Meet “Carlo”
Authorities in the West Bank in two separate raids turned up gunsmithing tools and a small cache of 15 illegally made Swedish K type submachine gun clones.
The Times of Israel is reporting that Shin Bet, which is Israel’s equivalent of the FBI, together with troops from the Israeli Defense Forces is raids earlier this month on locations in the Palestinian cities of Yabad and Nablus, located a number of locally made burp guns with ammunition as well as the machinery to produce both.
According to the report, the guns were based off the Carl Gustav, though they appear to be updated with M4 style collapsible stocks because, hey, this is 2016.
Produced by Carl Gustav SG for the Swedish Army, in its day the M45 submachine gun was well received and considered the top of the line when it came to compact power.
It was designed during World War II, put into production in 1945 (thus the M45 designation) and labeled Kulsprutepistol. While Sweden was its primary user, several examples were acquired for use by the U.S. government for use in Vietnam and while in American hands, this long and near-unpronounceable text simply became “the K gun.”
The OG K-gun. About the only thing the Palestinians have kept is the tubular receiver, magazine release and inner workings
Sweden cut off the supply to Washington in protest over U.S. policies in Vietnam but the K went on to be produced by Smith and Wesson as the M76 domestically. Egypt produced them as the “Port Said” subgun and they keep turning up in old weapon’s caches in the West Bank dating back to the 1950s sometimes in pretty rough shape (link in Hebrew).
With a long history of using these simple to make subguns, Palestinian gunsmiths have been cranking out their own version for years. The first locally-made Carl G popped up in 2000 and models have been found that use threaded barrels and easily replaceable automobile oil filters as suppressors.
Even with the factory closed this month, there seem to be a few still left in circulation– or the possibility that there are other workshops still in operation.
The mag on this one would appear to look larger than 9mm– though the ejection port does not. Note the AR pistol grip.
A stockless version with an abbreviated barrel similar was captured along with a vintage Beretta M1934 from two Palestinians attempting to ram an IDF checkpoint this week.
