Interesting machine -pistol

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Another of my recent purchases... a Polish PM-63 'Rak' machine pistol. The pistol was designed by the famed Polish weapon designer Piotr Wilniewczyc, although he did not live to see his creation enter service - having passed away in 1960 after a battle with cancer. By 1964, production began with around 20 prototypes being made, and then in 1967 the gun went into full production. It was only made for 10 years, and around 80,000 weapons were produced in total.





Unlike the Czech-made Skorpion, which operated from a closed bolt, the Rak operated on the open bolt as in the larger SMG's. The slide was pulled back as with most semi-auto pistols, but locked in place to the rear. Upon squeezing the trigger the slide flew forward, stripped a round from the magazine, fed it into the breech and fired it. The protrusion to the front of the slide is a muzzle jump compensator which deflected the hot gasses upwards as they left the barrel and helped keep the tendency of the muzzle of the gun to climb upwards, under control. The next two pictures show the gun cocked and also in the fired position, note how the barrel fills the compensator when cocked.





There was no selector switch for single and full auto, first pressure on the trigger gave single shot... and all the way back gave a rate of fire of between 600 and 650 rpm. Calibre is 9mm/18 Makarov, the pistol being supplied with two magazines. The first magazine has a capacity of 15 rounds and is used when the weapon is holstered, and the second magazine has a 25 round capacity.





My own example is from the early part of the production run and is dated 1968. It is (almost) fully matching, but rather annoyingly the magazine is not! I have pictured it here alongside a Yugoslavian copy of the Skorpion machine-pistol in my collection for size comparisons...





The gun was also used by the East German authorities, in particular by the 'Bereitschaft Volkspolizei' and 'Wach-Rgt. Felix Dzierzynski'... as well as other MDI units. A few more pictures of the gun in its correct East German holster. Click on images to enlarge. Click on the link to see the video of this versatile machine-pistol.

YouTube


Cheers,
Steve

[Composite]

Nicely presented for us....thank you for making the effort.....

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Nicely presented for us....thank you for making the effort.....

I try my best to keep the members interested Ad**an! An uphill battle when its outside TR militaria though!

Cheers,
Steve

[AZPhil]

That is one I've only seen in books!

Great addition Steve. That holster is a major bonus.
I Love the Skorpion

Thanks for showing.

Semper Fi
Phil

[MAP]

Now that is something you don't see everyday. An interesting piece for sure. Very nice!

[Anderson]

interesting post Steve.

[Martin Bull]

I hadn't even seen this in the books ! Many thanks for sharing with us - very interesting indeed.....

[christek]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! I too, had never seen one! Cheers.

[Ullergaard]

Love it Steve!
Thank you for a great story to go along this rare piece.
Congrats my friend.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

My six year-old grandson saw it a few days ago, and he was well impressed when I told him it was a 'Transformers' gun!