Citroën Karin. 1980🇫🇷
Design by Trevor Fiore
Kucher K1 Submachine Gun
During the late 1930s József Kucher worked as Pál D. Király’s assistant at Danuvia. They worked on a series of Király’s lever delayed blowback action submachine guns, designs including the 39m and 43m adopted by the Hungarian Army. Towards the end of the war they simplified their earlier designs with the prototype 44M blowback submachine gun.
After the end of the Second World War Kucher continued refining and redesigning the Danuvia submachine guns after Király emigrated to the Dominican Republic in 1947. In 1948, the Hungarian Army made Kucher a captain and he began working at Hungary’s Military Research Institute. Kucher’s submachine gun built upon the prototype Danuvia 44M and abandoned a number of the main characteristics of the Király-led designs including the folding magazine and wooden stock. The new weapon was also chambered in the Soviet 7.62x25mm round rather than the 9x25mm cartridge used earlier.

Király & Kurcher’s prototype Danuvia 44M (source)
Kurcher’s submachine gun is often designated the K1, 53M or Kucher Könnyü Géppisztoly. The weapon fired from an open bolt and used a simple blowback action, it fed from a 35-round double stacked, curved magazine. The K1 weighed approximately 6.8 lbs (3.1kg) unloaded and with its stock extended was 33.2 inches (84cm) long. The K1′s design was more utilitarian than earlier Hungarian submachine guns featuring a simple folding stock and an aerated barrel shroud. However, the receiver was machined rather than stamped making it more expensive and time consuming to manufacture than many of its cheaper contemporaries.
The Hungarian military tested the K1 in November 1951, approving it for adoption and manufacture in 1953. However, the majority of the 53M/K1s produced went to Hungarian border guards and treasury officers while the Hungarian Army adopted a copy of the simpler Russian PPSh-41. It appears that the K1 was only manufactured in limited numbers. These remained in service into the 1960s. More recently examples have been seen in the hands of militant groups in Libya.
Source:
7.62mm Kucher Light Machine Pistol Model K1, 1951, hungariae.com, (source)
József Kucher (1909-1976), hungariae.com, (source)
53M / K1 Submachine Gun, world.guns.ru, (source)
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