In previous articles about the Bulgarian pistols, two models of weapons were described, which clearly show that the Bulgarians are excellent at both copying other samples and creating their own, moreover, a rather complex design that is rarely used by weapon manufacturers. So, an example of how well the Bulgarians are able to copy is their version of the Makarov pistol under the designation P-M01, created by the Arsenal company. But this is not the only copy of the weapon produced in Bulgaria, in addition to this pistol, others were also copied. Let's try to get acquainted with another sample of Bulgarian pistols, this time already produced by another company, namely Arcus.
I think that no one will argue that Browning is one of the most prominent representatives of the designers of firearms, and the gunsmith did not focus on one class of weapons, but created and developed a wide variety of samples. Having made a huge contribution to the development of firearms, the designer left behind a huge number of models, many of which do not lose their relevance to this day, while others served as the basis for creating new models. Browning's most famous pistol is the Colt M1911. However, there is a later version of the weapon, no less famous, namely the High Power pistol. This pistol is, in fact, the last weapon that was created by Browning, but if you look only at the years of production of the pistol. In fact, Browning has long been engaged in modernizing the automation system that he used in the M1911, in order to lower the cost of weapon production and reduce the number of parts that were used in it. The result of the designer's work was the replacement of the locking larva, with a high tide under the chamber with a figured cutout, into which a pin installed in the frame of the weapon passed. Unfortunately, Browning did not live to see the release of this pistol, but this did not make the weapon bad. It was the pistol that Arcus decided to create.
Naturally, full copying would not be the most reasonable thing, since they could not compete with FN Arcus. But the company could improve the weapon, at least externally, in accordance with its ideas of beauty and the latest trends in weapon fashion, which was done. First of all, it should be noted that the pistol should, according to the manufacturer's plan, “cling” precisely with its appearance, therefore several versions of the weapon in various finishes were created. And a little later they made a compact version of the pistol, although in fact it was not so compact, they just cut the barrel a little and shortened the bolt cover, changing its shape. Initially, the pistol was produced with wooden or plastic covers on the handle, which differed little from the original, later the handle was made more comfortable by making recesses for the fingers in front, as well as covering the handle with non-slip material. The changes concerned the casing-shutter, which began to have a "square" appearance, the back side became flat and straight. The safety clip also received a rectangular shape and a deflection at the front, for more comfortable holding of the weapon when firing with two hands. It is noteworthy that the slide stop lever, which is the main element by which you can recognize the weapon, remained unchanged, but the fuse switch changed its shape, although it remained in its original place. In addition, the fuse switch is duplicated on the right side of the weapon. The magazine eject button began to protrude more from the frame of the weapon, which, however, did not affect convenience in any way, as well as did not cause problems due to its sufficient rigidity. The gun sights have also been changed. The front sight has become longer and has changed its shape, the rear sight has become removable, it is installed on the shutter-casing on the dovetail seat, so that, if desired, it can be replaced with a more convenient or adjustable one, although it is not a fact that this procedure will be possible without Natfil. On the other hand, High Power also had a variety of sights, including one with a replaceable whole.
The weapon works as follows. In its normal position, the bore is locked due to the fact that the protrusions on the barrel engage with the breech casing. When fired, the barrel and the bolt casing begin to move back together, while the fine cut in the high tide under the chamber begins to interact with the axis of the slide delay lever, which leads to a decrease in the apparent part of the barrel and, as a consequence, disengagement of the bolt casing from the barrel. The barrel is braked in a skewed state, and the bolt continues to move backward, removing the spent cartridge case and throwing it out through the window to eject the spent cartridges. When the shutter casing moves back, the return spring is compressed, and the pistol trigger is also cocked. Moving forward under the action of a straightening return spring, the shutter casing pulls out a new cartridge from the store, inserts it into the chamber and rests against the breech of the barrel, pushing the barrel forward. Due to the interaction of the figured cutout in the high tide under the chamber and the axis of the slide stop lever, the breech of the barrel rises and the barrel engages with the slide casing, which ensures reliable locking of the barrel bore.
The weapon has a total length of 203 and 186 millimeters for the full-size and shortened model, while the barrel length is 118.5 and 101.5 millimeters. The pistol is fed from magazines with a capacity of 13 or 10 rounds. The weight of the weapon is 970 grams for the full-size version and 920 grams for the compact version.
Naturally, at the beginning of the release of this pistol, a lot of problems were discovered, however, all of them were quickly resolved, thanks to which a simple, unpretentious, accurate and cheap pistol appeared for a relatively powerful ammunition. Even though this is only a copy of the weapon, it cannot be underestimated, since this sample gave Bulgarian designers experience in using an automatic system with a short barrel stroke, so copying can be very useful.
