GSH-18

http://www.kbptula.ru/eng/str/strelk/gsh18.htm

Finally decided to just have Sabina get a waist pack and carry a full size sidearm. So in accordance with her using a the Russian PP-2000 smg/pdw as her favoured weapon, I decided to equip her with the PP-2000's pistol counterpart, the GSH-18. A rather odd but interesting handgun. Very light, easy to use, high magazine capacity, good ergonomics, and will shoot through Level III body armour. For the record, Level III is rated to stop 7.62x51mm NATO FMJ round (though not 7.62x51mm Armour Piercing Ammunition, which uses much harder construction materials. Still bloody impressive for a handgun though).

Although I do note that the Russian Army settled on one of it's competitors, the Yarygin PYA, which is more traditional. Does make you wonder if any of the GSH-18s quirky features proved to be a problem... (It does have some oddities, as noted in the modern firearms write up).

Also note that despite no pressure figures having been realised, the assumption seems to be that the 9x19mm ammunition this thing is designed for is not safe for use in most other 9x19mm pistols. Supposedly the light weight of the projectiles used by the new ammo keeps the recoil low though.

Well hopefully Sabina won't follow Henrietta's "spray and pray" firing regimen since as hot as the 7N31 round is, it must have significant overpenetration so collateral damage (physical and personal) would be excessive in such an application.

Wouldn't be so sure of that. The round penetrates armour by shedding it's jacket and allowing a subcalibre penetrator of hardened material to continue through. In the event of hitting an unarmoured person, it's supposedly supposed to remain a full 9mm projectile (one wonders how well this actually works given that the two parts are designed to seperate). And it's barely more then half the weight of a standard 9x19mm projectile, although it does admitedely have a way higher velocity.

Plus, it'll take standard 9x19mm ammo as well, so she has the option of using hollowpoints.

Actually, while I don't consider is to much of an issue in universe, one thing I wonder about with the GSH-18's 7N31 round is whether it's has the sort of problem the FN Five-SeveN has where it can penetrate a vest, but wont' penetrate very deeply after penetrating the vest because the pointy, lightweight round upsets and uses up it's energy really really fast. Hence why the Five-Seven's penetration in gelatin tests is way, way below recommended standards.

More worrisome for me as a writer is how Sabina gets her training ammo. This thing isn't in widespread use the way a lot of other Russian weapons are, so one wonders how she's able to get ahold of several thousand rounds a month for training purposes.

I don't know. If the penetrator is designed to go through 8mm of steel plate, I can't see a 2x4 stud or a cinderblock exactly providing any resistance.

Unless it has to hit a steel or ceramic plate (which are both part of Level III body armor) in order for the jacket to disintegrate and allow the penetrator to continue on.

Well, an ordinary hollowpoint round can go through a wall pretty easily too. Honestly, it's hard to say what would happen with this thing. Would it penetrate more walls then a conventional 9mm round? Or might it upset and penetrate less? There's not a lot of information available on those factors.

I'm half wondering if Sabina needs a rifle for anything other then sharpshooting work when she's got the SMG complement to that pistol though. Considering that the pistol can actually penetrate body armour that a 5.56mm assault rifle couldn't handle without AP ammunition.