Steyr GB

Rogak P-18, Steyr GB
Type Semi-automatic pistol
Place of origin  Austria
Service history
Used by See Users
Production history
Designer Hannes Kepplinger and Hermann Schweighofer[1]
Designed 1968
Manufacturer LES, Inc., Steyr Mannlicher
Produced 1970s, 1981–1988
Number built LES, Inc.: 2,300
Steyr: 15,000–20,000
Variants Rogak (stainless steel), Steyr commercial and military (matte blue)
Specifications
Weight 845 g (unloaded)
1285 g (loaded)
Length 216 mm
Barrel length 136 mm
Cartridge 9×19mm Parabellum
Action Gas-delayed blowback
Feed system 18-round detachable box magazine

The Steyr GB, is a double-action 9×19mm Parabellum caliber, large-framed semi-automatic pistol employing a gas-delayed blowback action. It was designed in 1968, intended as a replacement for older handguns in Austrian military service.

The weapon went into general civilian production in 1982, and in 1988 production ceased.

In the late 1970s an American company, LES Incorporated of Morton Grove, Illinois marketed the Rogak P-18, a close derivative of the Austrian original, but without great commercial success.[2][3]

Both weapons are now regarded as collector's items, the original (Steyr) model commanding higher prices in the American market.

Development

The original design introduced numerous novel features never before combined in a handgun: double-action mechanism (without safety); a gas-bleed delayed-blowback system; fixed barrel (that theoretically yields greater accuracy); polygonal rifling; and a reduced number of working parts.

To this list the Rogak variant added newly-fashionable stainless steel construction.

Despite an impressive list of innovative features—or because of it—the Steyr design did not prosper in the USA any better than in its country of origin.

Reception

Steyr's expectations of an Austrian military contract were upset with the victory of the Glock 17, which won military trials despite the novelty of its extensive employment of large high-strength polymer components while the 1983 US military pistol competition, in which the Steyr GB competed was won by the Beretta M92F. Consequently Steyr decided to re-focus on the police and civilian market.

While much appreciated by users trained and familiar with the weapon, and well received by customers who understood the mechanism what was intended to be a robust, accurate, reliable functional weapon when used with standard military (full metal jacket) ammunition the anticipated civilian sales remained low while major official (police) sales never materialized: between the American military's selection of the Beretta 92F, coupled with European military and police forces' selection of the competing Sig Sauer (226 full-size and 228 compact high-capacity pistols - the latter adopted by the US Army as the M11) led to a cessation of manufacture of the Steyr GB in 1988 after a total production of between 15,000 and 20,000 pistols - most of them commercial models.

Of the military models, 937 examples were exported to the United States.[2])

Rogak 18

In the early 1970s, Morris and Michael Rogak, Steyr importers, received a set of preliminary engineering plans for, and established a factory to produce, the new pistol under license. However reception of the American-manufactured version was close to entirely negative. Anecdotal accounts included:

In addition to the above it soon emerged that the Steyr GB gas-delayed blowback action, which has an inbuilt tolerance of wide variations in military - ie full metal jacketed - ammunition (a feature inherited from the gas-delayed blowback system intended to cope with late wartime difficulties in the ailing Nazi munitions system) meant that attempts to push the pistol to its limits by creating novel ammunition formulations met with frustration: either there was no perceptible difference between loads or when experimenters tried loading slow-burning revolver powders with characteristics quite unlike standard 9mm parabellum the weapons refused to cycle.

Rather than regard this as a strength of the design critics assumed this was a failing blamed on the aforementioned list of 'defects': 'excessive muzzle blast' (the gas action functioning correctly); the absence of an extractor (unnecessary when gas pressure ejected spent cases) or other case ejector... in consequence despite having maintained an enviable reputation for reliability and consistent performance in Austria, the consensus opinion among American civilian shooters was that the design was flawed.

The alternative explanation, it was ill-suited to tinkering, either with the weapon itself or different formulations of hand-made ammunition, gained little traction. While finding favour among professionals (including members of the US military who appreciated an accurate, robust, reliable weapon that would function reliably even when fed ammunition from foreign stocks of dubious quality) such users tended to be few and tight lipped with the result the pistol in both forms never recovered from a long, loud and lengthy drubbing by enthusiasts a polarization is still y evident in online debates.

Regardless of the merits or otherwise of the design both pistols are highly prized by collectors (those by Steyr attracting higher prices) and those shooting pundits who actually test-fired the novel weapon using standard ammunition (as opposed to the other way around). These shooters observed that the Steyr GB had remarkably low perceived recoil for a pistol of its calibre, that it was commendably accurate and utterly reliable.

Based on these reactions, it is reasonable to say that while generally well-received a lack of government support in the form of large-scale orders meant the design was properly understood only by service personnel and a minority of shooters who took the trouble to research the weapon and then employ it for its intended purpose.

Operating mechanism

The Steyr GB is a semi-automatic, blowback-operated firearm. It features a unique gas-delayed blowback locking system based on the Barnitzke system, first used in the Volkssturmgewehr 1-5,[4] and subsequently in the Swiss Pistole 47 W+F (Waffenfabrik Bern) prototype pistol.[5] The Barnitzke system uses gas pressure from the ignited cartridge and feeds it through a small port in the barrel in front of the chamber to retard the rearward motion of the slide.

This is accomplished by using the outside of the barrel as a fixed piston formed by the outside of the barrel, inside a moving cylinder formed by the inside of the slide, gas pressure in the space between them opposing the rearward motion of the slide until the gas pressure has declined (at which point the bullet has left the muzzle) thereby allowing the slide to continue its rearward motion.

Thereafter the Steyr GB follows the conventional semiautomatic cycle: opening the breech; ejecting the empty cartridge case; stripping a new round from the magazine; loading a new cartridge; returning to battery (unless the magazine is empty).[6][7]

Users

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.google.com/patents/US4010673
  2. 1 2 Fjestad, S. P. (1992). Blue Book of Gun Values (13th ed.). Minneapolis, Minn.: Blue Book Publications. ISBN 0-9625943-4-2.
  3. 1 2 3 Gangarosa, Gene, Jr. "Steyr's GB; Too Good Too Soon?". Originally published in: Warner, Ken (1993). Gun Digest 1994 (48th ed.). Northbrook, Il.: DBI Books. ISBN 0-87349-141-6.
  4. ↑ Popenker, Max R. (June 29, 2010). "Gustloff Volkssturmgewehr VG.1-5 rifle (Germany)". Modern Firearms. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
  5. ↑ Hogg, Ian V.; John Walter (2004). Pistols of the World (4th ed.). Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. p. 45. ISBN 0-87349-460-1. OCLC 56714520.
  6. ↑ Popenker, Max R. "Steyr GB (Austria)". Modern Firearms. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
  7. ↑ Hogg, Ian V.; John Walter (2004). Pistols of the World (4th ed.). Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. p. 329. ISBN 0-87349-460-1. OCLC 56714520.
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