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Q&A: All About Submachine Guns (May 2025) (Ad-free)
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This month's Q&A theme is submachine guns:
0:00:41 - Do different nationalities have culturally distinctive submachine guns or gun features?
0:04:25 - What was the first SMG? German or Italian?
0:06:11 - Magazine loadouts for submachine guns
0:08:08 - Why is the MP5 still viable and popular today?
0:11:09 - Do SMGs still have a role in light of short carbines and .300 Blackout?
0:14:55 - Would 10mm close the gap between SMG and rifle?
0:20:19 - Why no SMGs in .357 Mag or .44 Mag?
0:22:35 - Why is the Sten magazine bad, and what makes a good SMG mag?
0:27:01 - Does the US military still have any issued SMGs?
0:28:06 - Did the Sten really have problems running away?
0:30:16 - Why no British SMG before WW2?
0:32:21 - Difference between PCC and SMG
0:34:46 - Why re some 9mm mags straight and some curved?
0:36:18 - Why are people still making simple blowback SMGs today?
0:38:13 - Why so little development of open bolt SMGs today?
0:40:15 - Coupled magazines for the UD42
0:42:50 - Where would one go to learn to shoot submachine guns?
0:43:58 - Without Knob Creek, are there any more national SMG matches?
0:45:04 - The MP5 trigger is pretty bad - is that normal?
0:46:17 - What would SMG development have done if battle rifles stayed in vogue?
0:47:11 - Mass-production SMGs not in 9mm? (And also not in 7.62x25 or 45ACP)
0:48:53 - Most fun full-auto .22?
0:49:52 - Does the quality of first-gen SMG manufacture have a benefit?
0:51:12 - Is the PDW dead?
0:54:07 - The specialized Remington-Thompson .45 cartridge
0:55:43 - What SMG for time travel to medieval Europe?
0:57:00 - Why no US SMGs in .38 Super prior to WW2?
0:58:55 - Why not more bayonets on SMGs?
1:01:01 - Magnet-delayed or magnet-buffered designs
1:04:47 - Burst limiter utility in machine pistols
Comments
Jason Mercer
I feel that an aspect of the debate that you missed is the power relative to barrel length of supersonic .300 blackout - in fact the only reason I own one is for the short barrel performance of supersonic loads, specifically the 110gr Barnes TTSX. This load produces 2100fps at the muzzle of my SBR’s 7.5” barrel, and (based on ballistic calculators) should still be going fast enough to have some expansion even at 300yds. The micro carbines such as my AR SBR, the CMMG Dissent, or Sig Rattler, are the same size as a 9mm SMG while still maintaining equal or better performance to the M1 Carbine.
WayneWiiki
all war is economic.
Bruce Brodnax
1:01:01 -- The problem w/ magnets is that you'd need modern rare earth magnets to have any hope of enough Teslas or Oersteds or whatever the unit is called to provide enough force to hold the bolt closed. Great! But then there's the fact that those are extremely brittle [that shiny nickel-chrome coating one sees on them isn't for looks, it's to keep the dang things from crumbling apart in use!] and then that is compounded by repeated sharp shocks are going to cause the little magnetic dipoles inside the material to realign themselves w/ the existing pervasive magnetic field, ie: that of the Earth. That's how they made the 1st magnets: iron bar aligned N-S in a fixture, get the apprentices to beat on it repeatedly w/ hammers for an hour or two [however long it took to wear out the apprentices & keep them out of trouble, really], bend it into a horseshoe, and now you had a weak horseshoe magnet that was sufficient to treat the needles for the compasses you wanted to build. That was centuries before we had even the barest clue of what alloys made for better magnets, better "permanence," greater strength, etc.
Bruce Brodnax
At 49:55 -- the only "value" to the 1st gen, quality manf. smg is that virtually anyone w/ a small machine shop can turn one out (given a supply of barrels), while the 3rd gen stamped guns require volume production to justify the co$t$ of stamping dies, rolling mills for sheet metal supply, etc. etc. In short, the 3rd gen smgs are only cheaper in volume, and you need a whole industrial infrastructure to achieve that. If only we ALL had the GM Guide Lamp Division to call upon when we had need of it! 😄
