The Pleter 91, also known as the HS-91 (Hrvatski Strojnika 1991, lit. "Croatian submachine gun 1991"),[1] is a Croatian insurrectionist submachine gun.
History
The year was 1991. The dissolution of Yugoslavia left Croatia with little weapons to arm their troops in time for said country's war of independence. An embargo prevented the newly formed state from legally buying weapons from across seas, which left Croatia with no choice but to design their own weapons, leading to the Pleter. The weapon, while based on dated designs, was apparently liked by its users. It was apparently produced for special forces and is intended for use in close quarters.[2]
Design Details
The Pleter heavily copied characteristics seen in the Sten, such as a removable barrel assembly, a very similar bolt and recoil spring assembly, and an open bolt firing mechanism, in spite of a vertical magazine instead of a horizontal magazine. The weapon is also said to be quite heavily based on the Belgian Vigneron submachine gun.[3] Early prototypes had a wooden pistol grip, but the pistol grips on production models were made out of plastic. The weapon had a simplified barrel assembly when compared to the Sten, fixed with an inbus screw.
To further simplify construction of the weapon, it was decided that a fire mode selector and a safety be omitted from the design, making the weapon only have a simple sear-spring-trigger combination. The weapon fires from an open bolt, but has a relatively low rate of fire for a submachine gun, at 630 RPM, so single shots are possible by briefly pulling the trigger. The Pleter has fixed sights, which have received criticism by some users. The magazine well was modified to fit an Uzi magazine, which is easier to load than the magazines used in a Sten and are less prone to jamming.
Variants
- Pleter 91 Prigušen
This was a version of the Pleter 91 with a permanently attached silencer.[3]
Trivia
- The Pleter was named after the town of Pleternica in Slavonia, Croatia, where the OROPLET factory, the factory which produced the Pleter 91, was based.