Type 80 (pistol)

The Type 80 is a Chinese close-combat machine pistol that was used by the People's Liberation Army in the 1980s. Norinco developed it in the 1970s under the influence of the German M712 Schnellfeuer, and it was conceived in 1970 as a personal defence weapon for officers and special forces teams, intended to replace the Type 54. Its design was finalised in 1980. The pistol refines the many Chinese copies of the selective-fire M712 version of the Mauser C96 Broomhandle that were made and used in China in the 1930s. It keeps the Mauser style of action, with a short recoil of the barrel enabling the locking piece under the light bolt, with the magazine well in front of the trigger, a slender barrel and an exposed hammer. A selector on the left side chooses single shots or full automatic fire, with a fixed sight set for fifty metres, the greatest useful range for bursts, and a detachable shoulder stock that conceals a combat knife. It fed from ten or twenty round magazines. In practice it proved unsuited to sustained automatic fire, because the barrel overheated after about thirty cartridges.