| Home Nation of origin: People’s Republic of China Ammunition: 7.65 x 17 mm Operation: blowback or single shot Weight 1.02 kg Length 225 mm Length of barrel 89 mm Magazine capacity 9 rounds Muzzle velocity: 181 m/s By its very nature, the pistol is an ideal assassination weapon. It is lethal when used correctly, small, easy to conceal and quick to point and fire, so it is not surprising to learn that the pistol has long been the preferred weapon of the undercover killer and political assassin. The pistol does, however, have one inherent drawback that usually presents no particular problem, hut quite often can. That drawback is the loud report produced by the pistol as it fires. A killer who wishes to draw no attention to his (or her) presence would not want to use such a noisy weapon, but the killing efficiency of the pistol is such that it often has to re main the preferred weapon. Under such circumstances a silencer has to be fitted to the pistol involved. The term ‘silencer’ when applied to any firearm is something of a misnomer. Even the most efficient silencer applied to the muzzle of a pistol or other such weapon will serve only to muffle the firing report, and some degree of sound will still be produced. The best that can usually happen is that the silencer masks the firing report to such an extent that the resultant sound is unrecognizable as a shot being fired. Silencers also have the ad vantage that they can obscure any indication of the direction from where a muffled firing sound was produced. Some small- arms authorities prefer to use the term ‘moderator’ rather than silencer, as a result. In any case, pistol silencers tend to be large and bulky things that are usually rather inefficient. Even so, they have been used on many clandestine occasions. Pistols designed from the outset to be ‘silenced’ are still rare, and few examples can be readily cited. There was the British Welrod pistol of the Second World War, but until the Chinese Type 64 silenced pistol appeared in the West, via some devious route, during the late 1960s there were few other similar weapons. The Type 64 was designed from the outset (exactly by whom within China is still not known) to be a true assassination weapon, with few operational roles to fulfill other than close-range silent killing. It was an odd ‘one off’ when it first appeared, and remained so until its stable mate, the Type 67, appeared a few years after. To take the Type 67 as the more modern example, the Chinese silenced pistols have much to attract those with an interest in firearms. While it visually resembles a conventional pistol in many ways, the Type 67 reveals its intent by the large tube that surrounds the short barrel. This conceals a silencer (or moderator) system that extends forward of the muzzle, which is thus concealed well within the silencer housing. As the bullet leaves the muzzle, some of the propellant gases are allowed to expand within an enclosed chamber that contains a series of wire mesh baffles over a perforated sleeve. The bullet has to leave the weapon through a series of rubber discs that contain the bulk of the propellant gases, and so the greater part of the sound is absorbed inside the weapon and only a slight report can be detected from even a close distance, and virtually none from the sides or rear. The sound produced by the Type 67 (and earlier Type 64) is further reduced by using a low power cartridge that is unique to these two pistols. It is a rimless 7.65 x 17 mm cartridge that can not be used in any other weapon. Being low-powered, it largely avoids the high-pitched supersonic firing report of most conventional rounds, but the low power is a trade-off in penetration terms. The low power means that for effective employment the pistol has to be used at what are virtually point-blank ranges, but that is apparently deemed acceptable for an assassination weapon. That the short range is accepted is marked by the provision of only the most rudimentary of fore and rear sights. To keep down the mechanical sounds of the weapon slide reciprocation and other mechanical happenings, both the Type 64 and Type 67 can use two methods of operation. For really silent operation it is possible to feed a round into the chamber, and a rotating bolt is then pushed home manually using the slide until lugs on the bolt ensure that the weapon is safely locked for the instant of firing. After the round is fired, the slide is retracted manually to eject the spent cartridge case and to feed a new round as the slide is pushed forward again. However, it is possible for the mechanism to operate semi-automatically using a simple blowback mechanism by moving a selector bar. In this mode the slide movement and feed produce some operating noise. The earlier Type 64 differs from the Type 67 mainly in having a much bulkier housing for the silencer system. It is also heavier (at 1.81 kg) and less well balanced to handle, being somewhat muzzle heavy. It has been mentioned that the Type 64 and Type 67 are assassination weapons, but it is conceivable that they could have a more viable military role. Special forces often need to remove enemy sentries or other unfortunates without drawing attention to their presence, and silenced pistols could be used for this purpose. That was certainly the role envisaged for the British Welrod which was used by Commando and similar units until 1945. The Welrod was withdrawn soon after that date, for it became only too apparent that assassination weapons are double-edged devices. Once they fall into the wrong hands they can be used just as effectively against their perpetrators as by them, and for this reason other similar weapons are not widely distributed. Thus the Chinese silenced pistols remain just about the only examples of their type in service today - that is unless the Soviet Spetsnaz troops have something similar. The only other known weapon in this category is the seldom-encountered North Korean Type 64 silenced pistol (which is based on the old Browning Model 1900) and that was probably produced to foot the same bill as the Chinese Type 64 and Type 67. |