PDW

I’ve had a PDW (NATO personal defense weapon) rolling around in my head, but Frank James just did one recently that does a much better job than I ever could. (And I THINK this is the bullet type he prefers for a possible PDW. Partly because it can be converted back to regular 9mm NATO chambering sorta easily. Oooo, and that leads to THIS article... It's like a Rabbit Hole, this subject.)


Have you noticed something? We don’t have a PDW weapon issued to the troops…

Remember your history. This spec for a PDW came out in the mid 80s. The things that gun fanbois were thinking of that trickled down to my young skull full of mush was Uzi’s (the war in Beirut was fresh in folks’ minds) and the supposedly ‘faster’ MAC10s (Miami Vice). Small subbies were the shizzle. In the lizard brains of the folks calling for a new PDW, I imagine, was a tiny voice saying, “Like the Uzi, but COOLER! And more effective, naturally.”

It’s a tough nut to crack. Simpler and handier than the issue rifle, but more effective against bad guys than the pistol. Something that hits almost as hard as the M16, and almost as accurate yet maybe at slightly shorter range, but as close to butt simple as a double action revolver. It’s a dream! But if some genius can make that dream come true…

It also why my hunt for the carbine I want so time consuming. Another reason my quest is hard is that I want unfashionable features. “You want it in .45ACP? But there are much ‘better’ modern rounds! The .45 is for purists and gamers mostly. You want magazines from a 1911? But a Glock 20 magazine holds so much more! Just get a Glock and a KRISS and pay for the tax stamp for a short barrel.” Yeah, yeah. Heard that before. A KRISS is pretty good, but not ideal for me.

The two REAL contenders, according to Frank, were the FN P90 and the HK MP7. They shoot teeny bullets at high velocity with special projectiles to defeat body armor. I can’t get those special projectiles, and my personal requirements about defeating body armor involve asking myself, “Why am I trying to shoot somebody in body armor? Especially with THIS little thing? Things have gotten TRULY bad to find myself in this situation. I need to rethink the circumstances that brought me here and try to avoid letting this happen again in the future. If I survive this.”

So I still stick with big pistol bullets out of a shoulder fired carbine. A modern Mare’s Leg to go with my modern Hog Leg. I ain’t gonna find what I want. Not for under $4000 at some custom gunsmith.