"Sturmgewehr 44",1944,\"?Germany" Kurz."Nazi Germany (WWII)

Considered to be the first true assault rifle, the StG44 was the first weapon to see widespread action that combined the portability and powerful cartridge of a rifle with the automatic firing rate of a machine gun. Previous, similar designs such as the American Thompson submachine gun and M3 submachine gun had fired less powerful pistol cartridges and were, therefore, not true assault rifles.
But was used during (WWII).

 

I have an MP 43, MP 44 and and Stg 44. the MP 43 is my shooter.
Here they are along with some spare parts.
Sarge

 

I am certainly not a gun enthusiast by any means, but it is an ominous looking weapon.

 

Just fired one about a week ago. The in-line stock does indeed direct the recoil straight back. Most of the sub-guns I have tried muzzle climbed. That means most of your rounds stay on or near your target instead of going over it. By the way, they're heavier than they look!

 

I don't think the 44 series is particularly heavy. It weighs 11# which is only slightly more than a Garand.
It is also very well balanced and carries as comfortably as any rifle I have including the Garand.
Sarge

 

Let's see, when fully loaded the Garand has eight rounds while the StG44 has 30 (smaller) rounds. However, I'm not really criticizing since the heavier weight has the advantage of soaking up recoil. Still, the weapon is noticeably heavier than similar sized smgs.

 

An SMG is firing pistol ammo , and even the overpowered ones the Italians used for the MAB were close to useless at 100m, "short" rifle cartridges like the MP44 used were effective up to the range beyond which the average infantryman is unlikely to hit anything. So I would not compare the MP44 to an SMG, a more honest comparison would be the full power cartridge BAR that was also a single man "automatic rifle" though it was not intended to be a "standard" rifle issued to most grunts.