Madsen M50

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 July 2009 18:28 Written by Administrator Friday, 03 July 2009 00:13

The Madsen M50 is a submachine gun designed and manufactured by Dansk Industri Syndicat in Denmark. The company is commonly known as “Madsen” after its founder, thus the designation for the M50. The M50 was adopted in the year 1950.

The Madsen M50 was based on an earlier submachine gun called M/46 and featured a simplified retracting handle. The submachine gun also drew heavily from other designs of that time such as the PPS, Sten and M3.

The M50 was manufactured from stamped steel parts. The weapon consisted of two stamped steel sections having the pistol grip and the magazine housing. The two sections fit in place by means of a rear hinge and were closed shut by a locking nut at the barrel.

The M50 was designed to fire the 9mm Parabellum round and fed from a 32-round magazine. The magazine was inserted through the pistol grip. The submachine gun was accurate up to 150 meters and could fire at a rate of 550 rounds per minute.

Designed with ease of production in mind, the Madsen M50 probably represents the ultimate development of the World War II era submachine gun. Many countries have adopted the weapon. These include El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Indonesia and Brazil.