[ MPi-81 IFV Model ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am today visiting Mr Joschi Schuy,
author of a couple of excellent books on Austrian pistols.
We're taking a look at some of the guns from his collection.
And one here that is completely,
well it's Austrian, but otherwise unrelated to the subject of his written work, is the Steyr MPi-81.
Specifically the version made for
Steyr's Saurer infantry fighting vehicle, or armoured personnel carrier.
This was introduced because Steyr
was contracted to build a bunch of APCs for the Austrian army.
They had firing ports, and so they needed a firing port weapon.
Naturally Steyr is going to equip their own vehicles with their own guns.
And so they made a version of the MPi-81 submachine gun specifically to go in these vehicles.
Now I have a previous video out there on the MPi-81.
This is a very Uzi-like submachine gun, very simple.
Check out the former video if you haven't seen it yet, I will link it at the end of this one.
But they made a ... number of significant changes, some of which may not be obvious,
in order to equip this into an infantry fighting vehicle.
So, let's take a closer look, and let me show you what changes they made.
It seems a little bit counter-intuitive that the armoured vehicle version of the weapon
actually has a longer barrel than the standard version.
The standard MPi-81 barrel ends basically right here.
Well, the thing is, there needed to be a way to secure this into the firing port of the vehicle.
And what simpler way than essentially a bayonet connection?
So what looks like a bayonet lug here
is actually a locking attachment for the Saurer vehicle firing ports.
So you've got an enlarged section of the muzzle that will fit, and then this locks it into place.
You can see that they have threaded the barrel here, both in front and behind,
so that you can just screw this attachment in to the correct point,
and then tighten it in place to keep it there.
Now these guns are left in the vehicle, and they are fixed in the vehicle.
And you don't want them just hanging horizontal like this when not in use,
but you do also want them to be readily accessible.
And so what they did was first ditch the front sling swivel,
because it's simply not necessary, you're never going to be slinging this.
They left the rear sling swivel and actually attached ... an elastic band
from the rear sling swivel up to the ceiling of the vehicle.
So the gun was going to hang up and mostly out of the way when not in use.
And when you needed it you would grab the grip,
pull the thing down against tension on this band.
That's why it still has a stock in it, you can extend the stock ...
just like the standard version of the MPi-81, and you can then do some shooting with it.
Now you've probably noticed that there's a scope sitting on top of this.
That was done again so ... you have a vision ... hole in the firing port,
it doesn't quite line up so well with the iron sights.
And frankly iron sights are going to be difficult to aim with in this sort of situation.
Much easier to use a weapon like this with an optical sight.
And this is actually a scope that is very similar to what was used in the Steyr AUG.
The AUG of course was adopted in 1977, this is the MPi-81, 1981.
So the AUG predates this, and the soldiers are going to be both used to the optic
and the technology is there.
The scope is 1.5x power magnification,
and it is the same plain circular doughnut reticle that was used in the AUG.
So something that would be readily familiar to the Austrian soldiers riding in the vehicle.
So obviously we've got mounting points here that are tall enough to easily clear the iron sights.
And then one last modification: we've got this metal tab here which is there to mount
a brass catching bag, so you don't have brass all over the inside of the vehicle.
So each of the Steyr vehicles included four of these guns.
The vehicles could actually carry 10 men, but had four firing ports equipped with MPi-81s.
And then it's worth pointing out that, unlike for example the US M231 port firing weapon,
these could be pulled out of the vehicle very easily.
You just unclip the strap on the back, unsnap it from the firing port, and pull it out.
You've got a shoulder stock, you've got a regular grip, regular magazines,
the internals are identical to the standard guns.
You in fact have better sights than a regular MPi-81
because you've got the irons as well as this optical sight.
And the long barrel certainly isn't going to really hinder anything.
As opposed to the 231 which has no stock and no sights on it.
So really a pretty nice, multi-purpose sort of gun.
It was really cool to get a chance to take a look at this.
Obviously these are very uncommon, they were only made for the vehicles.
Not a lot of them got out into the civilian market after the fact.
So a big thanks to Mr Schuy for the opportunity to take a look at it and show it to you guys.
If you're interested in Austrian small arms, his books on Austrian pistols
cover not only the really cool early mechanically-operated pistols,
but also the much more modern handguns adopted by the Austrian army, like the Steyr GB.
So check those out if you're interested. They are in German,
but well worth looking through even if you can't read the text.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.