In one of the previous articles, there was a mention of the John Hill submachine gun, as the predecessor of the rather well-known development of the Fabrique Nationale P90. Of course, we are not talking about the fact that FN copied the design of the weapon from Hill, but you can clearly trace the similarity of the very idea of placing the store above the receiver of the submachine gun, as well as the location and supply of cartridges.
The design of John Hill's experienced submachine guns was really new for its time, and like everything new and unusual in the world of firearms, his submachine guns did not find either popularity or fame. Nevertheless, these were fully functional samples that were offered to both the US Army and Police, but what is most surprising, John Hill did not have a special education and he made all his submachine guns on his own on fairly primitive equipment.
About the constructor
Despite the fact that little is known about the designer, some facts from his biography can be restored, in particular, the memories of Bob Pilgrim helped a lot.
Born John Hill in 1895, during the First World War, he took part in the hostilities as a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Despite the fact that the designer did not receive higher education, he was a fairly well-known developer of certain technologies related to the oil refining industry and energy. So, behind his authorship, you can find a method of compressing natural gas, which made it possible to do without a pipeline for its delivery from the well to the place of processing and storage, and this, in some cases, saved a lot of financial resources. The designer managed many projects in Canada, Argentina, USA, but work was not his only hobby.
Like any person, John Hill had a hobby - handguns. What the designer was notably interested in was not shooting and collecting, he was interested in the design itself and the possibilities of its improvement.
In 1948, the designer began working on a machine gun of his own design, however, in the process of work, the project turned from a machine gun into a submachine gun, since the main design feature, the rotary feeder, proved to be unreliable with rifle cartridges due to the bottle-shaped case. In addition, the dimensions of rifle cartridges would make the weapon unnecessarily "thick", and the automation system with such ammunition required a more detailed approach due to the complexity of the design to ensure the normal functioning of weapons with powerful ammunition. Up to 5, 56x45 there were still 11 years left.
In 1953, the designer presented the completed submachine gun to the military. This weapon had a fixed wooden stock and in all its appearance resembled the samples of the Second World War, with the only exception that there was nowhere a magazine sticking out down or to the side. It is noteworthy that the magazine of the submachine gun was transparent, which also cannot but be noted as a decision ahead of its time.
Despite the rather interesting design, the new submachine gun could not show results superior to other submachine guns of that time. Its main features, the reduction in the size of the weapon and the roomy magazine, aroused interest. But since the characteristics of the effectiveness of fire were more than average, the first version of the submachine gun was rejected.
A significant role was also played by the fact that the weapon was actually carved from a piece of metal, that is, not only was it heavy, it was also expensive both in terms of materials used and in the work of milling operators in the manufacturing process, from which a certain level of knowledge was required. and skills in production.
Despite the refusal from the military, the designer continued to work on his project, but already focused on the needs and requirements of the police.
The first thing the designer did was to reduce the weight of his weapon as much as possible, abandon the fixed stock, making it removable. In addition, John Hill decided to make his submachine gun convenient for firing with one hand, for which he brought forward a single handle to hold the weapon.
A new version of the submachine gun was shown to the police, but the police were not interested in the weapon. Perhaps, had this submachine gun developed in the 30s, it would have gained no less fame than the Thompson's PP. Given its small size, this weapon with a high density of fire could have become an ideal assistant to the police of that time, although with a high degree of probability it would appear on the other side too.
The story of Hill's submachine gun did not end there. In 1963, with the assistance of the Browning Arms Company management, John Hill visited the Fabrique Nationale factory with his wife, where he left one of his weapons for study by local designers. Ernest Vervier highly appreciated the work of the designer, it is noteworthy that at the same time Uziel Gal was present at the plant, who was completely delighted with Hill's submachine gun.
Unfortunately, the serial production of this weapon was not established in Europe either. One of the reasons that lie on the surface is the rethinking of the role of submachine guns in the army and police. Conversely, if this weapon was developed at least during the Second World War, it would become very popular, but since there was no demand for this PP, it would be at a loss to produce it. There was, however, still a civilian arms market. But the limitations on the capacity of the store and the lack of the ability to conduct automatic fire completely destroyed all the advantages of Hill's submachine gun.
The sample of the submachine gun left by John Hill, despite the high praise of the designers, was returned to him two years later. True, the parcel did not reach the addressee, since the US customs destroyed this sample.
Due to the absolute hopelessness of weapons on the civilian market, production could not be established in the United States either. In addition, requirements were imposed on weapons for the civilian market, including the presence of a fuse, as well as firing from a closed bolt, which required a redesign of the submachine gun design and its complication.
According to some testimonies, John Hill received several proposals for the deployment of illegal production of his PP, but he rejected them. In total, the designer produced a little less than a hundred of these submachine guns, most of which were disposed of. However, in some private collections, these weapons are and the owners are in no hurry to part with them, perfectly understanding the cost of these experimental samples.
John Hill submachine gun design
Despite the fact that several variants of submachine guns have been created, they all have approximately the same design with the exception of some individual elements.
As already became clear, John Hill's submachine gun store is located above the receiver, that is, the cartridges are located in it perpendicular to the axis of the barrel. This solution allows you to significantly reduce the size of the weapon, but requires the addition of a mechanism that will feed cartridges into the chamber, turning them 90 degrees.
Unlike the well-known P90, the designer decided not to place the rotary mechanism in the weapon magazine, as this would significantly increase the cost of the magazine. The cartridge feed mechanism was located in the weapon itself, in front of the breech.
Let's try to figure out how it all worked when shooting. The cartridge feeding mechanism itself is simple to the point of primitiveness. This is a cylinder that has a cutout in its upper part for a cartridge, and in its lower part a gear that interacts with a toothed rack connected to the bolt of the weapon. Thus, when the bolt is in its rear position, the cartridge cutout in the cylinder is turned perpendicular to the axis of the submachine gun barrel and a cartridge from the magazine enters it. When the bolt moves forward, the feed cylinder turns and its cutout, together with the cartridge, becomes coaxial with the barrel bore. The bolt passes through this slot by inserting a cartridge into the chamber and a shot is fired. The energy of the recoil pushes the bolt back, removes the spent cartridge case from the chamber, pulls it through the cutout in the feed cylinder and discards it. After the bolt leaves the cutout of the cylinder, it turns, but in the opposite direction, and the cartridge from the magazine, pushed by the feeder spring, again enters the cutout.
An interesting fact is that the designer also worked on a slightly different cartridge feeding system, when the cylinder had two cutouts for cartridges located perpendicular to each other. In this case, the cylinder rotated only when the shutter moved forward and remained stationary when it moved backward. This solution significantly increased the service life, but was not implemented for a number of reasons.
The first of the reasons was that when the shutter moved back, it was necessary to disengage the rack and pinion. One of the most successful solutions to this problem can be considered a design similar to the drum of a revolver, it can be seen in one of the photographs. Another reason was that the new cartridge could not get into the corresponding slot only because it was interfered with by the previous cartridge or bolt. As a result, the cartridge sometimes got skewed and did not allow the cylinder to turn, causing a delay in firing. In the end, the designer settled on a simpler scheme for feeding cartridges, and well, replacing worn parts was not so expensive as to significantly complicate the mechanism, depriving it of reliability.
Considering Hill's submachine guns, one cannot but pay attention to the fact that the layout of the first weapon model is quite classic. If the designer turned the magazine 180 degrees, then it would be possible to place a longer barrel in the same dimensions, with all the positive aspects that follow from this. In the version of the weapon with a fixed butt, it really could be done just like this, giving a move to the bolt group inside the butt of a submachine gun, but if you look at a weapon with a removable butt, you can find that there is simply no free space left in it, everything is occupied by a large bolt and a place for it to move.
If we started talking about the version of John Hill's submachine gun without a butt, then it is worth paying attention to another interesting feature of the weapon, namely, how spent cartridges are thrown out. The ejection of spent cartridges is carried out downward, which in itself is not new, but in weapons with a removable butt, the ejection of cartridges is carried out through the cavity of the pistol grip. This solution is not just an interesting feature of the weapon, it also has practical significance. Since the window for ejection of spent cartridges is closed, foreign objects or the shooter's clothes cannot get into this window. In weapons with a fixed stock, especially curious ones could even insert a finger between the bolt and the breech of the barrel.
The automatics of all versions of Heal's submachine guns are based on a free action with a fixed firing pin. Shooting is carried out from an open bolt, which significantly affects the accuracy, but simplifies and reduces the cost of the design of the weapon.
Separately, it is necessary to talk about the control elements of the submachine gun. The weapon does not have a safety switch, but there was a safety device that blocked the trigger. Unfortunately, in the photographs you cannot even see where it is and what it is, especially since it is simply absent on some samples.
Interesting for their time and the handles for cocking the shutter. So in the version of the weapon with a fixed butt, the cocking handle was located on the right side of the weapon and could be recessed inside the receiver. In a submachine gun with a removable stock, the cocking handle was in front of the handle to hold the weapon under the receiver and remained stationary during firing.
A submachine gun could only conduct automatic fire with a rate of fire of 500-600 rounds per minute, which, with proper skill, made it possible to shoot in short bursts of 2-3 rounds.
Pros and cons of John Hill submachine guns
The main positive features of this weapon are undoubtedly its size and a spacious magazine. However, along with this, one cannot fail to note the simplicity of the design of the weapon and the absence of any small details. Of course, a kind of primitiveness in the execution of the trigger mechanism and the bolt group left its imprint on the characteristics of the weapon, making them far from the most outstanding, but any weapon is a balance between reliability, cheapness, weight and size characteristics, ease of use and combat characteristics. When this balance is respected, the output turns out to be quite an unremarkable weapon, but when the designer puts one thing above the other, then you can often see the result of his work as a unique sample, not similar to others and in some situations more acceptable than weapons of common designs.
If we talk about the disadvantages of Hill's submachine guns, then first of all it is necessary to note its mass and the amount of metal required for its production. In principle, the design could be easily reduced in price, but it is advisable for serial production. When it comes to the reliability of the weapon, the submachine gun may experience certain problems when firing in an inverted position. In particular, the version with a removable stock may fail due to the fact that spent cartridges begin to accumulate in the hollow handle of the weapon. But on the other hand, how often do you have to shoot upside down?
Conclusion
For some unknown reason, self-taught gunsmiths are very sympathetic, as well as what they develop. Perhaps the reason is that without special education people do not think in a formulaic way, sometimes doing something that another would not even undertake due to the complexity of implementation.
Usually, developments with non-standard designs are said to be ahead of their time. In the case of John Hill's submachine guns, this phrase can be expanded somewhat - the weapon did not appear at the right time.
If the designer had created his submachine gun at least twenty years earlier, then it would not only have become popular, perhaps it would have become one of the best for that time, since the role of the submachine gun was then very significant. Conversely, the appearance of the P90 submachine gun suggests that the design has the right to life and could find its niche if it was developed later.
