The Dardik pistol: something so new that there is simply nowhere to go
Pistol "Dardik" М1500 and cartridges for it. The lid is clearly visible, opening which, the pistol could be loaded with cartridges from the clip, like an old "Mauser"
And now I declare to you
new and intimate,
and you didn't know that.
Exodus 48: 6
new and intimate,
and you didn't know that.
Exodus 48: 6
History firearms weapons. It happens, but before it happened all the time that, while designing a pistol or a rifle, its creator created, first of all, a cartridge, and only then made this or that weapon for it.
By the way, just now the companies that are fighting for an arms order from the Pentagon for a new 6,8-mm "rifleman" are doing exactly that: they create the cartridges for it themselves, and the weapon under their own cartridges. But these are weapon giants ...
However, there are cases when a new and extremely unusual cartridge was created after the Second World War, when everything conceivable in this area seemed to have already been achieved. And weapons were also created under the same cartridge, and one of its samples is known, so original that it still has the right to exist on the basis of the use of new materials and technologies.
It will be about the pistol of David Dardik, who developed a unique cartridge for an equally unique weapon.
And it so happened that he began developing his pistol back in the late 1940s. But the US patent No. 2847784 received only in August 1958. And we are talking about a pistol with a rotating cylindrical barrel-chamber and a more or less conventional magazine in the handle.
In fact, this design was a revolver with a barrel with chambers that have a U-shaped open, rather than a closed O-shape, characteristic of typical revolvers. Such a drum device made it possible to insert cartridges into it from the side of the cylinder, and not from the front or from the back, as was customary in all conventional revolvers, that is, it made it possible to quickly load the drum from the store.
It is clear that ordinary, cylindrical-shaped cartridges for this pistol-revolver were not suitable, since when fired, their sleeves would swell in those places where they did not touch the walls of the chambers.
Therefore, Dardik came up with a fundamentally new cartridge for his weapon - "traund" (translated from English "triangular round"), a very, very specific type.
In plan, it was a triangle with convex sides and three chambers on the drum had exactly the same shape. The cartridge in the upper chamber, located opposite the barrel, was pressed from above by a profiled plate, due to which the pressure on the walls of the sleeve of this cartridge, which, by the way, were made of plastic, was uniform.
Thanks to this form of the cartridge and the chamber of the drum, the need for any kind of reciprocating movements was eliminated when loading and ejecting a spent cartridge case.
The pistol drum on the right was open and the spent cartridges fell out of it under their own weight!
However, everything can be patented.
The question is, how will this work in metal?
And in metal it also worked, and it worked very well.
In any case, the designer was able to produce several samples of his weapon: "Dardik" M 1100 with a 10-round magazine, M 1500 with 11 or 15-round, as well as a 20-cartridge design - "model 2000". At the same time, the bullet speed of this pistol reached 220-260 m / s (depending on the cartridge), that is, it was quite a decent figure for a short-barreled weapon. For the same revolver, it was 272 m / s. Weighed "model 1500" - 965 g, "model 1100" - 700 g!
From the description in the patent, you can find out that the designer believed that
“In order to withstand the pressure when firing, an odd number of chambers (usually three) are made in the drum magazine. It is placed in the center in a solid frame in such a way that in the chamber, ready to fire, the cartridge rested against one side of the frame, and the drum itself rested against its opposite side.
Unlike a traditional firearm cartridge, which has a roughly cylindrical casing, the open cavity requires the cartridge to be of a different shape. Since the cartridge contacts the frame when firing, one side of the cartridge must match the curvature of the outside of the magazine, and the other side of the cartridge must match half of its chamber. Together, the drum and frame thus form a chamber, and the cartridge must not only fit into this space, but also must seal it when fired without deforming. "
Unlike a traditional firearm cartridge, which has a roughly cylindrical casing, the open cavity requires the cartridge to be of a different shape. Since the cartridge contacts the frame when firing, one side of the cartridge must match the curvature of the outside of the magazine, and the other side of the cartridge must match half of its chamber. Together, the drum and frame thus form a chamber, and the cartridge must not only fit into this space, but also must seal it when fired without deforming. "
Diagram of the Dardik pistol drum magazine device from US patent No. 2847784 1958. On the right - the cartridge is loading, at the top - it shoots and on the left - it falls out of the drum!
Another reason for the appearance of such an unusual ammunition was the experiments carried out in the United States during the 1950s with machine gun cartridge feed devices, which showed that triangular casings took up 50 percent less space than conventional round casings. Due to problems with the reliable feeding of the triangular cartridge from the magazine to the triangular chamber in the barrel, this concept was not further developed.
But Dardik managed to create a working model!
It was a great success for the designer that the ammunition he developed was designed in such a way that bullets of different calibers could be placed in the same sleeve volume. That is, it was enough to change only one barrel in his pistol, as you already received a weapon of a new caliber.
In particular, the Dardik M1100 had a 9mm barrel. He, however, was not removed in it, and the length was 76,2 mm.
"Dardik" М1500 with a magazine for 11 rounds (and later with 15 rounds) had two barrels from the very beginning: one - 4 inches long (102 mm), and the other - 6 inches (152 mm). Also included were two more barrels of 9 and 5,56 mm caliber. Since the barrel was attached to the pistol on a special latch, it took only a couple of minutes to replace it.
This design made it possible to create a special "whale" for the M 1500, that is, a set of parts consisting of a stock, an elongated barrel and a forend. "Kit" made it possible to quickly convert the pistol into a light carbine. At the same time, an additional 20-inch barrel could be produced in different calibers: 5,56; 7,62 and 9 millimeters.
A set of parts for converting a pistol into a carbine
"Dardik" M 2000 had increased dimensions, a magazine for 20 rounds and a 152 mm barrel. Potential buyers were offered pistols of all calibers, as well as a set with an interchangeable barrel and butt.
Interestingly, standard low-impulse cartridges, such as .38 Special or .22 rimfire cartridges, could also be inserted into the thrund casings. Accordingly, a pistol or a carbine could be equipped with strikers specifically for these cartridges, which could be used for training shooting.
In 1974, Dardik received US patent No. 3855931 for a round cartridge, which contained three arrow-shaped striking elements at once. The cartridge was used in the Harrinton & Richardson SPIW prototype rifle. However, the military abandoned it due to the large weight of the three barrels.
"Colt" and "Dardik" M 1500. "Colt" is a little less, but in the "Dardik" there are not 7, but 15 rounds!
And, again, this was the decision of that year, based on the technologies and materials of that day.
Today, the issue of weight, as well as strength, is no longer so acute.
The fact is that the use of carbon fiber, which is used as a barrel braid, allows a significant reduction in its weight without sacrificing strength. Of course, a stainless steel liner is also present in such designs.
But the main load when fired is not metal, but fiberglass, which is widely used in the aerospace industry and has a specific strength 30 times higher than that of stainless steel, and the rigidity is up to seven times higher than that of steel.
As a result, it turns out that a weapon barrel made with the use of such space technology comes out as much as 64% lighter than an all-steel barrel!
And the benefit of such a weapon is that, with all other parameters, it has significantly better armor penetration rates when firing at bulletproof vests.
The fact is that when a bullet hits the armor plate of the vest, although it does not penetrate it, it breaks the crystal structure of its plate for a short fraction of a second at some distance from the point of impact. And if after this bullet next to this place another one hits, then ... It will surely pierce this plate. And there is nothing to say about the third.
So, if in one shot three bullets are directed at one point at once, then they will hit it next to each other and with some spread in time, as well as an associated difference in the technical performance of each cartridge.
The author demonstrates the transformation of his pistol into a carbine. On the right is a diagram of a pistol with a double magazine capacity
That is, such a design opened many ways, but at that time they did not engage in it, as well as a super-high-speed light machine gun with a rotating chamber.
Advertising of Dardik pistols
Well, Dardik himself did not manage to convince the market that his pistols and carbine should be bought.
They were too expensive, and the cartridges became especially expensive.
So, having released several dozen samples, his enterprise Dardick Corporation ceased to exist in 1962.
Now the weapon of Dardik has become the lot of collectors - lovers of various weapon curiosities!
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