In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves is at Sellier & Bellot ammunition factory to test out their 9×18 Makarov ammo on a true legend of a machine pistol, the APS, also known as “the Stechkin.” The Stechkin automatic pistol or APS (Avtomaticheskiy Pistolet Stechkina, Russian: [Read More…]
It’s 1968, the Cold War has gone hot and you’re a British soldier somewhere in northwest Germany. The 3rd Shock Army is coming straight at you and you’re trying to decide if the Soviet motor rifle regiment infantry attacking your defensive position is [Read More…]
Igor Stechkin, an ingenious firearms designer mostly known for designing the APS automatic pistol, had a number of other interesting firearms designed during his career which became forgotten or known to only a small group of firearms enthusiasts because these guns were [Read More…]
In the early ’50s, small arms of the Soviet Union have been deeply modernized. The Kalashnikov’s “avtomat” along with its new cartridge was adopted and it was replacing the submachine guns and rifles in the service. The Makarov pistol was also [Read More…]
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. One of these pistols is a subcompact handgun called [Read More…]
Army Inside have released an interesting video with the APS pistol and the PP90 and PP91 sub-machine guns. The video is well made and includes subtitles The Stechkin pistol APS is a 9×18 mm Makarov pistol adopted in 1951, at the same time as the Makarov PM pistol. [Read More…]
The Stechkin automatic pistol or APS (Avtomaticheskiy Pistolet Stechkina, Russian: Автоматический Пистолет Стечкина) is a Soviet selective fire machine pistol. It bears the name of its developer, Igor Stechkin. This video is in Japanese. [Read More…]
In a previous article on TFB, we compared a Mauser 712 Schnellfeuer to a Glock 17 with an auto sear, and along the way discussed how very limited the usefulness of the modern machine pistol is. Fully automatic pistol-sized weapons have been around for over a hundred [Read More…]
After reading our founder’s article, “What would you buy, if there were no restrictions whatsoever”, I’ve really thought a lot about one of his questions: Would Glock start designing fully automatic machine pistols? Would people start buying [Read More…]
The Stechkin APS received a mention in the Handgun Radio segment I collaborated on with Daniel Watters, and for good reason. It could be argued that the APS, though and obscure weapon in the West, is one of the very few truly successful machine pistol designs ever [Read More…]