Biography of Igor Stechkin

The marine “carapace” for the anniversary of the famous gunsmith on November 15 has been the anniversary of the birth of an outstanding gunsmith Igor Yakovlevich Stechkin, a real Tula craftsman, with a non -standard approach to construction. Its developments were always original, you can’t confuse them with anything. Stechkin is known, first of all, as the creator of the legendary automatic pistol.

His surname was, in fact, a niche brand, extremely respected among special forces. The pistol, developed at the end of X and withdrawn from production in ten years, is still successfully used by specialists without any modernization. Few weapons samples can boast of such longevity. Stechkin successfully combined work on mass projects with the creation of an unusual weapon, showing the ingenuity of the famous Tula left.

What is only a port-saga gun, made on the instructions of the special services in the midst of the Cold War. We talk about Stechkin, a man and a gun, and his amazing inventions. Igor Yakovlevich Stechkin - from childhood, he was distinguished by technical abilities and a craving for the armor’s craft. At the age of 14, the future designer accidentally fell into his hands with a broken Nagan, which the teenager successfully repaired, and without any experience and skills.

Stechkin decided to create a pistol of his own structure, while still a student of the arms and machine-gun department of the Tula mechanical institute. His thesis was called the “self -loading pistol of 7.65 mm caliber”, and Nikolai Makarov himself, who created the most famous Russian pistol, was the scientific director. Apparently, then Students Stochkin originated the thought of “strengthening” the kobovnaya weapon, to do something between just a gun and a submachine gun.

This has not yet been produced in the USSR. They did not, but at one time actively used. It is enough to recall only the famous “Comrade Mauser” - the German Mauser C96 Development of the year, the weapons of revolutionary sailors, commissars, travelers - in a word, those who were unprotected to wear a rifle, and the weapon required a powerful one. The Mauser was called the “Karabin Pistol”, a wooden holster served as his butt.

The shooting of Stechkin’s pistol with a butt with the beginning of the 20th century that came the most advanced gunsmiths became clear that the battlefield would conquer automatic small arms. And the main task is to make it manual, individual. In the First World War, serial light machine guns and the first experimental submachine guns were already used. Then the Austro-Hungarian manufacturers came up with a weapon that shot in bursts and placed in a pocket, modifying the Steyr M pistol and supplying it with a wooden holster-rack.

In the year, and Mauser added an automatic fire option to his famous karabin pistol. Only now, the expansion of submachine guns in X, one might say, buried the idea, already not to say that very popular. But, running ahead, let's say that Igor Yakovlevich did not resurrected the outgoing nature, but rather anticipated the era of the second birth of such a weapon that came to the end, in favor of the need for an “reinforced” pistol, the very path of development of automatic small arms played during and after the Second World War.

Shpagin’s Soviet submachine gun was too heavy and bulky for crews, for example, combat vehicles or for officers as a constantly wearing personal weapon, but simply a self-loading pistol is not powerful enough. This project became his first and main in life. In the next year, the summer young specialist has already presented the first prototype. Fortunately, the work really fascinated him, it was exactly what he wanted to do.

Photo: The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was inspired by Igor Yakovlevich, first of all, by the design of his teacher Makarov, who was just then working on the task of creating a new compact pistol for the command personnel of the Soviet Army. The similarity of APS and PM, and external and constructive, it is easy to see, they also use the same cartridges.

Combines two pistols and ease of maintenance. But there are also unique features, among them - a two -row store for 20 rounds and, of course, the ability to automatically fire. The store’s capacity and the increased barrel length made Stechkin’s gun more powerful and effective on the battlefield. With the founder of the genus of reinforced pistols-Mauser-the development of Stechkin, unites the holster-account at first wooden, and in the latest models from pressed plastic.

A risk of a handle, it turns a simply powerful gun into a submachine gun and significantly increases the accuracy of shooting. In the year, after a series of refinements, the novelty was adopted under the name of the 9-mm automatic Pistol Stechkin APS. In the same year, its serial production began at the structure of Rostec today at the Vyatka-Polyansk weapons plant, which is today in the structure of Rostec.

Already during tests, and especially during further operation, it turned out that due to the long trunk and optimal internal ballistics, the sound of APS shot is quieter than that of PM.Of the other advantages of APS, a small recoil and a relatively small toss of weapons when fired, which allows the experimental arrow to firing with single shots with a large accuracy of hits and at the same time control the consumption of cartridges.

As for the accuracy, the Stechkin pistol also wins compared to PM, and this despite the use of a cartridge with low ballistic qualities and a small angle of inclination of the handle. Equipment with a departure of the rate of shooting gives Stechkin good handling even when shooting in bursts of shots per minute. But the APS army did not take root as a standard weapon.

Just seven years after launch in the series, in the year, the issue of Stechkina was stopped, and the bulk of the army pistols was in warehouses. The fact is that during operation, some distinctive features of the APS, making it just unique and unique, turned into shortcomings. Due to the heavy holster, the ass, which was supposed to make fire from it accurate, wearing Stechkin with you is inconvenient.

The mass of weapons without cartridges and a kobura-raid is 1.02 kg, the holster weighs another half. In addition, we still need to wear four equipped spare stores in pouches, with 20 rounds in each. The length of the barrel, another dignity of Stechkin, also caused discontent among many. As a result, the total length of the pistol was a mm, and with a holster another mm.

For comparison, the length of the PM is equal, 5 mm. In addition to all this, the appeal with Stechkin requires skills and training, the handle with a small angle of inclination does not allow fire to be firing “instinctively”, enthusiasm. To carry such weapons with you in peacetime is an extra spending of efforts. And automatic shooting is also terribly wasteful - cartridges “fly away” instantly.

Photo: Tula State Museum of Weapons in case of military operations for effective fire for officers on the battlefield and crews of combat vehicles you still need more powerful weapons. Instead of the development of powerful pistols, the military eventually decided to follow the path of shortening the Kalashnikov assault rifle and supplying it with a folding butt.

As a result, Stechkin was sent to “resignation”, but did not leave the service. When his worthy tasks were, he returned to duty. For example, during the war in Afghanistan, in combat clashes on the tight streets of the Stechkin’s villages, he was just in its place. Therefore, at the beginning of X its production was even temporarily resumed. Well, the special forces never said goodbye to the development of Igor Yakovlevich, specially for them was created and APB Automatic Pistol Sundant - an APS option with a silencer.

In years, in connection with the growth of banditry, the police required something more serious PM. With street shootings, Stechkin has an important advantage over an automatic machine: his pistol bullets are less ricochet. This is relevant for various special operations, the release of hostages, the detention of criminals. APS is still in service, in particular, as personal weapons of Russian air groups in Syria.

And in various special forces this already legendary pistol remains their fans. Igor Yakovlevich himself all his life did not lose interest in the creation of weapons not for everyone. In addition to noiselessness, he was also interested in the “disguise” of weapons under an ordinary household item. The most unusual development of Stechkin is a pistigan pistol made on the instructions of the special services.

Outwardly, it differed from the usual portsigar only with a trigger. An unusual weapon from Tula: from a shooting portsigar to a space pistol with the help of a unique SP-2 cartridge, developed by Stechkin himself, the TKB pistol-portrait provided a silent and smallest shot. And not even one, but three. The aiming range of weapons is 10 meters, and from five meters toy in appearance, weapons pierced three pine boards.

Photo: The Tula State Museum of Weapons Igor Yakovlevich came up with a more compact model of Portusigar - TKBA, in which the gun could only be in three muzzles. The weapon was trivial, which gave the arrow the opportunity to quickly make three shots - reloading of such a miniature and unusual model required certain work and time. By the end of his life, the designer Stechkin, the author of 60 developments and more than 50 inventions, who took part in the creation of anti -tank guided missiles "Fagot" and "Competition", returned to the pistols, and again to the rifle weapons - revolvers unusual in our time.

His last invention - the special revolver of Stechkin - the students finished it without him. Stechkin worked, even when he could no longer get out of bed, and managed to do almost all the main design work. The drawings were brought to him by his students. Here is such a devotion to the beloved business and a certain symbolism - it all started with a revolver who accidentally got a summer boy ....