May 25, 2005

Interesting 9mm Handgun

Ah, those Russians, they’re always looking to make a handgun that can function in an assault rifle role. They have the Stechkin, a select-fire handgun that they issued to their pilots during their problems in Afghanistan. They were hoping that any downed airman would be able to defend themselves from AK-47 armed Mujahadin by spraying bullets from their sidearms. I heard that those Stechkins were highly prized as trophies by the Afghanis because it proved that the owner had taken part in downing a helicopter.

I came across this web page, which discusses a Russian autoloading pistol that was designed to defeat body armor up to a range of 100 meters. Below is a pic of the handgun.

Gyurza.jpg

That looks all nice and slick, doesn’t it? Below is a more realistic pic from this website.

sr1-r.jpg

Now THAT looks like a Russian handgun! Functional, sure, but it sure could use some prettying up.

Notice the safety devices on that thing. Looks like it’s got a trigger safety, like a Glock, but it also has some sort of bizarre grip safety. Really looks like it would catch the hand if you need to make an emergency draw.

The websites that talk about the handgun say that some security forces are glad to have them, since Russian organized crime gangs have armored up. I’m sure that there are some limited situations where a gun like this would be useful, but I think I’ll stick to one of my rifles or my shotgun if I have to go up against some organized crime types.

Posted by James Rummel at May 25, 2005 02:58 PM
Comments

From the two linked sites, the ammo sounds like it's in the .357 Sig class. It's even bottlenecked.

A worthy way to settle the 9mm vs .45 argument?

Posted by: Fûz at May 30, 2005 07:45 PM

If you really want to defeat body armor with a handgun, seems to me the S&W .460 at 2300 fps might do the job pretty well...

Posted by: Joe at June 10, 2005 08:15 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?