#9x19mm

A Russian company called ASIKA (АСИКА) makes a Kel-Tec SUB-2000 copy called ASK-17-9. I am not sure whether it is a direct reverse-engineered copy or not. Nevertheless, what we can tell from the images is that at least most of the key features are copied.

TACCOM has introduced a new muzzle brake/muzzle rise compensator for SIG MPX Carbines. It is designed to replace the stock birdcage style muzzle device. Once installed, pinned and welded, the TACCOM muzzle brake will retain the 16″ barrel length of the SIG MPX Carbine to still qualify it as a rifle (not converting it into an SBR).

Many successful firearm designs are copied and cloned by companies all over the world. In the case of the Russian company called Techcrim, not only they make a 9x19mm clone of a SIG P226, but also versions chambered in 10x28mm less-lethal caliber.

It is easy to forget, what with all the hubbub about SIG’s selection for M17, Glock’s protest, and SIG’s subsequent recall, that the M17 program was intended to procure a “total system package”, not just a handgun. This meant, besides the handgun, ammunition, magazines, spares, accessories, holsters, and eventually optics and suppressors as well. While much ink has been spilt, and many glam photos taken of the XM17 and M17 MHS handguns themselves, we have not yet seen or heard very much about the ammunition it is intended to fire. From second-place finisher Glock, we have already seen the Federal-engineered Enhanced Barrier Ammunition. Partnered with SIG for the competition was ammunition heavyweight Winchester/Olin, and so it was reasonable to expect their entry to be something based on Winchester’s existing product line. At the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, that expectation was confirmed:

During the Arms & Hunting 2017, Kalashnikov Concern has shown several interesting handguns. The Kalashnikov officials also explained some of the key features and design solutions of the earlier introduced pistols.

TFB is attending the Arms & Hunting 2017 exhibition held in Moscow, Russia. We’ll be publishing the most interesting news seen during that event. In this article, we’ll take a look at Kalashnikov Concern’s rifle and PCC news and talk about some details of earlier released firearms.

A German gun magazine called DWJ reports that they had a chance to take a look at a new Glock 46 designed for German police trials. It is a 9x19mm Glock which looks to be a Gen5-based and compact size pistol. It gets even more interesting when you learn that the Glock 46 has a different locking mechanism. It still uses a short recoiling barrel, however, instead of the traditional Browning tilting barrel lockup seen in all Glock pistols, the Glock 46 uses a rotating barrel!

Victor Aster is a Belarusian firearms concept designer. He shared with TFB one of his CAD designs of a personal defense weapon (PDW) called Humble-Bee. The idea is to have a compact firearm for law enforcement and military needs which would be very simple, lightweight and easy to use.

Kalashnikov Media , a dedicated media website of Kalashnikov Concern, has released a video where the designer of PL-15 and PL-15K pistols, Dmitri Lebedev, talks about the compact version of his pistol. Here is that video (with English subtitles).

Kalashnikov Concern recently released a new English language video regarding their PL-15K compact pistol, MP-444 pistol, AM-17 and AMB-17 compact assault rifles, and SVCh semiautomatic sniper rifle. By way of a walkthrough from Kalashnikov Concern technical consultant Vladimir Onokoy, the video offers English speakers an important look at the technical features of the new weapons, which were until now something of a mystery to those on this side of the language barrier. The video is embedded below, followed by a written summary:

In this fourteenth installment of Personal Defense Weapon Calibers, we’ll be looking at a highly minimalist incarnation of the PDW/SMG round: The 7.65x20mm French Longue. The story of the French Longue begins with the US entry to World War I and the brilliant inventors John D. Pedersen and John Moses Browning. Faced with the stalemate of trench warfare, these designers were tasked with finding a solution in the form of handheld autoloading weapons. Both came up with semiautomatic rifles firing small, low recoil .30 caliber rounds. Pedersen’s “Device” converted a standard M1903 rifle into a rapid fire semiautomatic, but it was Browning’s autoloading rifle and its .30-18 round (very similar to the .30 Pedersen used with the “Device”) which caught the eye of the French Ordnance officials. The .30-18 Browning, as it is called, was evidently cloned to become the 7.65x20mm Longue used with the interwar French Mle. 1935 pistols and MAS-38 submachine gun.

A YouTube channel called 704 TACTICAL has published a video where the host of the channel makes a DIY body armor plate out of simple and cheap items found in Dollar Tree store. He applied glue into a cookie pan, glued some decorative stones to the pan, put a book as a backing layer and wrapped everything together with duct tape. The result is surprising and impressive. The video is right below:

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.

TOR (means fireball in one of the local languages) is a Venezuelan firearm designed by a gentleman named Fernan Altuve Febres. It was designed in 1995 and initially chambered in 5.6x36mm (a cartridge unknown to me). It was tested by Venezuelan paratroopers, tank and submarine crew members. Later on, there was a need to arm the LEOs with a compact and lightweight firearm that could offer sufficient stopping power and be something intermediate between a traditional SMG in 9mm and an assault rifle. That’s what made the designer to make a version of this firearm chambered in .357 Magnum.

Firearm designers in Donetsk have developed a new handgun called Oplot. It is a hammer fired, short barrel recoiling, tilting barrel locking semi-auto pistol. It is pretty reminiscent of Tokarev pistol and looks like its modernized version.