One of the fun parts of pursuing prototype and experimental firearms is that there isn’t much written or known about many of them – it’s like a great treasure hunt. Of course, the downside is that it’s a lot harder to distinguish originals from fakes, and recognize real stories from ones that have been changed in translation or wholly fabrcated. Case in point, the “StG 45 prototype”. This gun has been on and off the market since the later 1970s, most recently on GunBroker a couple years ago for an asking price of a cool $100,000. You may recognize it:
It really is a gun, and a registered transferable machine gun at that – but it’s not an StG45. It’s not German at all. The first clue that something is wrong is the magazine (which I’m sure any one reading this noticed right away). The mag is not an MP44 magazine, it’s too long front to back. Given that the every single other known German late-war prototype stuck with the MP44 mag and the 7.92×33 cartridge, one would have to wonder why this gun would be the lone exception. Next up, the bakelite stock. Pretty much all the late German stuff was stamped.
This thing is definitely not what the seller has claimed it to be. So what is it? Almost certainly Swiss – they experimented with a lot of German-inspired arms ideas (like this one, for instance) in the years following WWII. It’s a legitimately interesting prototype, just not worth anything near the insane asking price (especially given it being chambered in an unknown and thus unavailable cartridge). Well, we just happen to have some photos of it disassembled, in case you are curious:
It’s a gas-operated design, with a tilting block bolt. Much more Swiss-looking than German. Caveat Emptor.
