Third Party Press

SSD's PTR44 / BD44 In Detail The Semi Automatic MP44

I've been asked to post pictures of the manual that came with the rifle. They are not print quality but they are readable. I didn't rotate them because doing so made them smaller and harder to read. Just copy and save them to your computer. Then you can reorient them and blow them up. I also include the warranty registration card and the assorted other literature that came with the rifle. All came in a plain non-sealable plastic bag.

The manual is six pages plus front and back covers:


















Warranty registration card:




Other assorted paperwork included not related to the rifle and the plastic bag it all came in. So FANCY!

 
WoW!!! I haven't posted in this thread since October 9th of 2017...….almost three years!!! There is a reason for that. On Friday, June 22 of 2018, I had the rifle out at the range with a friend of mine. We took the M249, FG42 and MP44 because he had never shot any of those and wanted to try them out. The M249 and FG42 both worked flawlessly that day but we only got 28 rounds through the MP44 before, at round 427, the trigger went dead and the rifle wouldn't fire.

Upon disassembly, I discovered that the disconnector had sheared in half:

Looks nice doesn't it? As has been discussed already, some of the parts on the PTR44 are prone to failure due to overhardening. Some of the trigger components were made in the United States for 922 compliance including, if I remember correctly, the hammer, sear and disconnector. They are also prone to failure. Well.....mine failed.

No problem. SSD has imported some new made parts for these rifles and says that they are now properly hardened so I ordered one. It is shown below along with the part of the broken original still pinned to the sear:


I also found a new old stock original one for 22 buckaroonies so I bought that too. It's all about options my friends. In the series of pictures below, the WWII one is on the right and the new made SSD is on the left:











They look pretty much identical but I decided to have the vintage one installed simply because I know they have a good track record.


While I was at it, I bought a WWII vintage hammer too:







The sear still looked pretty good to me so I decided to reuse that. I hope it wasn't a mistake. Time will tell I guess.
 
Then I stopped and did nothing. Why? Because I was worried. I knew who I wanted to work on the rifle. I had contacted him (I'll call him the MP44 Wizard because he wants to remain anonymous but his name is known in certain circles) and he was willing to take on the work. The problem was that he lived 700 miles away and I was worried about shipping the rifle that far. You see, with the exception of the STG45, there is no other rifle on this planet that I've desired to own than the MP44. From the time I discovered the rifle as a kid, I WANTED one. Consequently, there seemed to be a curse keeping me from getting one. I won't go into all the details; you'll just have to trust me that I always wanted one SO BAD it seemed that the universe aligned against me getting one. When I found this one, I refused to let the guy ship it. I drove hours away to meet him at an FFL and have it transferred rather then trust shipping it. I just KNEW that something would go wrong if I did.

Well, here I was with a busted rifle and the guy who I trusted to repair it 700 miles away. Finally, after sitting on it for almost 11 months, I decided I had no choice. I bought a case to ship it in and wrapped it so well it could withstand a nuclear blast. In late Aril or early May of 2019, I sent it Registered Mail and insured it for way more than it was worth because I knew that the higher the value with registered, the more care the USPS extends in regards to shipping. EVERY SINGLE PERSON that touched it during transit had to sign for it and it would not touch automated machinery. It simply could not get lost. Save a natural disaster, it would arrive safely. The day I sent it off, I told my honey:

"You watch.....his shop will catch fire."

It arrived safely a few days later and the Wizard began working his magic. We discussed what was to be done on the phone. I had included a typed list of issues I had noted (we'll cover all that a bit later) and we discussed the remedies for those issues. All was going well and he expected to have the rifle ready to send back to me by the end of July.

Then his shop caught fire...….while he was working on my rifle.

My rifle was saved but I still felt TERRIBLE for the Wizard. Obviously, all work stopped in his shop but luckily he only lost half of the shop. His livelihood was not destroyed, only set back. I'm not going to go into details because that's nobody's business but happily, it's hard to keep a good man down and the Wizard was up and running again this spring. About a month ago, I got a call saying my rifle was nearing completion and would soon be ready to ship. Not wishing to temp fate further, I asked if it would be possible for me to drive the 700 miles to pick up the rifle in person rather than have it shipped. "No problem." was the answer. "While you're here, we can head to the range and shoot some machine guns."

I called a childhood friend of mine who lives almost exactly halfway to my destination and asked if I could stay the night. He was happy to oblige. So I stayed the night at his place and continued the journey the next day with his son as a passenger. He had just graduated from high school and is leaving for the Marines in the fall so I took him along as my graduation present. What better graduation gift can you give a kid than a day at the range with machine guns?? There isn't one.

Sooooo after over a year and about 750 miles driving, the day came that I finally got my MP44 back. The Wizard had put 140 rounds through it during repair and testing and we put another 80 rounds down the barrel that day. I had one stovepipe upon ejection but no problem otherwise. That brings the total rounds thus far to 647. In the next post, we'll look at the rifle and discuss what was done to it but I want to finish up this post with a few pictures from the range on the day I picked it up.

First up is a picture of something I had wondered about for a long time but have never seen a picture of, the MP44 stacking rod/Haunebu craft transmission antenna in use:

It's a pointless feature reminiscent of a long gone past but it still looks neato. My rifle is at the far right. The one in the pyramid facing the camera is a late war original and the other one in the pyramid is a parts kit assembled to a PTR44 receiver that was one of the 50 out of 200 imported deemed not suitable for sale. It had been mangled during conversion after import and the wizard bought the receiver and made it work. The one laying on the ground is another late war original rifle.

Here is my buddy's son, Clay, shooting an MP44 that the Wizard made a scope mount for:

He had no trouble at all clanging the gong at 200 yards. The Marines are going to induct one hell of a great recruit with this one. He's one of the BEST 17 year old kids I've ever had the privilege of knowing and I've known him since he's been born.
By the way, if you look VERY carefully at the FAL in the rack, you might notice that it looks a little odd. That's because it's been modified to shoot 7.92x33 Kurz cartridges by the Wizard. I got to shoot it and I gotta say, IMO, it's what the FAL should have been. I tried to get the Wizard to sell it to me but no such luck!!


Here is the Wizard trying out my CETME LVS:

As is the case with everyone who shoots a MarColMar CETME, he was extremely impressed with the rifle.


Clay shot hundreds of rounds through an Egyptian Port Said SMG (a license built Carl Gustaf) and took to it like a duck to water:

Dig that brass cased Norinco 9mm circa 1992. I bought 1000's of rounds of that stuff back in the day and its Excellent ammunition.

We also had a chance to shoot an Ultimax 100 MK II designed by none other than James Sullivan:





The Wizard has a Class II license and rewelded this from a parts kit. These things are exceedingly rare in this country and I was stoked to get the chance to shoot one. The Wizard told me I could take as many pictures as I wanted and I would have LOVED to document this jobber but it takes me 3-4 hours to get the pictures I need to really do a firearm justice and we only had so much time so I chose to pull the trigger rather than click the shutter. We were at the range for 5 hours before heading back home. That made it a roughly 22 hour day from out of bed to back to my friends house but it was worth every minute!



That's it for this post. In the next one, we'll look at my MP44 now that I have it home and go over exactly what was done to it. I'm heading to the range again tomorrow morning and I trust that it won't fail to please. Thanks for your time and I'll see you soon!
 
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That wizard is a pretty cool guy, I had the exact same experience a few years ago with a rewat. Glad to see he’s doing ok. :thumbsup:
 
Is your friend Clay’s MP44 a PTR44 or did he have a zf4 railed attached to an original? Looks parked. Nice photos. Thanks for sharing
 
That's a refinished PTR 44 receiver (one of the 50 that was not sold as a complete rifle) that was repaired and assembled into a rifle using original parts and a recontoured K98K barrel. How's that for a put together?!? It belongs to the Wizard. That guy does almost unbelievable work.
 
I had a question that I’ve always wondered... you obviously had real deal sturmgewehrs and the ptr44 out on the same day. Besides being semi, does the ptr44 “feel” like the original when shooting? I have an original and it is a pretty fun and unique rifle to shoot. I love the sound and feel of that giant spring working the action when she fires. Like if you were blind folded (awesome idea to shoot blind folded��) could you tell the difference?
It’s funny, I see more happy faces from people that I let shoot my Mp44 for the first time than any other rifle I have, even the Fg42. I think there just something awesomely satisfying about shooting it, history or not.
 
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There is absolutely zero difference. If you were blindfolded, you'd have no idea which rifle you were holding or firing. The only discernible difference would be that you couldn't feel the axle pin for the full auto trip because one isn't present and the selector switch is inoperable. Obviously, I'd rather have an original BUT.....beggars can't be choosers!

As you alredy know, the MP44 feels and sounds like no other automatic rifle in the world. It makes so many gnashing, ratcheting, clanging, sproinging (that's not really a word) and clicking noises, you'd think it was made on the Planet of the Apes. That's part of the fun of it and shooting it is the only way to experience that.
 
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Hence my comment:


“Above the barrel and sticking out of the gas block is the antenna used to transmit and receive transmissions from Haunebu craft and the secret base in New Swabia”

:biggrin1:
 
What else did he do to repair yours? I'm just wondering because I'm guessing you removed the broken parts yourself? Did the replacement parts need fitting?
 
In all of the following pictures, we're only going to look at the rifle as it is now. If you want to compare the various details to how it looked before upgrade, you'll only need to refer back to pictures I've already posted.

ALrighty, here's the rifle after I got home and cleaned it from the range trip:

When I bought this thing, I knew things were going to go wrong with it and I had thought about just sending it out for upgrades right off the bat. BUT, the Wizard told me that I should just shoot it until something broke because I might discover things in the meantime that I wanted done that I might not think of initially. That turned out to be sage advice because by the time the disconnector broke, I had discovered quite a list of things that just weren't right.

We will now go over them one by one starting at the muzzle:

Big deal....it's a muzzle. Welllll, it turned out that it was a big deal. In order for this thing to hit center of target at 100 yards, I had to have the front sight pushed all the way to one side (I forget which). And when I say "all the way", I MEAN all the way. It was hitting the sight hood and there was zero movement left. What was weird was the fact that the sight base appeared to be standing up straight. In order for it to shoot point of aim with the front sight centered, the base would have to be canted so much that it would look silly. Long story short, it turns out that the crown was not cut right. It LOOKED fine but no dice. The picture above shows it after re-crowning.

And here is where the front sight sits in the base now:

I had no problem ringing the gong at 200 yards so it's plenty zeroed for my old eyes.

While we're up here, notice the muzzle nut lock pin:

That didn't work right. If you pushed it in to remove the muzzle nut, it would stick in the sight base. The only way to get it to pop back out was to shoot the rifle and the resulting recoil would cause it to pop back out. That's not a huge deal but it bothered me. Now it's been corrected and it works just as it should. In order to repair it though the front sight base had to come off. That seems like a bunch of work for such a small thing.

Well...….the sight base had to come off anyway because it was loose on the barrel. It wasn't super loose but you could rotate it side to side with not much effort. I noticed it early on when holding the muzzle while loosening the gas plug. As the rifle left the factory, the only thing holding the base on the barrel was a pin. This was true during the war and it was true when this was built. Even back in the 40's loose front sights were a complaint. So, the sight is now soldered in place just as it would be on a K98K. Additionally, a new slightly oversized pin was manufactured and installed. Its as secure as it can possible be now:

Notice the discoloration going on in the bluing. It's looking good!!!

By the way, I'm starting to get some dings and bluing loss on the rifle. The more the better. As an example, here is the front bottom of the handguard:


And a but of edge wear at the front of the receiver:

Of course, these piddley things are nowhere NEAR enough. I carry it all over the place and am somewhat rough on it in an effort to get nicks and scratches. I also go over it with a rag every time I pick it up. I'm getting some dings in the stock now too and some dents in the metal that I have no idea how they got there. When I get to less than 50% bluing and some nice brown patina, I'll be satisfied. Unfortunately, I have a long way to go! What I really need to do is go on more overnight hiking trips and carry it with me. Yep.....I'm nuts.


Next up was a magazine issue. I have three original magazines; an East German, an FXO (Haenel) and an MP45 marked gqm (Loch & Hartenberger). The East German and MP45 marked magazines fit nicely in the magazine well and function fine. But the FXO had a lot of front to rear slop which caused feeding issues. In order to fix that, a shim was cut and silver soldered to the front of the magazine:

It cannot be seen when seated in the rifle and now it has minimal movement. As a result, it functions just fine now.


While the East German magazine worked fine, it had active rust and was pitted. I gave up trying to stop the rust and asked Mr. Wizard to just refinish it and be done with it. He wanted to make sure that the rust was totally eliminated so he blasted it, parked it, blasted it again and parked it again. He may have even done it a third time but I forget now. Whatever the case, he was thorough! He made it a nice dark grey to almost black color. Below, it is on the left compared to an original wartime blued example on the right:



And a detail showing just how pitted it is under the finish:

I hated to have that done because I like the East German jobbers better than the wartime ones because I'm a big Combloc fan. I would have liked to have preserved the finish but it was for the best. Now I can use it and stop obsessing over the rust.


I told the Wizard to go over the entire rifle with a critical eye and to fix, replace or modify anything that didn't look right to him. He decided that he didn't like the look of the rear sight leaf fixing pin and replaced it with one he fabricated. I thought it looked fine before but I was wrong. Now it looks like it was manufactured and installed with the care only a true craftsman can impart.....because it was:




On the MP44 the gas tube is anchored to neither the gas block nor the receiver. It just floats in between the two. As a result, it's normal for it to slide fore and aft just a hair. It's not a lot but it does move. When installed, ribs stamped into the handguard snap into corresponding valleys on the gas tube and lock the two parts together as a unit. Consequently, the handguard will slide fore and aft too. The Wizard does not like this. He says it makes the rifle feel cheap. To eliminate this movement, he made a little ring for each of his rifles that just snaps over the barrel behind the gas block. He did the same for mine and now there is zero movement:


This dude is all about the details. That's EXACTLY the kind of person you want working on a rifle.


The previously discussed hammer and disconnector was installed:
 
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As insurance, the slot in the bottom of the receiver had a plate welded over it and then just enough of it was machined away for the hammer to pass. I'm told that this adds quite a bit of rigidity to the receiver. I'll take his word for it because he has CLEARLY forgotten more about these rifles than I'll ever learn.






The ejection port cover didn't latch very securely. Sometimes just flicking the outside of it with your finger would cause it to pop open. The detent notch was cleaned up and deepened and now it stays closed properly:



A urethane buffer was installed inside the stock ferrule:

You sometimes see original MP44's with cracked stocks. This can be caused by the bolt carrier banging into the stock ferrule at the end of its rearward movement. The force is transferred into the wood causing a split. This buffer will most likely eliminate that possibility. But it must be said; we're dealing with wood though so there are no absolute guarantees.


The last thing that was done is, in my opinion, the most important for keeping these rifles alive well into the future. That is replacing the factory trigger group pins, which were peened in place, with new ones that are held in place with circlips so that you can easily disassemble and reassemble the trigger group should the need arise. I believe that the original setup was done as a wartime expedient to simplify the design and speed up production. That's fine when you are using your rifle as a tool that you simply turn in to an armorer should something go awry. He has the necessary tools to refit those pins without distorting the stamped metal lower or mucking up the bearings. I don't have that equipment though and I guarantee your average gunsmith doesn't either. I understand why SSD did it the old way too. They make REPRODUCTIONS (hint to any company that is looking at making such a thing).
But I explained to the Wizard that I "want to shoot the hell out of this thin, not stare at it". If something goes wrong in the future I want to know that I can personally disassemble it and work on it. This easily removeable pin solution is simple and elegant. By the way, this wasn't my idea. The Wizard suggested it and I enthusiastically jumped on it. I didn't care what the cost was, I want that done above all else.
Here's the right side of the trigger housing showing the new made hammer pin, trigger in and sear pin:


And a closeup of those pins:

The pins I'm talking about are the three with slightly dished heads. This reproduces the look of original peened in place pins. "Peened" may not be the right word. Maybe they were "squeezed" instead. Whatever the original process, it expanded the both ends of the pins to lock them in their bearings. Now, they are ever so slightly oversized on this end so no circlip is needed. Note the circlip in the lower left of the picture. This is a factory original clip installed on the end of the safety lever axle.


Here is the left side of the trigger housing showing the circlips:


A closeup:

Notice how the circlips mimic the factory one on the other side. It's all about details. Even though this retaining system isn't "correct", it sure blends in nicely and, most importantly, it allows easy repairs should that be necessary in the future. I simply could not be more satisfied with this work!


The last problem was the extractor pin. It should almost drop out but it was in so tight I couldn't get it out with a hammer and punch. Now it comes out just like it should. I didn't take a picture of that because it's just a pin so there's nothing much to see. But I can show you a picture of what we discovered when we took the rifle apart for inspection:


Notice that part of the bolt has broken off below the very front of the extractor. Mr. Wizard had not noticed that before and I could tell that it upset him. He said it must have happened during his testing but he had no idea when or how. I told him not to worry about it because it was surely nothing he did. As everyone knows, many of the PTR44 bolts are overhardened and brittle. Maybe that's the case with mine too. It's also entirely possible that I weakened that area when I was using a pin punch and hammer trying to remove the previously too tight extractor pin. I just had it laying on the bench with my honey holding it from moving when I was tapping and that broken off piece probably took more punishment than it should have at the time. Whatever the case, I suspect that this bolt will probably eventually self destruct. What I really need is an original to replace it with. If any of you folks has one that they are willing to sell at a reasonable price (I simply will not pay the ridiculous prices some morons are asking on gunbroker) please look me up. I'd be very much obliged!

That's it for modifications and replacements. I know what you are thinking and I agree. For as much money as these rifles cost, the number of problems and faulty bits is a disgrace. I 100% agree with you but I DO think it's worth the time, money and effort because the alternative is an original that will cost you $25,000 or more AND you have to register it on a Form 4. I don't regret my journey for a second and I'll jump right in line if and when SSD brings more into the country. Truth be told, they are currently working on that and they say that the hardness issues are a thing of the past. While I truthfully don't know if that's the case or not, I must admit that I'd be willing to gamble. Call me crazy if you want.....you'd be right. I always have been and I always will be!
 
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I'd like to talk a bit about the backdrop I used in the previous post. That's not reproduction cloth but it's not WWII vintage either. In fact, it's a Czechoslovakian shelter half made very shortly after WWII using leftover German equipment. The pattern looks identical to what collectors call Sumpfmuster 44 because it was manufactured using Sumpfmuster 44 rollers. The colors look a little off partly because it's over 70 years old, well used and faded but mostly because the Czech's used their own dyes to make it the colors they wanted. They apparently made very few of these and I found this one in the Czech Republic. Outside of nerds like myself, these things are all but unknown. Here are a couple pictures of the whole thing:



Unlike a German one that's triangular, the Czechs decided to go with a parallelogram.


Here's the Czech on the right compared to 1950's West German Sumpfmuster on the left:



The sling is an original postwar specimen too. They are usually sold as East German and they may be. Both the Czechs and East Germans used the MP44 for some years after the war until more modern arms came online. Two versions of the sling seem to exist. One has a cross hatch patters similar to that seen on WWII vintage K98K slings. I believe these to be East German made. The other, shown on my rifle has no cross hatch pattern but is slightly pebbled. My belief is that these are Czechoslovakian made.


The Czech's not only used leftover wartime M43 ammunition in their repatriated MP44's but, like the East Germans, they made their own too.
Here are six boxes of Czech issued ammunition:

The two upper ones on the left are leftover WWII ammunition pecked into Czech marked boxes and the other four were contain rounds made in 1946 by Sellier & Bellot. The label on five of the boxes translates as:

15 pcs.
7.92 mm short cartridge M43
for submachinegun - N
Manufacture date (year)
Sorted : January 1955
Use within (6 months)

The sixth box is hard to read but it has similar information plus what appears to be a bullet weight minus the resort and use within information. Notice that the label on that box is very similar to wartime German labels too down to the blue stripe.
Here's a closeup of that box in case you can read it better than I can:



And here is one of the other boxes:

The repack label is glued over the earlier, original, label.


A couple of the boxes have some writing in pencil:



All of the cardboard boxes shown, while Czech labeled, are actually just left over wartime boxes. Each is embossed inside the tuck flap with a 1944/45 date and manufacturer code. Here is a random example:



Here is one of the Sellier & Bellot rounds:

Just as you commonly see on WWII vintage rounds, the steel case is washed in a green lacquer.


The head stamp is clearly marked "SB" (Sellier & Bellot) and dated 1946:



This last picture gives a general overview of Czech Automatic rifles from 1945-1961:

Technically, there should be a VZ52 (officially made from 1952-56 in 7.62x45) in there too between the M44 and the VZ 52/57 (1957-59 in 7.62x39). Still you get the point. The VZ58 changed the furniture from beech wood to wood chip infused bakelite in 1961 I think (correct me if I'm wrong please). So, as I have presented the rifle here, it's posing as a Czechoslovakian. I wish I had some Czech magazine pouches for it but no such luck. Maybe someday and maybe not!


Okiedokie. Unless something changes, that's it for my coverage of the SSD/PTR44. Unless I find a bolt, something breaks or something else happens that I think is noteworthy, I'm done. Thanks for spending some time reading my drivel and I'll see you on the next one. Bye for now!

P.S. Thanks Mom. I love you.
 
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On the slot in the bottom of the receiver where the hammer passes through. It is good that this area was strengthened. A friend of mine brought his PTR44 to me to figure out why it was jamming. He could chamber a round, fire the round but the bolt would stick. I discovered that this area takes a beating from the bolt. The metal that Wizard reinforced on yours is too weak from the factory and will bend downwards and giving a spot for the bolt to hang up on. I hope I explained that well enough to make sense. Wizard must have known this too and that is why he reinforced it. You shouldn't have the problem my friend has with his.
 
Yes sir, you nailed it. The PTR44 bolt is more narrow at the bottom rear than an original and I assume that can create the problem you describe.
 
On the slot in the bottom of the receiver where the hammer passes through. It is good that this area was strengthened. A friend of mine brought his PTR44 to me to figure out why it was jamming. He could chamber a round, fire the round but the bolt would stick. I discovered that this area takes a beating from the bolt. The metal that Wizard reinforced on yours is too weak from the factory and will bend downwards and giving a spot for the bolt to hang up on. I hope I explained that well enough to make sense. Wizard must have known this too and that is why he reinforced it. You shouldn't have the problem my friend has with his.

The slot size is about correct when compared against a real MP44. The problem is with the PTR44 bolt. A U-shaped blocking piece has been welded into the back of the PTR44 receiver to prevent insertion of an MP44 bolt or at least make it hard to slide through the blocking piece. The square "skid" at the bottom of the PTR bolt has been reduced in width so it can pass through the blocking piece. Right past the blocking piece, the PTR receiver opens up to standard MP44 width. The square channel at the bottom of the receiver, in which the skid of the bolt slides, is now too wide for the skid, so it wobbles around. Once it gets to the hammer slot, due to the reduced "floor" area of the receiver channel (caused by the big hammer cutout) there is not a lot of channel area left to support the skid. This still works for the MP44 bolt, but due to the reduced width of the PTR bolt skid, the latter has very little surface to ride on.
When a feeding problem causes a stoppage, the op rod and the bolt are engaged in a way that any resistance to the bolt's forward motion will result in the op rod pushing the rear end of the bolt downward. Forces are very high due to spring pressure and the cam angle of op rod and bolt, sometimes so high that the PTR bolt skid breaks through the hammer slot. The remedy is to double up on the wall thickness around the hammer slot and make the slot as narrow as possible while still allowing for unobstructed hammer movement.
 
The slot size is about correct when compared against a real MP44. The problem is with the PTR44 bolt. A U-shaped blocking piece has been welded into the back of the PTR44 receiver to prevent insertion of an MP44 bolt or at least make it hard to slide through the blocking piece. The square "skid" at the bottom of the PTR bolt has been reduced in width so it can pass through the blocking piece. Right past the blocking piece, the PTR receiver opens up to standard MP44 width. The square channel at the bottom of the receiver, in which the skid of the bolt slides, is now too wide for the skid, so it wobbles around. Once it gets to the hammer slot, due to the reduced "floor" area of the receiver channel (caused by the big hammer cutout) there is not a lot of channel area left to support the skid. This still works for the MP44 bolt, but due to the reduced width of the PTR bolt skid, the latter has very little surface to ride on.
When a feeding problem causes a stoppage, the op rod and the bolt are engaged in a way that any resistance to the bolt's forward motion will result in the op rod pushing the rear end of the bolt downward. Forces are very high due to spring pressure and the cam angle of op rod and bolt, sometimes so high that the PTR bolt skid breaks through the hammer slot. The remedy is to double up on the wall thickness around the hammer slot and make the slot as narrow as possible while still allowing for unobstructed hammer movement.

Exactly like my friends PTR44. But you explained it better than I did. In his case he was firing blanks at a reenactment. Many of these have been used by reenactors. Whenever a blank jammed, damage occurred like you described above.
 

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