#Stg44

I met up with the guys at Rifle Dynamics to help film some of their guns in slow motion. They wanted some engineering studies done to better understand their products and needed a slow-motion camera. One of the guns they wanted to look at more closely was their Sturmgewehr 44. In this SlowMo STG44 study we can see gun has a few problems.

What would it be like to try and attempt to shoot historical small arms in some of the ways that they were actually used in the past? We try and do that in this episode with German small arms in a small team setting, assaulting an objective across open terrain using a base of fire complimented by fire and maneuver. We were able to get access to fully automatic machine guns such as the MG42 and MG34, in addition to the MP40 submachine gun and landmark STG44 rifle. Of course we also had on hand Mauser K98s that complimented the historical firepower. There was a G43 that was on hand but the rifle suffered some malfunctions that didn’t allow us to use it in the live fire.

It’s a blunder so bad it makes you look twice: On the new sculpture dedicated to Russia’s most famous small arms designer, there is an unintentional homage to a weapon of Russia’s hated adversaries during the Great Patriotic War. Behind the tasteful statue unveiled last Tuesday of Mikhail “Mikhtim” Kalashnikov cradling his invention like a fine instrument, there lies a sculpture panel dedicated to his inventions themselves – and, by accident, the Nazi Sturmgewehr of World War II. While the majority of the panel is filled with models of Kalashnikov’s inventions and derivatives, nestled in the backdrop of the representation of the AKS-74U compact assault rifle is a slab depicting an exploded view of the MKb42(H),, a World War II German assault rifle which helped serve as the inspiration for the program Kalashnikov’s rifle was designed to satisfy.

Green lemon posted a few interesting pictures on Twitter.

Quick: What’s the definition of “assault rifle”? I’ll give you a moment to think about it.

A reader of TFB who resides in rebel held Syria recently emailed us saying …

Many would consider this next round to be the first intermediate cartridge ever, and while that isn’t really true, it is one of the most influential rounds of all time, and perhaps the most influential intermediate round ever developed. I am talking of course about the Nazi-era Kurzpatrone 43 Spitzgeschoß mit Eisenkern, or as it is more commonly called, the 7.92×33 Kurz. This round became the model – in one fashion or another – for numerous intermediate rounds developed all around the globe after World War II, including the promising .280 British, and ubiquitous 7.62x39mm Soviet, as well as several others we’ll discuss in later installments.

The German Sturmgewehr is a rifle that needs no introduction. It is a rifle with a historical mystique that results in them being highly coveted among collectors, but they are fine weapons in their own right. In this video we do some shooting with an old MP43.

The German Sturmgewehr is one of the most coveted and influential firearms of all time. Advanced collectors seek them out to round out their shrines, but getting behind one is a whole different kind of experience. The low recoil, controllability, and historical significance makes shooting a sturm a very pleasant experience.

These pictures and video were published on War History Online in two separate articles over the course of the past six months. The images and video are absolutely astounding. It seems that a duo of treasure hunters or artifact seekers, using commercial metal detectors have an excellent grasp of the battles on the World War Two Eastern front, and use that knowledge to discover all kinds of stuff still laying around. Some of it is still visible at ground level, while most of it is just barely covered with soil. You see one of them scrapping out an STG44, barely a couple inches below the surface, and in another clip a PPSH41 and an MG34 spare barrel. They certainly have the history knowledge down, but I hope they know a thing or two about high explosives, as they very foolishly/bravely are yanking out mortar ends and other ordnance out of the ground.

STG 44 / MP43/44 rifles have been showing up all over the world in the last couple of years. An eagle-eyed reader spotted one at Ukraine’s newest and most popular tourist attraction, the private palace of their former President. The above image is a still from a VICE video (See 2:10. Embedded below) of the Presidents sprawling complex. Also take a look at his ammunition collection at 3:29.

The owner was talking to me about this StG 44 (also known as the MP44) that took a hit with a British .303 round, which is what you see below.

Of all the things I never thought I would write in the same sentence, “Remote Control” and “Sturmgewehr 44” must be at the top of the list. The above photo shows a Syrian rebel controlling a Sturmgewehr 44 with a wired joystick. A cheap CMOS video camera with a Component video output is mounted behind the scope (at the correct distance to account for eye relief) and is wired into a LCD screen.

Prexis are manufacturing a conversion kit to convert a H&K HK-33 rifle into a StG 44-esque clone, chambered in the original 8mm “Kurz” (7.92x33mm) cartridge.

Sport-Systeme Dittrich, who manufacturer semi-automatic reproductions of German WWII weapons, have produced three alternative history versions of the famous Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44) assault rifle. These rifles explore how the StG44 may have developed if Germany had won the war. Legendary photographer and editor-in-chief of Bron i Amunicja Remigiusz Wilk (REMOV) took these photos at IWA 2009, an outdoor expo in held in Germany, and emailed them to me.