The Šokac was one of the more prolific Croatian domestic submachine guns of the Homeland War. This particular example is one that was specifically presented to the police chief of the town of Slavonsky Brod (the town where the guns were made). It is a mid-range production example, with the polymer lower house (instead of metal), and 25-round magazines. It was fitted in a briefcase – not one of leather, but one one M81 woodland camouflage – the pattern copied and used by Croatian forces. In addition to the gun and magazines, the case also includes cleaning supplies and a large baffle-type silencer.
Thanks to the Sisak Municipal Museum for giving me access to film this!
Full video on the Šokac:
https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/croatian-sokac-smg-a-ppsh-41-copy-from-the-1990s
It continues to amaze me that Ian has built up such respect and recognition that museums/companies give him free access to their collections. Good job guy!!!!
“(…)25-round magazines(…)”
It is surprising that evolution went from 32-round magazine into 25-round i.e. lesser capacity. Was there any other case where sub-machine gun magazine replacement has lesser capacity?
I seem to remember Reisings went to lower capacity, and i thought certain applications of the Sten used a mechanism to convert to a single stack, due to sand.
The Thompson SMG in US Army service in WW2 lost the 50 and 100 round drums for 20 round stick magazines only. Not really a replacement, since the early Thompsons used stick and drums, but a loss in magazine capacity in return for big savings in cost of production and support.
It is because of the single feed design. If it was dual feed, it could store 30ish rounds in same length. In other words, they could have more, but then you would need to have mag as long as Sten or MP40, which they probably didnt want.
Other logic is that lower capacity, lower chance to jam.
Double feed magazines require more complex internal mechanics. Considering the circumstances that the SMG was designed and manufactured within, keeping it simple and cheap/quick to manufacture was probably a high priority.
The Smith and Wesson Chief’s Special presentation featured a few weeks ago makes for an interesting contrast in what’s expected of American versus Balkan police.