Several days ago we published an article telling about a new Vepr rifle. The source of that article was the information published by Mikhail Degtyaryov of Kalashnikov Gun Magazine. Recently, he has also released a couple of images of an experimental Russian pistol that he came across during his MOLOT factory trip.

The pistol is designed by a gentleman named Pyotr Mokrushin (an employee of MOLOT). He started the development of the pistol about five years ago. It is a striker fired, aluminum framed pistol chambered in 9x19mm and fed from a double stack single feed magazines.

Images courtesy of “Kalashnikov” Gun Magazine

At first glance, it may look to be an ordinary pistol. However, what makes it unique is the way its mechanism works. It uses a blow forward action. The barrel and slide are attached to each other and form an assembly. The breech block is permanently attached to the frame. Upon firing, the barrel/slide assembly starts to move forward driven by the force of the bullet engaging the riflings and the forward dragging force of the bullet traveling down the bore. By moving forward, barrel/slide assembly clears the cartridge case held by the extractor on the breech face and allows it to be ejected through the side ejection port. After that, the reciprocating parts start to move backward driven by the recoil spring. Then feeding and chambering happens and the gun gets ready for the next shot.

As you might have guessed from the description of the action, in order to charge the pistol, one needs to grab and push the slide forward and let it go back – the opposite motion of the slide racking seen in the majority of modern pistols.

The dust cover portion of the prototype aluminum frame started to bend during test firing, that’s why they welded the triangular reinforcement piece in front of the trigger guard. Should the pistol be further refined, that reinforcement bar wouldn’t be there. Note also the “Glock-style” trigger safety mechanism.

For unknown reasons, the designer halted the further development of this handgun.

This type of action is nothing new. It has been previously seen in handguns like Hino Komuro Model 1908, Schwarzlose M1908 etc. Nevertheless, it is extremely interesting to see arms designers attempting to employ this rather unusual mechanism in a modern firearm. It would be great to see more designers experimenting with various uncommon actions.

Many thanks to Mikhail Degtyaryov for providing the information.