Glock pistols have had a cult following in Pakistan from the day they landed on our shores. Watch any english movie and you will definitely see a cop sporting one. When the Army bought Glocks in some numbers, Glocks were unofficially declared as the world’s best handguns, in Pakistan. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that no pistol has had a loyal following in Pakistan like the Glock and that Glocks have been highly overrated in Pakistan. That alone explains why a Glock 17 or 19 for instance which costs no more than $ 600 in the United States would sell for $ 2500 to $ 3500 depending on the demand and supply. And I have seen them selling for even more depending on the level of impatience of the buyer. And at one time I have also seen an original Glock 17 (gold plated) on sale for $ 5000 only.
Handguns
Weapons and Ammunition Seized in Ghouta by the Syrian Army
Recently, a number of news agencies reported that Syrian Army has seized a truck carrying a variety of weapons and ammunition addressed to one of the forces opposing the Syrian government. Reportedly, the truck was heading from eastern Qalamoun to East Ghouta. Let’s take a look at the photos of the seized weapons and see what types of small arms we can spot there.
In the image below you can clearly see two PKM machine guns, a number of AK rifles and what looks to be a DShK heavy machine gun. Interestingly, there are two suppressed pistols one of which has a bright nickel colored suppressor. It should simply lack a finish which may indicate that it is a “homemade” suppressor. Arguably the most interesting piece in this picture is the scoped anti-materiel rifle. It is extremely similar to Steyr HS-50. It is also possible that this rifle is an Iranian copy of HS-50 called Sayyad or Palestinian copy called Ghoul. The Ghoul rifle is chambered in a larger caliber – 14.5x114mm. The Firearm Blog has recently published an article telling about the Ghoul anti-materiel rifle.
In another picture taken at a different angle, we see the silhouette of what looks to be a Czech ZB vz. 26 or ZB vz. 30 or Vz. 52 (Vz. 52/57) light machine gun.
In the next image, there are several AR-15 pattern rifles among the more common (for the region) AK rifles. Judging by the stock shape, existence of a forward assist and carry handle, and by the distinctive triangular handguard, at least the closest one must be an M16A1.
Here is also a video published by the Russian Federal News Agency showing other types of seized weapons and munitions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A-4pZWyxzs
Sources:
“Syrian Army foils rebel attempt to smuggle heavy weapons into East Ghouta (video)”. (2018, February 28). Al-Masdar News. Retrieved from: https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-army-foils-rebel-attempt-smuggle-heavy-weapons-east-ghouta-video/
Images from: www.almasdarnews.com. www.modernfirearms.net, www.thefirearmblog.com
AJWA Arms Company of Darra Adam Khel
As you may know, Darra Adam Khel is a town in Pakistan, which is known for domestic arms manufacturing. Information concerning the firearms made in this region is normally very scarce. However, there is a tendency of local shops to start using the internet as a tool for promotion. When doing a research for another article, I came across a facebook page of a Darra Adam Khel Company company called AJWA Arms Company.
Among many firearms posted on their page, there are several quite interesting ones which we’ll take a look at in this article.
The gun shown in the top image of this article is a Russian PPSh-41 with a stock adapter made to accept a pistol grip and a side folding stock borrowed from an AK rifle. AKs with such stocks have been made in Romania, Poland and East Germany. Another pistol grip is attached to the barrel jacket slots of the PPSh-41.
Below are more images from AJWA Arms Company Facebook page depicting some of their most interesting firearms (in no particular order).
We’ll keep following these companies and in case if they publish something interesting from the small arms perspective, we’ll report it to our readers.
Pakistan’s locally made Beretta 92 FS or M9
With the advent of 9 mm in Pakistan the markets were filled with imported 9 mm pistols. These handguns were imported in big numbers from China, Russia, Turkey, Philippines, Brazil, South Korea and Czechoslovakia (to name a few). And off course a scarce quantity of European and Amercian handguns, much coveted and wanted by anyone and everyone who could afford them, namely the Beretta, Sig Sauer, HK, Smith & Wesson, Springfield, Browning and Glock (which somehow has attained a cult status in Pakistan, for whatever reasons) made it to our shores. So it was obvious that the “Darra boys” had to make copies of the hottest selling items and the logical choice was Beretta 92 FS and Glock 19. So a lot of arms manufacturers started with the 92 FS thanks to modern machinery and methods. This small pictorial review will cover the 92 FS.
Pakistan’s locally made 7.62 x 25 Tokarev
The Tokarev (colloquially known as TT in Pakistan), received a cult following since its arrival in Pakistan somewhere in the late 1970’s, that somehow has still maintained its status as a fearsome self-defense weapon. In fact, during that period, post-Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the two weapons that made it to Pakistani markets were the AK-47 and the Tokarev pistol. For gun aficionados, no collection was complete without these two weapons in one’s inventory. The TT was a much sought after weapon, it was semi-auto, had a very potent round and the thing to possess.
Later Chinese, as well as Serbian variants of the Russian TT, found their way in the country. For quite some time the TT ruled as a weapon of choice till the venerated 9x19mm hit the markets and turned the tide in its favor as a caliber of choice. Around the early 1980’s Pakistani made TTs found their way into the local markets simply because these were inexpensive, the ammo was dirt cheap and available in thousands or perhaps millions. Even today the average Pakistani is confident and wants a TT as a trusted reliable weapon, the fact that it is easily available and inexpensive, around $ 20-35 only, adds to its popularity. Later these weapons started appearing in various shapes and sizes, which somehow made them appear more fearsome and attractive for the buyers. The weapon being reviewed is a local made TT, with a double stack magazine that increases its capacity from 8 to 18!! To make it more attractive this piece works only on full-auto!! Its gold plated and looks as much good as it feels good to hold in one’s hands.
Specifications
Caliber: 7.62 x 25 (.30 bore)
Length: 7.6″
Height: 5.3″
Barrel length: 4.6″
Magazine capacity: 18 rounds, double stack
Front blade, rear notch type sights
This particular piece is Fully Automatic
Weight: 1.15 kg
The weapon being made is a copy of the Chinese TT, and bears the words “Cal 30 Mauser, Made as Chine by Norinco”. Observe the gold plated, slide release, mag release, trigger and the barrel bearing. It adds to the looks of this finely finished handgun.
The magazine base plates are also gold plated and help to spruce up the looks on this TT. Observe the polished wooden grips.
Since the handgun is full auto it has a recess for fitting in a buttstock. This piece doesn’t come with one, but it can be made to order.
The barrel bearing is gold plated and gives a good contrast against the black finish.
The pistol has a standard front sight blade and rear notch fixed sights like the standard Tokarev.
The quality of workmanship isn’t all that bad. But one area in which the local weapons lack is good quality control. If this can be handled then they can really produce weapons which give consistent results.
This particular piece comes packed in an Aluminum box. Considering its features, look and price it isn’t a bad value for money weapon. TT’s have been around for quite some time, here in Pakistan. And now since POF is making 7.62 x 25 ammo so there’s choice of ammo to choose from Chinese, Russian and Pakistani and since ammo is inexpensive so TTs are common. So, for now, the TT is here to stay.
“Made in Darra” Webley and Scott .32 S&W Long
Nauman Afzal is a Pakistani based writer, and writes at his own very successful blog, My Random Ramblings as well. This is his first article for Silah Report.
In our part of the world, weapons have always followed a rather strange evolutionary path, if we talk about their development only. Darra Adam Khel or as I would like to call it, “Our Wild West” is the place where one can get a copy of almost any weapon made, at a price. The evolution of weapons here has always depended on the type of ammunition being used. In other words, it was the availability of a particular caliber of ammunition that dictated its development, unlike other places. That is akin to making cars on the availability of a certain kind of fuel. So in the 1960’s and 1970’s .32 ACP and .32 S&W Long were available in wide abundance throughout Pakistan. And one could either buy a foreign made weapon, which off course was expensive (as it is still today) or a Darra made revolver, which were available and still are being produced.
This particular piece is around 40 years old and is quite well made and kept. In those days many a “Khan” could be seen wearing this type of revolver across their chest with a dozen or more rounds inserted in the very belt holding it in place. Semiautomatic pistols were expensive and rare, so the de-facto choice was a Darra made wheeler, in .32 S&W Long, made to perfection. The local gunsmiths (who now have improved to the extent that they can and are in fact making copies of CQA the Chinese equivalent of AR15) perfected their skills to make excellent quality revolvers.
This little piece is an exact copy of the .32 Webley and Scott (Mark IV precisely), a top-break, seven shot revolver, single as well as double action brass hammer, a brass trigger and safety.
Caliber: .32 S&W Long
Weight: 720 grams approx
Action: SA/DA
Cylinder Capacity: 7 shots
Barrel length: 3.5”
Front and Rear Sight: Fixed
Top Break: With extractor for removing cartridges from the cylinder
Safety: Manual, Lateral Safety just behind the hammer
A dozen screws all along the body hold it in place, grips included. This revolver has its fair share of brass used in it; the hammer, trigger and the rear sight plate are made out of brass which gives it a shiny look when polished. The hammer, as well as the top-break lever, are knurled for a better grip.
Observe the Mark IV 32 marking over the left side on top of the cylinder, which is quite reminiscent of the original Webley & Scott. Other than this there are no markings or writings on the body. The hammer itself is pointed much like a nail or needle quite unlike the original Webley.
The revolver weighs 720 grams approximately, and in this size it is a good choice for a carry weapon, even nowadays. I have seen a few newer versions of this revolver selling for around Rs. 1500 that makes it around $ 15 plus or minus few today. (But off course .32 S&W Long is expensive here. ) The newer versions lack brass and hence give it a finish that appears quite dark in texture.
Frankly, I never tried disassembling one recently, but since everything is held in place by screws taking it apart is not an issue. But then there is not much point in taking apart a revolver. This particular piece has its grips changed, the original ones are made of poor quality plastic. The wooden grips were custom made for $3, both sides. Marking 32 on the inside the cylinder indicates its caliber.
These revolvers are known to stand out in reliability, a testament to the good quality workmanship in Darra. Since the advent of semi-auto pistols and the craftsmen ability to make good copies Revolvers are less in demand, still one can find them in the market. Somehow people tend to think that revolvers are inferior in performance as compared to semi-auto pistols.
This particular piece has been in my family and has passed hands from one generation to another, with no more than a hundred rounds fired through it. It now has an emotional value attached to it, and is held in much reverence amongst gun enthusiasts.
Diamond Arms Company of Darra Adam Khel
Darra Adam Khel is a town in Pakistan where the trade of many locals is the manufacturing of firearms and ammunition. It is normally hard to find information concerning any new guns of the local masters. However, some of these shops started using the Internet as a marketing tool and are now presented in social … Read more
Suppressed Tariq Handgun
This image appeared on a recent propaganda video with images attributed to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), or an Al Queda affiliate group. Among a collection of weapons seized by HTS from a Daesh cache is what appears to be a suppressed Iraqi Tariq handgun. The location of the seizure was in Idlib. The Tariq is an Iraqi … Read more
The “Carlo” of Palestine
A fatal stoning attack against a civilian car and its driver at the Jewish New Year eve, September 13th 2015, marked the semiofficial beginning of the “Third Intifada”, also known as the “Knife Intifada” or “Stabbing Intifada” or as more accurately could be could the “Individuals’ Intifada”. Unlike previous rounds of violence led by major terror groups like Hamas or militia groups associated with the Palestinian Authority, the “Individuals’ Intifada” attacks are almost exclusively done by lone wolfs or at most pairs of attackers, unlinked to any political or armed group. Mostly those attacks committed by young men and women are motived by social media networks.
The tools of those attacks are opportunistic by nature: knives, stones, vehicle-ramming attack etc. One of those tools is the subject of this article, the Carlo sub-machinegun. The Carlo (كارلو) is a homemade sub-machine gun slightly modeled and resembling the Swedish Carl Gustav M/45 (كارلوجستاف) – a well-known sub-machinegun in the Arab world with licensed produced by Egypt under the name ‘Port-Said’ and later under ‘Akaba’ & ‘Kara’ as the simplified versions.
As a sidenote the similarity in names and appearance between the real Carl Gustav M/45 and its watered down copy create great confusion among Israeli news organizations commonly mistakably identify and report a Carlo as factory made M/45. One news outlet even reported that the Sarona-market attack terrorist’s weapon of choice was a ‘recoilless rifle’! Clearly, the reporter copy-pasted from the first item Google had to offer when searching ‘Carl Gustav’ and came up with one of the recoilless rifles under the name of ‘Carl Gustav’.
History
Israeli police first encountered the gun at the beginning of the 2000’s in the hands of Arabs criminals in the West Bank as a self-defense gun and for celebratory gunfire. The gun, its manufacturing, and usage weren’t on the police high priority list as the phenomena seemed contained within the West Bank and as an inner Arab problem. Police operations at the West Bank also fall in the thick border line between the civilian police and the Israel Security Agency (‘Shin Bet’) areas of jurisdiction. Up until the latest Intifada, there was a minimal effort of both organizations to cooperate.
Several shooting attacks, the most notable is the June 8th 2016 attack at the Tel Aviv Sarona market where two gunmen armed with Carlos murdered four diners proved the guns efficiency at very short range attacks against unarmored people despite being inaccurate and unreliable (one of the shooters at the Sarona market attack was even caught on camera angrily throwing his Carlo after it jammed after only a few rounds).
Characteristics
The common feature all known Carlos share is the ammunition, all known guns are chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum, which is the by far the most common pistol cartridge in Israel and used by all branches of the military, law enforce agencies, government institutions, security, private security companies and private gun owners.
The magazines used are mostly Uzi 25 rounds magazines, inserted to a magazine well in front of the pistol grip. Pistols grips appear to be high quality factory made durable plastic M16 pistol grips as well as some M16 telescopic buttstocks when the guns are stocked. The barrels are smoothbore, usually very short, barrels which are not much more than regular steel pipes.
All Carlos are full auto only fired from an open bolt, ejection port is locate on the top side of the gun and a short charging handle is locate at the gun’s right side and it reciprocating when firing. The question of why have a right side charging handle for a gun mostly used as a machine pistol? A right-handed charging port will gain no value of a charging handle at the right side he can’t easily charge with or clearing jams without buttstock and handgrip.
Since the gun’s ejection port on top a charging handle and its slot cutout could easily place left side enabling the shooter reciprocate the bolt with left hand while holding the gun right-handed. No clear answer, the first option is by trying to leech of the M/45 popularity the makers of the Carlo also copied the location of the handle scarifies functionality in order to resemble the recognized M/45.
Second option is that machine pistol concealed under a coat is best placed left of the body in order to pull it quickly (by a right-handed), having a left side handle will poke the user side so right side handle is preferable. Another source of speculations is what appear to be sort of rectangular upper hunch on the top rear part of the gun which is quite common for the higher end Carlos. Its purpose is unknown, it raised a bit the rear sight but noting that required such large protrusion. It maybe housing of some sort of crude delayed blowback mechanism, probably leaf spring, used to lower the fire rate of fire and make it more controllable gun.
Yoel M. is a contributing writer for Silah Report, and is a firearms enthusiast based out of Israel. His first report on S.R. was about the Israeli “Hitchhiker” magazine.
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How Ruger P95s and Sig P2022s Got to Iraq
For a while now we’ve seen a number of Ruger 9x19mm NATO P95 handguns flourishing among the social media groups within Iraq. This isn’t a recent phenomena but still, the question remains over where they originated from. Daniel Watters, a noted small arms historian has provided us with some excellent context on the issue, even detailing the specific contracts that pushed 5,000 Ruger P95s, and 5,000 Sig Sauer SP2022s into Iraq.
Back in December 2004, the US Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armament Command (TACOM) posted solicitation W52H09-05-R-0067. They basically wanted 10,000 9x19mm pistols in a hurry, and were willing to place multiple contracts to fill it. Vendors were allowed to bid for as few as 100 pistols up to the full total of 10,000. The most telling portion of the solicitation was that they requested a price for the pistols to be shipped directly to Baghdad.
Before the end of the month. Ruger received contract W52H09-05-C-0058 for 5,000 P95, and SIG-Sauer received contract W52H09-05-C-0059 for 5,000 SP2022.
When outsiders saw the name Tank-Automotive & Armament Command, they assumed the pistols must be for tankers. Nothing could be further from the truth. A subordinate command of the Army Materiel Command, TACOM-Rock Island was responsible for all Army small arms procurement. It also handled orders from other US military service branches, and managed foreign military sales (FMS).
It turns out that the rush order was meant to arm Iraqi security forces ahead of the country’s first post-Saddam parliamentary elections in January 2005. Confirmation can be found in the government report “Iraqi Security Forces: Weapons Provided by the U.S. Department of Defense Using the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.
The report listed can be accessed here and lists the 5,000 P95s as being purchased for $1,271,700, and the 5,000 SP2022s being purchased for $1,756,550, both on December 12 2004. Both of these appeared to have been designated for the Ministery of Interior and the Ministery of Defense although it doesn’t specify which. We should also note that these 10,000 handguns were only a third of the 38,053 “Generic 9mm Pistols” that were on contract. What those other thirty-something thousand odd handguns were would have to take some researching.
Although very similar in appearance to a Sig Sauer handgun, our sources tell us that this is in fact a blank firing copy.
