Swedish K: The Carl Gustav m/45B and the Port Said 

"Kulsprutepistol" (almost) literally translates to "bullet spraying pistol" :P

It was my “Kpist” during my service in Sweden, just wanted to ad that the big handle was great when you had your military winter gloves on , so maybe a good reason why they didn’t do it smaller.

My great grandfather was one of the engineers from Carl Gustav that assisted in setting up the Egyptian production! I even have a medal with his name and the image of a Port Said on it that they gave him.

As a Swede i was carrying this machinegun for 10 months during my military service and loved it. As mentioned earlier we called it K-Pist, short for Kulsprute Pistol, and that´s probably where the Swedish K comes from. As a "Swedish Ice Viking" myselfe i had no problems grabbing the guns handle, and during the winter, with gloves on, it was a good thing it wasn´t smaller. I love how you pronounced kulsprutepistol, nice work =) The weapon itselfe is small, lightweight and good enough for extreamly short distances. If you had the bajonett in the front that would actually make the killing distance longer =) The best way to increase the shooting speed is to remove the endcap and put a flashlight battery, model D, between tha cap and the spring. Or just pull on the spring to make is longer. We did both! Cleaning the gun is very easy. During the winter period we where all given small plastic caps to put infront of the barrel to protect it from snow and ice. 100% of the times we forgot to remove it before fireing so we all shot it to pieces.

The Swedes themselves actually shortened "kulsprutepistol" to "Kpist" themselves, short step from that to just "K."

Single shot precision shooting compettition with this heavy open bolt full auto only gun is a real thing in Sweden.

I was half expecting a cutaway gag when you said “War were declared”

"Swedish Ice Vikings" and now my Black Metal band has a name...

My service weapon during 1991, sweet memories. For shooting blanks, this weaponized equivalent of a farmers tractor came with a barrel fitted with an atrocious looking funnel on the end. This would help disperse the red powdery dust that the blanks produced. During a combat excercise, when I had been admittedly a little too much trigger happy, the funnel got caked up with dust and the muzzle flame set it ablaze. There I was, fanning my kulsprutepistol back and forth trying to extinguish the pink roman candle on the end of the barrel, while my squad advanced forward. Man, how my sergeant yelled at me. :-)

Fun that you also managed to sneak in the word "Smörgåsbord" which is a Swedish word! Great videos as always!

Here is my swedish k-story. Back in 1995, when I was 14, I was lucky enough to be accepted as an aprentice for a week at the Swedish Airforce flottilla 15 in Söderhamn. This was a few years after the cold war ended. Things were calming down. The Swedish Airforce had started downsizing. I noticed none of this. The work at the base was dead serious, and security was rigorous. It was an amazing week, I got to do actual work on Viggens. I had never seen guns before, except for the omni present hunting rifles in my village. But here I suddenly found myself cleaning a pod mounted 30mm akan after live round firing excercises. A night excercise was scheduled one of the days I was there. This was kind of the highlight of the week, and I would not miss any of it. So, at about 22:00 I left my room. As an avid amateur photographer, I also took my Canon AE1 with me and some film. I do not remember if it even crossed my mind that running around an active airbase with a professional looking camera was kind of a bad idea. Most likely I understood how stupid it was, but ignored it. I really wanted a shot of a Viggen taking off with full afterburner in darkness. So I strolled around the base for an hour or so, waiting for the airplanes to get ready. I figured I needed to change location to get the shot I wanted, so I headed off to the perimeter of the base. Then I realized my (probably) cheap 200 iso film was not optimal for photography in darkness. Having no tripod, the best option would be to rest the camera somewhere on the ground to keep it steady. So this I did, a few hundred metres away from the hangars. The jets were just about to take off. Then suddenly I was blinded by a powerful flashlight. I looked up from my carefully selected ditch, where I was fiddling with my camera. A fierce looking guy was pointing a gun at me. The gun was held in a sling and looked much like one of the bolt guns used at my parents farm to take out sick animals. Much later in life did I realize it must have been the ”swedish k”. With a dark voice, the man asked who I was, what the camera was for, still pointing the gun at me. I started wimpering, then crying. I was so afraid I could not speak properly. Words stacking and bubbling in my mouth; I am 14, I am an apprentice at the base, I like photography. That gun terrified me. I shivered from fear. It had no beauty in it. It was a tool, like the tools in the hangars. But a tool for killing. Some how, my explanation got through. I helped the guy open up my camera. He tore out the film and threw it over his shoulder. He said something and I heard people laughing in the darkness some distance away. He then told me to go back to my quarter and go straight to bed. So this I did, falling asleep to the sound of jet engines tearing up the sky above. This was a very formative week for me. I never joined the military, my interest for guns are purely historical and I have no wish whatsoever to own or shoot guns. But I would later in life work both as a car mechanic and a motor journalist. Very much a direct result of the interest sparked in the hangars. I have the aircraft mechanics in Söderhamn to thank for much. Also I should probably thank the base defence (or whoever they were) for not popping a shot in me and ask later.

The weapon I was issued when I did my service in the artillery back in 83/84. Seeing it disassembled like that sure brings back memories: Of cotton swabs, the smell of oil and rushed cleanings followed by inspections in the corridor. During a winter exercise I used a m45 in a biathlon. For skis I used a pair of army issue skis, ironically (affectionally) named “vita blixten” (White lightning) by the soldiery. It was good gun. Dead easy to fire single shots with and quite controllable in automatic. The only gripe I had was when carrying it on the back, in the sling, and bending over to enter one’s tent, it tended to swing forward and smack you in the face with the end cap 😊 Honestly though, that was hardly any fault on part of the gun

The green color was also part of the model B changes. The strengthening of the endcap was done due to the use of hotter 9mm ammunition that put to much strain on it. When that ammunition was out of stock and only regular 9mm parabellum was used they went back to using the M/45. The selector variant with semi-auto was the police model. It is very easy to shot single shots with the regular one without a selector.

8:30 the trick is to take the back cap and use the hook part to depress the locking lug. A lot of memories with this gun. Wish I had one now.

If I ever has to do close quarter combat. THIS IS MY CHOICE! I've shot thousands of rounds with it. I've been trained to shoot full mags. That was fun, but took some training...... I've never seen the Suomi mag. Cool! When this weapon was on duty with the Swedish UN forces, it is said that the Swedes challenged the other UN troop to bury their guns in the sand.... The Swedish "Kpist" always worked after that. We were also taught to make sure that the bolt was locked when jumping of a truck, as it could unintentionally fire a round in your neck... There is no problem firing single rounds with the "Kpist". This was standard for all of us at range training. A really great gun! Greeting from Sweden. Rudolf Abelin Former Second Lieutenant in conscript army.

The 9mm ammunition was delivered in 6x6 36 round stripper clips. They fit on the side of a stamped steel speedloader that sat on the empty magazine and by a lever you push 6 rounds in at a time and gravity feeds next row. With a bit of training you can reload a magazine in under 10 seconds.

A Note about the "Suomi mag" That is actually a Swedish magazine Designed by Carl Schildström and produced by a company called AB Linde for the Swedish versions of the Suomi (Designed for the M/37 in 9x20mm but then adapted for 9x19 for the M/37-39) that the Finns later adopted and produced under license (Starting in 1941 by Tikkakoski because it was cheaper / easier to produce then the drum). And it was the standard Mag for the Swedish when the M/45 was being developed (as they had a few hundred thousand magazines for use with the 35.000+ Kpist M/37-39) so it made sense for it to be able to use those. Though the new 36 round magazine quickly proved superior to be more reliable and easier to load then the old Coffin mag (it was very fragile an even smaller dents could cause it to become unreliable) which is why the 36 round mag soon became standard. It Just bothers me when people call them Suomi mags considering that Suomi just means Finland/Finnish. And those Mags arent Finnish they are Swedish damn it (^.^) They might not have been perfect but they are ours xD.

The m/45C saw extensive use in peacekeeping missions with the UN which in the case of the Congo missions in the 1960s led to the m/45C seeing extensive use in combat vs local insurgents, bandits and mercenaries. M/45C style barrel shrouds were issued to units rotating to Stockholm to do guard duty outside the Royal Palace and Drottningholm (the later is the private residence of the Royals). Unlike say the UK the duty was shared between all units of the armed forces including air force and navy rather than being done only by the regiments of the Royal Guard. The bayonet used was the m/94, the photo you showed was actually the absurdly long m/1915 bayonet used only by the Navy who still seem.to have been preparing for boarding actions as late as World War 1. The m/94 was a bit shorter though still pretty impressive and a useful tool when herding tourists visiting the palaces.

I had platoon record. Disassemble: 7 sec. assemble: 23 sec.

10:25 the markings translate for: Port Said 49, made in Egypt. I believe the number stand for the year of production. The serial number is "127831".

"Giant race of Swedish ice vikings" gotta love it xD

The Swedes had a smorgasbord of machine guns. Ian never disappoints with the puns.

This is one of my favorite videos of yours, Ian. I've watched it probably 15 times. I really appreciate the comparison between the two. Well done. Probably the best open bolt SMG ever made. If not, it's still my favorite! Looks like the only may to make it quit is to run out of ammo!

I think the main reason for the reinforced rear cap was the (then) really hot ammo 39B. I brought a case of those to a buddy in Arizona who worked as a LEO. Not only did they class it +P++ but the bullet profile apparently made it a hazard to people wearing body armor. Not bad for a measly 9mm... :)

Circa 1:37 "They had a real smorgasbord of submachine guns" - I see what you did there, Ian 👍

A bit of interesting trivia, the reason for strengthening the receiver endcap isn't so much because it was weak or anything. It was because enterprising Swedish draftees figured out that you could insert a C/LR14 battery into the receiver and achieve a higher rate of fire. This would eventually cause the endcap to come off and striking the poor draftee squarely in the face. Back when I did my military service in 03 our instructors explicitly warned us against trying this because we were issued the m/45a, they were taken directly from a mobilization storage, where they in all likelihood had sat since they were produced in the late 40's to early 50's) until we were issued them), issued to us for our basic fire drills and after we turned them back in sent for destruction.

The one we’ve all been waiting for! Thank you, Ian and team!

Fun fact , when you added a second spring, so two recoilsprings in the samegun you almost doubled the fire rate, but there was a backside, once you pulled the trigger it would empty the magazine even if you let go of the trigger 😆

If you close the bolt and smack the stock to the floor, for example, it will bounce the bolt to either hook up or fire a round if you are un-lucky. thats why the transport safety is there.

I was secretly wishing for a Swedish K video on "Forgotten Weapons" for quite some time. :)

1:19 the glint in Ian’s eye as he says “war were declared” is wonderful!

The M/45 was bought and used by the Irish Defence Forces and primarily saw action on Irish UN Tours. One such battle was the Siege Of Jadotville (13-17 September 1961) in the Katangese region of the Congo during the Congo Crisis. It was just one Irish Company of some 155 or 158 troops that were mostly green horns up against a large group of some 3000 veteran Belgian, French, and Rhodesian Mercenaries as well as some local tribesmen irregulars. And to top it off, the Merc's had Air support consisting of a French Jet trainer with locally made bombs, It looks like a blood bath from the get go. The only state of the art weapons the Irish had was the UN supplied FAL's other than that were some water cooled vickers machine guns, Lee Enfield bolt action rifles, bren guns and the M/45's. However when fighting first broke out they managed to hold their own for five days, despite being asked to surrender and with no support from command when water and food ran low they still kept their hopes high saying they would "fight to the last bullet" on the radio to command. On the fifth day of the battle the Irish surrendered. mainly because fighting any more would have just been foolish. Not because they had lost too many men or their spirits just broke. It was because they had no more ammunition to fight with. After the battle the casulties were counted and suprisingly. Not a single Irishman was killed. Only a couple wounded but the Mercs suffered 300 casualties and 1000 more wounded. It was a victory to the Katangese and their mercenaries. But a Pyrrhic victory it would remain. It very much goes to show no matter how outdated your weaponry or how green your soldiers are. Its as long as you have enough supply and spirit, victory is to be Assured. And the M/45 Would assure that.

well I did talk to an old guy who work on an place where they made the Swedish K and he told me all the stuff they need to make it only cost 9$ for materials to make the gun.

"Hus-kvarna" rather than "Husk-varna", btw. (its a small town outside of Jönköping - which is the name of a city that we will not force you to pronounce) "Kulsprutepistol" was fairly correct though.

Once upon a time, I owned an M45B Swedish K. According to my Normount Technical Manual, there were early and late model M45Bs, the early model (which I had), having the removable mag well and the end cap like the Port Said and the stock release was a button on the top of the hinge with no latch. Interestingly enough, it had a special 6 column 36 rd stripper clip and a loader the clip slid through so you could load 6 rounds into the 36 rd mag with each push of the plunger. You could load the whole mag in less than 10 seconds. The rate of fire was actually closer to 450 rpm. The 50 rd mags were a pain to load, but worked flawlessly. The Swedish K was also used by the U.S. Army Special Forces, and the Infantry museum at Ft.Benning, Ga. has one with the suppressor on display.

Can´t wait for Ian doing a review of the phased plasma rifle in the 40 Watt range.

Finally, a video of my old service gun. Thanks a bunch! I really loved (and misses) the speed loader. Filling a 36 round magasin in seconds was great. 👍🤓

1:39 "Smorgasborg of submachine guns.." You couldn't resist the pun, could you?!

This is one I've been waiting for for years. The only machine gun I've ever shot was a Port Said. One evening at a party, a gentleman had this gun to show me. It was the Port Said. We shot several hundred rounds through it and the story of his acquisition of the weapon was very interesting, to say the least. Thank you Ian, it is a very interesting firearm indeed.

thats always been one of my favorites...lot like the sten...great stuff man,enjoyed it thoroughly

When I was still in the service the K was mentioned a lot by US troops as a weapon to get your hands on during the 1964/65 period in South Vietnam.

Finally! Waited so long for you to get your hands on one! 😅

I've been longing for this video to be made, 2020 starts greatly with a wish come true!

I remember a Vietnam vet I worked with about twenty years ago. He was a Huey pilot I think he flew slicks but he touted how much he loved these guns and always had one in the cockpit with him.

I'm amazed how well Ian pronounced Kulsprutepistol :D

That is awesome! I could pick that apart and put it back together in like 30sek back in the day.

ive been waiting for this video for years, and its finally here!

That camera pan to the sight picture was just lovely

“Swedish K, I love you man!” - John Malkovitch

Last time I had Swedish K, it took me hours to climb out of the hole...

I got to use the K-B. What a piece of art. Simple yet wildly effective. You bring the coolest things.

i had one during my military service '99 really easy to use and easy to clean 4 seconds of full auto fun... then change mag we were told the problem with the end cap was that during full auto on the earlier version the spring could vibrate off the cap so not only was it strengthened but the black collar thing one can see inside the cap is to reduce vibrations we called it "Mördar Bertil" or "Killer Bertil" after the B

Yay! 😃 That was the first automatic gun I fired in the Swedish Airforce youth organization when I was 15.

Love your pronounce of kulsprutepistol, with the unavoidably Swedish chef touch xD Cheers from Sweden!

My dad used this when he did service in 1983, cool to see you reviewing it.

Very informative and entertaining videos. An absolute delight. Thanks

Really been looking forward to this video for a while now :-) Now I would have loved to see Ian take the K to the range but it seems his old M76 video will have to do.

You missed the speedloader that fills a mag in five seconds or so.

Always wanted to know about the Swedish K. Thanks for the info and grate video.

Great gun! Glad to see you make a video about the M45 Bertil :) I can share some additional facts; I served in the swedish Navy until 2001 were this K-pist (Short for kulsprutepistol) was still the service weapon for ship crews and base guards. The navy version was black and had the same endcap as the Port Said but our magwells were pinned in place. As for the M45C aka the bayonet version was just a (green) replacement barrel shroud that was put onto a standard M45B when needed, also our bayonets were almost half the size of the sword pictured in the video but same model. Not saying anything was wrong in the video just sharing my experience from 2001. I believe the Navy finally replaced the M45B in like 2002-05 with the AK5C.

2:00 on an interesting note. The gun that Husqvarna made for the trials (Husqvarna FM44) continued to be improved upon after loosing out against the M/45 and ended up becoming adopted by the Danish as the M/49 hovea (and used the same Magazines as the M/45 first using the 50 round Coffin mag and the Finnish 71 round drum but later moving to the 36 round box designed for the m/45) So both guns ended up being successful in the end.

Most people just call the m45's "Kpist" in sweden. Good to see Ian finally got his hands on one though.

The Port Said model is very similar to the former Danish Army M49 SMG. It was famous for being best with the sling on, for targets up to 50 meters. With the sling on, you could throw it that far. Also, you could stuff a D-cell battery up the rear of the frame, to increase the firing rate quite a lot.

Thank you for showing this. Wanted you to reveiw this so badly. If you did it today it would have been on the kings name day Carl/Karl.

Holy shit it's finally happening! As I have been waiting for this gun! :D

While I rarely saw it, in my childhood years it was cool knowing one of these guns where stored in a corner of the house. Sadly since my dad quit the homeguard he was required to return it to the army so it's long gone.

I am so glad the Swedes decided to take it upon themselves to unfuck the sten and paint it green. Hats off to you lads.

Forgotten? I'm sure many Swedes, including myself, have very fond memories of this small, light, easy to use and easy to maintain little submachinegun, from their 'National Service' days, in my case in the Air Force in the early 1980's.. I still remember the first time we had to take the gun apart and re-assemble it.. in under 5 minutes, blindfolded. The springs in the magazines went everywhere... boing, boing. Anyway, yes, great gun, fondly remembered.. Watched the video mainly for nostalgic reasons.

My gun at my time in the Swedish Air Force. It’s fully automatic, but very controllable. We learned to always shoot double rounds. Is also much more accurate than you may think. A very realiable gun that never will jam. Thanks for the vid. Very nice to see and learn about the history of the K-pist.

I got to shoot this thing during my time volunteering for the home guard, really fun.

Back in 04 this gun was on it's last stretch but I had the chance to operate on. It was cool because all you heard when shooting it with our active earprotection was a "katchonk, katchonk" from the repeating bolt. It was louder than the ammo going off. This gun is also why the SWE armed forces uses Glocks instead of sigs like the police. The ammo is to hot for sigs but the Glick can take it and we had ALOT of surplus ammo when this was dismantled. Good vid as always Ian!

I shot one of these some time ago. I was surprised at how gentle/smooth it fired.

The audio for headphones is kinda off, thought my earphones were broken for a second

Swedish ice-viking: *I find nothing wrong with this grip*

Nice weapon i was trained on it during my military sevice. We use 2 magazines taped together wit a 9mm bullet as a divider. We trained target practice up to 100meters.

I am so happy you showed off the bayonet, it is complete bonkers and it's glorious.

Kula=Bullet Spruta=Syringe/hose/sprayer Pistol=Pistol Lel.

The green color wasnt applied until later on Swedish weapons. The M45 was black, the M45b was green

I have a cousin that had the Swedish K with the original removable mag well to take the 71 round drum. It was an amazing sub gun. I loved it.

One thing you missed Ian, but apparently it was (and still is) very popular among those who have operated these, including some of our own guys who ran the S&W manufactured version in Vietnam as Special Forces operators from the various branches, to increase the rate of fire on the gun by installing a D cell battery behind the recoil spring, as a sort of recoil buffer that stops the bolt short, allowing it to increase the rate of fire significantly, while still being extremely controllable. I'm sure if you wanted to make it even nicer, you could replace the D-cell with a rubberized buffer like in an AR-15 pattern rifle, and achieve a more enjoyable result, though I don't have access to one of these on which to test it.

Ah, memories... I remember hearing you could put in a 'D-size' battery behind the spring to increase the rate of fire, didn't have an opportunity to test that though.

I trained with one of those when I did military service! There was a rumor that some soldiers had tried to increase rate of fire by borrowing an extra spring from their fellow soldier. I dont know if it had worked out, but our officers told us not to try it.

With the Swedish service ammo it would go through a kevlar helmet at 200 meters. But it was considered notoriously inaccurate, as in the recommended engagement range is 10 meters, or about 33 feet.

Both Garantthumb AND Forgotten Weapons are covering the Swedish K?! I'm loving this week so far

Irish army also used the M45

You forgot to disassemble the end cap :) I had the M45/A version without the grip hook. It was actually easier to disassemble than the M45/B version because of that hook. With the gun you got a adapter that allowed you to put on a brass catcher. With this you could have the shell casing bounce back into the chamber causing a jam. You then had to remove the bag, shake the casing out and then put the bag back on. Without the bag however the gun was super reliable. One interresting aspect of these guns is the heavy bolt. The first time I fired my gun I was actually unsure if the gun actually fired or not. It did not feel very much different from when you dryfired it. Firing full auto with the stock extended was totally doable... doing it with the stock in the folded position was a bit trickier, but I actually learned to aim it that way too... which made my CO drop his jaw a bit. He did not think it was controllable without the stock... During peace times when you were on patrol you had to have a safety hatch inserted, because these guns were prone to accidental fire if you dropped the gun the wrong way the gun would go off. I know at least two guys in my platoon that had accidents where the gun fired due to them dropping it. If the gun landed on the butt the bolt went back just enough to catch a bullet and then *BLAM*. Nobody got hurt by the accidental discharges thought which was good. One of the really nice features of that gun was the fact that it was super easy to clean. All the other guys with AK-5 were very envious when it came to cleaning. Their guns had all these nooks and crannies... we basicly put a wad of cloth through it and it was done. Only around the ejector plate was it a bit trickier to clean, but not much. When it comes to cleaning out rooms this gun is a beast. Fairly large ammount of ammo in each mag, and the reloads came in 6x6 stripper clips. There were also a speed loader that allowed you to reload your magasines almost as fast as you spent them. It was a true shame when they sent my beloved M45 to the scrapper :(

That is a nice gun,it was the gun i was learnd how to use when i did my service in the Sweish military.

I have been waiting for this for a long time

When I served in the swedish army between 1991-92 i had the first black version I guess it was among the last ones in service because nobody else had one =) but it shot just fine even got a gold medal in marksmanship with that gun =)

I thought my headphones got broken for a sec

Just watched Garand Thumb’s Swedish K. I’m so happy for further historical information from Ian

I had one K-pist m/45 b during my military service in the early 90s. The ammo was the 9mm patron m/38 a very hot 9mm parabellum delivered in boxes of 36 where the cases was attached to a clip/plate 6x6 and we had a tool to press them into the mag very fast. There where also a brass collector one could attatch. It was also equipped with a barrel and barrel attatchment to shoot blanks, that had a plastic billig that pulverized in the special barrel and the bell shaped attachment. To fold the stock You don't need to pinch the baars, only press the release and bump the stock at your hip.

Ian _would_ be excited about a "port side" gun because he doesn't like to shoot from starboard

Ian doing a deep Futurama reference makes my entire weekend.

Hey heads up, big fan btw. Right audio is out on the video. Thanks for all the great content!

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but the Interdynamic/Intratec KG/Tec-9 family used a simplified mechanical copy of the 36 round magazine from the Swedish K (and also Finnish SMGs). Quality of the European magazines is a bit higher, and the locking lug is of a different design, but both Swedish and Finnish made magazines can be modified to work in the Interdynamic/Intratec guns. There is a connection here because the Interdynamic AG (a Swedish company) MP-9 SMG and the later KG-99/KG-9 pistols were designed by George Kellgren (a Swede). George Kellgren apparently did work for Husqvarna, but is also known for the Grendel series of pistols and he, of course, founded Kel-Tec. I found that story, of loose association, interesting and thought I'd share it.

This is my weapon of choice for the apocalypse

As a Swedish person I highly appreciate seeing a video on these peices

Thanks for letting us know!!! Good works!!!

Fun fact, this is the gun Joker used in the famous “Hit me” scene in the Dark Knight. A faster cyclic rate was dubbed over the sound of Joker firing it.