Czechoslovak gunsmiths have always been famous for creating weapons at the same time and being quite simple and reliable. A fairly large base of developments in firearms, high quality control and bright minds of designers made it possible to make weapons. Which could compete with the most advanced designs. In general, looking at everything that was released by the Czechoslovak designers, it becomes incomprehensible how they managed to do so much and make so few mistakes. Indeed, it is very difficult to find an unsuccessful weapon model from Czechoslovakia. Yes, there were controversial models and solutions, but they were interesting and at the same time managed to work flawlessly. In this article, we will talk about the anti-tank rifle, which was developed by Czechoslovak designers and which, unfortunately, was adopted by Nazi Germany. But here you can’t do anything, that’s the story, and the weapon itself is not to blame for who it was shooting at.
Work on the creation of an anti-tank gun in Czechoslovakia began quite late, much later than it should have begun in a country with a fairly well-developed production of firearms. The requirements for the PTR were formulated only by the beginning of the 1930s, and the designers immediately got involved in the work. The task was complicated by the fact that, in addition to the weapon, it was also necessary to make ammunition with sufficiently high armor-piercing characteristics, and this moment required special attention and a lot of time, since it is the ammunition that sets the main characteristics of the weapon, which means that an error in the design of the cartridge would have put all the work down the drain.
The caliber of the ammunition was determined quickly enough. After the initial tests, it was clear that it was not worth taking up weapons with huge calibers, but it was better to give preference to smaller bullets with good speed and armor-piercing. Taking into account the fact that the plans were not to create perversions with high-explosive fragmentation "bullets" in the caliber of 20 millimeters, this decision was quite logical. It is the work on the creation of a new ammunition that explains the delay in the development of the anti-tank rifle. Unfortunately, the new ammunition did not appear, since in 1939 the Germans began to manage the production, who considered it inexpedient to create a new cartridge, and the time-tested 7, 92x94, also known as Patrone 318, was taken in its place.
Frankly, this ammunition was not the best, but not the worst, this cartridge was used in the German anti-tank rifles PzB 38 and PzB 39. It is quite understandable why the creation of a new cartridge was considered inappropriate. For this ammunition, other samples of the PTR have already been actively used and to adopt another new cartridge, which, perhaps, will be a little better, is really not the best idea. As a result, the characteristics of the weapon were already known in advance, although the weapon itself was not yet available. A relatively light bullet weighing 14.6 grams accelerated to speeds of over 1200 meters per second. With such a weight and speed at a distance of 400 meters, it flew virtually in a straight line, which greatly facilitated aiming, and therefore increased the practical rate of fire, not to mention the effectiveness of fire, especially at moving targets. The armor-piercing characteristics of the cartridge were quite good at that time. So, a bullet of ammunition easily penetrated 30 millimeters of armor at a distance of 100 meters, with an increase in the firing distance to 300 meters, a bullet could only pierce 25 millimeters of armor. So for the end of the 30s, given the level of development of armored vehicles, this ammunition was really good.
Despite the fact that the Germans covered part of the project for the development of both ammunition and PTR, the anti-tank gun itself was very interested in them. The interest was caused by the fact that the weapon was going to be made in a bullpup layout, which means more compact in comparison with German models of anti-tank rifles for Patrone 318 ammunition. The prospect of a more compact weapon with the same effectiveness was quite clear, such a weapon would be more convenient when used in cramped conditions, that is, fire could be fired from fortified shelters and even from armored vehicles. And this already significantly expanded the capabilities of the PTR as a whole. In addition, do not forget that the eternal problem of anti-tank rifles was size, weight and recoil when firing. In this case, it was proposed to reduce at least one disadvantage of the weapon.
It was decided to make the device non-self-loading, in order to improve accuracy and durability, as well as reduce the cost of production of the PTR. However, the weapon was not nearly as simple as it might seem. German gunsmiths made their contribution, who suggested reloading weapons when moving the pistol grip back and forth. Czechoslovak gunsmiths, in turn, simplified the design to the point. So, along with the pistol grip, the receiver and the barrel of the weapon moved, while the bolt itself was motionless and was assembled as a separate part in the butt. This design really made it possible to significantly reduce the dimensions of the weapon while maintaining the normal barrel length, and to such an extent that this version of the anti-tank rifle can rightfully be considered one of the smallest. The final version of the anti-tank rifle weighed 13.1 kilograms and at the same time had a length of 136 centimeters with a barrel length of 110 centimeters. The device was fed from detachable box magazines with a capacity of 5 or 10 rounds. Separately, it is worth noting that thanks to the original solution with reloading the weapon, the practical rate of fire of the anti-tank gun could reach 20 rounds per minute, which is a very good result for a non-self-loading sample.
Unfortunately, the weapon was not without negative aspects. The most important of them was just the way to implement the recharge. The bolt was exactly under the shooter's cheek and even the cheek rest did not save the situation. So it was not uncommon for clothing, and sometimes skin, to hit the moving parts of the weapon, which caused delays in firing. For this reason, while reloading, it was worth keeping your face away from the weapon, which was not very convenient.
The problem with recoil when firing was solved by a rather large muzzle brake-recoil compensator, as well as a shock-absorbing butt pad. True, the PTR still kicked quite hard, but at the same time it had quite a good accuracy of fire and could be used to fire at a distance of up to 500 meters even at the enemy's manpower. Perhaps, in the case of installing an optical sight, this distance would be even greater, but given the high recoil when shooting, using optics, which literally became disposable, was not the best solution.
This weapon entered service with the German army in 1941 under the name PzB M. SS 41, while the Czechoslovak name of the anti-tank gun remained W / 7, 92.
