PM-63 RAK

The PM-63 RAK is a Polish 9 mm submachine gun, designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc in cooperation with Tadeusz Bednarski, Grzegorz Czubak and Marian Wakalski.

Development
The weapon concept was conceived in the late 1950s at the Warsaw University of Technology, however the technical aspects of the submachine gun’s design were later assumed and completed by the state-operated Łucznik Arms Factory in the city of Radom, where it was produced until 1977. The PM-63 was introduced into service with the Polish Army and police forces in 1967, as the ''9 mm pistolet maszynowy wz. 1963''. Small numbers of the weapon were exported to several Arab countries, Vietnam and the former East Germany. A slightly modified, unlicensed version of the PM-63 was produced by the People’s Republic of China as the Type 82, which sold the weapon to politically allied nations in Asia.

Design details
The RAK (short for Ręczny Automat Komandosów – “Hand-held automatic commando firearm”) is a selective-fire straight blowback weapon that fires from the open bolt position. The firearm feeds from two types of double-column box magazines: short 15-round or long, 25-round magazines (the magazines are seated inside the hollowed pistol grip). After the last cartridge has been fired from the magazine the slide is locked open on the slide catch. The pistol grip covers and folding vertical forward grip are made from a synthetic polymer material.

The submachine gun consists of the following main components: the barrel, frame (integrated with the shoulder stock, pistol grip and folding vertical forward grip), slide, return spring and spring guide rod and the magazine. The external bolt (slide) contains a spring and buffer inertia rate-reducing mechanism designed to reduce the weapon’s rate of fire. The slide wraps around the barrel up to the muzzle end of the barrel and is also equipped with an extension that serves as a recoil compensator that deflects muzzle gases upwards to counteract the natural rise of the weapon when firing in automatic mode. The compensator is shaped like a long spoon and can be used to cock the weapon with just one hand, by pushing the compensator up against a rigid surface until the slide locks back. A spring-loaded extractor is located inside the slide and a raised side surface of the seated magazine acts as the casing ejector. The striker firing mechanism has a firing pin fixed inside the slide. The trigger mechanism (lacking a fire mode selector) is equipped with a two-stage trigger that enables semi-automatic fire (after pulling the trigger back to the first stop and releasing it rapidly) and continuous fire (pulling the trigger back completely to the rear and holding it back). The manual safety mechanism that secures the firearm against accidental discharge (the safety toggle is located on the left side of the weapon’s frame, aft of the pistol grip) immobilizes the slide in its forward, rear and intermediate positions, that the slide reaches when the weapon is being disassembled or assembled. The folding metal stock (made from flat bar) is ended with a pivoting shoulder pad. The weapon’s barrel, which can be removed by the operator in field conditions has a chrome-plated bore and 4 right-hand grooves at a 252 mm (1:10 in) twist rate. The flip rear sight (open-type) with range settings for 75 m and 150 m and front blade are fixed to the slide's top surface, making aiming the weapon, particularly in rapid fire mode very difficult.

The PM-63 uses the 9x18mm Makarov pistol cartridge. The weapon can be deployed like a regular pistol, one-handed. Additional equipment supplied with the submachine gun includes three spare long magazines and one short magazine, a holster, sling, magazine pouch and a cleaning rod and lubricant bottle.

Variants
In 1971 a version of the PM-63 was developed in Radom for the 9x19mm Parabellum round, designated PM-70. Only several units of this version were built in a prototype pre-production batch and further production was abandoned due to lack of demand. A variant adapted for the .380 ACP (9x17mm Short) cartridge (known as the PM-73) and a silenced version were also built, but neither was produced serially.

Users

 * 🇨🇳 China
 * 🇨🇺 Cuba
 * East Germany
 * Vietnam