The least-known handgun made by IMI/IWI is probably the Barak. It was imported ever so briefly by Magnum Research as the SP-21, and then dumped after poor sales. Eventually, it was also removed from the IWI sales catalog as well.
I think this is a tragedy, because the Barak is one of the best polymer hammer-fired handguns ever made.
I was recently able to procure two Barak handguns – one an early IMI model, and the other a later IWI model. I have been working on the assumption that the IWI model is a redesign of the IMI model, and not some sort of parallel variant that no one has ever heard of.
I’ve field-stripped both in an effort to determine what differences are between them.
I was doing some research on some of the less-known Israeli handguns, and ran across a picture of the Sirkis SQP. This is from a scan of the “Guns Handgun Annual 1985” magazine.
As you can see, the SQP has a Walther PPK-esque profile, with the addition of a squeeze cocker ala the HK P7. It is certainly a somewhat prettier gun than the Sirkis SD-9, and might have made a decent carry piece if it wasn’t too heavy (which was the SD-9’s ultimate downfall). Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the magazine to see what they said about it.
Nehemiah Sirkis is still alive (he designed the IWI Dan rifle), so it might be time to reach out to him and get some more details about some of his guns that we never quite saw.
Like most gun owners, I think of being able to share magazines between guns to be a Very Good Thing ™. Not only can new mags be expensive, but it simplifies storage when I can just dump a bunch of them in the same box. Plus, if you live in a mag-cap-limit state, it can be super convenient to be able to use what you’ve got grandfathered in, rather than hunt up 10rd mags.
Therefore, I was interested in finding new ways to use my unmodified Uzi magazines in places other than my Uzi. And, since I am a great lover of pistol caliber carbines and AR-15s, it seemed like a 9mm AR-15 would be just the ticket. There is a product that let me do this: the VM Hy Tech (VMHT) Uzi magazine adapter.
The Hebrew Hammer 