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The S&W model 76 sub machine gun

shanneba

shanneba

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Developed in 1966 for the U.S. Navy SEALs, the Smith & Wesson Model 76 Submachine Gun was built to replace the M/45 Swedish K after U.S. supply was cut off during the Vietnam War. Production of the M76 continued until 1974, with a total of roughly 6,000 units built.

Supposedly it cost $76.00 to build :)

Chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum, the Model 76 Submachine Gun featured a simple blowback operation and had a cyclic rate of around 600–700 rounds per minute. It fed from a 36-round box magazine and had an ambidextrous selector lever allowing either full or semi-auto fire, a folding stock, optional suppressor capability, and long rifling-like grooves to allow dirt and fouling to accumulate without impacting the gun’s reliability.

For the first time ever, we’re revealing firearms and prototypes that have never been seen by the public. Step inside the Smith & Wesson Vault with Jerry Miculek as he explores the history, innovation, and performance behind these never seen before prototypes.


 
You mean one of these

motorcycles 111.jpg
 
My second subgun. I planned on getting a suppressor for it right away. Yep, gonna get right on that. It’s now over 25 years later I still haven’t done it.

Jerry is impressed with the workmanship? Wow.

S&W did a lot, maybe most, of their caseless ammo experimenting with modified 76s. They had a battery pack under the trigger group.

I always wanted to know why they located the extractor at 12:00 on the bolt instead of 3:00.

The way I heard it (here we go again) after the Swedes cut us off, the navy sent out feelers for a US company to copy the Carl Gustav M45. S&W, who was already working with the navy, looked at it and said “Copy it? We can improve it.” So the navy said let’s see what you got.

S&W then spent over a year on it, and by the time they had something to show, the need for the gun had just about passed. Part of that was possibly because we had shifted from more of an “advisory” role to full involvement and deniable arms weren’t really necessary. Beats me. I have read that a lot of S&W’s time was spent on things the military didn’t ask for, like selective-fire capability. Had S&W made a more direct copy, they might’ve had it ready a lot sooner and made more sales.

Maybe, maybe not, but S&W ended up with more limited sales than they had hoped. A case of bad timing. S&W ended up using them as sales incentive tools to get rid of then.

I remember in the 70s, most sheriff’s departments and smaller PDs had at least one 76. Any of you around and paying attention to guns during that time remember the same, I’d bet. This was probably from S&W salesmen making deals. There was a lot of “Buy X number of S&W revolvers for your department and we will throw in one of these babies. Here, shoot it a little.”

The $76.00 cost is a good story, but the model number 76 does fit about the right place in time. That puts it after the Model 73 “C frame” prototype (competition for the Colt D-frames) but before the Model 77 airguns. Come to think of it, I own 76 through 78. I need a 79G.

That $76 cost sounds about right maybe, or a little high. I knew what the retail price was at one time. The factory letter I got for my 76 tells the original retail price, but I forget what that was now. I think a little over $100; maybe $106.50?
 
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Grayfox said:
The Model 76 gained some fame when Charlton Heston's character used one as his primary weapon in 1971's The Omega Man.
It also made minor appearances in a number of other movies.

Smith & Wesson 76 - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

www.imfdb.org www.imfdb.org
Click to expand...
The Getaway (the good one, with Steve McQueen and my ex-wife Ali MacGraw) has one. I never get tired of seeing those heavies riding along in that Cadillac convertible holding their Stetsons on.
Or of seeing my ex-wife Ali MacGraw.

A 76 gets used on Suzanne Somers in the opening of Magnum Force.

We Own the Night (Which was good at showing some 70s NYPD guns) has a few near the end.

“Fredo” has one in Dog Day Afternoon. That may have the best views of it.

The bad guys in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three have them. Good movie.

Lots of 70s movies and cop shows like Starsky and Hutch had them.

Even the Joker had one in a Batman movie. Whichever was the Heath Ledger one.

That’s a start. But I’d start with The Getaway. It’s one of my favorites, besides it has Ali MacGraw, who you may know as my ex-wife.
 
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