Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and we are taking a look at a SIG PE-57 today.
This is the semi-auto civilian version of the Swiss Sturmgewehr 57,
which was, well, adopted by the Swiss in 1957 as a replacement for all of their straight-pull, bolt-action rifles.
Now the Swiss had actually started developing machine guns based on the German MG42 with its roller-locked action.
They started working with this pretty quickly after World War Two,
and the rifle here was kind of an offshoot of that development program.
So in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in fact all the way through the mid-1950s,
the Swiss military was interested in getting a semi-auto combat rifle.
And there were a bunch of experiments done at the Waffenfabrik Bern plant as well as SIG,
a whole bunch of weird designs came out. The SK-46 is an interesting one from that period.
There was actually the AK-53, which was ... pretty much the only blow-forward
semi-auto combat rifle anyone ever seriously tried.
But eventually a guy named Rudolf Amsler, who was the Director of Engineering at SIG,
he basically took their MG 53, which was the roller locked adaptation of the MG42,
and converted it into a rifle like this, which was originally the AM-55 rifle.
And instead of being actually roller- locked, made it delayed-roller blowback.
Which is the same exact sort of system that you have in the HK G3, HK91 series of rifles.
So, there are a number of differences between this rifle and the German G3s.
In general this thing is a little more over-built. You'll see when we take it apart, the trunnion is bigger,
the rollers are bigger, the bolt is bigger.
It's designed from the ground up for what's basically a 7.62 NATO sized cartridge.
Now being Swiss, this was actually adopted in 7.5x55mm, that's the standard Swiss service round.
... They attempted to export it to other countries in a number of different varieties,
... the SIG 510-1 was the export version of this exact gun in 7.5 Swiss.
They had a lightened version which was the 510-2.
They actually tried to sell a version of it in 7.62x39 which was the 510-3, that failed to get any buyers.
And ultimately they also had a version in 7.62 NATO, which was the 510-4. That one did get some export sales,
Chile and Bolivia in particular purchased decent quantities of them.
And that was also exported commercially to the United States as the SIG AMT,
or American Match Target, in 7.62 NATO. So in total in the United States, we got about 3,000 of these,
this is the PE-57 which is semi-auto and in 7.5mm. And we got about 4,000 of the AMTs, semi-auto in .308.
The differences between this and an AMT are pretty minor. Things like the AMT isn't set up for rifle grenades,
it doesn't have a bayonet lug on it. And a couple other distinctions, ... it's a little less military.
So a few of the interesting features that this thing has. Of course it has fold up sights,
very similar, the rear sight in particular, very similar to a Johnson automatic rifle or a German FG42.
The Swiss were well aware of the FG42, and copied some of its elements into other guns.
We have an integral bipod here, which is interesting in that you can either have it out at the front,
which is better for marksmanship, gives you a stabler platform, a little better control on recoil.
But you can also move it. ...
Flip it past its little spring detent, and bring it back
to the rear end of the rifle here. Potentially a little better for dispersion in full-auto.
These were in Swiss service, these were select fire rifles.
Actually had a fairly low rate of fire, between 475 and 500 rounds per minute.
Couple of other features to it. We'll take a closer look at this in a moment, but you can actually replace
not the rollers, but on this, if the gun gets worn and the headspace starts to get too big,
you actually replace the roller detents, the locking shoulders in the trunnion instead of replacing the rollers.
Which is ... kind of an interestingly Swiss approach to a fairly simple problem.
So, total weight on this. It looks pretty awkward, it is awkward, but it does actually shoulder kind of nicely.
It does weigh in at 12.25 pounds, which is pretty heavy for a rifle like this, an early style "battle rifle".
Just under a 20 inch barrel and 12.25 pounds, so a little heavy.
Let's go ahead and take it apart, and then we'll do some shooting with it.
[ There were some problems with the original audio. ]
Alright, we'll start with some markings. We have this cool Swiss crest up on the front of the receiver.
And then at the back of the receiver we have a SIG marking in an oval.
SIG of course was the manufacturer of these, and that's pretty much it for the markings.
Now taking a look at the magazine, we have a cool Swiss cross on this one,
but this is a PE-57 magazine and it has this curve to the mag body which you will not find in the 7.62mm AMT magazines.
In addition, the AMT mags are steel where the PE-57s here are made out of an aluminium alloy, interestingly.
Then we also have the ... Swiss Lmg 25 light machine gun magazines here.
Viewing slot in the side, all steel, these are 30 round magazines and they predate the Sturmgewehr 57 by quite a bit.
So when the Sturmgewehr was adopted the Swiss made sure that, because the two guns used the same cartridge,
it only made sense to have the rifles accept machine gun magazines, like so.
So that is also an option out there. Now we do also have a carry handle, kind of an extra added accessory.
And a very short handguard, it's a good handguard but really short.
Fortunately, you do also have this barrel shroud over the barrel, which will prevent you from burning your hands if they slip forward.
And of course the bipod slides back and forth between both of these.
Now I mentioned the folding sights, these are very reminiscent of, well, particularly an FG42
or, with the exception of the front sight, a Johnson rifle or light machine gun.
... It's an inline design. So the recoil impulse goes straight down the rifle into your shoulder.
These sights of course fold down. You use this drum, rotate that to change your elevation, and snap up when in use.
There were scopes made for these but they are quite rare.
If we flip this over, there is a little butt trap in the pistol grip that holds a cleaning kit.
However, when you go to disassembly, we have to start with this very MG42-like catch on the bottom of the buttstock assembly.
And take that, depress it, rotate the whole stock about 45 degrees, and it comes off as a unit with the recoil spring.
Pretty handy, nothing to lose there,
yeah, pretty slick. And a nice rubberised ... buttstock there
so it doesn't freeze to your face when it's 30 below and snowing in Switzerland. Always a good idea.
Now moving forward we can go ahead and take the bolt assembly out. Start by pushing the charging handle back.
It has this very distinctive Swiss beer keg shape that they've used since like the 1880s.
That's gonna stick on the hammer there, pull it back and then the charging handle
matches up with a little slot in the receiver, a little farther back, right there.
So that little nub on the charging handle drops into that little slot in the receiver. That's how the charging handle goes in.
We can pull that out, and then the entire bolt assembly is going to slide out right behind it. There we go.
It looks rather larger than an HK-style one, but it's actually a couple ounces lighter, believe it or not.
So if we take a closer look at this.
The bolt head of course slides on the bolt body. We have the two rollers here, they are rather larger than in an HK.
This rifle was designed from the ground up for a .30 calibre heavy cartridge, where the HK was designed for an intermediate one.
Then we have the ejector and extractor here, it's one single piece, kind of a unique idea.
It has a very complex spring on it and you can see we have a little bit of give to the left there,
and that is to snap over a cartridge during feeding. And then when you are
cycling the bolt all the way back, you can see this little worn spot on that assembly.
It actually hits a protrusion in the receiver and kicks it over to the right like that,
and that is going to basically knock the base of the cartridge out the ejection port.
So most cartridges are gonna come out nose first like that. With the PE-57, the SIG, it actually comes out base first,
which is rather unusual and interesting.
In fact, it's also interesting to note that the ejection port is actually shorter than the length of a fully loaded cartridge.
But because of this unique ejection style you can actually eject a loaded case out,
because it comes out base first, really pretty cool.
Alright, to take the bolt head off of the bolt body we have this pin in the side.
It doesn't really take any force, but you have to line the bolt head up in just the right spot,
then you can pop it through with a cartridge here, or any other sort of punch or tool.
That pin comes out, then we can take the bolt head off.
This one's a little bit grimy from being used but it will still work just fine.
So these two angled surfaces right on the side are what the rollers ... come to rest against when ... the rifle is in battery.
So let me pop the roller out here a little bit. ... So when the rifle's in battery the rollers are pushed out like that.
And what has to happen in order for the ... breech to open
is as ... you fire, pressure is going to push back on the bolt head, and it is going to slowly push those rollers in.
So they are acting against a locking recess inside the rifle and against this angled surface on the bolt body.
And what's going to happen is as they push in, the bolt body is going to move backwards, which allows the rollers to come in.
Once the bolt body has moved all the way back, the rollers are all the way in
and they're no longer being held in the receiver, and the whole unit can move backwards.
So this is basically the exact same mode of operation as the HK rollers.
Alright, taking a look at the grip assembly. Of course we have the safety on the side, but that's about it.
To take it off we have this kind of cool pin. It is a captive pin, and what you actually have to do is push in on
the centre of the pin right there. When you push in on that, it's going to retract the two little locking
bits on the opposite side of the pin, which then allows you to push the whole pin out the other direction.
So, kind of like a childproof lock on the lower assembly of the gun.
Once that's out, then the whole thing just rotates down out of the gun.
The fire control assembly here. Hammer's large, relatively speaking, compared to other guns.
And you'll notice it's on the far left of the fire control housing.
And the reason for that is that the firing pin is actually not centred in the back of the bolt.
The firing pin is this guy right over here on the left side of the bolt.
So the hammer hits that, that is actually kind of an intermediary.
It's going to pivot in, it's pinned over on this side.
And then the firing pin is located in the centre of the bolt, and that rear pivoting piece hits the firing pin.
The hammer hits that, which then drives the firing pin forward and out the bolt face, firing the cartridge.
Definitely an unusual and kind of unique system here.
Now they did it for a reason, and that is because it allows them to have the recoil spring
located right in the centre of the back of the bolt and not interfere with the hammer.
So there is some rationale for this.
Now we also have a winter trigger. That folds down and allows you to shoot the gun with gloves or heavy mittens.
You can see there's a little pin protruding from the side of the trigger itself. And all that
this winter trigger lever does is come down, hit that pin, and then pull the actual trigger with it.
So it's really just like a mechanical lever assist.
Magazine catch here in the front. Of course being Swiss it can't be quite normal.
Where on an AK you just need one lever, the Swiss have this compound lever assembly.
Really you know, a little bit more than you actually need to make something like this work.
Safety of course only has two positions, it's in fire here and then it will flip up into safe.
The full-auto ... Stgw 57s are a three position selector.
This looks like a very awkward gun, but it actually comes up to the shoulder pretty nicely.
This is a very straight line stock, similar to an AR-15 or AR-10, with elevated sights, so I'm really curious how it'll shoot.
7.5 Swiss is pretty darn similar to .308 NATO ballistically.
And by the way, I said these were 25 round mags - I misspoke, they are 24 round magazines.
Which makes perfect sense for the Swiss, they were at this point issuing ammunition in 12 round packages
because the K31 and K11 rifles or G11 rifles all used 6 round magazines,
this used 24 and the light machine guns used 30 round magazines. So you pretty much had multiples of 6 or 12 for everything.
That did not go, there we go. Alright, here we go.
Alright, slow-motion footage here. There are a couple things going on that I want to point out.
First off, you can see that base first ejection, which is really cool.
And then if you look just over the top of the receiver, you'll see a little pin that pops up when the bolt's in battery.
That is actually a loaded chamber indicator.
And when we fire here in just a moment,
you will see that pin come down as soon as the case is pulled out of the chamber, right there.
chamber is empty, and as the bolt goes forward now the chamber's loaded, so the indicator comes up.
It's kind of funny, they actually included with the cleaning kit a little tiny two-pronged tool
that allows you to lock that in the upward position so that it doesn't interfere with cleaning the chamber.
A very typically Swiss sort of element there.
The charging handle is non-reciprocating. You can see in this case
the recoil actually popped its little retention spring loose, so it came back
and then was locked back in place by the forward stroke of the bolt.
Alright, that is a remarkably soft shooting .308, that's actually really, really nice to shoot. It's
wow, that's really nice. I'm gonna switch to left-handed,
the camera angle won't be quite as good, but it'll be a lot more comfortable for me to shoot.
It's also interesting to point out ... like the other roller delayed guns, the HKs, the PE-57 does have a fluted chamber.
And in addition to that it also has a ring cut in the very front of the chamber,
and you can see it on the expanded brass.
That ring is actually something that the brass expands into and that helps delay extraction.
The brass expands into that ring and then it's a little harder for the bolt to pull out,
takes a little more time and a little more energy.
And as a result the chamber pressure is a little bit lower by the time it actually comes out of the chamber.
One more round here. That base first ejection is just really cool.
This thing's really sweet. Let's do a little bit prone.
Yeah, ... you know, people have said that the ... Sturmgewehr 57, is like the nicest,
highest quality battle rifle ever made and issued because it's Swiss, and there's a lot of validity to that.
This thing was an extraordinarily expensive gun to make, but the quality really comes through. ...
It handles wonderfully, I mean the mechanical qualities, the manufacturing, is absolutely top-notch.
And it's really pleasant to shoot too, you'd never guess it looking at this goofy thing from the outside.
I will point out, as with other roller-[delayed] guns, which is to say HKs,
it doesn't lock open when it's empty. And that was my last round.
Well, this was a really cool rifle to take a look at. I'd really like to thank Bob for loaning us this rifle to do a video on,
because these things are not exactly easy to find these days here in the US.
And man, it's a magnificent rifle.
If you want to know more about the PE-57, if you're curious about, for example, how it compares to the
HK G3 or HK91, go ahead and check out InRangeTV. We have a video over there
where we're looking at that exact question. How does this compare to the German roller-[delayed] gun?
[ cc by sk cn2 ]