The SPSh-44 (''26-мм сигнальный пистолет СПШ-44'') is a Soviet signal pistol.
History
The gun was designed by
G. S. Shpagin
Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin (russian: Георгий Семёнович Шпагин; 17 April 1897 – 6 February 1952) was a Russian weapons designer. He is best known as the creator of the famous PPSh-41 submachine gun, as well as working with ...
as a replacement for the previous models of the Red Army
signal pistol.
[Игорь Суханов, Борис Фёдоров. Взлетает красная ракета... Сигнальные пиротехнические средства отечественного флота XVIII - XX вв. // журнал "Калашников. Оружие, боеприпасы, снаряжение", № 2, 2002. стр.28-34]
In 1943 he made first version of the gun - ''26mm SPSh-43 flare (signal) pistol'' (''26-мм осветительный (сигнальный) пистолет СПШ-43''). In January 1944, The second version of this pistol was made - ''SPSh-2'' (''СПШ-2'').
After tests and trials, in 1944 SPSh-2 flare gun was officially adopted as the new standard Red Army signal pistol. In May 1944 it began
mass production as ''SPSh-44 signal pistol''.
Later it became the standard flare gun in all
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...
countries.
In the mid-1970s, experimental cartridges
for immobilization of wild animals for SPSh-44 signal pistol were made and tested.
Design
The SPSh-44 is a single-shot
break-action smoothbore flare gun.
Variants
* OSSh-42 (''ОСШ-42'') - the first test prototype with 140mm barrel (1.09 kg)
* Pistolet sygnałowy wz. 1944 - copy of SPSh-44, made since 1948 by
Zakłady Metalowe im. gen. "Waltera" in
Polish People's Republic
The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
[26 mm pistolet sygnałowy wz. 1978 i wz. 1944. Opis i użytkowanie. Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1985.]
* Type 57 - copy of SPSh-44, made in the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...
* Keserű Muvek Rubber Protector - is a single-shot traumatic pistol manufactured by the
Hungarian company " Keserű " by reworking the SPSh. It has separate loading with a 28-mm
rubber bullet
Rubber bullets (also called rubber baton rounds) are a type of baton round. Despite the name, rubber bullets typically have either a metal core with a rubber coating, or are a homogeneous admixture with rubber being a minority component. Altho ...
and a
blank cartridge
A blank is a firearm cartridge that, when fired, does not shoot a projectile like a bullet or pellet, but generates a muzzle flash and an explosive sound ( muzzle report) like a normal gunshot would. Firearms may need to be modified to allow a ...
.380 Knall, and can be owned without lincense in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
Users
*
*
[26-мм сигнальный пистолет Шпагина (СПШ образца 1944 г.)]
/ref>
* [«''26 мм пістолет СПШ - 391 - 1944-1977''»Розпорядження Кабінету міністрів України № 108-р від 29 лютого 2012 р. "Про утилізацію стрілецької зброї"]
/ref>
References
{{Reflist
Bibliography
* 26-мм сигнальный пистолет (СПШ) обр. 1944 г. Руководство службы / Гл. артил. упр. Вооруж. Сил СССР. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1946 (тип. им. Тимошенко)
* 26-мм сигнальный пистолет (СПШ) обр. 1944 г. Руководство службы / Воен. м-во СССР. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1950 (тип. им. Тимошенко)
* 26-мм сигнальный пистолет (СПШ) обр. 1944 г. Руководство службы / Воен. м-во СССР. Mоscow: Voenizdat, 1952
* Дополнение к руководству службы. 26-мм сигнальный пистолет (СПШ) обр. 1944 г. - 1979 г.
External links
SPSh Flare Pistol
/ Internet Movie Firearms Database
The Internet Movie Firearms Database (IMFDb) is an online database of firearms used or featured in films, television shows, video games, and anime. A wiki running the MediaWiki software, it is similar in function (although unaffiliated) to the I ...
Pistols of the Soviet Union
Flare guns
Izhevsk Mechanical Plant products