Another Peoples puppy to admire VG 1-5

Redhand · 02-22-2010, 06:21 PM

Here is another of those Peoples rifles to veiw. Any comments are welcome.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-22-2010, 08:37 PM

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I have always wanted one of these. But as you know they are very rare so I have had to content myself with looking a few in museums and photos like these.

Thanks for showing them.

Cheers, Ade.

**ian** · 02-22-2010, 08:50 PM

?????
sorry guys but this looks like a 1938 spanish smg one of those that didnt go inton full production
its sertanly not what you think it is imho
cheers ian

**bikerboyzx6r** · 02-22-2010, 09:00 PM

by ian

?????
sorry guys but this looks like a 1938 spanish smg one of those that didnt go inton full production
its sertanly not what you think it is imho
cheers ian

Ian, I think your mistaken, as far as I can see this is a VG1-5!

**ian** · 02-22-2010, 09:03 PM

yep sorry i didnt take inof time befor comenting i do apologise with out reservation
(dumb idiot) please take no notice
cheers my friend ian

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-22-2010, 09:05 PM

Hi Ian, no honestly, it is a VG1-5. The top cover on the reciever is very distintive. This one just lacks the mag, same mag as the MP44.

Do a Google search

Cheers, Ade.

PS: I forgot: I did get close up to one of these once. It was on the range at Pirbright and they had borrowed it from Warminster Inf school. But I never got to play with it. They were frightened of putting too many rounds down it and it was raining hard, so it was kept under wraps most of the day.

**ian** · 02-22-2010, 09:10 PM

ade mate this is a case of a little knowlage is a dangerouse thing
i know firearms very well
but some times i think i know more than i do
and i need to humble my self nown again
thank goodness for men like you and other good guys on this forum that can put me back in my place

cheers a
ian
i raely do meen that thank you guys

**davejb** · 02-23-2010, 04:59 PM

Ade can you enlighten me with some details of this weapon and please dont say its rare as one of these was handed in on a police armatice many yrs ago and everyone thought it was a made up gun used by someone to commit crime!!!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-23-2010, 09:21 PM

Hi Dave, oh no.......

Live in the USA this would command a hefty price tag. You would be talking in the region of $20,000 I guess? I hope it was not destroyed as that would have be criminal in itself. A museum should have been offered it.

These were a really interesting gun. They were designed by Barnitzke of Suhl and produced at Gustloff-Werke in 1945. It was a locally ordered weapon done outside of normal contract channels on the orders of the Gauleiter of Thuringen, Fritz Sauckel. (You will no doubt have heard of him. Hung at Nuremberg.) Anyway, as his district lay in the path of the advancing Red Army he wished to arm the local Volksturm with enough decent weapons to meet their needs. This was all highly irregular. I believe most lack WaA marks. Note the markings on the stock. The "Th" will stand for Thuringen.

As I mentioned before the gun used the MP44 mag and fired the same 7.92mm Kurz round as the MP44. Even though the rifle was crudely made, it worked via a novel system of retarded blowback. Gas was bled from the barrel into an annual gap between the barrel and it's outer casing. This opposed the breech stroke until the pressure in the chamber dropped to a safe level allowing the bolt to open.

Cheers, Ade.