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The Vigneron submachine gun was a Belgian submachine gun that was produced by Precision Liégeoise S.A. It was the standard service submachine gun of the Belgian Army from 1953 to the 1990s.

History[]

The Vigneron submachine gun was developed by retired Belgian army colonel Georges Vigneron in the 1940s, after World War II. The weapon was trialed against a few other designs to find a modern submachine gun that, if possible, was Belgian, such as the Imperia (an improved Sten), the RAN submachine gun and a few FN prototypes.

Design Details[]

The Vigneron uses simple blowback to fire, and is made of stamped sheet metal. The Vigneron uses 32-round double column stick magazines, with army doctrine recommending that they be shortloaded with 28 rounds to prevent jams. The Vigneron's long 12-inch barrel had a compensator and cooling fins that could be replaced and was held in by a knurled nut. The ejection port on the right of the weapon is covered by a dust cover, which opens automatically when the Vigneron's charging handle is pulled. If stored for long periods of time, the dust cover can be manually shut to prevent dust and grit from getting in and potentially fouling the weapon.

Barrel issues[]

The Vigneron has a rather well-known design fault in its barrel; due to this design fault, the barrel of the Vigneron could be placed into the weapon upside down. There exists a rather famous picture of an I.R.A. member brandishing a Vigneron with the barrel placed upside down. This fault was never corrected, even with the improved M2 version.

Variants[]

M1

The original weapon.

M2

An improved version of the Vigneron M1, and the one most commonly seen. Some improvements include a strengthened dust cover closing spring and the addition of a front sight protector.

References[]

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