Surprisingly common story, actually. Look up the guy who designed the Spitfire sometime. Something about a cancer diagnosis tends to bring out a desire to get shit done for some odd reason...
Rak also means crayfish in polish. We have a lot of weapons that are named after crustaceans, for example AHS Krab (Crab in english) tracked howitzer. So the name is less weird in that context.
@@command_unit7792 germany uses all kinds of animals. insects for mounted artillery (artillery on top of a vehicle instead of ones that need to be toed by a truck) such as the wasp big mammals for big tanks without turrets, like the rhino. big cats for tanks (panther, tiger, leopard) vehicles that have wheels are named after canines (wolf, fox)
Yeah, shot one a lot at one point. Still have all parts of my face in place. The slide is scary at first, although if you think about it, not any worse than a standard pistol, just keep your face at the proper length. Since it was a Makarov 9mm it was easy to control full-auto. I think the doctrine was for the user to eject from their tank/plane/whatever and spray it down in the general direction of the enemy. It is also easy to reload one-handed, if you are injured. Weird, but a neat design that addresses some "backup weapon" issues.
It is actually used in war. Vietnam had a bunch of PM-63s which might be supplied as military aid. During the China-Vietnam borderland war, PM-63s were captured by Chinese and later copied as Type 82 Submachine Gun.
I don't, because this gun is a total shit. Small and light, cool? No, with the powerful Makarov 9mm ammo. Accuracy with this gun exist only on paper. One of the few weapons in the world, that's more dangerous for a shooter, than the target.
It is still a common sight with Polish Postal Service valuables convoys, railway Protection Service (SOK) and with the police on a rare occasion. I'm a big fan of Your work, Ian. Keep it up, cheers :) greetings from Gdańsk, Poland
Seriously? O_O I remember getting my hands on a PM-63 at the Army workshops in the early 2000s (it was basically phased-out by then, I don't really know what that one was doing there anymore!), but I thought the Police & the other services went for PM-84 and its derivatives...
Policjanci z Rakami? Jacy niby ich aktualnie używają? A w armii też się jeszcze zdarza, ostanią fotkę widiziałem z 2016 z Ankondy - wartownik przy jakimś obiekcie dowodzenia.
@@BetonProdakszyn Nikt nie mówi, ze aktualnie, parę lat temu (2015, może 2016) widziałem dwóch niebieskich z takimi na obstawie jakiejś demonstracji w Gdańsku. Służba Więzienna też chyba jeszcze je trzyma. Jestem więcej niż pewien, że zalegają jeszcze po magazynach i są wyciągane jak zajdzie taka potrzeba ;)
I used that mofo in 2009(!) They assigned me one, I was a medic x) Gun was primary issued to drivers, medics etc, guys that don't need bulky AKMS. Cheers.
A friend of mine, who's unfortunately passed on, was a gunsmith with a number of class 3 firearms. Thompson SMG, Sten, M2A1 carbine, Browning Ma Deuce and a few others. Range day with that guy was great!
Hi Ian, Love your work. I'm retired Polish special forces lieutenant as well as a son of a special forces major. I have shoot the RAK on hundreds of occasions but my father was actually using it in Golan Heights mission. We called it a toothbreaker because of the slide and its a bit on the heavy side but it is a surprisingly good gun.
You could probably "jimmy" a GP-95 onto it if you had the know-how. The GP-95 is like the GP-25/30/34 except it was designed for a specific set of rifles, namely the 9A-91 (9x39mm subcompact rifle) and the A-91M (bullpup).
I own a PM63 it‘s an awesome design for its time periode. It‘s very controllable in fullauto and also single shots are easy to perform and even with the fact that it fires from a open bolt, it‘s very accurate
You could actually try it twice, having 2 feet - can do! I don't know any soldier that has ever said a good thing about it. Still a neat design and kinda cool ..as a collection piece I mean.
When in late 1980s or early 1990s (very ear;y, it was still in USSR) I saw in a pop-sci / technology magazine for youth a drawing of several SMGs (IIRC, others were Tompson, MP40, M3 etc), including PM63, this one definitely was the most unusual and eye catching.
Well your options are A) Join/Sign or B) Be killed and replaced by some else who will most likely pick choice A...., most people are going to pick choice B. But that's how the USSR rolled under Stalin's regime.
It's really cool finally see the pm 63 on here. My father served in Poland during the cold war and his stories are where I first learned about this gun.
@ForgottenWeapons "That went nowhere, they've built around 20 prototypes" and I'm pretty sure you will soon have like 5 of them in front of you at once soon.
My Dad used one of this in the Polish Army in the 80's, he was a driver for an armored vehicle (BRDM 2) and he said it pretty much sucked to shoot. But still I was really excited to see you make a video of this! Please more Guns from Poland! Like the Błyskawica !
Oficers are used to use pistols like TT-33, P-64, P-84 not PM-63. He was used by crews of tanks ( T-54/T-55 - 3xPM-63+AKS/AKMS [loader], T-72 - 2xPM-63 + AKMS) drivers of some wehicles like SKOT, TOPAS, BWP, BRDM, soldier opereting RPG-7 as secondary wepon, WSW(Military Police) and Special Police units.
I've tried the semi-auto variant and it's a great PDW. Very controllable in rapid fire, very accurate despite the terrible sights, pretty light for a carbine, not that much bigger than an M17 (for example). It's not without its faults, but I enjoyed it way much than its competition (eg the vz61 or the Beretta 93R).
MAC did a collab with Ian a few years ago in Las Vegas. They were at Littlefield Vegas and were able to film inside the armory. Ian chose this very weapon to shoot.
I've actually had the pleasure to shoot one of these, and while the slide didn't hit me in the face it did lightly tap my glasses on the first burst. I quickly adjusted my face position. Yes, watching that slide slam back towards your face is a bit unnerving
My friend beside me on range was not so lucky, his glasses was completely broken. But on the other hand, his eye was intact - then maybe he was lucky eventually.
Between the feed lip/ejector combo, the sear, the rate reducer, and the overall weirdness of the design, this has to be one of the best guns you've reviewed.
My grandfather was issued one while he was in the Polish-Soviet military, and they were told not to use the sights, and only use the gun from the hip, not just because the slide could hit him in the face, but the gun was actually designed for hip fire/spray and pray purposes, or as a speed draw type gun, unlike the AKMs that were issued, as they were more difficult to aim quickly in an unexpected “attack”.
Hi Ian, now that you are "talking Polish" maybe IS a good time to talk about the "Polish home army" weapons ... We would surely appreciate/LOVE a good special about the Blyskawica... Greetings from Málaga, Spain
There are a couple of them in Poland, but most are in museums, or in private hands of collectors. I've checked out one that is in the Police storage (Central Criminal Laboratory). Very hard thing to find.
This was my favorite SMG in Black Ops 1. I remember back when it first came out i googled it but found scant information on it online. Now here I am replaying BO1 and I find that Ian did a video on it three years ago
I'm in service and now we have PM-84 Glauberyt SMG's but i had occasion to fire this gun (my friend owns one) and it's one of the most comfortable smg's i had to deal with. Greetings from Poland and thx for this vid! ;)
Love your work Ian. Always so much to get to know. One thing to clarify on side. It felt weird when said Poland joined Soviet block. More likely it was joined or pushed. But history is what it is. Good job!
Fort Carson museum, had one in their weapons display, after all the years (I was 12 now 52) I get to see how this very interesting gun is shown to me how it works. AWESOME.
Zaysen during the polite torture montage, I remember the cool looking, sci-fi pistol. I though it was a machination of Hollywood, I was very surprised when I discovered in the website Guns in Movies that the pistol was real.
Ian, thank you for presenting polish home grown guns. I wonder when you will get to present the MSBS in its various configurations (regular/bulpup) Thanks anyway!
Yes, RAK has in Polish at least three meanings; "cancer", connstellation of Cancer and crawfish. It was made also as abbreviation from Ręczny Automat Komandosów - which literally means Hand Automatic (gun) (for) Commandos. ;) Piotr Wilniewczyc is exactly the same person, which made desing of famous wz. 35 ViS pistol - he is a "letter S" in the name of it. ;)
4:23 Ian I think its more so bc at this moment, your index finger are next to the muzzle, & such a short barrel would result in unburned powders along w small lead fouling, hot expanding gas, etc. to hit your hand similar to anything near the cylinder gap on a revolver. It doesnt do anything when its back but it shields when it is forward in the position where the round is going off
RAK- cancer, lobster or ręczny automat komandosow ( cant event translet or even interpratete but the best meaning is : hand-operated smg for commando/spe. units )
My favorite type of Forgotten Weapon episode: the gun is probably garbage, but has a fascinating development history, service history, mechanical design, and completely unique form-is-function looks.
There is more to the name than what you said. First of all, as far as I know, Rak is NOT OFFICIAL name/designation, this is PM-63, or PM wz. 63 PM literally stands for "Pistolet Maszynowy" (ang. machine pistol). Second Rak means crayfish in Polish (it also means cancer). Third I also know that RAK can be the abbreviation - RAK - Ręczny Automat Komandosa - Handheld Commando Automatic (Weapon). PM-63 is no longer in use (but I'm sure it can be found in army stocks), it is known that you can lose your fingers using it (dangerous for young conscripts).
Looks like a more complex scorpion. Even have the spring loaded reducer. Very cool gun, but I think is not a coincidence that the scorpion became more popular.
I wolud like to say that i work with a person that was in the Polish Army (10.Pułk Artylerii Mieszanej w Kędzierzynie-Koźlu) and was hurt by the PM63 Rak. His eye wasn't damaged, but he had a black eye ( His commander didnt warned him about the slide ). In his unit this weapon was distrusted and shot mainly as a pistol.
Rak has two meanings: 1 crawfish 2 cancer (either as a constellation or sickness) My uncle had one issued when he served as a tanker. He told me he couldn't hit nothing with that thing no matter how hard he tried.
I can imagine the conversation that took place prior to the development of this thing: Desinger's friend: You know, Poland's weird. Why did we put wings on our damn cavalry? i don't think we can do anything more bizarre than that! Designer:HOLD MY PIVO!
The point is that at that time Polish Army was looking for a specific personal gun for auxilary units, mostly drivers, cooks , tank crew and so on .Easy to handle, with pretty shooting power and constructors just replied to the demand :) The so called ,by narrator" spoon" was used to unlock the gun by knocking the spoon to any hard object :) by one hand in case of the other being useless :)
Found one of these in Baghdad end of 03'. The Polish Grom referred to it as the widow maker as reported loss of fingers in the front. I only did a limited testing due to lack of 9x18 and took a while to get a mag.
My father, who was polish army officer told me, that RAK goes from Ręczny Automat Komandosów, which can be translated as Handheld Commando Automatic Weapon. RAK's had bad habbit of shooting because of shock, so jumping from the truck, with gun facing ground could end with discharge.
Bajka z tym skakaniem z ciężarówki. O ile broń była odpowiednio zabezpieczona w kaburze. Jumping from truck and get shoot is a myth. This is impossible when weapon is on safe and corectly put in holster.
@@BetonProdakszyn As You said - IF weapon was on safe and IF was correctly put in holster. But sometimes it wasn't - especially when young conscripts were given that weapon. My father saw that kind of discharge on his own eyes. Soldier was jumping from the truck and boom. Fortunatelly no one was hurt.
There's so much about this that a little modernization and tweaking/rechambering could make into a relevant military PDW today. The machine gunner's best CQB friend.
Thank you for this great video. Here's my humble addendum to your translations of (along with "illness" and "constellation" which you've mentionned): the word "rak" also means crab/crawfish/lobster. I'm no zoologist to know precisely which, but at least I now understand how this animal's motion might have inspired the inventor. Take care. With much respect from Poland.
This weapon wasn't used by oficers. This weapon was used by: Tanks crew (T-54/T-55, PT-76, T-72), Armor Cariers drivers like SKOT, BRDM, TOPAS, BWP, and some other drivers that need compact weapon, soldiers using RPG-7 and sometimes by special force (like second weapon) or WSW(military police and MO/ZOMO(Police) Special Units. Oficers are used to use pistols like TT-33, P-64, P-84.
I have more than a bit of happy time with one of these. The slide jacking back and forth is not as disconcerting as you'd think. The mags are stupidly easy to load. (Hey, it's a thing, load a MP-38/40 mag without a loader, and you'll know). It's really stupidly handy. Looks goofy, but it really does work well. Even the silly looking "half-stock" works.
Id really like to see the spiritual succesor to the 63- the pm84 glauberyt, which is strictly superior. Nowdays it's valued so much the price is triple the price of the uzi.
@@oktayyildirim2911 And how it went? I shot original one, and it was pleasant thanks to mild cartridge i think. Though my friend from artillery who was issued it said it shoots "summer bullet" because as he said "if fucker is 50 meters from you and wears winter coat, it might not go through" 7.62x25 might fill power lackings, though it might not be easy to use anymore
That lever and those weights in the back slowing down the slide is really cool and a clever way of reducing cyclic rate. Strange thing, weird to think that its from the early 60s. Taking a look at it, I'd guess its an 80s or even 90s Warsaw block design. It looks to be about as old as those late soviet and early Russian federation sub-machine guns like the pp-2000, Bizon etc. Not often you see a vertical grip on a 60s design.
I have one. Compared to, for example, UZI, this machine gun is super light and comfortable. I have Uzi too, and for me it is simply too heavy and too big for 9mm. RAK is almost "elegant". Light, small, accurate.
You should also check out BRS-99 (also called Polish Uzi). It's pretty popular in Canada, its main advantage over Uzi is that it fires from closed bolt. Also its lighter and more compact than Uzi.
At least it has a shoulder stock, of sorts. It doesn't look particularly comfortable, and there's basically no cheek-weld, but that's a plus over the Jati-Matic.
And the ones we have in Poland are converted to semi-auto in such a way, that you can make them fully-automatic by putting in a little piece of something in the trigger and that's it. Very fun guns to shoot.
I really appreciate you taking the time to look at this interesting hybrid of a gun Ian. However, the correct pronunciation for the constructor's last name would be something like 'Veel-nyev-chits'. Thanks again!
Cold War drops a new gun, Forgotten Weapons slides into my recommendations.
It always happens to me haha
same
Same here
Same
Same and sometime a forgotten video on my page and the gun this channel review in that video go to cold war
This guy comes up every time a gun gets added to cold war
Honestly I love it. I learn something new about guns and a game I play.
Ong 😂
Same, not that I'm complaining though because I get to learn some real life information about the new Cold War and Warzone weapons
Pretty crazy... 😶
Bo1 gun
These dual wielded in a Nevada nuclear test town aren’t that bad
Ort u use them in bo1 on nuketown
@@dragonstormdipro1013 doesn't that take place in 1957-58? Lil' bit anachronistic.
i loved the "Tokyo and Rose" version
sweetkiller 96 thats the joke
sweetkiller 96 woosh
Keep on creating, while dying of cancer. Polish resolve will not be questioned! Respect.
@@majork7115. Not dark, just more close to the living on Earth.
Anyone else find themselves humming "40 to 1" by Sabaton?
@@AnimeSunglasses baptised in fire
Surprisingly common story, actually. Look up the guy who designed the Spitfire sometime. Something about a cancer diagnosis tends to bring out a desire to get shit done for some odd reason...
actually it means also crawfish which i believe is more accurate but i'm not sure if that's what the designer meant
Rak also means crayfish in polish. We have a lot of weapons that are named after crustaceans, for example AHS Krab
(Crab in english) tracked howitzer. So the name is less weird in that context.
Does that mean artropod names are common thing among West Slavic countries, because Czechs have the Škorpion :P
@@coolsenjoyer Russians mostly use lizerds and fish...Like Akula(shark) sub or Krakodil(Cracodile) helicopter
@@command_unit7792 Dont forget minerals and flowers.
@@command_unit7792
germany uses all kinds of animals.
insects for mounted artillery (artillery on top of a vehicle instead of ones that need to be toed by a truck) such as the wasp
big mammals for big tanks without turrets, like the rhino.
big cats for tanks (panther, tiger, leopard)
vehicles that have wheels are named after canines (wolf, fox)
@@command_unit7792 Also the Bizon.
It's the MP7 before the MP7. Also my BO1 SMG of choice
Sinister Cat extended magazine with this thing was awesome. I was the god of death with this gun
I used it with rapid fire and grip, idk why it worked and killed so fast
Nah spectre was where it’s at
Everyones saying they are here because of cold war lollll
MPL way better
I’ve actually shot one, very cool design
Do you have video of you shooting it?
I don't want to shoot it. After seeing Ian shoot it. No. Having a slide reciprocating inches from my face, not an attractive option.
Seems like the most effective way to use this firearm would be to grip it by the barrel and throw it at your opponent.
@@milkapeismilky5464 just wear a ballistic mask
Yeah, shot one a lot at one point. Still have all parts of my face in place. The slide is scary at first, although if you think about it, not any worse than a standard pistol, just keep your face at the proper length. Since it was a Makarov 9mm it was easy to control full-auto. I think the doctrine was for the user to eject from their tank/plane/whatever and spray it down in the general direction of the enemy. It is also easy to reload one-handed, if you are injured. Weird, but a neat design that addresses some "backup weapon" issues.
It is actually used in war. Vietnam had a bunch of PM-63s which might be supplied as military aid. During the China-Vietnam borderland war, PM-63s were captured by Chinese and later copied as Type 82 Submachine Gun.
I'm a simple Pole. I see Ian reviewing a polish gun - I like.
I don't, because this gun is a total shit. Small and light, cool? No, with the powerful Makarov 9mm ammo. Accuracy with this gun exist only on paper. One of the few weapons in the world, that's more dangerous for a shooter, than the target.
@@Marmur1987 I concur! :)
"I love this post." I mean pole. Is it a Pole, or a Post?
@@Psiberzerker It's a voice of a guy who was forced to use this shit as a service weapon.
@@Marmur1987 Polish military guys find it accurate but really awkward. It's only advantage was size. Remember it was designed in the 1960s
It is still a common sight with Polish Postal Service valuables convoys, railway Protection Service (SOK) and with the police on a rare occasion.
I'm a big fan of Your work, Ian. Keep it up, cheers :)
greetings from Gdańsk, Poland
Your postal guys are armed? Hope they dont go postal...
I'll see myself out
Seriously? O_O
I remember getting my hands on a PM-63 at the Army workshops in the early 2000s (it was basically phased-out by then, I don't really know what that one was doing there anymore!), but I thought the Police & the other services went for PM-84 and its derivatives...
Policjanci z Rakami? Jacy niby ich aktualnie używają?
A w armii też się jeszcze zdarza, ostanią fotkę widiziałem z 2016 z Ankondy - wartownik przy jakimś obiekcie dowodzenia.
@@tac6557 It's a stupid fad in Poland for every police office to have a separate "antiterrorism unit". Not even kidding.
@@BetonProdakszyn Nikt nie mówi, ze aktualnie, parę lat temu (2015, może 2016) widziałem dwóch niebieskich z takimi na obstawie jakiejś demonstracji w Gdańsku. Służba Więzienna też chyba jeszcze je trzyma. Jestem więcej niż pewien, że zalegają jeszcze po magazynach i są wyciągane jak zajdzie taka potrzeba ;)
I used that mofo in 2009(!)
They assigned me one, I was a medic x)
Gun was primary issued to drivers, medics etc, guys that don't need bulky AKMS.
Cheers.
Seriously, You still get this insteed of Glauberyt in 2009? Polish Land Forces, go figure...
@@lizardb8694
Glauberyt xD Nah, no way dude..
I was conscript, nothing important from army point of view ; )
Air Force, ground units.
Did you like the firearm? Was it worth the weight or do you think you would have been served by a regular pistol better?
I used it in 2010 on xbox360
I went to a shooting range in Budapest where I fired one of these amongst other guns like a glock, 357, 44, MP5, M4, AK and a Draganov! Was good fun!
I know right!?
A friend of mine, who's unfortunately passed on, was a gunsmith with a number of class 3 firearms.
Thompson SMG, Sten, M2A1 carbine, Browning Ma Deuce and a few others.
Range day with that guy was great!
Hi Ian,
Love your work.
I'm retired Polish special forces lieutenant as well as a son of a special forces major. I have shoot the RAK on hundreds of occasions but my father was actually using it in Golan Heights mission. We called it a toothbreaker because of the slide and its a bit on the heavy side but it is a surprisingly good gun.
What was doing at Golan heights?
@@Trashcansam123 UN mission
Now featured in Warzone! It's like the algorithm works sometimes!
Yessir.
but in cold war, its a closed bolt pistol..
its not yet, but you can find it in defense- mystery box mode in cold war zombies
Yeah wut? I did this every time a new weapon dropped
*n o f u c k o f f ! ! !*
Pair it with an M79 grenade launcher for the optimum pirate-killing combo.
NIce "Black Lagoon" reference.
Didn't think anyone outside of Poland would recognize these guns :p
Aye I See What You Did There, Black Lagoon Amirite?
I thought it looked familiar!
You could probably "jimmy" a GP-95 onto it if you had the know-how. The GP-95 is like the GP-25/30/34 except it was designed for a specific set of rifles, namely the 9A-91 (9x39mm subcompact rifle) and the A-91M (bullpup).
I own a PM63 it‘s an awesome design for its time periode. It‘s very controllable in fullauto and also single shots are easy to perform and even with the fact that it fires from a open bolt, it‘s very accurate
In that case, please check out history and video on BECHOWIEC SMG built in 2nd world war.
How did you get it?
@@Antibong Bought it in a gun store with a special gun permit here in Switzerland
I was on a Polish air base recently, and the gate guards were equipped with these. It was quite neat to see in person.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?! It had like, 2 succesors already.
@@piotrd.4850 budgets man. Same reason the majority of USAF SecFo carries the M9 instead of the M17/18
"In theory you can do it against your leg, but I wouldn't recommend that." I'm sure that has been tried more than once....
It was, I was told that many soldiers did it and couple of them shot themselves in the process.
You could actually try it twice, having 2 feet - can do!
I don't know any soldier that has ever said a good thing about it. Still a neat design and kinda cool ..as a collection piece I mean.
When in late 1980s or early 1990s (very ear;y, it was still in USSR) I saw in a pop-sci / technology magazine for youth a drawing of several SMGs (IIRC, others were Tompson, MP40, M3 etc), including PM63, this one definitely was the most unusual and eye catching.
.
My dad used this while working with tanks! Thanks Ian!
I loved using this gun in BO1
Jason Inkurai it was cool in campaign but I can't stand it in zombies
Always cool to see the gun in real life 8 years later. Always was pretty slick with that neat black colour.
@@Thunderous117 well in zombies it's a decent pack-a-punch weapon but danm RIP ammo
And now it's back in Cold War.
everytime cold war adds a gun i get these recommended
It's a fun gun to shoot, very controllable in a full auto. Some commercial shooting ranges in Poland have them.
Has anyone said 'Nice Rak' yet? if not, I'm claiming it.
Lol
Nice cancer mate
"Poland joined the Soviet block" - hahahahahahaha good one
it did
@@taurusauric2695 It didn't join willingly. It was conquered and forced into the Soviet bloc
ScalierLemon all nations brought into the Warsaw Pact voted themselves in
@@fakeaf4389 You mean after the Soviets conquered them and instated puppet governments?
Well your options are A) Join/Sign or B) Be killed and replaced by some else who will most likely pick choice A...., most people are going to pick choice B. But that's how the USSR rolled under Stalin's regime.
It's really cool finally see the pm 63 on here. My father served in Poland during the cold war and his stories are where I first learned about this gun.
Saw this gun in Rambo III. Awesome video. Thanks for the detailed run through!
@ForgottenWeapons "That went nowhere, they've built around 20 prototypes" and I'm pretty sure you will soon have like 5 of them in front of you at once soon.
My Dad used one of this in the Polish Army in the 80's, he was a driver for an armored vehicle (BRDM 2) and he said it pretty much sucked to shoot.
But still I was really excited to see you make a video of this!
Please more Guns from Poland! Like the Błyskawica !
The RAK is may favorite of all the firearms I've fired I found the deflector helped quite a lot such a neat little gun.
Rak is also means Crayfish in Polish.
It also means cancer
bacause inventor died by cancer
Kinda looks like a crayfish tbh
Yes it does but this isn't a crayfish I'd consume
@@OneHunnitNoCapStannitOnBidnisz No it doesn't lol
Everytime a cold war weapon gets added this youtuber shows up in my feed
Oficers are used to use pistols like TT-33, P-64, P-84 not PM-63.
He was used by crews of tanks ( T-54/T-55 - 3xPM-63+AKS/AKMS [loader], T-72 - 2xPM-63 + AKMS) drivers of some wehicles like SKOT, TOPAS, BWP, BRDM, soldier opereting RPG-7 as secondary wepon, WSW(Military Police) and Special Police units.
I've tried the semi-auto variant and it's a great PDW. Very controllable in rapid fire, very accurate despite the terrible sights, pretty light for a carbine, not that much bigger than an M17 (for example). It's not without its faults, but I enjoyed it way much than its competition (eg the vz61 or the Beretta 93R).
MAC did a collab with Ian a few years ago in Las Vegas. They were at Littlefield Vegas and were able to film inside the armory. Ian chose this very weapon to shoot.
I knew I remembered seeing Ian with one of these at some point!
I swear to god every time a new cold war weapon drops out there is a video from this guy reviewing it in real life
I've actually had the pleasure to shoot one of these, and while the slide didn't hit me in the face it did lightly tap my glasses on the first burst. I quickly adjusted my face position. Yes, watching that slide slam back towards your face is a bit unnerving
My friend beside me on range was not so lucky, his glasses was completely broken. But on the other hand, his eye was intact - then maybe he was lucky eventually.
Between the feed lip/ejector combo, the sear, the rate reducer, and the overall weirdness of the design, this has to be one of the best guns you've reviewed.
Okay. I found the real life inspiration for PDW in my sci-fi novel. . This gun is perfect to model sci-fi weapon on.
Thanks @Ian
Every time a new gun in cold war comes out, I get to see a video by YOU! I love it
I always loved this thing, it's just so unique and cool.
My grandfather was issued one while he was in the Polish-Soviet military, and they were told not to use the sights, and only use the gun from the hip, not just because the slide could hit him in the face, but the gun was actually designed for hip fire/spray and pray purposes, or as a speed draw type gun, unlike the AKMs that were issued, as they were more difficult to aim quickly in an unexpected “attack”.
Hi Ian, now that you are "talking Polish" maybe IS a good time to talk about the "Polish home army" weapons ... We would surely appreciate/LOVE a good special about the Blyskawica... Greetings from Málaga, Spain
Do you have a clue how rare Błyskawica is?
There are a couple of them in Poland, but most are in museums, or in private hands of collectors. I've checked out one that is in the Police storage (Central Criminal Laboratory). Very hard thing to find.
@@odinoczka
Enough to make an episode on one, as long as a museum has one
@@odinoczka well, there's video - article - on Bechowiec, so....
This was my favorite SMG in Black Ops 1. I remember back when it first came out i googled it but found scant information on it online. Now here I am replaying BO1 and I find that Ian did a video on it three years ago
One of my favorite firearms of all time!
I'm in service and now we have PM-84 Glauberyt SMG's but i had occasion to fire this gun (my friend owns one) and it's one of the most comfortable smg's i had to deal with. Greetings from Poland and thx for this vid! ;)
There's a pretty common joke, that Rak is world's only SMG, which comes with bayonet by default.
And you dont even have to stab aomeone with the bayonet, Just put the gun to their chest and pull the trigger
@@islaymassive1530 I mean he would be dead anyway but when you say you killed him with a bayonet attached on an SMG it's much cooler
Bullshit.
*Japanese Empire wants to know your location*
@@islaymassive1530 "full auto stabo"
Love your work Ian. Always so much to get to know. One thing to clarify on side. It felt weird when said Poland joined Soviet block. More likely it was joined or pushed. But history is what it is. Good job!
0:50 Rak Also means Crab
Fort Carson museum, had one in their weapons display, after all the years (I was 12 now 52) I get to see how this very interesting gun is shown to me how it works. AWESOME.
When I see this weapon, I think of the Soviet general in Rambo III shoving this into Col. Truatman’s lower jaw.
“I’ve tried to be civilized.”
Zaysen during the polite torture montage, I remember the cool looking, sci-fi pistol. I though it was a machination of Hollywood, I was very surprised when I discovered in the website Guns in Movies that the pistol was real.
AMP63 drops and this video pops up in my recommended
Dammit I'm awake at this hour again, at least this is a lot cooler than a hand guard
Dont call people the n word you racist. I see you in many comments
guitar guitar I've never done that :( I'm a proponent of civil discourse online not name calling
The cycle rate reduction methods I find interesting. This gun is a good example. Thanks for another great video.
Ian, thank you for presenting polish home grown guns. I wonder when you will get to present the MSBS in its various configurations (regular/bulpup)
Thanks anyway!
This is by far my favorite 'weird combloc' gun. Glad it finally got a video. I wish we could get these in proper full auto easier.
Yes, RAK has in Polish at least three meanings; "cancer", connstellation of Cancer and crawfish. It was made also as abbreviation from Ręczny Automat Komandosów - which literally means Hand Automatic (gun) (for) Commandos. ;) Piotr Wilniewczyc is exactly the same person, which made desing of famous wz. 35 ViS pistol - he is a "letter S" in the name of it. ;)
One of the coolest on screen SMG/PDW guns IMO, seen in Rambo 3, and Delta Force
"After Poland joined the Soviet bloc"...that's like saying India "joined" the British Empire...Annexation
:) xD
Brotato Chip Hawaii basically gave themselves to the U.S, they definitely did “join” the U.S
@@jerrell1169 after we had already overthrown their monarchy and made them a territory, they found statehood preferable.
Well not entirely, the BEC bought india then Britain dissolved the BEC there was hardly any fighting In india until the revolts in the late 1800s
@@TomO-lh9bx Yss, hawaii wanted to be a British colony, not a US one.
4:23 Ian I think its more so bc at this moment, your index finger are next to the muzzle, & such a short barrel would result in unburned powders along w small lead fouling, hot expanding gas, etc. to hit your hand similar to anything near the cylinder gap on a revolver. It doesnt do anything when its back but it shields when it is forward in the position where the round is going off
RAK- cancer, lobster or ręczny automat komandosow ( cant event translet or even interpratete but the best meaning is : hand-operated smg for commando/spe. units )
RAK- crawfish not lobster
More like "Personal full-auto firearm for spec-ops"
@@SamuraiAkechi Commando Hand Automatic Weapon.
lobster = homar, not rak my dude
That commandos' automatic is a backport, soldiers wondering why the hell it says RAK on their sidearm, made up that name.
My favorite type of Forgotten Weapon episode: the gun is probably garbage, but has a fascinating development history, service history, mechanical design, and completely unique form-is-function looks.
Its Friday. Must mean a shooting video tomorrow.
I hope so
Yeah, but it looks as though Ian has learned not to put the shooting vid on the end cap of the teardown vid...
@@ThetaReactor seems to be a Friday/Saturday bleesing GJ has bestowed upon us
There is more to the name than what you said. First of all, as far as I know, Rak is NOT OFFICIAL name/designation, this is PM-63, or PM wz. 63 PM literally stands for "Pistolet Maszynowy" (ang. machine pistol). Second Rak means crayfish in Polish (it also means cancer). Third I also know that RAK can be the abbreviation - RAK - Ręczny Automat Komandosa - Handheld Commando Automatic (Weapon). PM-63 is no longer in use (but I'm sure it can be found in army stocks), it is known that you can lose your fingers using it (dangerous for young conscripts).
There is also a legend that RAK stands for polish commando’s automatic pistol or dentist.
Folded in that thing looks like something Robocop would shoot and I am immediately in love with it.
Looks like a more complex scorpion. Even have the spring loaded reducer. Very cool gun, but I think is not a coincidence that the scorpion became more popular.
I wolud like to say that i work with a person that was in the Polish Army (10.Pułk Artylerii Mieszanej w Kędzierzynie-Koźlu) and was hurt by the PM63 Rak. His eye wasn't damaged, but he had a black eye ( His commander didnt warned him about the slide ). In his unit this weapon was distrusted and shot mainly as a pistol.
Rak has two meanings:
1 crawfish
2 cancer (either as a constellation or sickness)
My uncle had one issued when he served as a tanker. He told me he couldn't hit nothing with that thing no matter how hard he tried.
Yesterday I thought that it would be awesome if u did episode about PM63 RAK and boom here it is less than 24 hours LOL ur fast with delivery :D
I can imagine the conversation that took place prior to the development of this thing:
Desinger's friend: You know, Poland's weird. Why did we put wings on our damn cavalry? i don't think we can do anything more bizarre than that!
Designer:HOLD MY PIVO!
Excuse me, winged cavalry is fucking glorious fashion and I will engage in fistucuffs over it, good mister
Husaria don't use a wings in the battle. It's a myth.
one to remember.....en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_and_Hungarian_brothers_be
@@piotrgrzelak2613 Yes, I know, it was a fucking joke god damnit
I'd heard the wings were to make noise so their horses wouldn't hear cannons and such.
I got the video recommended before the Amp comes out in warzone
The point is that at that time Polish Army was looking for a specific personal gun for auxilary units, mostly drivers, cooks , tank crew and so on .Easy to handle, with pretty shooting power and constructors just replied to the demand :)
The so called ,by narrator" spoon" was used to unlock the gun by knocking the spoon to any hard object :) by one hand in case of the other being useless :)
Found one of these in Baghdad end of 03'. The Polish Grom referred to it as the widow maker as reported loss of fingers in the front. I only did a limited testing due to lack of 9x18 and took a while to get a mag.
My father, who was polish army officer told me, that RAK goes from Ręczny Automat Komandosów, which can be translated as Handheld Commando Automatic Weapon. RAK's had bad habbit of shooting because of shock, so jumping from the truck, with gun facing ground could end with discharge.
Jumping out of a truck with an open-bolt firing gun "cocked and ready" doesn't seem to be a good idea.
Bajka z tym skakaniem z ciężarówki. O ile broń była odpowiednio zabezpieczona w kaburze.
Jumping from truck and get shoot is a myth. This is impossible when weapon is on safe and corectly put in holster.
@@BetonProdakszyn As You said - IF weapon was on safe and IF was correctly put in holster. But sometimes it wasn't - especially when young conscripts were given that weapon. My father saw that kind of discharge on his own eyes. Soldier was jumping from the truck and boom. Fortunatelly no one was hurt.
Any weapon is dangerous for it user when usere don't remeber about safe roules...
There's so much about this that a little modernization and tweaking/rechambering could make into a relevant military PDW today. The machine gunner's best CQB friend.
Cold War: drops new weapon
TH-cam recommendations: here, have a 1-10 year old video about it
Ian, thank You very much for this one. Once more a smal bit of a firearms history of My Homeland.
In BOCW this is under the pistol section. Very fun to use against hordes of zombies.
Thank you for this great video.
Here's my humble addendum to your translations of (along with "illness" and "constellation" which you've mentionned): the word "rak" also means crab/crawfish/lobster. I'm no zoologist to know precisely which, but at least I now understand how this animal's motion might have inspired the inventor.
Take care. With much respect from Poland.
Good weapon for DATs and Officers. I got to shoot onw way back at the Nigemgan March.
This weapon wasn't used by oficers.
This weapon was used by: Tanks crew (T-54/T-55, PT-76, T-72), Armor Cariers drivers like SKOT, BRDM, TOPAS, BWP, and some other drivers that need compact weapon, soldiers using RPG-7 and sometimes by special force (like second weapon) or WSW(military police and MO/ZOMO(Police) Special Units.
Oficers are used to use pistols like TT-33, P-64, P-84.
I have more than a bit of happy time with one of these.
The slide jacking back and forth is not as disconcerting as you'd think.
The mags are stupidly easy to load. (Hey, it's a thing, load a MP-38/40 mag without a loader, and you'll know).
It's really stupidly handy. Looks goofy, but it really does work well. Even the silly looking "half-stock" works.
Got one of these part kits with chrome lined barrel been trying to get a welding jig for the frame. They did a serious hack job on the poor thing.
This needs to be in more films!
Id really like to see the spiritual succesor to the 63- the pm84 glauberyt, which is strictly superior. Nowdays it's valued so much the price is triple the price of the uzi.
Yeah, but the 84 doesn't have an uber-cool Tokarev version!
@@oktayyildirim2911 what is uber cool tokarev wersion of pm63? O.o
@@Olson323 The Chinese produced an unlicensed version in 7.62x25 called the Type 82
@@oktayyildirim2911 And how it went? I shot original one, and it was pleasant thanks to mild cartridge i think. Though my friend from artillery who was issued it said it shoots "summer bullet" because as he said "if fucker is 50 meters from you and wears winter coat, it might not go through"
7.62x25 might fill power lackings, though it might not be easy to use anymore
@@Olson323 I have no idea. I've never seen one, let alone shot one.
Love this gun, surprisingly easy to control in full auto, even for a 9x18 Makarov which usually doesn’t kick all that much
2:27 "After Poland *JOINED* the soviet block". Bit triggered, must say. But great job, as always
Poland 'joined' the soviet block, just like italian-american shopkeepers 'donate' money to the local mobster .....
"forced into" would be more accurate
“became part of” would be neutral
Denial much?
@@MrDaniyil Denial of what?
That lever and those weights in the back slowing down the slide is really cool and a clever way of reducing cyclic rate. Strange thing, weird to think that its from the early 60s. Taking a look at it, I'd guess its an 80s or even 90s Warsaw block design. It looks to be about as old as those late soviet and early Russian federation sub-machine guns like the pp-2000, Bizon etc. Not often you see a vertical grip on a 60s design.
I have one. Compared to, for example, UZI, this machine gun is super light and comfortable. I have Uzi too, and for me it is simply too heavy and too big for 9mm. RAK is almost "elegant". Light, small, accurate.
You should also check out BRS-99 (also called Polish Uzi). It's pretty popular in Canada, its main advantage over Uzi is that it fires from closed bolt. Also its lighter and more compact than Uzi.
what a great machine pistol
Looks like we are all being recommended this now that it’s coming to BOCW/warzone
YEAH
UR GOING TO *BRAZIL!!!!*
Fair Play on the design. Some clever thought went into this BaBy.
At least it has a shoulder stock, of sorts. It doesn't look particularly comfortable, and there's basically no cheek-weld, but that's a plus over the Jati-Matic.
And the ones we have in Poland are converted to semi-auto in such a way, that you can make them fully-automatic by putting in a little piece of something in the trigger and that's it. Very fun guns to shoot.
The feed lip/ejector is an interesting idea but it looks a bit flimsy. The slo-mo of the rate reducer working is awesome!
I really appreciate you taking the time to look at this interesting hybrid of a gun Ian. However, the correct pronunciation for the constructor's last name would be something like 'Veel-nyev-chits'. Thanks again!
Nice! As a big fan of this gun and owner of deko one, I'm very satisfied)
@@dragonstormdipro1013 deactivated and not able to shoot gun.
думаю возможно достать боевой, учитывая что этот ствол довольно часто всплывает в криминальных сводках.
@@iommi1337 Может и можно. Но мне турма сидеть неохота.
you impressed me, I did not expect legends from the Polish army, Very nice
You can be a bass ackwards SMG that slams Ian's range goggles and spits lead in his face and he's still polite enough to call you "Interesting"
It does retract in a very satisfying clean way.