The desire of designers to make weapons compact, while not losing in combat and operational characteristics, sometimes gives rise to real masterpieces. True, only other designers can appreciate such samples at their true worth, neither the military nor law enforcement agencies like unusual and complex weapons.
The reason here lies not only in the fact that most people do not like change and something different from what they are used to, everything is much simpler. A more complex mechanism almost always turns out to be less reliable, and even if the reliability remains at the proper level, then a relatively low increase in individual characteristics is unjustified in terms of costs in the production of more complex, and therefore more expensive weapons. This also includes the time and costs of retraining people. Even if maintenance and operation differ in the smallest detail, both curious and accidents are guaranteed without retraining.
Despite the very small chances of launching a weapon into mass production, the designers have worked and are working on new, not always perfect samples and sometimes their work is really taken seriously and give a new weapon a chance to become a mass model.
In this article, I propose to get acquainted with a submachine gun not only of the original design, but also with a somewhat unusual appearance. This submachine gun was developed by the famous Czechoslovak gunsmith Vaclav Cholek, participated in the competition for a new SMG for the Czechoslovak army and reached the final, but lost to its main competitor Sa. 23.
The ZB-47 submachine gun is not the first, but unique
The first question that arises when considering the ZB-47 submachine gun is: where does it have a store? And the store is not just a store, but a store for as much as 72 rounds. Its design is completely ordinary, but not everyone can find its location, even if you give him this weapon in his hands.
The answer to the question about the store lies in the butt of the weapon, it is there that it is located, and it joins quite easily, if of course you know how, from the bottom of the butt.
This arrangement of the store and the layout of the weapon in general, despite its unusualness, is not new. Back in the early thirties, the Italian gunsmith Guillo Sosso developed an original design submachine gun with a similar magazine location in the buttstock. It is worth noting that there is very little information about this weapon, many experts generally question the existence of a workable model of this weapon, nevertheless, the design itself existed.
One of the main problems of the location of the magazine with ammunition in the butt is the orientation of the cartridges in relation to the axis of the barrel. In this case, they are almost perpendicular to the barrel, which means that before the bolt delivers the cartridge to the chamber, the ammunition must be turned 90 degrees.
In the Guillo Sosso submachine gun, this issue was solved not so much in an original way, but rather interesting from the point of view of design ideas. A rather complicated system of levers connected the bolt group with the feeders, which had to pick up cartridges from the store and, along a tube bent into an arc with a cutout, to pass the feeder, deliver them to a special shelf located on the path of the congestion. From this shelf, the bolt picked up the cartridge and sent it to the chamber.
If we consider the system of levers from the surviving photographs, then we can note that it had the ability to adjust. It remains only to guess whether this adjustment was a consequence of adjusting the system to ensure its operability, or whether it could be used to change the characteristics of the weapon, for example, the same rate of fire.
There is another very remarkable moment in this weapon. Judging by the patent for it, food was produced not from one, but essentially from two single-row stores combined into one building. That is, the weapons store was really two-row in the full sense of the word. Why the designer chose this particular version of the store remains unclear, because it does not give any advantages.
It is often noted that this weapon could have a magazine with a capacity of almost a hundred rounds, which is confirmed by a photograph of the structure in the section. However, there is one detail in this photo, or rather absent, which makes it possible to question the capacity of the weapon magazine. If you look closely, the store lacks a spring and a feeder, and the cartridges are stacked so that there is simply no room for these parts. Despite this offhand, we can safely talk about a capacity of 60-70 rounds, which is also very good.
This was the predecessor of the Czechoslovak ZB-47 submachine gun. Now let's try to get acquainted in more detail with the design of this weapon and compare the implementation of the supply of cartridges from the store with the Italian PP.
The design of the ZB-47 submachine gun
If you look closely at the weapon, then its differences become obvious even in the layout. Despite the fact that the store is all largely located in the butt of the weapon, all other parts of the submachine gun are above it. In addition, the magazine is not inserted into the stock from the back, but snaps into place at the bottom, which greatly simplifies and speeds up its replacement.
Once we touched on the topic of the weapon store, then you need to give some explanation on the breakdown of information about its capacity. So in some sources the capacity is 32 cartridges, in others 72 cartridges 9x19. Both information is completely correct, and the different capacity is explained by two options for weapons.
One of the variants of the ZB-47 submachine gun was a weapon with a fixed wooden butt, it was this variant that had a magazine with a capacity of 32 rounds. In addition, a submachine gun with a retractable metal stock was also developed. Of course, the retractable butt could not allow a long magazine to be placed in the weapon, because for this version of the submachine gun, the stores had a capacity of 32 rounds. Thus, a weapon with a folding butt did not have an advantage in store capacity, but only gained in size. But let's return to the PP automation system.
The basis of the new submachine gun was an automatic breechblock, the shot was fired from an open breechblock. The weapon had the ability to conduct both automatic fire and single fire.
The supply of cartridges from the store was carried out to genius simply - using a ratchet mechanism. So the cartridge feeder had 4 cutouts for capturing cartridges from the store, when the bolt was moving forward, the ratchet mechanism turned 90 degrees, thereby substituting the bottom of the cartridge case under the bolt, which sent the ammunition into the chamber. In comparison with the Sosso lever system, we can say that they have nothing in common, not to mention the ease of implementation, and most importantly, the reliability of such an ammunition supply system.
Appearance and ergonomics of the ZB-47 submachine gun
Even in spite of its layout, the ZB-47 submachine gun has a very interesting appearance. This weapon lacks the familiar handle for holding the PP. Instead, there are holes in the receiver, into which the arrow's thumb is inserted, the index finger rests on the trigger, and the rest clasp the receiver from below. Actually, a similar retention of weapons can be found with the P90 submachine gun.
The lack of a full-fledged handle for holding actually deprived the weapon of the ability to fire using only one hand, which is an important criterion, despite the low effectiveness of this option for firing from a submachine gun. Nevertheless, this decision was not just a whim of the designer, he had a completely rational explanation. This submachine gun was designed taking into account its operation by crews of armored vehicles, and the experience of the war period showed that even such a small detail as a pistol grip at a submachine gun can catch on when the crew leaves a damaged vehicle, which can lead to the most dire consequences. But why such a method of retention is used in the P90, I personally do not know.
For convenient holding of the weapon with the second hand, the housing of the ratchet mechanism for feeding cartridges was used, it also had a lock for disassembling the weapon during maintenance. When disassembled, the receiver was divided into two parts.
All remaining weapon controls were located on the right side of the ZB-47 submachine gun. So on the right, above the hole for holding the weapon, the bolt handle was located, which moved with it when firing. Next to it was a fuse switch, it is also a translator of fire modes. It should be noted that there is a variant of weapons only with automatic fire, where this element is only a fuse switch. In general, during the entire period of the competition, about twenty weapons were manufactured, and some of them differed from each other, even the shape and length of the barrel casing changed. In addition, even the ratchet mechanism had various options.
Sights were represented by the whole diopter and front sight. Crossover rear sight, for firing at a distance of up to 100 and up to an optimistic 300 meters.
Separately, you need to pay attention to the holes in the store to control the amount of remaining ammunition.
Characteristics of the submachine gun ZB-47
As noted above, various options for weapons differed in their characteristics, but for the final result of the designer's work, very specific numbers were preserved. So for the last version of the ZB-47 submachine gun with a fixed butt, the following data are available. The length of the weapon is 760 millimeters with a barrel length of 265 millimeters. Weapon weight without cartridges 3, 3 kilograms. The mass of the equipped magazine with a capacity of 72 rounds is 1, 2 kilograms. Rate of fire 550 rounds per minute.
Thus, by simple calculations, one can calculate that a submachine gun and three loaded magazines will weigh less than seven kilograms. And considering that three loaded magazines are 216 rounds, this is already very good.
Pros and cons of the ZB-47 submachine gun
The main advantage of the weapon is, first of all, its dimensions. For the PP version with a fixed butt, one cannot fail to note the spacious store. However, a store with this capacity has its drawbacks. The most important of them is the fatigue of the feeder spring, which occurs during long-term storage of the magazine loaded. In general, this effect can be observed in any stores, but in this case it is most pronounced.
Regarding the magazines, one cannot fail to note that they are different for the option with a folding butt and a fixed one, they are not interchangeable by themselves, although the design allows you to install a magazine with a capacity of 32 rounds in a PP with a fixed butt, during testing with this magazine there were delays in feeding cartridges. Apparently due to the fact that the magazine was fixed only at one point, its angle changed, and the cartridge feeding mechanism could not cope with the functions assigned to it.
Not the most positive way on the convenience of the weapon is the method of holding it. Of course, on the one hand, it is wonderful that a submachine gun simply physically cannot catch on to anything with a pistol grip, but getting used to such a hold with an obvious thickness of surfaces, for which this very hold will be performed, is clearly difficult, especially for people with a small palm size and short fingers.
Conclusion
The main conclusion that can be drawn when familiarizing with the ZB-47 submachine gun is that although this weapon is very interesting, it is clearly not suitable for widespread distribution. In principle, this is not surprising, since this submachine gun was developed almost specifically for the crews of armored vehicles, for whom it is not a weapon for battle, but rather a weapon for self-defense and survival in the event of a loss of the vehicle. So the designer coped with the task just fine, just the submachine gun itself was considered in a slightly different context.
The ZB-47 submachine gun can be considered an excellent example showing the entire level of gunsmiths in Czechoslovakia. Simple solutions to complex problems have always been a kind of hallmark of these gunsmiths, and this applies not only to the design of the weapon itself, but also to the production and processing processes. A striking example of this is the Italian complex, but interesting in its own way, the scheme of feeding cartridges through a curved tube and the simplest mechanism that copes with the same task and consists of three parts.
