position of the switch fuse and so on. I propose to consider each element separately, but its presence or absence for each weapon variant can be determined visually.
The first thing that catches your eye when considering Shevchenko pistols is a ribbed casing around the barrel. This element is made of aluminum alloy and its purpose is quite obvious - the barrel is cooled even with intensive firing. This detail is relevant in weapons with the possibility of automatic fire, but not in the design of the gun. However, its presence can be explained by the arrangement in which the overheated barrel could theoretically lead to an explosion of the cartridge first in the store, so perhaps this casing around the barrel is really a necessary element that could not be abandoned.
The second element that is puzzling is the presence of two trigger keys in the design. In fact, the trigger key is only one and it is in its usual place, the second key, when pressed, cocks the drummer of the pistol. But we will talk about these features in more detail when describing the design of weapons.
Another control that is often confused with the fuse switch is the cocking key lock. In order not to keep the key constantly clamped, from which during long shooting the middle finger will be tired of it, in some versions of Shevchenko pistols one can come across such an unusual detail. In one of the variants, it is represented as a long lever with a knob on the end located in the lower part of the safety bracket. This lever is moved in the horizontal plane and locks the already pressed cocking button of the drummer when it is moved with the index finger. The second embodiment of the fixation platoon key is implemented more interesting. It is made in the form of a swinging part in front of the bracket located in front of the platoon key. The key in this case is fixed by itself when pressed, but its return to its original position is already carried out by pressing the lock.
In general, it will not be entirely correct to assess the appearance of these weapons. These samples can rather be attributed to the experienced, not serial. For some reason it seems to me that, in the case of the deployment of full-scale serial production, the appearance of the pistols would change in a positive direction. Even with the preservation of the "angular" shape of the weapon, during mass production, they would have refused the many details that make this gun a nightmare of the miller. And even in the form in which the weapon is presented, if we ignore the imposed appearance of modern pistols, Shevchenko pistols are quite charismatic.
Shevchenko pistols design
As mentioned above, one of the remarkable features of Shevchenko pistols is the supply of ammunition from the store to the chamber. In order to increase the length of the barrel without increasing the size of the weapon, the designer placed a magazine under the chamber chamber. The ammunition supply is carried out in two stages. First, the cartridge is removed from the store, and this is not done forward, as in conventional designs, but back, after extraction, the cartridge is on the “pallet”, from which it is already fed into the breech.
The main advantage in the implementation of such a filing system is only an increase in the length of the barrel of the weapon. Increased barrel length has a positive effect on accuracy and slightly increases the initial velocity of the bullet in normal conditions. But other features of such a system for the supply of ammunition more.
First of all, you need to take into account the fact that the handling of weapons is not quite familiar. In order for the cartridge to be in the chamber, you have to delay and release the bolt twice. The second feature of this design is the behavior of the weapon after the exhaustion of all the cartridges in the store. So, after the store is devastated, the weapon becomes on the slide lag, however the last cartridge is still in the weapon waiting for the progress of the bolt forward and feed into the chamber. This was done so that after changing the store, it wasn’t necessary to perform twice manipulations with the shutter casing again. This feature is usually described as positive, since it is impossible to unconsciously expend all ammunition and there is always the last cartridge that can be used even without an inserted magazine, simply by removing the weapon from the slide delay. In this context, this is certainly a plus, but many of the old memory can look at the empty chamber, remove the weapon from the ZZ and pull the trigger, with a clear negative result. In general, it is impossible to say that these features are flaws, these are really features that you just need to get used to.
The disadvantages include the location of the first cartridge in the store in the immediate vicinity of the breech breech. Apparently, to prevent this cartridge from heating up from the barrel of the weapon, an aluminum casing was required for cooling. The second disadvantage, the existence of which no one says, but it is obviously present, is the probability of parsing the cartridge in the process of its extraction from the store. The fact that such a problem is present in Shevchenko pistols is not known, but it was present in Mars pistols, with a similar ammunition supply system, and the designers of Boberg Engineering have been fighting over it for a single year, however, it seems, they have already coped with this trouble It should be noted that at least the listed weapon models have a similar ammunition supply system, but it is not identical to the PN, so it is quite possible that the designer managed to implement the operation of the ammunition supply system without such unpleasant surprises.
The trigger mechanism of Shevchenko pistols is a drum pick, and the drummer's platoon is carried out by pressing a key in front of the handle of the weapon. A similar solution can be seen in the P7 pistols of Heckler und Koch, although the key there is much larger and is not fixed in the depressed position. This key, although it did not take root in other models of weapons, but it is obvious that it is far from the worst option to ensure safe handling of the gun, as long as the key is not squeezed, it will not be possible to shoot the PN. In addition, judging by the individual images of Shevchenko pistols, there were models with a “classic” fuse switch on the side surface of the housing-bolt.
No less interesting in the weapon is the system of automation. The PS pistols use a semi-free shutter automation system. Braking casing-bolt is carried out using two stops, which enter the grooves on the inner surface of the casing-shutter under the action of powder gases. This system provides the ability to use a variety of ammunition, including "mixed" in one store, but it is demanding on the materials from which the weapon is made. In addition, due to the rarity of the use of such an automation system, it is difficult to predict the resource of a weapon, even when using all modern achievements.
Positive and negative qualities of Shevchenko pistols
As mentioned above, the increased length of the barrel of a weapon has a positive effect on the accuracy of firing. In sum, with the automation system and the shutter casing, in which the bulk of it is located under the barrel of the weapon, the gun had to be fairly accurate.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the safety of handling weapons, due to the presence of the strike key of the drummer. However, the safety of handling Shevchenko’s pistols suffers from an applied power system, in which random shots are possible.
The main disadvantage of this weapon is the abundance of small parts, sharp corners and other shortcomings not of the design itself, but rather of the “design” of pistols. Since the weapon is not serial, it is difficult to predict its behavior when worn, in particular, the work of automation, the problem of feeding ammunition back when worn and when the weapon is contaminated, and so on.
Сonclusion
It is difficult to give an assessment to Shevchenko's pistols, at least due to the fact that the weapon was not mass-produced, and the characteristics of single-produced copies and mass-produced ones often differ. Nevertheless, it is possible to estimate the number of interesting, if not quite new, ideas that were implemented in this weapon. The work that Viktor Shevchenko did and the workers of “Special Machinery” deserves respect, since even simpler devices cannot always be brought to workable designs.
But if you look at this weapon sensibly, then it is difficult to find those positive qualities that would justify the complexity of the design, and accordingly the price during production. Perhaps this, as well as the lack of funding and a number of other, less obvious, but quite objective reasons (90-s), was the sentence for these pistols. But the design is very interesting, and the amount of work done is very large. Conversely, you can draw a parallel with the modern pistols of Boberg Engineering, which are now gaining popularity. Yes, these pistols are simpler in design and they are positioned somewhat differently, but the main feature, namely the supply of ammunition, is used the same, which means that the idea was not dead, but quite viable.
It should be noted that the weapon was in a variety of variants, for a variety of ammunition. I managed to find a reference to the 8 variants of these pistols, with various differences not only in the cartridges, but also in size and individual nodes. It is possible that the weapon options were much more.
Gun for the hidden wearing "Gnome"
The second gun in this article will be a pistol, which, conversely, has a modern counterpart. So recently, an article was published about the “folding” version of the Glock pistol, which was preceded by the PP with a similar design - FGM-9. However, prior to these Western models of weapons, the Ukrainian Gnome pistol (1995 year) was developed, which is completely identical to them, both in the idea itself and in its implementation.
For some totally incomprehensible reason, this gun on the Internet was dubbed “assault”. In what place does he belong to this newest class of pistols, it is unclear if even someone would formulate the general concept of an assault pistol would be ideal. It is quite obvious that this gun is ideal for concealed carrying, albeit not with weight and dimensions, but at least with the absence of a form that would even remotely resemble a weapon.
The appearance of the gun "Gnome"
The appearance of the weapon is more like those samples that are made somewhere in garages or basement workshops by craftsmen from the people. However, this is only a first impression. If you look at the weapon more closely, it becomes clear that this is not just an “ugly” resemblance to a weapon, but a well thought out and very cheap design that, for all its unsightly form, is perfect for the tasks assigned.
Like any weapon that is trying to disguise under other objects or make it more compact, this gun does not look very familiar. First of all, a thin and unclear why the intended folding safety bracket catches your eye. In fact, it does not affect the rigidity of the structure and, by and large, it could have been abandoned altogether. The arms of the arms in the unfolded form clearly does not seem to be quite comfortable, although the pistol has at least a full size and even more, which can already be noted as a plus.
On the left side of the gun is located the safety lever. In fact, this is the only detail that stands for the dimensions of the weapon and can stick into the body when worn, however, its dimensions are not so large as to cause serious inconvenience.
The sights of the gun are the usual pillars and front sight without the possibility of adjustment, which in this case is not needed.
A much more interesting feature is that the muzzle has a thread on the barrel, thanks to which you can install a silent shooting device. That is, this gun is not only designed for concealed carrying, but also has a specially developed PBS for him, I don’t know how Born, and Bond obviously would be happy with such a weapon.
Objectively, yes, the gun is nowhere more terrible, but on the other hand, it is cheap and at the same time copes with the tasks assigned to it.
The design of the gun "Gnome"
Since the design of the weapon is folding, it is quite obvious that somewhere there must be a lock in order for the gun to not spontaneously move from one position to another. Since there are no such clamps on the side surfaces of the arms, it is logical to assume that it is located on the back side.
The weapon does not have a casing-bolt, the bolt is made as a separate part and cocked when it is pulled off by two protrusions with notches. Weapon automatics are built according to the recoil energy use pattern with a free stroke of the shutter, which, when using 9x18 cartridges, is a logical decision.
In order to service this gun, you must remove the cover of the receiver. It is held clutch, wound on the thread at the muzzle. If the gun is equipped with a silent firing device, then in this case it is already holding the cover of the receiver. After the clutch is unscrewed, then pushing the cover forward, it can be removed from the clutch with the frame of the gun, so to speak, and remove it. Actually, this incomplete disassembly of the gun can be considered complete.
It should be noted that although in this case the design itself is very primitive, it is only in plus weapons, back because of the low cost of production. Usually, “special” weapons are developed with less regard for economy, because full-scale production is not expected, a maximum of several thousand units. In this case, even offhand you can say that this gun will cost less to produce the same, well-known, PM.
Characteristics of the gun "Gnome"
Since the folding arms, the designers did not limit themselves to the maximum possible capacity of the store. Since the handle has the length of the whole gun, then the shop has the same length and considerable capacity of 20x9 PM cartridges in the 18 (by the way, the weapon was eating and 9x18PMM). The mass of the pistol was considerable for a concealed pistol - 1180 grams. Unfortunately, there are no data on the size of the weapon.
As mentioned above, the pistol for concealed carrying is only suitable because it does not resemble a weapon in its folded position. The weight of more than a kilogram and obviously considerable dimensions hint at certain inconveniences when wearing, however, with sufficient build, people manage to hide full-fledged submachine guns on their bodies, so it is possible to wear such a “brick” even separately with a silent shooting device is possible.
Positive and negative qualities of the gun "Gnome"
The most important advantage of the gun "Dwarf" is its cheapness. Well, can not a pistol, which is virtually all vyshtampovili from the sheet "galvanized" to be expensive. The second great advantage of weapons is a roomy store. The presence of a silent shooting device for a given pistol clearly expands its scope of application.
But the main drawback of weapons can be identified back as its cheapness, which can be called maximum. Usually something similar is done to arm the guerrillas, when there is nothing to do, but it is necessary to do it. Something similar can be found in the museums of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at the exhibitions of “folk art” in firearms. For full-fledged military weapons, such savings are an obvious overkill.
The disadvantages can also be attributed to ergonomics, which suffers primarily due to the same economy, and the design itself, which allows the pistol to be folded. Well, the weight of the gun clearly does not fit into the modern concept of concealed weapons, although it does not exclude.
Сonclusion
Objectively, the gun "Gnome" is quite an interesting sample of special weapons. Could it be made more presentable? It is possible. In fact, what is depicted in the pictures are experimental samples that are still far from the final result. But even if we take what is and simply paint it in a “radical” black color, then something more interesting may turn out, even despite the entire angularity of the structure.
Yes, the weapon is similar to the product made somewhere in the underground workshop, however, the very idea and implementation are of interest. Moreover, this interest has been preserved even now, judging by the samples that were recently developed based on the Glock.
These two pistols are not all weapons that were developed by Ukrainian designers. There were still no less interesting samples, there were frankly failures, there were also attempts to create something new on the basis of Soviet weapons that were placed in warehouses, all of which will be in the next articles.
Sources:
infogun.ru
silovik.net
zbroya.com.ua
modernfirearms.net
zonwar.ru
112.ua
Information