The real reason Croatia attempted to make its own weapons is that there was an embargo on weapon imports for all ex Yugoslav countries. Considering Serbia had all the weapons and ammo it was a huge problem for Croatia as its only way to get some weapons was to smuggle it and overpay it significantly. Eventually Croatia managed to capture some military barracks and ammo depos and this way it got tanks, apc's, ammo etc

I am from little town Pleternica. I was kid when this was produced but remember that there was also a brochure for this weapon. My mother was working in this factory.

Croatians really do have cool firearms history for such a short period!

Having visited Croatia I can very much recommend it.

Proizvedeno u Hrvatskoj means - Made in Croatia. I was a kid when Homeland War started, I was 3 when it began, 7 when the ceasefire in '95 was made, and 10 when the peaceful reintegration of Croatian territories began. Since I lived near Vukovar, I remember having anti-air batteries in fields around my home. I remember three, but it was probably more. I have a vague recollection of things, and it is cool that you have several videos covering early arms of that time. It gives me more info on things that were around, but I didn't know as a kid.

I find it intriguing that one of the causes of Yugoslavia collapse was they went bankrupt because of military spendings

When a Sten and a Thompson loved each other very much...

Thanks from Croatia for putting high quality in the title.

Reminds me of the Floro MK9, but any tube gun with an Uzi magwell would look like this.

I really enjoy seeing "guns created by necessity" on here. It's a very simple but apparently effective gun.

every time I think I've seen every 9mm open bolt blowback tube gun, Ian comes back with another that has well known reputation and long history

In a besieged country, marking gun parts and tooling is most definitely "humanitarian ades"...lol

The aesthetic of this is unlike anything else I've seen. It's just so unique. Also an interesting history (just like any other gun)

I'd never seen a Pleter M91 but some of the lifers in units I worked with mentioned them. Their descriptions were lacking now that I've actually seen one 😅

Being from Great Britain i don`t have much firearms experience and would love it if you could make a video on how extractors work on different systems. Cheers Ian. 👍

One thing I've seen done, posted on the internet since the Ukraine war, was someone who took a bunch of open bolt guns out of museums and repaired the firing pins. They chucked the bolt up in a vice, mounted the vice to a drill press, drilled and threaded a hole into the bolt, and then screwed and loctite'd in place a hardened steel screw, which they then ground by hand with a dremel into the shape of a firing pin. Presumably this was done somewhere in the occupied territories, since the government was handing out their various AK-74 versions to anyone who was willing to take one and some mags and ammo, and only someone who didn't have such access would have to resort to remilitarizing an open bolt machine gun. That said, once they got it working the gun worked the same as it did in WWII. I'd assume the others they showed in the shop were similarly successful, they had all kinds of russian and german guns from during the war along with 7.62x25 and 9x19 ammo for days if it's just a few guys doing drive-bys with molotovs and papashas or MP40s. It's enough to burn the supplies and kill the crew of a soft-skinned truck, which is what they were probably used for given the time period

The history behind these kinds of firearms are really cool to know about. And the fact that a good majority of firearms all started with "I built this at my shed/garage/backyard..." also makes them a little bit humorous. The Pleter would look pretty cool with wooden furniture, in my honest opinion. Something about open-bolt SMG designs just feel right when with wooden furniture to me.

Not seen before, that's for sure. Not sure if that magwell is solid enough to serve as impromptu foregrip. To touch on the pleter(knotwork) aspect, there's a container called "pletara"(from outside looks like wicker-weave/knot keg with a solid cork but inside is a 5l glass jug) that is a must-have for every "domaćin"(literal host, actually homeowner) worth his salt, regardless which ex-yu country he's from. What is usually kept in aforementioned "pletara" - quality homemade rakiya(brandy or schnapps), or brlja(moonshine) if said domacin is bad :P

Hey! I live about a 10-minute drive from Pleternica. [Ple-TEHR-ni-tsa] Actually, just this Thursday [31.8.2023] should be a big mass + carnival. Always hated it as a kid, 'cause the mass'd last 3 hours. Glad to see you covering Croatian guns, by the way! It's something I'd like to do myself. When I stop being broke, that is.

Late again, of course we do not leave our Croatian friends behind, especially since the atrocities of Vukovar must not be repeated. Thank you !!!

It's like Croatia did a small arms development program speed run.

WHOA! That looks like a non-crappy Feather AT-9.

I'd be interested in a longer discussion of how having mostly just SMGs affected Croatian (and subsequently, Bosnian) military doctrine. Did they always plan engagements in terrain that keeps all firefights under ~150m?

This is great content It works on so many levels. Historical, firearms enthusiast, and a lightly threaded humane side

Thanks

We made our own weapons due to your embargo which made many croats die, we recovered anyways, got our own uzi, pistols, launchers everything.... Pleter is super rare to see nowadays.

Great video as always, really simple and beautiful smg

Very interesting, never understood why the top ejection on so many guns but the stenish handle rotated to that position looks handy for suport hand.

Such a stereotypical "bad guy" weapon. I love it

A great very interesting video and SMG Mr.GJ.Have a good one.

Recently I've been in Lisbon, at the GNR museum. It was really interesting, all in all pretty normal stuff. By the way, at the very beginning of the tour, there was a 30mm, single shot, vehicle mounted gun. There were no big explanation around it. So I was curious. We will evere have an episode about Portugal and the guns of the GNR?

Puno hvala!!

Thanks for showing.👍 An Video about the MGV 176 or the Zagi M91 would be excellent.

This gun looks like Grease gun, Sten, Owen, Thompson and Tec-9 were spliced together with help of some dark magic

Gotta love a forgotten weapon in the morning.

Tec 9's full version haha , minor detail in case anyone is wondering , the manufacturers marking says "Produced in Croatia"

Pleternitza maybe a simile to Weaverton?

I can see a lot of Bill Holmes design elemets, like the sights or the barrel shroud. Bet is has a feed cone instead of a feed ramp.

I'm surprised Springfield Armory hasn't tried to import semi auto versions of these

I'm going to go out on a limb here and point out that based on the diagram of an example of what the name "Pleter" denotes, it looks to be a type of folk craft, where hair or fibers are woven into patterns, known as "braids" OR "Plaits" in English

around te crest it say Made in Croatia

Disco STU is in your crew!

Oooo Ian's got his hands on a really slick looking one!

Geez the algorithm just keeps showing the submachine gun videos so i keep watching. I love these crazy toobs😂

Got to say that this is the best of the SMG's I've seen from this period and place. Best looking too, while we're at it..Unlike the Agram this also looks decent up close.

Springfield import with a dumb name when?

Thank you!!!

Visually it reminds me of the Vigeron m2

Visually, reminds me of my .68 Airgun Deisgns Minimag paintball marker.

Nice piece !

„STUzi“!!!!! „Gesundheit“

Man this really does remind me of the Feather AT-9 9mm carbine.

😅 There could be a playlist for these videos of certain types of SMGs, Plumbers Specials ?

It would be awesome to see some of the tons of argentine guns illegally shipped to Croatia during those times. We sended FALs, howitzers, ammo, etc.

The symbols at 4:51 are very Celtic in design

You could also translate it as lacer, since a good translation for that motif is sort of a kind of lace.

Sten with Uzi Mag? Improvement

Very interesting as always. I find this kind of industrious injunuity facinating. I'd use this over a Tec 9. That's not an insult on the Pleter, just an observation regarding looks, function, philosophy of use.

Tec9’s Tall Croatian cousin.

Very attractive gun

always fun to meet another member of the angry tube family!

It would be cool if the receiver was extended as a stock tube and made the gun constant recoil.

Say what you must about the Crudeness of the Sten, but when you need to make a gun in a garage look no further!

Would love to see this as part of a Headstamp book on "SMG's of the Resistance"

Excellent

Hi my name is Leo its so cool to see this gun on youtube im a close frend with željko he lives in the vilage nexst to me he is a good and smart man😁

It's like someone took a Tec-9 and put it on a stretcher.

4:53, dang croatians were doing the S-scribble things thousands of years before kids in the 80s-90s

I'm curious of the Croatian word "pleter" has a common ancestor to the English word "plait", meaning braid.

Looks like the Sten gun and Beretta M12 had some fun without protection.

Cool gun

Will we get a video of Ziga roasting your G3 rifle for Finish Brutality here?

So…. If you’re going to the Croatia Cop museum, do you get an obligatory Micro Cro Cop meeting? If not, I think you been cheated.

Дуже велике прохання до вас пане Макколум щоб ви зняли відео ,як ви стріляєте з ції зброї!😁😁😁💯✌✌✌👍👍👍👍!

Cute little gun. I like that

started out unarmed, had a war, then disarmed themselves again.

It's a Croatian Vigneron smg neat.

Me about to get something done. *Ian posts a video of some random country's submachine gun development

General reaction - the Sten is a bag of bolts never touch one. Country backed into a corner, we need a simple gun, that's easy to assemble, takes standard ammo and can be built in a shed - Sten, just update it a bit

Thank you , Ian . 🐺 Loupis Canis .

the writting around the crest Reads:"Proizvedeno u Hrvatskoj" - Made in Croatia.

JNA was Yugoslavian National Army and its generals were from different republics, for example ground troops general was Croat and was on its position almost 2 years after the conflict started, he eventually resigned. Troop composition was consisting mostly of people serving mandatory military duty from all republics weirdly Croats served military almost exclusively in Croatia or Slovenia. Plenty of barracks and equipment were in every single republic including Croatia. People in Croatia formed paramilitary troops and with weapons taken from said barracks opposed to JNA, first tanks in Croatia were driven to the street by Croatian paramilitary force. Most of the weapons in Croatia, during the war, was smuggled by Germany through Austria, which supported and wanted their WW2 puppet back. Also there were more factories in Croatia than Serbia that could produce weapons, result of 172 factory relocation in 1970. fearing possible war with Soviet Union, none of those factories ever returned home.

Cannot wait to see that Slovenian copy of the American 180

Like an MP3008, with a sliding stock. And plastic.

In the next Croatian gun video. Can you tell us more about the homeland war? I didn't really follow it at the time.

09:30 Bosnia was embargo for importing weapons so most of these were smuggled, i remember my father buying a submachine gun, in 1991. I remember it was like mp40 knockoffs, M56 submachine gun If there were no embargo the war for sure would be shorter, and spare me for 4 years of hell.

I noticed the upper and lower assemblies are not serial number matched.

This is the bastard child of the tec 9 and uzi raised by its grandfather the sten

The Sten, still spawning off-spring like the dead-beat-dad of the firearms world.

Heraldic pedantry: the thing you described as a crest (and to be fair, _is_ widely called a crest though it makes heraldists cringe) is better described as a "coat of arms". The reason for the cringe is that there's _also_ a thing called a crest - the crest is the element _on top of the helmet/crown_ which sits above the shield in some coats of arms. The shield-shaped bit on its own _can_ be called an escutcheon but it's just fine to call it a shield. So the coat of arms on the firearm in this video has a shield and a crown but no crest. Correcting you not because it's the end of the world, but because it's clear you aim for historical and cultural accuracy in all things (and that's what makes your channel interesting) PS: that chequered design of Croatia's has got to be one of the coolest national coats of arms out there - because it's so simple and so distinctive at the same time.

Reminds me of the Belgian Vigneron.

Definitely more suited for a "Lefty" as the charging handle is offset to the left slightly

One does not just say, "Slovenian American 180", that sir is just cruel.

Like the love child of a grease gun and the tec 9

Silly question, but for a simple gun like that Do you need to 0 the sights at all? Or is it just having sheet metal front and rear iron's match up?

Unrelated question: Have you made a video on the PP90? I didn't find one in your library.

Takes me back 1990.Nelson Mandela released. Yugoslavia about to disintrate. . Kuwait. Shock and awe. Somehow I sometimes feel as if I was one of the Four or the whole posse.

We had embargo on weaponry, so we didn't had that many options at that time...

Is it just me, or is the rear sight notch off-centre slghtly to the left? Check it at 2.51 Pax

Looks like the child of a Sten and Grease gun.