Milsurp After Hours

It’s a PE57, the civilian version of the Sturmgewhr 57. It allows those not in the army to participate in the traditional shooting competitions. The STGW57 was the Swiss army rifle that followed the K31 and preceded the STGW90. It’s chambered in 7.5X55 and even retains the iconic beer keg charging handle that’s reminiscent of the K31’s bolt handle.


Front and rear sights can be folded when not in use



Up front the barrel is machined to accept rifle grenades (good for any target rifle). It also has a bayonet lug to equip the bayonet (same). Note the bayonet in the correct leather frog. The ones with the buckle are from earlier eras.


Shiny

Both the STGW57 and the STGW90 (and their corresponding civilian versions) are able to launch the same rifle grenades and so the barrels are the same diameter despite the different calibers. This coupled with the same bayonet lugs means that the bayonets are interchangeable.

Farther back we see the bipod folded against the barrel shroud.

Just pull the legs down to deploy them. the bipod is pretty flexible to allow the shooter track a target. The rifle can even be rotated to one side or the other. must make a mag change quicker.

The bipod is attached by a ring.

By depressing this button the ring is freed...

… and can move to the forward position.

The front sight is a protected blade. that point on top holds a tritium vile for night sighting.

The rear sight is something else. It handles elevation and windage. Aiming at night is accomplished by attaching a tritium sight to the top of the rear sight. It’s normally stored in the pistol grip. Sadly, I don’t have one. It’s okay it’s okay! Expired night sights are a side show anyway. Here, I’ll perk you up with something special. Look closely at the base of the rear sight. Soo that conical cavity? That’s to mount a scope. When the sight is down, duh.

The Swiss used a special mount one these rifles. The front of the mount fits into that angle you see. As far as I know, the PE57 rifles all had the ability to mount scopes. However, only STGW made for designated marksmen were so equipped. This is something to be mindful of if you find a rifle like this for sale. If it has a PE before the serial number on top of the receiver it should have the mounting points. If it’s a surplus rifle or made from a parts kit with an A prefix (for Armee) you should examine the rifle for the mounting points if this is important for you.

That circle farther forward is the loaded chamber indicator.

Safe and semi auto are the only options.

Here is the nonreciprocating charging handle. Oh, that white thing is a visual cue for the range official to see that the rifle is set up for semi only.

Oooh, fold down trigger. It is often times referred to as a “winter trigger” and while it probably is handy for gloved shooting it was designed to protect the shooter’s hand while launching grenades. It also makes for a lighter trigger pull when target shooting.

Range Officer: “Is that a winter trigger on your strumgewher?”

Me: : “No, it’s a grenade trigger on my target rifle.”


The magazine is made of aluminum and has a 24 round capacity. The Swiss defended their confederacy for a long time armed with rifles that had six round magazines. The 24 is a nod to ammunition packaging.

It rocks and locks in.
Done!
-ArchFluffy

Nice to see you post about your pride and joy that you spoke of on the Sunday group chats before. Well done post. Looks the part of the Swiss heavy duty warrior....like a modern version of the BAR of 75 to a hundred years ago. From one of the photos looks like the importer was some company in Scottsdale Arizona. Interesting. Once upon a time importers of milsurp style weapons were all on the East Coast it seems.

Awesome post Artch, I feel the LOVE.
I put a search in on NaturaBuy here but only came up with a PDF of the full instruction Manual for 1,50€!

Looks like you have one but if not, I will get this and email it to you.

Great find, I do like black guns. I take it you live in the States as that doesn't look like something that's
allowed elsewhere.

Found this about the stamp......


"Wednesday, March 18, 2009, A Legendary Gun Dealer Passes.

Marty Mandall died this morning. He was 81.

Marty got out of the army, and started in the gun business in the 60s, back in his native Brooklyn. In 1974 he lifted his business whole, and moved it to old town Scottsdale; one of the first big gun stores in the area, and the only one in Old Town.

I knew Marty pretty well, and he was a character. I was a Mandalls customer, then a friend of the family, then an employee.

I helped shut the store down in 2004; in one of the biggest auctions of class III and rare and unusual firearms in years... of course it was also one of the biggest collections of cheap pre'68 European pocket pistols ever as well...

... because that was Marty Mandall.

Marty really was a legend... for both good and bad reasons. As a business owner he was a disaster. Marty was, to put it gently, nuts. He mostly hired fellow nutjobs and malcontents to work there.

He had a casual disregard for safety, accounting, record keeping, following the rules in general.

He also loved life. Every minute.

Marty would cheat you. Straight up. He wasn't exactly greedy, and there wasn't any malice in it... it wasn't even about the money; it's just that he thought of the whole thing as a game. As far as he was concerned if he skinned you raw, it's because you didn't play the game well enough.

On the other hand, if you did, you could get some spectacular deals (and I did).

Marty ran the shop more as his own private collection than as a business. On the guns that he particularly liked, he would set the prices so high that no-one would want to pay them, so he could just keep the thing, stare at it and fondle it.

Either that, or he'd buy 10, or 20, or 50 of the things; without regard as to whether he could sell them or not.

When we shut the shop down, we had over 200 $2000 plus Hammerli target pistols. In fact, for years, Marty was Hammerlis only importer in the united states; and was their number one dealer all through the 70s and most of the 80s. ***

In direct contrast to his other business practices, he donated a bunch of pistols to olympic shooting clubs, and jr. marksmanship teams.

A friend of mine is a former IDF sniper. He came to the U.S. in the mid 70s with his American wife; and they had no place to live. Marty put them up for a few months while they got their feet under them.

Marty donated a great deal of money and goods to support Israel; something most people never knew.

He would buy the absolute craziest things. When we cleaned out the store to get ready for the auction, we found hundreds of pairs of rubber waders... as in wade into a river waders. Thousands of left handed holsters. Hundreds of GI 1911 hammers in their original packaging.

In the same case, we had $3000 Swarovski scopes, and $30 swift ones.

We had dozens of these $3,000 swiss target rifles. Marty loved 'em but we only ever sold one in the entire history of the store.

He bought dozens of these special editions, collectors editions, commemorative editions; some worth thousands, some worth... basically nothing.

On the other side of things, he bought dozens of these truly awful Turkish shotguns, which were only good as wall hangers.

He loved gold plated pimp guns.

He loved screwing with peoples minds.

He loved dirty jokes, and bad puns, and single entendre, and slapstick.

He had rather severe obsessive compulsive disorder; but hid it from everyone until it got out of hand toward the end of his life. It was the driving force behind his collecting mania, and yes it was a mania (hundreds of rubber waders remember)

Marty was one of the last of the breed... for good or ill; and the world is poorer."

.

Vern. Arch lives in Florida.
They can be owned in Switzerland obviously but we can have them here in France - just harder to get the paperwork.......

Arch's PE57 looks like the poster child for guns the anti gun people want banished. Even in it's semi auto state it looks fearsome.

I love the look of that gun, even more "evil black gun" look than my HK91 or ARs......

.

Thanks, gang!

Niner, yes, The Sunday crew got a sneak preview. I actually got it back in November but kept it secret until Christmas. It was hard to do!

Duncan, thank you for the kind offer of a manual. I'm good though.

Niner Delta, thank you for the cool info about the importer. I love little tidbits like this. Yeah, (as said) I live in Florida.

Guys, I love the look of it too. You are making me blush. It looks like an LMG.

Again, thank you for all the love!

You have got to get that to the range! I have lusted for one of those since 1973 and would really like to see if they shoot as well as they look!