Pleter M91 Submachine gun 9mm The civil war and break up of the former country of Yugoslavia left the Croatian part of that country with virtually no weapons. Thus, they endeavored to manufacture new designs, as the arms embargo hindered their ability to purchase them on the world market. The Pleter M91 9mm submachine gun was introduced in 1991 as one of a handful of Croatian designed submachine guns. In fact, the Pleter was the first indigenous Croatian produced submachine gun. The word Pleter is derived from Pleternica, which is a city in the Slavonian part of Croatia where the weapon was produced. The open bolt design clones the British Sten submachine gun of World War II fame, but incorporates a vertical rather than a horizontal magazine. The receiver consists of a steel tube, which includes a butt cap and a horizontal pin to capture the bolt and recoil spring. These are held captive at the rear end of the receiver. The forward portion of the receiver houses the barrel nut, which interfaces a removable barrel. The similarity to the Sten is obvious. The magazine housing is located at the bottom portion of the receiver directly under the ejection port. The ejection port is located directly on the top of the weapon behind the barrel. The magazine housing is a very long and sturdy affair, which is produced specifically to act as a solid forward grip housing. Many other submachine gun designs incur problems utilizing the magazine as a forward grip. The stress allows instability in feeding due to the weak interface of the magazine. A steel box is welded under the receiver, which contains the fire control parts including the trigger and sear. An aluminum pistol grip is fitted over this box. A telescopic butt stock is connected to the rear portion of the pistol grip via two cross pins, which include a locking device. This wire stock closely mimics the U. S. designed M3 submachine gun stock, also of World War II vintage. The bolt and recoil spring appear to be a direct copy of the British Sten submachine gun. The charging handle is located at the top of the receiver, which is easily accessible by the non-firing hand. A rudimentary safety consists of a cutout in the bolt handle slot in the receiver, which locks the bolt to the rear, although variant models of the Pleter utilized a grip safety. A two position feed magazine of Uzi design was typically incorporated into the Pleter submachine gun of 25 and 32 round capacity. A large number of variants existed that interfaced the Swedish Carl Gustav M45 36 round magazines and 72 round Soumi submachine gun drum magazines. This was engineered into the system to utilize the existing magazines available. In reality, this was a gun for all magazines that the country had on hand at the time. The fire selection is available in full automatic fire only as there is no provision for semi automatic fire. The cyclic rate of fire is 630 rounds per minute in automatic fire. but since the cyclic rate of fire is low it is possible to pull off semi automatic fire with practice. The sighting system exhibited on the Pleter is a very simple flat blade front sight adjustable for windage and a L-shaped single aperture non-adjustable rear sight. The left side of the magazine housing exhibited a stamping with the words Pleter 91 and a Croatian shield clearly visible. Typically, the finish of the weapon was a salt blued matt non-reflective finish. Where stealth was paramount, a sound suppressed Pleter M91 was available. This weapon consisted of a silencer, which covers the ported barrel thereby reducing the velocity and sound signature of the fired ammunition to a level inaudible at 50 meters. Specifications: - Cartridge 9x19mm parabellum - Operation Blowback open bolt - Feed 25 and 32 round two position feed box magazines - Weight 3.150 kg - Length stock retracted 642mm / stock extended 699mm - Barrel 220mm - Sights Front blade rear single aperture set at 100m - Rate of fire 630 rounds per minute Informations by André DESMARAIS, Andre.DESMARAIS@interieur.gouv.fr Laboratoire de Police Scientifique de LYON (Forensic laboratory) France Photos and information from: Roger Desbois

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