VAG-73

The VAG-73 (Russian: ВАГ-73) is an experimental caseless machine pistol designed by Soviet engineer Vladimir Alekseevich Gerasimenko. The VAG-73 is the successor to Gerasimenko's earlier semi-automatic design, the VAG-72.

History[]

Vladimir Alekseevich Gerasimenko was an engineer working in an aircraft factory in the city of Kiev, and had constructed sports and combat pistols since 1942. In the early 1970s, Gerasimenko developed a 7.62mm caseless pistol cartridge, and developed two pistols chambered in this cartridge; the VAG-72 and the VAG-73, made in 1972 and 1973 respectively.

It was believed only one of each Gerasimenko pistol was made. They, alongside a small amount of 7.62mm caseless rounds, are currently in the collection of the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Design[]

The VAG-73 is a select-fire machine pistol developed from the semi-automatic VAG-72 design. The VAG-73 is blowback operated and features a pneumatic slide buffer that decreases the rate of fire. The chamber is deeper than the cartridge itself, and the breech face of the bolt inside the slide enters the rear of the chamber to act as a gas seal when firing.

The VAG-73 features a unique double-compartment high capacity magazine that holds a total of 48 rounds, essentially made up of two parallel 24-round double-stack magazines each with their own feed spring. When firing, the slide pulls the top rounds from both compartments forwards; the top round from the front compartment moves into the chamber, while the top round from the rear compartment moves into the top of the front compartment, taking the place of the round that entered the chamber. This means that the rear compartment is expended first when firing, then the front compartment is expended.

The VAG-73 has an ambidextrous fire selector above the trigger but no manual safety.

Ammunition[]

The VAG-72 fires a 7.62mm caseless pistol cartridge designed by Gerasimenko, which functions similarily to the Italian 9×25mm AUPO cartridge. The cartridge consists of a hollow steel projectile opened at the bottom, which would be filled with propellant and closed with a screwed-in brass base that contained the primer. When fired, gases from the propellant would push out from the primer's hole and push the entire projectile out of the barrel, and the brass base would engage the rifling.

VAG-73

Contents

History[]

Design[]

Ammunition[]

See Also[]

References[]

External Links[]