I don’t really like commies much, but I sure do love the guns they produced. The Russians learned very quickly at the hands of both the Finns and the Germans how deadly effective submachines guns could be in combat. The Russians needed to develop their own submachine gun pretty quickly, and of a simple enough pattern to be easily manufactured.  Luckily, George Shpagin was able to come up with a design that worked, and worked well.
The PPSh41 is a blowback operated submachine gun that fires from an open bolt. Chambered in 7.62x25mm. It accepts a 34 round box or 71 round drum magaine, and has a cyclic rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute. Earlier models had select fire capability, but later models were full auto only. The model here is showing with the drum mag. The Soviets discovered drum mags were too cumbersome to use, and not reliable enough under combat conditions, so in 1942 they developed a box magazine.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=S5v2x2jbKrU[/youtube]
That’s quite a burst. I believe there are a fair number of these that are transferrable out there.
Any idea what a PPSh-41 that gave me many anxious moments in Korean war is worth today? Is there a PPSh-41 collectr’s club?