Croatia - Forgotten Weapons

HS95: Croatia Builds a Modern Pistol

January 27, 2023 Ian McCollum 19

The HS-95 was developed by HS Produkt to replace the PHP pistols. With the experience of producing many thousands of PHPs, the company had a much better understanding of how to design a pistol for […]

PHP MV-9: The First Croatian Pistol (Both Models)

January 18, 2023 Ian McCollum 23

Croatian engineer Marko Vukovic first developed his P38-based pistol in the late 1980s for the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army. It was left unadopted at that time, but when Croatia declared independence in 1991 the gun found […]

Marko Vukovik’s Prototype Machine Pistol: the V.M.18

January 11, 2023 Ian McCollum 24

Today we continue our series on the development of Croatian pistols towards the XD line. Last week we saw Marko Vukovic’s first design, and today we are looking at his second. This was the V.M.18, […]

Kordun 7.62: A Double-Stack Tokarev Pistol from Yugoslavia

January 4, 2023 Ian McCollum 26

The “Kordun” (named after a region in Croatia) was the first pistol design from Marko Vukovic, lead designer for IM Metal and later HS Produkt. It was made in 1985 for the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army, […]

VHS-1: Croatia Copies the FAMAS (But Not Really)

September 28, 2022 Ian McCollum 8

The VHS-1 was heavily influenced by the French FAMAS, albeit with a short stroke gas piston operating system. Early development began in the late 1990s with the prototype designs we looked in over the past […]

A Path Less Traveled: IM Metal’s Tavor-Based Prototype for the VHS-1

September 21, 2022 Ian McCollum 3

Today we are continuing to trace the development of the IM Metal / HS Produkt VHS rifles. During this period, Croatia briefly considered adopting the Israeli Tavor rifle. Part of the adoption would have included […]

Genesis of the VHS: IM Metal Gets a FAMAS

September 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 26

After their abortive effort at designing a bullpup AK conversion, IM Metal (later to become HS Produkt) decided to make another try at developing a rifle for the Croatian Army. This time, they decided to […]

Croatia’s Prototype Bullpup AK Conversion

September 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 21

The HS Produkt company, best known for making the XD pistols sold in the US by Springfield, was originally called IM Metal, and was a general fabrication company in Croatia. When the Croatian Homeland War […]

When MAC-10 Meets Skorpion: Croatia’s Homeland War ALKA mod 93

August 24, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

The ALKA model 93 is one of the nicest of the several dozen simple SMGs made in Croatia during the Homeland War of the 1990s. It was produced by the IM Metal company (later renamed […]

Agram 2000: Croatia’s Gangster Gun

June 13, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

The Agram 2000 was originally developed in the 1990s in response to a Croatian Army need for a submachine gun during the Independence War. It is a closed-bolt, hammer-fired, simple blowback submachine gun. The initial […]