The M50 Reising Submachine Gun: HnR does a subgun
You have heard of the M3 Grease Gun, the M1 Carbine, the Garand, the Tommy gun, and almost every other firearm that the US military used in World War 2. Nevertheless, one gun you may not have heard of is the quirky little series of subguns produced by H&R. These guns, named after their inventor, Eugene Reising, were one of the great shouldn’t have beens of the War.
This Coast Guard beach patrolman of WWII is probably better served by the dog than the M50
In 1940, with the clouds of war gathering on the horizon every arms engineer was looking to build the next great gun. Eugene G. Reising came across the idea to produce a simple submachine gun that could be made cheaper that the then current issue Auto Ordnance M1928A1 Thompson. The Thompson was a beautifully brutal weapon that was made famous in the Prohibition era. The problem with the Thompson was that it was a heavy beast, at nearly 11-pounds empty. Furthermore, beauty was expensive—making the Tommy gun almost $225 per copy, which, over 70 years ago, was a sizable sum. Reising was a pretty clever engineer and had previously worked with John Browning on several designs. He thought he could do better than the Tommy gun and started work on his design….
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
