#Stg-44

If you’ve spent any time at all in military history circles, you will have probably witnessed or been a participant in an argument about what, exactly, an “assault rifle” is, or whether a particular weapon qualifies as one. I, personally, have enjoyed this totally unproductive and thoroughly wasteful argument in one form or another more times than I could possibly keep track of. Although, maybe that says more about my memory than anything else…

In the early summer of this year,  a car-full of gun nerds set out to capture the rare Pedersen rifle on camera for the first time. The passenger with the van Dyke mustache and ponytail had just mentioned how if he could own any machine gun, it would be an StG.44, the German assault rifle of the second World War. Upon this, the driver, a tall, blonde Texan in cowboy boots, rebounded that one of the other passengers was the only person he’s ever met who wasn’t impressed with the German ur-sturmgewehr, which caused a great deal of whiplash to the others as their heads spun around to look in surprise and incredulity at the overweight one with the unkempt beard and brown mop of hair.

In November of last year, we blogged about an early Soviet encounter with the MKb.42(H), the open bolt machine carbine that would become the famous closed bolt MP/StG.44 assault rifle. Ensign Expendable, author of the Soviet Gun Archives blog that provided the material for the previous article, has posted another, probably even earlier source on the Soviet reaction to the weapon:

The first prototype of what was then the FN Universal Carbine, but that would become the FN FAL (Light Automatic Rifle), was not chambered for the familiar 7.62×51 NATO, nor its competitor round the .280 British, but in the German 7.92x33mm Kurzpatrone round developed in 1942 for the MKb. 42(H) (the predecessor of the famous Sturmgewehr):

The MP-44, also known as the “Sturmgewehr”, was  a very influential weapon to post-war thinking. Even the Americans – who at the time rejected the “assault rifle” concept as we now know it – took notice and immediately began development in March of 1944 of a shorter round for infantry weapons, which later became both the .308 Winchester and 7.62 NATO rounds.

What rifle influenced Kalashnikov’s famous carbine design more, the Garand M1, or the Haenel MP 43? This question was broached by blogger Jeff of TwistRate in a video posted to the Full30 gun video hosting website recently. Readers can follow the link to watch that video before reading my discussion of this question below.

The still below captures the use of a weapon that some of our readers will immediately recognize, but that might be new to others:

The Sturmgewehr is a rifle that will never lose it’s place in history; it is one of the single most influential weapons of the 20th Century. It is not the first of its kind, however, and we at TFB have previously taken a look at some of the rifle’s predecessors that it has since overshadowed. Larry Vickers has come at it from the other end; he and his signature StG-44 have been the subject of three shooting videos so far, each one well worth watching:

The City of Los Angeles recently held a gun buy back where over 800 firearms were collected in exchange for grocery gift cards or pre-paid Visa cards. So what’s so newsworthy about that. Oh just that a Sturmgewehr 44 was turned in for a gift card. Yes, a $30,000+ piece of history was exchanged for a gift card. This isn’t even the first time an StG-44 was turned into a gun buy back, it happened in Hartford, Connecticut last year as well. At least those police officers were kind enough to tell the owner the real value of the WWII rifle they had in their possession and let them sell it instead. Hopefully the StG-44 in LA was donated to a museum or something, I doubt it however. I wonder how many others are out there sitting in someones attic somewhere.

It has been a long time coming, but the GSG STG-44 .22 LR is finally shipping.

Next year (2012) American Tactical Imports will be selling a .22 rifle patterned after the Sturmgewehr 44. The gun on display was just a prototype but it felt and looked great. The gun will be manufactured by GSG (who make the MP5 .22 clones) and imported into the USA by ATI.

I am sure of you are familiar with, and have lusted after,the StG 44 clones built by the German firm Sport-Systeme Dittrich. I am very pleased to see that PTR 91 Inc., known for their H&K rifles built from parts kits, will be importing a limited quantity of the StG 44′s. The imports have been given the designation PTR 44.