Yugoslavia's PPSh Lookalike: The M49/57
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Shortly after the end of World War Two, Yugoslavia adopted a submachine gun that looked very much like the Soviet PPSh-41, and was obviously inspired by it. However, the manufacturing methods were completely different, with the Yugoslav gun being of all milled construction and with internal parts far more similar to the Beretta 38 family of SMGs than to the PPSh. In fact, the original Yugoslav M49 used a captive recoil spring like the Beretta 38, which was simplified in the M49/57 variation just as is was simplified by Beretta during WW2.
The controls are similar to the PPSh, particularly the fire selector lever and the magazine release, which are basically identical in both guns. The Yugo uses a push-button safety in place of the PPSh's bolt-mounted safety, and the disassembly procedure is entirely different because of the different construction technique.
The M49 and M49/57 were offered for export sale in both 7.62mm Tokarev and 9mm Parabellum, but I was not able to find evidence of any substantial sales. The gun was ultimately replaced in Yugoslav service by the M56 submachine gun - a gun with an interesting similarity to the German MP40.
Thanks to Marstar for letting me examine their M49/57!
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"The PPSh is such a simply-designed gun, I bet not even the Swiss could over-engineer a copy of it!"
Yugoslavia: "Hold my rakia."
PPD engineer: My gun is quite manageable to fire and easy to mill, it's such a great submachine gun, the Union will be quite pleased with it!
PPSH engineer: Let me just make that more cost effective, this is truly the finest stamped submachine gun of all time!
PPS-43 engineer: *_uncontrollable laughter._*
+7.62 x39mm 1)Degtyarev
2)Shpagin
3) Sudaev (Actually there is possibility that Soviet would adobted AS-44 as automatic carabine ie:assault rifle if Sudaev not died from disease.
Yeah Sudayev died too young... So unfortunate.
@Idiot Idiot
if he was still around I would gladly shake Sudayev's hand, that guy made a good Submachine gun.
Rakija*
I always love how simple most sub machine guns are.
9mm largo is anything but beefy just because the case is longer doesn't mean it's beefy since you actually have to use the extra space in the cartridge wich is something that no nation that ever used 9mm largo did .
The 43M is chambered for 9x25, not 9x23.
Forgotten Weapons And here I sit, wanting a world we have a 9x25 Dillion submachine gun.
Could-have-been-caliber depression eh?
I would sell my legs to science to see somebody adopt a newly-made Modernized PPS.
Love to see Yugoslavian guns keep up the good work and stay awesome greetings from former Yugoslavia sLOVEnia
I used to know one croatian girl about ten years ago, who shared with me some nice slovenian rock bands, which I listening from time to time nowadays.
Hans KC which bands? you should listen to Yugoslavian music bands Yugo rock is special and very good
Naio Ssaion, Big Foot Mama, Lublanski psi, Siddharta, Adijo Kultura (I like them the most, somehow reminds me good old Сектор Газа). In case of (post-) Yugo bands I like Disciplin A Kitschme and Eyesburn. Occasionally came across Haustor on youtube.
The Yugoslavs had an interesting habit of going their own way with this stuff. For instance, take the PAP M59/66--it's a copy of the SKS, and uses the same Soviet cartridge, but the grenade launcher on it is for NATO rifle grenades. (I think their AKM-alike had the same thing going on.)
Yugo SKS's are probably my favorite of all of those. the BM-59 had a similar grenade sight system which I find neat.
Actually the reason the bolt is similar to the Beretta is because Titos partisan army (Commie Yugoslavs) fought against the italian. Since they were partisans and not an army they just took the weapons they had accses to mostly from the enemies wich they killed (Italians and Germans) so they took some lessons from their enemies weapons (Beretta and Mauser)
they had alot of experience with the mauser since the start of the century
M56 : mp40 with tokarev ammo
M49 : beretta 38 with tokarev ammo
:v
First the Serbian weapons book and now this! Gun Jesus is showing a lot of love for his South Slavic desciples this week!
Spider Actually born on the 2nd of September, a day when the last of Nazi Germany's allies surrendered. Sadly, followers of their regimes evidently still live on...
Spider How can you not know that on the 2nd of September the last of the German allies surrendered - IT WAS JAPAN! That was the end of WW2 and you call my knowledge of history into question. As for the rest I'm not even going to try reasoning with the chauvinistic internet trolls, I just wanted to show how little you know about history
There were a lot of Beretta submachine guns captured/surrendered during WW2 in Yugoslavia. Inspiration for the design of the receiver definitely comes from that. Also ZK 383 was a prized possession among partisans and chetniks (captured from Bulgarians and some SS/Police forces) and that may be the inspiration for the removable barrel.
Ian's video on the ZK-383 th-cam.com/video/MlFdhAK5c7Q/w-d-xo.html
Looks like a quality manufactured piece. Look forward to functionality at the range. Patreon $ well spent. Love to own one.
I love my Yugo 8mm Mauser. It is a real str8 shooter.
When you try to make a KP/31 but you only have PPD & PPSh blue prints.
why make one company scream about copywrite infringement, when you can make two company angry with the same gun.
On this day 38 years ago, Comrade Tito died. on this day Ian showing YU PPSh, go figure... :)
One of few good communists... and not because he’s dead haha
I've been binge watching FW videos (particularly interwar and ww2 smgs) and I realized that I absolutely love wood furniture on subguns. No idea why, as I don't have a similar affinity for wood on rifles.
Looks like a great design. Sensible upgrades over the Soviet one, like the recoil system. Removable barrel is an excellent idea too. It seems to me that a tubular receiver and round bolt makes the most sense, especially in a wood stock. I could be wrong, but i would think the weight would be more evenly distributed in a round bolt, which would help with smoothness of cycling, etc. Makes sense for a coil spring too, as almost all recoil springs are. The Yugoslavs often went their own way to a degree, and the resulting weapons seem sensible, and well thought out, and of good quality. Great video as always. Thank you
Nice to see you in our neck of the woods! All the best Ian.
Yugo weapons tech seems to be sort of the opposite of French and Czech. The latter two just love to innovate, always making their own unique designs with only peripheral interest in their neighbours; great for innovation and being the first out of the gate, but not always great for getting the very best designs in the long run.
Meanwhile, Yugoslavian weapon designers sit hiding in the bushes watching Germany and Russia and whoever else comes up with something good, then latches onto their ideas and, rather than simply adapting it for their own use, make their own thing that's very much like what their neighbours are using at first glance, but when you get into it is surprisingly unique.
I love my Yugoslav-era m70nb1, it's really quite a nice AKM. Except for the lack of a chromed barrel.
I'm glad the Serbians at least sort-of keep some of the old yugo weapon designs around. At the very least the M76, M72, and M70's respectively.
Yugoslavia was the smartest of the bunch. They took what was best from both words and rejected the negativities from both sides.
Gotta watch out for the Yugoslavians hiding in the bushes....
Yugos always make some solid guns. :)
V - Pony Except the M-56, that thing is a pice of crap.
mihajlo olujic fair enough
mihajlo olujic Had a good Bayonet though.
Ppsh *exists*
Tito "hippity hopity your design is my property"
Tito's anniversary of death is on this day
It is very cool!! The Ppsh model is one of my favourites guns of the WWII.
I was in a museum east of Toronto that had one of these in their collection IDed as a ppsh41.
just what I've been craving to see!
8:45 - the engraving below the crest reads "FNRJ" which translates to "Federal National Republic of Yugoslavia", which the communist formed post-war from ex-Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1945, and then later re-labeled it to SFRJ ("Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia") in 1963.
People's Republic - Narodna Republika
Indeed, I stand corrected
Praised be Gun Jesus.
amen
Looks easier to make on a manual lathe and mill. Don't need fancy presses, jigs ect.
IF a Suomi and PPSH41 had a kid, this is probably what it would look like.
Can't wait to see it on the range!
Argh, what a tease Ian. Also I wish you had bought/got to shoot the mat 49.
Hi Ian! Great vids. Just wondering, how's your opinion of this when compared to the other Yugoslav design, M56?
For a ranking in terms of ergonomics and quality, how would you rank these (as you've tested all of them):
Yugoslavian M56
Yugoslavian M49/67
Soviet PPSh-41
Soviet PPS-43
Polish PPS-52
These are pretty much all of the "mainstream late-war / early cold war 7.62mm SMGs".
I really wonder how would you rank them.
Thanks.
Yugoslavia is such a cool and weird country, militarily
*was
Yeah in the early years of Yugoslavia’s production you had some weird firearms designs from that era like this gun, the M56 Etc. But towards the end it got fairly standard for a socialist country during the Cold War with their small arms productions.
I know a lady who escaped from there, who doesn't think it was super cool. Having raids in your houses to beat and kill people is not as fun as it sounds.
It was a neat country, with an interesting leader, and even more interesting military. Though did have some stranger AK47's variants.
-T-X-M- so true
I wore it for 1.5 years in JNA. There is no better machine, because you can disassemble and assemble it in 14 seconds. Even though you are in a burst position, you can shoot individually. The weapon is accurate at 200m, a company of 30 soldiers at 6 shooting positions at night broke all the car lights halfway through the shooting. It's great for guard duty, because you can clip the machine to your belt, where the spring cover is, and you don't have to hold it on your shoulder or in your hands. You have both hands on the shutter and the trigger.
Oh, I'm interested! Very cool!
That M49/52 looks like a precision piece of equipment. It seems to me that it was Yugoslavia's attempt to take the best of the Beretta and camber it for the Tokarev cartridge. To me The M38 has a similar barrel shroud and similar silhouette to both the Yugo, M49 and the PPSh. . Also, isn't the PPSh called a pe-pe-sha (pay-pay-shay) or has that fallen out of favor?
the PPSH is a PPSH, I never hear people call it the pahpahsahw in real life because literally nobody does that and it sounds arguably stupid.
+7.62 x39mm PPSh does sound pee-pee-sha as in shark sha.
Hi Ian! Do you know about PPD-40? Another soviet SMG that was made a little bit before PPSh-41.
This Yugoslav model looks more like PPD-40, not PPSh-41
Anders Svart He has made a video on the PPD.
Marstar has a pretty shitty track record here in Canada but all the contents Ian has made with them have been really great!
Your the Ron Jeremy of guns Ian God bless
Hi! I really like your content! can you maybe find a russian gatling gun? Theyre are called Gryazev Shiponuv guns. They are very unique .These gatling guns are very different from the american ones, the biggest difference being that they are gas operated instead of electrically powered, therefore they have also a much higher rate of fire, and they dont need external power. It would be very cool to see one of those. Gryazev also made some other very interesting gas operated, extremely high rpm machine guns. I really suggest looking into them, they are spectacular!
Spectacular yes, but not always in a good way. A version of the GSh 6-30 was used in MiG 23 and 27 and apparently the vibration tended to disassemble the plane in flight.
www.quarryhs.co.uk/GSh-6-30.htm
"The first 25-round burst made in flight was ended by the failure of all of the avionics in the cockpit."
Probably easier to set up a production line in a small factory with milling machines than a big stamping mill
it looks like they took inspiration from the finish
Looks like a lathe-and-mill version of the PPŠ. Less stamped, (less huge punch-press action), more machined.
Nice fade at 6:19
The butstock looks like that of the Mauser K98 and the tube receiver reminder me of a Suomi kp-31.
When in doubt, copy the look of another weapon and change the interior/mechanics.
The only Yugo PPSh I know is when my Yugo's engine blows up.
It's a good thing that they didn't update the design in 1956. It'd be confusing to have French and Yugoslavian M49/56s out there.
My father carried this rifle while serving in the Yugoslav People's Army in 1971
I have an option to get one of those very cheaply... But it's either that or stock up on 30 round stanag mags before my lovely government bans, or at least severely restricts them... Choices, choices...
I would feel more safe firing this if the twist off rear cap had larger lugs (maybe using some of the metal from the magazine well).
Thanks for the vid, Gun Jesus
I jusy checked Marstar and they have Norinco SKS's for 220$. Feels bad when my local American shop won't sell them for less than 500 :/
Hey Ian
@ 7:50 im curious what would be the outcome of using a different kind of recoil spring, specifically a 3 spring valve spring. I've wondered about the utility of a spring for a firearm back when I was rebuilding my heads on my 302 Mustang
Slick!
saw a photo of my gradpa with this gun back in the day
The SKS with drum over his left shoulder looks interesting.
that's a Chinese import only Canadians can buy. chambered for 7.62x39mm and uses AKM magazines.
It's in a video labelled "communist Heresy" for reference.
I'm really curious. How did they get so many advanced technology licenses? Do they have any special charm? They almost have all the modern weapons of the 1930s, and they can be said to be one of the most powerful countries in Eastern Europe.
marksman axis You don't need a licence from a private company if you're a communist country ;) If you are talking about pre-WW2, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were great allies so we did get some great stuff from them. Germany had to pay war reparations after WW1 so we got a lot of great stuff from them, same with Austria.
mihajlo olujic That is true, like AK and PKM, but not just about Soviet weapon, they also bought from western europe, like ZB 30J
mihajlo olujic Oh, I totally forget, you mean Little Entente, right? So, it can explain why did Yugoslavia was look so friendly with Czechoslovakia and western europe
marksman axis Exactly
Hey! But I'm still curious as to how the UK got the authorized like Yugoslavia. Have any one know that?
Great video. Just two questions if you have a chance. 1: dose the trigger dear mech work the same? USSR and ugo. 2: how dose the extractor work ? Thanks again for great vids
A question to you, Ian. Since M49 is milled, not stamped like the original PPsh - I suppose that it is a heavier gun. Is the difference noticeable in hand?
The PPSh is stamped out of very thick pieces of steel. I wouldn't assume the M49 is heavier without confirmation from actual sources.
Edit: Apparently, the M49 is heavier by a quarter of a pound. 3.63 kg vs 3.75 kg.
Not much of a difference, I'd say.
I'm noticing a trend in early to mid century SMGs. They all have a massive bolt shuttling back and forth in the firearm. Why have so much mass moving around, is it to ensure primer detonation? Looking at the newer SMGs they all went away from this type of design, but why did this type of design reign almost completly unchanged for 40 years?
Judas Preest Because that way they can be open bolt guns, which were way easier and cheaper to make?
Unlike some later SMGs, these tend to be fixed firing-pin staight blowback designs. Blowback cycling rate depends on the stiffness of the recoil spring. The bolt mass to spring stiffnes ratio needs to be balenced, and leaning towards a heavy bolt and weak spring slows the firing rate.
Judas Preest smgs used to be frontline weapons, mostly cheap to make as well, a big shuttling mass is easy to mill, easy to design. later on they evolved into more police, second line, and special use weapons where compactness, safety and accuracy, as well as durrability became more of a concern. post war also saw the advent of telescopic bolts which were harder to build but allow you to make a smg smaller for the same mechanism.
just watch a few of his smg videos, he has done a pretty thorough overview of the evolution of smgs by now
They're simple blowback operation. The only thing stopping the bolt opening when the cartridge fires is spring pressure and bolt inertia. Heavy bolt gives you high inertia to delay opening without having to have a massively heavy spring.
With a massive enough bolt you can have a smg that doesn't use a locked breech, the inertia of the bolt is enough to keep the action closed long enough to be safe. This simplifies manufacturing and maintenance of the gun meaning a country can produce more in a shorter amount of time. It also keeps the rate of fire low enough to be manageable without any complex mechanism to slow it down
Disassembly reminds me of its replacement; the M56
reminds me of the similarity between the SKS and the Egyptian Rasheed
Is it just me or the back of the stock is kind of mauser 98 like?
Zastava was also making Mausers, so it would make sense to use the patterns they already had for making stocks. This factory is really quite interesting. I have a K98 rebuilt in Zastava, an M53, and I'm think an M76 (their version of the Dragunov and PSL BUT chambered in 8mm Mauser!) would be fun to have. They just refused to "go with the flow!"
It also seems they grabbed the sight hood off the Mauser line as well. Standardization baby!
Sorry if this was already answered, be it did Yugoslavia have it's own smg in WW2? Or did it just use whatever until it was given PPSh's?
Vincent Simbe No domestic design until post WW2. Before the war Kingdom of Yugoslavia tested a special variant of the Mauser "Schnellfeuer" but in the end decided on buying M1928 Thompsons to arm it's paratroopers and special "storm-battalions". These arrived just before the German invasion and the entire batch was captured and later used by the Germans (most given out to domestic collaborators). During WW2 partisans and chetniks used whatever they captured and what Western Allies provided as aid. When Soviets entered Yugoslavia in 1944 partisans got a lot of Soviet equipment.
First SMG in Kingdom of Yugoslavia is Erma EMP-35 with a 30 cm barrel, tangent rear sight and bayonet lug , in 1940-1941 Kingdom of Yugoslavia decided on buy M1928 Thompsons
bukm11 I have read sometimes on the net about the Erma in Yugoslav service but could never find credible data in the written or photographic sources. Where did you get the info about EMP-35 if you don't mind me asking?
Dang, I want one. Even if it’s a neutered semi-auto closed bolt.
Wow. Kinda neat... The serial number on that one is 15934. I just got a parts kit that's 15770 👀
You should do a video on a walther model 2 rifle some time their a very interesting design
Yeah, that's really cool.
Can it be safed on an open bolt, and/or does it have a drop safety? If your videos have taught me anything, it's how important those are on an open bolt SMG.
Nek se vidi raskoš...
It is a compilation of PPSz and Beretta m38
Ricorda vagamente il nostro mab solo per quanto riguarda il tappo di culatta
a barrel shroud is a shoulder thing that goes up, right?
Yugoslav partisans had a lot of Italian weapons especially when Italy had went bottoms up. So it is perhaps nor surprising that some parts are similar to those.
They're all Slav.
Is there any significant rate of fire difference between this SMG and the PPSh?
We will find out tomorrow. :)
Looks like the Yugo gun is better made than the Russian gun.
David Stegman Yep, back when Yugoslavia existed, Yugo Tech was undisputed lol, we even sold our advanced space program to America
David Stegman Yugo stuff was generally superior. Yugo also used Mauser pattern rifles when USSR was still using Mosins.
The only Yugo thing that was bad was the Yugo car.
I love my Mosin, but yeah, Yugo weapons tech for the most part was top notch.
@@davidstegman8147 The yugo car was never meant to be good. It cost 3500$ new and it was meant to be banged and driven until it fell apart. and thats what they did.
Recourceful Yugoslavian people managed to repair them and drive them even for 300 000 Kms .
IN USA it was meant to be an cheap import for students and a banger. Well I guess some Americans expected Yugo to be a 20 000$ car which is actually their fault.
Used just after the Second World War in late 1940s/Early to Mid 1850s! Looks like a great sub Machine Gun!😉🔫🇷🇸🇭🇷
Do a vid on the Stechkin
Or the APS underwater rifle
Beretta 38a + PPSH 41
Looks kind of like the Sterling too.
Could you make video about ks-23?
Kind of like a Vz58 vs AK analogy
Would any of these have been used in the Yugoslav wars in the 90s?
I notice that the Yugoslav PPSH looks like a PPD
Don't Yugoslavian's know they are supposed to take their guns out and use them.? Who else has so many old guns in such nice condition?
For me, it looks almost identical to "ППД обр. 1934/38" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPD-40 the predecessor of PPSh.
Neat.
Suomi KP-31+PPSH-41
The tubular receiver was inspired by the berreta subgun, it was a prized trophy amoung partisans
Please shoot MGD pm9 Rotary action sub machine gun..... *If you can* ....
A bit like MP Suomi, and a bit like Erma PM (ERMA Maschinepistole). It doesn't look like PPSz.
The ERMA was the first submachinegun yugoslavia ever adopted, that was back when it was still a monarchy, the later socialists probably had some lyieing around
The 49/57 is also longer
Looks more like PPD 40.
Its a yugoslav perfection
Don't you think Ian looks like Gunter? The library guy from stardew valley lol.
That A bring back from the Balkan wars ?
LineOfCars when I was out there on Op Grapple 2 there was a whole panoply of old style firearms and some expedient solutions ( like naval torpedos lashed onto carts to act as anti tank weapons) Canadian forces where over there and being more liberal in their firearms legislation wondered if it came back with them. One infantry soldier tried to send back a hand grenade in the mail. Slight problem was it looked like a hand grenade wrapped in brown packing paper ( not the sharpest tool in the box )
LineOfCars you sign up you go where you are sent. It was mostly bosniaks that didn’t have the firearms when I was there.
LineOfCars we had NI to contend with so being caught in the middle of something was par for the course. Lovely country lovely people in FRY. So sad that issue couldn’t be resolved in other fashion
*OVER ENGINEERING INTENS-* Waaaait a minute! This is not Swiss! D:
why would anyone want a square front sight? i put needle front sights on most of my shooters
9mm parabellum?
Unknown also avalible in 9mm
9x25
Sinister Thoughts He was asking if it was parabellum, the one shown is in 9x25
7.62x25mm is arguably the best caliber for a weapon of this sort.
Looks like ppsh41 combined with a ppd40
Muito bom
so yugo is copy from russian copy gun and there is someone who says ppsh-41 isnt copy technicly ppsh-41 is updated version of ppd-40 what is copy from suomi kp31.
The PPD was not copy of the Suomi, it just used a copy of the Suomi drum.
Forgotten Weapons yes that true i didnt remember that
It’s like a Russian tommy gun but slimmer and perhaps somewhat lighter