Here's another...

by A K Church, Saturday, November 23, 2024, 01:37 (37 days ago) @ Paul

Dominican Republic also made an M14/FAL clone, looked like an M14 but wasn't.

Your gun was made at San Cristobal, and is usually called the Cristobal Carbine. It's a lever delayed blowback .30 Carbine firing from an open bolt, so you could call it an assault rifle, but some folks consider it an SMG due to the open bolt. Made as a fixed and folding stock gun.

Pal Kiraly designed it. Hungarian. Worked for SIG in the 20s and 30s, went back to Hungary to work for Danuvia in WWII.

SMGs were his thing. He devised a carbine looking looking, very fast firing SMG for SIG. MKMO if memory serves me right, and some were sold to The Vatican of all places. Using a lever delayed blowback.

Hungary got a quite large, long barreled SMG in 9x25 Mauser "Export". Picture .38 Super and then some. Made as a fixed and folding stock gun in small numbers, it had a good reputation for reliability on the Eastern Front.

His 1950s design for the Dominican is visually a copy of a the Beretta M38 SMG series, ugly but very well regarded. Near straight line stock, dual triggers for semi and full auto. The Dominican sold a fair many all over the Caribbean in dribs and drabs, and used it themselves.

I had a chance to look at a parts kit once, taken from a well used gun. Finish was in bad shape, but the quality of machining was high. The magazine was a proper double position feed, thick at the feed lips, and way better shaped the the 30 round M1 carbine mags.

They aren't well known in the US. The only movie where I've seen them show up was the William Friedkin effort "Sorcerer".