@historicalfirearms / www.historicalfirearms.info
In 1976, with criminal and terrorist activity on the rise the West German Federal Police launched a search for a new small, lightweight service pistol to replace their stocks of Walther P38/P1′s and various 7.65×17mm pistols.
Entries to the trials included the Walther P5, the HK PSP (P7) and the SIG Sauer P225 (P6). All three pistols performed well and saw various police forces adopt them.
Do you have a PSP manual from HK 1978?
Here’s a link to one, hope that helps!
Developed for the US military's Joint Service Small Arms pistol program, the HK XM9 was a refined version of the P7 pistol, initially developed for the West German Police pistol trials.
When the trials began in the late 1970s, Heckler & Koch submitted the P9S and the VP70. Trials officers rejected both of these pistols due to various issues with accuracy and ergonomics. When the second phase of trials was launched in the early 1980s Heckler & Koch submitted a version of their P7 pistol which had been successful in the recent West German pistol trials.
P7A10 XM9 submission with an extended 10 round magazine with lanyard loop (source)
Heckler & Koch submitted three versions of the pistol, the first in June 1981, was the P7 in its original spec. They followed this with the P7A10, simply a P7 with an extended 10-round magazine and finally the P7A13 with a double-stack 13 round magazine and a US-style magazine release. The P7A13 was later sold commercially as the P7M13.
The trials resumed in 1981 and continued until 1983. The winning pistol had to fulfil 85 specific requirements, of these 72 were essential and 13 were desirable. All four pistols submitted, the Beretta 92, SIG Sauer P226, Smith & Wesson 459M and the Heckler & Koch entry all failed. In 1984, the US launched a second round of testing with new entries including the Colt SSP, the FN Double Action Hi-Power, the Steyr GB, and another German entry the Walther P88. For this round of testing Heckler & Koch submitted the P7A13.
While the P7A13 performed well in the reliability, accuracy and mud tests it lost out to the Beretta 92 and SIG P226 which were both simpler and cheaper to produce.
Source:
Images: 1 2
In 1940, the Swiss began the search for a new semi-automatic pistol to replace the Luger P06/29. By 1943 both SIG and Waffenfabrik (W+F) Bern had developed designs. Bern initially offered the P43 series, a clone of FN’s High Power. However, by 1947 a new more unusual design had developed.
The W+F Bern Pistole 1947, chambered in 9x19mm, used a gas-delayed blowback action. The chamber had three gas ports which bled high pressure gas into a gas piston chamber beneath the barrel. This forced the slide to remain forward, and locked, until the pressure dropped in the gas chamber allowing the slide to travel rearwards cycling the action. The P47 had a single control, the safety, at the rear of the frame. Unlike the P43 series, the P47 had a heel magazine release.
This was the first post-war use of the Barnitzke system, developed during the war by Karl Barnitzke. It was initially used in a retrofitted MG34 and later in the VG 1-5. Similar systems were later used in Steyr’s GB Pistol and perhaps most famously Heckler & Koch’s PSP/P7.
W+F Bern assembled approximately 10 to 15 P47s, however, just like the earlier P43 pistols, the Swiss military rejected the P47 after trials and SIG’s S.P. 47/8 was eventually adopted in 1949 as the Selbstladepistole SP/49 (commercially offered as the P210).
Sources:
Images Source
Handguns of the World, E.C. Ezell (1981)
Designed by Alex Seidel and Tilo T. Moller in the early 1960s the HK4 was Heckler & Koch’s first foray into the pistol market. Edmund Heckler and Theodor Koch (later joined by Seidel) founded H&K in 1948. They initially manufactured parts for commercial products including sewing machines, bicycles and typewriters. In the mid 1950s H&K began manufacturing military equipment and began working to improve the roller-locking CETME rifle for adoption by the West German military. They began production following the G3′s adoption by the Bundeswehr in 1959. The 1960s saw them continue to expand their small arms development and a pocket pistol for the police and civilian markets was the next logical step - the result was the HK4.
The most interesting feature of the design is that it could be converted to fire four different calibres. Calibre conversion kits containing barrels, springs and magazines were available for .380 ACP, .32 ACP, .25 ACP & .22LR. The pistol had a double action/single action trigger and used a simple blowback action with an unlocked breech and shared a number of design traits with the Mauser HSc. Seidel had been a designer at Mauser and had helped develop the HSc. Like the earlier HSc, the HK4 had a slide mounted safety, a small partially exposed hammer and a heel magazine release. The HK4 fed from single stack magazines with the .380 ACP magazine holding seven while the other three calibre’s magazines held eight. The HK4 had a stamped sheet steel slide and an aluminium frame and weighed approximately 480g.
In November 1966 H&K were granted a patent protecting their calibre conversion system and how the firing pin could be aligned to strike both centerfire and rimfire cartridges. The following year in 1967 H&K unveiled the HK4 onto the market. The pistol initially saw steady civilian sales and won some police contracts. However, with the increasing dominance of 9x19mm for self-defence and service use it was quickly overshadowed by more modern pistols.
Patent diagram showing the positioning of the firing pin for centrefire (FIG.1) and rimfire (FIG. 3) [source]
The breech face plate was removable and had two holes which allowed the firing pin to strike both centerfire (lower hole) and rimfire cartridges (upper hole). The patent diagram above shows how this works. Later HK4 extractors are universal and will extract spent cases of all four calibres.
Designed as a pocket pistol for both civilian and police use the HK4 was in production from 1968 until 1984. In 1971 Harrington & Richardson imported 2,000 .380 ACP HK4 pistols, selling them as a limited run commemorative pistol to celebrate their 100th anniversary. With H&R markings and a gold-plated trigger and inscription plate they shipped in a velvet lined wooden box with a .22LR barrel conversion kit. H&K manufactured between 38,000 and 40,000 HK4s in two major variant forms, with 12,000 purchased by the West German Police. The HK4 represents Heckler & Koch’s first attempt to enter the pistol market, it was soon followed by the P9 and ambitious VP70.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3 4
H&K HK4 Manual (source)
‘Automatic Pistol’, T. Moller, US Patent #3227046 (source)
‘Breech Bolt with Firing Pin Operable at Different Angles’, T. Moller & A. Seidel, US Patent #3287843 (source)
The Heckler & Koch Model 4 Pistol, Unblinkingeye.com, S.Klein & E. Buffaloe (source)
This month’s recap of the recent posts is quite a long one. I’ve been away the past two weeks but plenty of content has still been posted. Everything from Samuel Colt and Robert Adams to a .30 Carbine FAL prototype. My series of posts on suppressed weapons continues (with more to come) which has so for covered the De Lisle, M3, the Chinese Type 64 and Hiram Percy Maxim’s early designs. Another series of posts on West German police pistols concluded with posts on the Walther P5, SIG P6 and H&K P7.
Lots of other posts including several contemporary Cold War videos, a look at the Battle of Verdun and a great interview with R. Blake Stevens, author and founder of Collector Grade Publications. There was also a look at the Walther Armee Pistole, the unusual Huot-Prefontaine Machine Gun and Danuvia 39M & 43M submachine guns. Also worth checking out is the most recent edition of the Historical Firearms Bookclub
Thanks again for following and reading the blog. Thanks for your support, much more to come and some new projects in the offing! if you have any questions, suggestions feel free to send me a message here.
Pistols:
Mauser HsP
Walther P5
SIG-Sauer P6
H&K P7
Beaumont-Adams revolver 1857
Beaumont-Adams revolver 1851
Simson 9mm Prototype
Walther Armee Pistole & Development of the P38
Smith & Wesson Model 39 ‘Hush Puppy’
Rifles:
FN’s .30 Carbine Prototype
Winchester-Burton Machine Rifle
Maxim’s Prototype Recoil Operated Rifle
The De Lisle Silenced Commando Carbine
Submachine Guns:
MP5SD
Sionics Incorporated & The MAC-10
M3A1
Silenced STENS
Danuvia 39M & 43M
Type 64 Suppressed SMG
Suppressed M3
Machine Guns:
The Kynoch Schwarzlose Machine Gun
The Huot-Prefontaine Machine Gun
Inventors and their Guns: Robert Adams
Inventors and their Guns: Samuel Colt
Inventors and their Guns: Hiram Percy Maxim
The Royal Navy Enters the Cold War Computer Age
1970s British Army Recruitment Film
Musketry & Combat Practice Firing (1935)
Interview With R. Blake Stevens of Collector Grade Publications
Driant’s Chasseurs and the Defence of Bois des Caures
Pathe Newsreels from Verdun
Catherine Leroy: The First Female War Correspondent To Make a Combat Parachute Jump
Heckler & Koch began development of the P7 in the early 1970s, finalising the design in 1976. Developed in response to a West German Police specification for a new small, lightweight pistol to replace their aging Walther P38 stocks. The police specification limited the new pistols weight to 2.2lb (1kg), it was to be no larger than 180x130x34mm and was to be quick to draw and safe to carry with a round in the chamber. The P7 was initially designated the PSP (Polizei Selbstlade-Pistole or Police Self-loading Pistol) by Heckler & Koch before receiving its police designation - P7.
Heckler & Koch was not the only firearms manufacturer to respond to the police specification with Walther, SIG-Sauer and Mauser also initially offering designs. Walther entered what later became the P5, Mauser entered the HsP (hammer self-loading pistol) and SIG-Sauer offered the P225 - later designated the P6. While Mauser’s design was ultimately rejected the other three pistols were all deemed fit for service and adopted by various German police departments.
Heckler & Koch P7 (source)
Developed by Helmut Weldle the PSP/P7 had a number of fascinating features including a gas delayed blowback system. This utilised the propellant gases to push a piston beneath the barrel which prevents the slide moving backwards and the action opening until the pressure drops sufficiently (see image #5). The PSP was also ambidextrous, had a very low bore axis and was one of the first pistols to use polygonal rifling which was believed to improve muzzle velocity. Despite the pistol’s 110 degree grip profile the PSP/P7′s magazine sits at an almost 90 degree angle in order to improve feed reliability.
The PSP/P7′s best known feature was perhaps its squeeze cocking mechanism designed by Weldle in the early 1970s. Early proof of concept prototypes tested the cocking mechanism built into the rear of the grip of a Heckler & Koch Model 4. Later evolutions saw the cocking bar incorporated into the grip’s front strap. To cock the PSP’s striker the operator had to firmly grip the pistol with an initial force of between 12 to 15lbs. Unlike the P5 and P6′s decockers which had to be manually operated to render the weapon safe, the P7 was automatically decocked when the operator’s grip on the pistol was released.
Patent drawing for the PSP’s squeeze cocker system (source)
The cocking mechanism allowed the pistol to be brought into action rapidly, without requiring the operator to manually cock or disengage a safety. This fulfilled one of the German police requirements of being able to bring the weapon into action quickly. The P7 was chambered in 9x19mm and fed from an 8-round magazine. Later models such as the somewhat rare straight blowback P7K3 were chambered in .22LR, .32 ACP and .380 ACP with calibre conversions available. The P7M10, introduced in 1991, was chambered in .40 S&W and fed from a 10-round magazine. Early pistols used the European-style heel magazine release.
The PSP was produced from May 1976 until 1978; with only 239 pistols manufactured in total. A transitional group of 10 pistols marked either PSP or P7 were then made before serialised production of the P7 began in 1979. All three of the competing pistols from Walther, SIG-Sauer and Heckler & Koch were deemed acceptable for service with the various West German state and Federal police forces. Each state was allowed to purchase which pistol they prefered. The P7 was the most expensive of the three pistols but was selected by the elite Federal counter-terrorism and special operations unit GSG9 and a number of state police forces including: the North Rhine-Westphalia Police’s Spezialeinsatzkommandos (SEK) or Special Operations Command, Baden-Württemberg Police’s plain clothes officers, and Saxony and Bavaria’s police forces. These contracts saw Heckler & Koch’s total P7 production going solely to the police for the first two years.
An officer armed with a P7 covers a colleague while he searches a suspect - taken from H&K promotional material (source)
In 1982, Heckler & Koch introduced the P7M13 (see image #1) which featured a 13-round, double stack magazine and a frame mounted magazine release behind the trigger. It was unsuccessfully offered up for the US’ Joint Service Small Arms Program and the later XM9 pistol trials. A version of the pistol chambered in .45 ACP, the P7M7, for the American market was planned and even mentioned in Heckler & Koch’s promotional material but the plan was not pursued, due to cost and manufacturing complexity.
While the P7 was a very well designed and manufactured pistol, it had a number of issues. The rapid firing of approximately 30-35 rounds caused the gas cylinder to heat up. This heat was then transferred through the frame into the inside of the trigger guard making the pistol difficult to handle. Practically speaking this may not be a problem as prolonged, rapid fire engagement of an enemy with a pistol is uncommon. The problem was addressed in later versions of the pistol with the introduction of a plastic heat shield. Cleaning of the gas piston was also difficult and Heckler & Koch provided a special small bronze brush.
The P7 is widely regarded as one of the best handguns of its generation, it was designed and manufactured to be durable and very reliable in order to meet German police requirements for a service life of at least 10,000-rounds. The pistol was also adopted by military and police special operations units from Mexico, Iceland, South Korea, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Greek Airforce. The P7 was in production between 1979 and 2008. It has since been replaced in German police service first by the Heckler & Koch P8 and subsequently the Walther P99Q.
Sources:
Image Sources: 1 2 3 4 5
German Patent for the P7
The HK P7 In Print (source)
Jane’s Infantry Weapons 1983-1984, I.V. Hogg (1983)
The History of German Police Pistols, S. Makoa (source)
HK P7: A Triumph of Technology over Marketability?, D. Tong (source)
Heckler & Koch P7 Pistol, American Rifleman, (source)
