Ukrainian Schmeisser Makarov Less-Lethal Pistol!?

I agree … the title of this article sounds like trolling or some sort of clickbaiting heresy. The expressions like Ukrainian Schmeisser and Smeisser Makarov alone sound like they are either a typo or an April Fools’ Day joke. However, believe it or not, this less-lethal Makarov replica is made by a Ukrainian company called Schmeisser!

Let’s first see why is the company called Schmeisser? It sounds like someone just decided to take the name of the famous German arms designer and get benefits from it. It doesn’t seem right from the ethical standpoint. However, the company has an explanation. According to them, their company is a Ukrainian-German joint venture co-founded by German ERMA Werke where Hugo Schmeisser has been working in the early ’40s. Whether this explanation justifies the use of the legendary arms designer’s name is quite an arguable matter which we can discuss in the comments section.

This pistol is chambered in 9mm P.A. caliber. The model designation of this gun is PMSh-1 (ПМШ-1 (Пистолет Макарова Шмайсер-1 – Pistolet Makarova Schmeisser – 1)) which stands for Makarov Schmeisser Pistol – 1. As far as the overall appearance and dimensions go, this handgun is identical to the Makarov pistol. It is fed from 8 round magazines and has several design changes which according to the company improve the pistol’s performance compared to other Makarov-based less-lethal guns.

As you can see, the point of writing this article was not as much the firearm itself, but the story of its weird name – Schmeisser Makarov made in Ukraine.

Images from www.schmeisser.com.ua, www.travmatik.com, www.ohrana.ru