The first assault rifle made by SIG, the AK52 (Automat Karabine – no relation to the Kalashnikov) was the experimental precursor to the commercially unsuccessful AK53. It used a very interesting mechanism in which the bolt remained fixed and the barrel moved forward to eject and chamber cartridges.
In addition to these photographs, we have made an original report about the gun made by a US military attache to the War Department in 1952, and a copy of a formal SIG description of the gun.
What does the guts of this system look like? Could it have been built under austere conditions like the russian personal weapon systems of the Second world war?
Thank you,
Mike