Posted on 01/28/2018 5:22:09 PM PST by Elderberry
During the Vietnam War, American troops discovered a wide range of Communist-Bloc small arms in service with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies. One of the more interesting and little-known firearms used during the conflict—but well-remembered by many American veterans of the Vietnam War—is the North Vietnamese K-50M submachine gun. It represented the Vietnamese ability to modify and locally produce effective infantry arms in simple cottage workshops. The K-50M used the Soviet PPSh-41 (produced by the Communist Chinese as the Type 50 SMG), chambered in 7.62x25 mm Tokarev, as the basis for the home-built submachine gun. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong gunsmiths shortened the barrel jacket of the Type 50 and installed a more advanced front sight. The wooden buttstock was replaced by a combination pistol grip and retractable metal wire shoulder stock. It is a handy little submachine gun, well-suited to the needs of a Viet Cong guerilla.
Technical assessments from the wartime NVA or VC are rare, but I do have an ace up my sleeve when it comes to small arms of the Vietnam War. His name is Capt. Dale Dye, USMC (Ret.), a veteran of three tours of duty in Vietnam, who is well-known as an actor and technical advisor in military-themed Hollywood movies. He once told me “I’ve either fired or been fired upon by almost every firearm used in the Vietnam War.” When I asked him if he had any specific memories of the Vietnamese K-50M, he shared this story, a personal encounter with a little-known submachine gun:
“The first time I saw a K-50M submachine gun was the morning after a fight we had north of Quang Tri in late 1967. Moving through relatively heavy bush, we stumbled into an enemy unit moving in the opposite direction. It was
(Excerpt) Read more at americanrifleman.org ...
I have one too. Probably the only gun I have ever heard of which is better finished on the inside than out.
But it shoots well and I can hit pretty good with it.
Thank you NRA for putting American Rifleman in my mailbox each month. Damn good magazine (the kind you read :).
I meant that in a good way.
It is a fine gun. Supposedly the firing pins are fragile and the clip which holds the grips on is prone to breaking.
Either part is easy to replace if it ever does happen.
I have a Romanian TTC that’s almost as old as I am. It’s loud and accurate, with a surprisingly decent finish. That 7,62x25 is a nasty little ice pick of a round.
We had a whole lot of 7.62mm Tokarev ammunition in our battery (long story) so we had plenty to play with, test-firing that K-50 outside our wire. It fired very quickly and we noticed a second set of holes in the ground above where we were aiming. It turned out to be the fired cartridge cases! The bolt hit them and knocked them straight in front of the weapon, forming a line above the bullet impacts.
I don't remember who ended up keeping it but many years later I traveled as a tourist back to Vietnam and while visiting a museum in Danang, I saw a K-50 in an open rack in one display and showed it to my wife. I looked around for a guide or a guard and didn't see any, so I picked it up and showed how it worked to my Missus. Just that moment, the guard showed up and he was less than happy with me..But I wasn't given any trouble about it and we went on the rest of the tour.
A better weapon than the M3 Greasegun but no match at all for an M-14.
My Father’s battalion was sent into Berlin not too long after the Russians captured it. I had a Mosin Nagant and decided to ask him if he had any info from the Russians he met.
He told me he never saw a Russian with a bolt action rifle. They were all carrying those little sub machine guns. He also said they were very proud of them.
Tokarev. When you have to shoot a guy AND the three guys standing behind him.
L
Lol. That’s about right.
I’d take a Thompson in cosmoline thank you very much.
My little sister's ex MIL had 2, probably still has 'em.
I remember the gun shows in the late 70's had MAC10s and S&W76s stacked table high for $200s and $300s.
And not near as many Thompson's going for about 3-4x as much.
My have times changed.
Very interesting. Like being shot at with a .357 magnum at a high rate of fire. Not good close up.
“We had a whole lot of 7.62mm Tokarev ammunition in our battery...”
Honesty, my favorite round! Getting expensive now unfortunately. It used to be so cheap!
We left our position north of Hill 55 to go to the DMZ to support Operations Hastings and Prairie for a month, then when we reoccupied our position, we found that the VC used our bunkers for their ammo storage.
We found 25,000 rounds of Tokarev ammo and the K50 was the only weapon in our battery that used it. We had a lot of fun shooting it!
Now for a sillier story: I had a captured SKS and the 7.62 X 39 ammo was scarcer at the time but I did find 100 rounds or so of Chinese green tracer. I had my SKS with me when a sniper opened up on us from about 500m with green tracer - so I fired a round of green tracer right back at him.
There was a pause of thirty seconds or so and our sniper fired another round at us - and shot one back at him.
He tried one more time and I promptly shot another green round.
At that point, he gave up - he must’ve thought that his rounds were ricocheting straight back to him each time he fired!
Semper Fi and Welcome Home
Well, I’m glad you came home in one piece. Thank you for your service. . . I only wish you secretly sent home about 15,000 rounds of that ammo and would be willing to part with it real cheap!
Uh, more or less one piece: got shot and spent 7 months in the hospital. Recovered fine though - then spent another 24 years in the Corps.
Wish I could have brought the ammo home too - but I was lucky to bring ME home.
Another user for the 7.62 X 25 was our sniper: his backup weapon was a Mauser Broomhandle he carried in a shoulder holster. Whenever we got into something too close and too hot for his bolt action rifle, he’d break out the Broomie and let fly with a big grin on his face.
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