The SteyrGB, is a double-action9×19mm Parabellum caliber, large-framed semi-automatic pistol employing a gas-delayed blowback action. As such the GB abbreviation stand for Gasbremse. It was designed in 1968, intended as a replacement for older handguns in Austrian military service. The weapon went into general civilian production in 1982, and in 1988 production ceased. In the late 1970s, an American company founded by Les Rogak, LES Incorporated of Morton Grove, Illinois marketed the Rogak P-18, a close derivative of the Austrian original, but without great commercial success, due to significantly lower manufacturing standards which affected both the appearance and function of the pistol. Both weapons are now regarded as collector's items, the original model commanding higher prices in the American market.
Development
The original design introduced numerous novel features never before combined in a handgun: double-action mechanism ; a gas-bleed delayed-blowback system; fixed barrel ; polygonal rifling; and a reduced number of working parts. To this list the Rogak variant added newly-fashionable stainless steel construction. Despite an impressive list of innovative features—or because of it—the Steyr design did not prosper in the United States any better than in its country of origin.
Reception
Steyr's expectations of an Austrian military contract were upset with the victory of the Glock 17, which won military trials despite the novelty of its extensive employment of large high-strength polymer components, while the 1983 US military pistol competition, in which the Steyr GB competed, was won by the Beretta M92F. Consequently, Steyr decided to re-focus on the police and civilian market. While much appreciated by users trained and familiar with the weapon, and well received by customers who understood the mechanism, which was intended to result in a robust, accurate, reliable, and functional weapon when used with standard military ammunition, the anticipated civilian sales remained low while major official sales never materialized: between the American military's selection of the Beretta 92F, coupled with European military and police forces' selection of the competing SIG-Sauer led to a cessation of manufacture of the Steyr GB in 1988 after a total production of between 15,000 and 20,000 pistols—most of them commercial models. 937 of the military models were exported to the United States.
Operating mechanism
The Steyr GB is a semi-automatic, blowback-operated firearm. It features a unique gas-delayed blowback system based on the Barnitzke system, first used in the Volkssturmgewehr 1-5, and subsequently in the Swiss Pistole 47 W+F prototype pistol. The Barnitzke system uses gas pressure from the ignited cartridge and feeds it through a small port in the in front of the chamber to retard the rearward motion of the slide. This is accomplished by using the fixed piston formed by the outside of the barrel, inside a moving cylinder formed by the inside of the slide, gas pressure in the space between them opposing the rearward motion of the slide until the gas pressure has declined thereby allowing the slide to continue its rearward motion. Thereafter the Steyr GB follows the conventional semiautomatic cycle: opening the breech; ejecting the empty cartridge case; stripping a new round from the magazine; loading a new cartridge; returning to battery.
