Vigneron Submachine Gun

The Vigneron is a submachine gun manufactured in Belgium during the 1950s. It used the 9x19mm NATO cartridge and was used by the Belgian Army until the 1980s. It had the ability to use MP40 type magazines which were popular in Europe at the time. The Vigneron is a selective fire weapon for short range street and brush fighting. It remains reasonably accurate up to 100m using sighted semi-automatic fire. For close range combat, 2- or 3-shot bursts are recommended.

The Vigneron is a simple blowback design and was made out of stamped sheet metal and a plastic grip frame. It uses the standard 9x19mm NATO round out of a 32-shot box single column magazine. Army doctrine recommends to shortload the magazine to 28 rounds to prevent failures. A loading tool is used to assist loading the magazine.

The gun was designed with a long barrel (305mm) which featured a compensator and cooling fins. Empty casings are ejected out of the ejection port on the right which has a hinged dust cover. This cover opens automatically when cocking the gun.

The bolt handle is on the left side and is non-reciprocating.

The stock is heavy steel wire and it telescopes along the receiver; one end is slotted for swabs and the other is threaded for a cleaning brush.

The sights are fixed and set for a range of 50m. The M2 has a simple notch rear sight and a hood cover that protects the front sight.

The pistol grip contains a grip safety which must be held before the weapon can be cocked or fired.

There are three selector positions: safe, semi-automatic and full automatic fire. When set to full-auto; it is still possible to squeeze off single rounds with good trigger control.

Influence by some popular WW-II-era designs is apparent. The barrel compensator and cooling rings are reminiscent of the Thompson submachine gun, the wire stock looks like the M3 submachine gun, the bolt design is nearly identical to the Sten and the magazine is almost the same as the one designed for the MP40; German magazines are usable in the Vigneron, but not the other way around.

Vigneron
Type	Submachine gun
Place of origin	Belgium
Service history
In service	1950s-1980s
Used by	Belgium
Production history
Designer	Georges Vigneron
Specifications
Weight	3kg (empty); 3.68kg (loaded)
Cartridge	9x19mm
Action	Blowback
Rate of fire	620 rpm
Effective range	100m effective
Feed system	32 round MP40 magazine
Sights	Fixed