Story of the Alar: A Simple Student-Made SMG
Croatia
•
12m
The Alar is an interesting very rare Croatian domestic SMG. It is called the "Alar" after it's designer, Stipe Alar. He first came up with the design in 1971 and built one illegally - which resulted in him going to prison for a time. When the Croatian Homeland War broke out and guns were urgently needed, his design came back to light and students at the mechanical trade school in Sisak began to manufacture them.
Mechanically, the design uses a simple trigger, PPSh-style bolt, very basic underfolding stock, and modified MP40 magazines (in 9mm Parabellum). The barrels were made by Steyr, and smuggled over the Austrian border as material for car roof racks. We actually have three examples to look at today; the first prototype, one of the first productions guns made (which was used as a presentation gift) and one standard example.
Thanks to the Sisak Municipal Museum for giving me access to film this!
Up Next in Croatia
-
MAC/Skorpion Hybrid at the Range: the...
The Alka M93 was a very simple SMG made by IM Metall (which later became HS Produkt) during the Croatian Homeland War. It is essentially a MAC M11A1 with a long barrel and a vz61 Skorpion stock, feeding 9mm ammunition form MP40 magazines. I did a video on this piece previously, but on a recent vi...
-
Crogar M91: MP40 Meets Yugo M56 in th...
SKM was a small industrial manufacturing company in Croatia that began making submachine guns in 1991 to equip Croatian fighters in the Homeland War. Their product was the M91 Crogar, which is a selective-fire, open bolt SMG chambered for 7.62mm Tokarev. It uses the magazine from the Yugoslav M56...
-
Krešimir: Croatia's Truly Insane Gren...
The Kresimir is honestly the most bonkers weapon I have come across in a long while. Made by IM Metall in Croatia at the beginning of the Croatian Homeland War circa 1991, this is a semiautomatic grenade launcher. Most grenade launchers fire a big cartridge with an explosive warhead, but not this...
