Historical overview project 7.92x24 mm VBR-Belgium

Flanders north side of Belgium, Wallonia south side of Belgium home of FN Herstal.

The 7.92x24 mm caliber was first developed on 14-04-2005 by Rik Van Bruaene (VBR-Belgium) in Roeselare, in the heart of West Flanders (Belgium). The design motif had multiple causes.

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In the year 2005, the Flemish arms activities were completely unknown and in the field of arms people only talked about one Belgian weapon that was made by the Belgian (subsidized Walloon) company Fabrique Nationale Herstal, the P90. The media hype of “an extremely powerful weapon in an inhuman caliber” was adopted by all media outlets, worldwide. In the field of weapons, there was then only interest in new PDWs (Personal Defense Weapons). The development of a new Flemish PDW-Sidearm in a new caliber 7.92x24 mm brought VBR-Belgium international publicity.

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Previous studies had already shown that the standard 9x19 mm NATO caliber was a bit too heavy for the new lightweight PDWs, and there was also international criticism of the limited performance of the 5.7x28 mm cartridge. The technical design motive was to develop an intermediate caliber between the 9x19 mm cartridge and the 5.7x28 mm cartridge, but in the sense that the project had to reach the widest possible market and was suitable for military, police and as well as for the civilian market. To achieve this goal, the caliber had to be compatible with existing 9x19mm and .45 ACP weapon platforms. i.e. the 7.92x24mm caliber had to be suitable for a multi-caliber role in existing weapons.

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It was predictable that an arms and ammunition production in Flanders would encounter serious resistance and that a heavy battle would have to be fought to neutralize that resistance. However, it was not clear who, where and how this resistance would be organized.

That is why a pilot project was started to develop the opposition and to look for the legal possibilities to protect the investments! 

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The reasons why there would be a certain resistance were:

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The public safety argument for the 7.92x24mm vs the 5.7x28mm caliber.

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In terms of weapons technology area, the 7.92x24 mm caliber is quite powerful, but the weapon remains quite stable during firing. The small cartridge dimensions allow a high magazine capacity. This combination creates a sense of insecurity in some police officers circles and a fear of facing a weapon that can deliver a hail of targeted fire. The armor piercing properties of some VBR-Belgium projectiles were also not well received... With other calibers such as .22 LR and .32 ACP, the stability of these guns has never resulted in a hail of bullets being sent to law enforcement agents. The 7.92x24mm cartridge is considerably more safe than the 5.7x28mm cartridge and cannot with normal ammunition penetrate a level 3A bullet proof vest. Resistance from the police weapon service was predictable

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The arms industry in Flanders is completely unprecedented. A Flemish arms industry will in any case depend on permits that must be issued by the various Flemish government services. Since the Flemish weapons services have a dissuasive policy concerning weapons, it was therefore also predictable that there would be opposition from certain government departments, be it for political reasons, malicious intent, corruption or total incompetence in the provincial arms service. Resistance from the provincial arms service was predictable.

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On a federal level, we are dealing with a Belgian (subsidized by the Walloon government) competing company FN Herstal. This competitive Belgian company has many connections, economic, military and political. A multinational such as Group FN has a strength that should not be underestimated, which can prevent a new competitor from developing on the Belgian market. In addition, a Flemish arms industry is not a favorable development for some political ideologies. Resistance from the Federal government was predictable.

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In the development of the 7.92x24 mm caliber, the FN cartridge 5.7x28 mm played an important role. Especially the criticism of the SS190 projectile was of great importance. There was criticism that the SS190 projectile uses a tumbling effect to create the necessary wounding. Some considered this to be in violation of the Geneva Convention. There were also a number of drawbacks such as tumbling prematurely on hard resistances or even not tumbling at all in soft targets. To avoid this criticism, the smallest conventional caliber with a great military history was sought. The .30 caliber has almost always been present on the battlefield throughout history. Be it in the caliber .32 ACP or in the caliber 7.62x25 mm (Tokarev). Different bullet diameters are used in a .30 barrel, ranging from .308 to .314. The first studies showed that a bullet diameter of +/- 7.90 mm was most interesting to use different types of bullet points. This determined the dimensions of the chamber so that the 7.92x24mm caliber would accommodate bullet points from .308 to .312, being from 7.82mm to 7.92mm.

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Various factors played a role in the choice of the case. Firstly, the bottom diameter of the case was kept as small as possible to allow for maximum magazine capacity. The length of the case was also specifically chosen to allow for a multi-caliber role in the 9mm and .45 weapon frames. An important requirement was that the case had to be easy to manufacture and reload. In this way, a case and ammunition shortage could be compensated at the start of the project. 

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Although one can use a combination of different types of dies (reloading dies) such as the .32 ACP dies and the .30 Carbine dies.

 Special dies for reloading the 7.92x24 mm cartridge are available on the market.

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The caliber 7.92x24 mm was homologated at the C.I.P. (Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'épreuve des armes à feu portatives) by the Belgian firearms test bench in Liège. For this purpose, special test barrels were made for testing the chamber pressure with the ammunition in the caliber 7.92x24 mm. These test barrels are present in the Belgian test bench for firearms. There is a test barrel with a normal field and draw profile and a polygon barrel is available for the caliber 7.92x24 mm. The initials 7.92x24 mm VBR-B were used as bottom stamp. It is extremely rare that such a project is started in Flanders and the original shells are extremely rare.

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To enable ammunition collectors to follow up on this extremely rare Flemish ammunition project, a number of dummy cartridges were initially produced. These dummy cartridges fall outside the weapons law and do not contain ammunition parts. They are freely available and can be sent by post. Dummy cartridges in caliber 7.92x24 mm can be ordered at this website. Unique to these dummy cartridges is the VBR-B bottom stamp. These dummy cartridges are quite rare and a highly sought after as collector's item in the United States. Please note the photo that dummy cartridges from VBR-Belgium were specially made from a solid brass rod and therefore do not contain any ammunition parts. So there is no cartridge case, no percussion cap, no powder and no bullet point present with these dummy cartridges, just a solid brass rod with the external dimensions of the original 7.92x24mm cartridge and a bottom stamp.

In total, four types of 7.92x24 mm cartridges C.I.P. homologated:

  • 7.92x24mm Short FMJ-RN

The 7.92x24 mm Short FMJ-RN cartridge was first named 7.92x24 mm "Compact", but this designation was quite unfortunate because many pistols are given a designation of “Compact”. This posed a problem. Later the name compact was changed to “Short”. The overall length of this cartridge was 29.6 mm and was provided for the Glock 17 in the 7.92 conversion.

The 7.92x24 mm Short C2F cartridge was first given the designation 7.92x24 Compact C2F. This too was later changed to 7.92x24 C2F-S (Short). The operating principle of this projectile was based on the controlled fragmentation of a projectile. The overall length of this cartridge was 29.6 mm and was provided for the Glock 7.92 conversion.

The 7.92x24 mm Normal FMJ-RN cartridge was initially not marked after the caliber designation, only later was the “N” of Normal was added. The overall length of this cartridge was 31.5 mm and was designed for a 1911 pistol .45 caliber frame conversion.

The 7.92x24 mm Normal BAP cartridge also did not have a hallmark behind the caliber designation in the beginning. Later an “N” was added. The name BAP stood for “Brass Armor Piercing”. The overall length of this cartridge was 32.1 mm and was designed for a 1911 pistol .45 frame conversion. The name of the caliber “7.92x24 mm” comes from the largest bullet diameter suitable for this cartridge, namely the .312 bullet point or 7.92 mm. Modern calibers increasingly use the effective outside diameter of the projectile to avoid confusion with old existing calibers.

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The 7.92x24 mm case as the basis for cartridges with different lengths. Since the 7.92x24 mm caliber was developed from the start for a multi-caliber role, different versions are possible in this caliber. These different versions are classified according to their total length. For example, the 7.92x24 mm caliber has four different lengths, i.e.

The use of these types depends on the weapon design.

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The caliber 7.92x24mm Mini.

 The caliber 7.92x24 mm Mini is provided for weapons in the frame platform of the .32 ACP cartridge. The interest in this cartridge has increased after the IWA arms fair in 2011 with the proposal to equip a Taurus pistol PT 732 in caliber .32 ACP with a 7.92x24 mm Mini cartridge with two projectiles to increase the stopping power of this pistol.

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The caliber 7.92x24mm Short. 

The caliber 7.92x24 mm Short is provided for weapons in the frame platform of a 9x19 mm cartridge. The 7.92x24mm exchange set for the Glock 17 pistol is the most famous example. The production of an interchangeable barrel in the caliber 7.92x24 mm is possible with relatively limited resources in the Flanders. By all means, a few dark forces have tried to keep these conversion sets off the market. There was simply no permit allowed to obtain these exchange sets. It was also a hard fight for this at the Council of State. In vain it was decided that the delivery of a license was a favor and that it was up to the Federal Arms Service to grant that favor or not. The question can rightly be asked whether a Flemish Arms Industry will always have to turn to the highest authorities for each new project in order to obtain the necessary permit for each Flemish design? This kind of hostilities is playing with and sabotage the investments of the Flemish arms industry.

 The caliber 7.92x24 mm Normal is provided for weapons in the frame platform of the .45 ACP cartridge. Originally it was thought that such conversion kits would be made quite easily by the arms industry, but it turned out to be extremely difficult to find a European 1911 gun manufacturer willing to complete this project. The following companies worked on the 7.92x24 mm 1911 project: 

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To deliver the greatest Knock Down stopping power, you need a large projectile. In this case the 7.92x24mm L caliber is a 7.92mm projectile which is significantly larger than the 5.7mm projectile. A full-sized .30 FMJ rifle bullet point provides a larger permanent wound channel than a 9mm FMJ (M882) bullet point. The 7.92x24 mm caliber has sufficient knock down stopping power as a PDW cartridge to compete with the 9mm caliber. Now we see this development in the 300 AAC Blackout.

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The weapon prototypes in the caliber 7.92x24 mm

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Peters Stahl. 

The first company that worked on a 7.92x24 mm exchange set for a 1911 pistol model is the German company Peters Stahl. Since no results were known after a year, the collaboration with this company was discontinued. It later turned out that this company was already in financial difficulties and has already been declared bankrupt.

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 The second company to work on a 7.92x24 mm change kit for a 1911 pistol model was the Italian company Q.S. Progetto Meccanica conducted by Mr. Leonardo Penna. The development of this design was also very slow and in the meantime there appeared to be a number of difficulties. The P7000 pistol from Q.S. uses a mass lock without effectively locking the cartridge into the chamber. The P7000 pistol was developed for the 7x23mm (7Penna) caliber which was considerably weaker than the 7.92x24mm cartridge.

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A special 7.92x24 mm AE cartridge was developed for testing in a P7000 pistol. This cartridge had the same case base as the 7Penna cartridge. These tests showed that once above 2800 bar chamber pressure the percussion cap disengages in the unlocked cartridge during firing. This always caused a number of feed failures due to detached primers. For use in a mass-lock weapon, the percussion cap would have to be locked into the case, which was not possible by reloaders. In the end, the P7000 in the 7.92x24 mm caliber was not finished.

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 The third company that has worked on a 7.92x24 mm exchange set for a 1911 pistol model is the German company PSW Wicke in collaboration with gun maker Mr. Andy Holden of Holden Custom Guns from Paderborn.

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A PSW Multi-caliber pistol was fitted with a 7.92x24mm barrel and tested at the Holden Custom Guns firing range. The weapon only showed feed failures because it was still in an experimental phase, but the main problem turned out to be the percussion cap and the use of the wrong type of firing pin. Some cartridges loaded at maximum pressure had the percussion cap blown through and damaged. As a result, combustion gases and gunpowder residues ended up between the firing pin and the slide, resulting in malfunction. The same cartridges presented no problems when fired from the Glock 17 pistol with a 7.92x24mm interchangeable barrel. To date, there is no news about the PSW pistol.

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 In the meantime it became clear why there was no news from PSW Wicke. The project was passed on to Sig Sauer's weapons technicians. These have been commissioned by Mr. Wicke fine-tuned a Sig Sauer 1911 that would function perfectly with the 7.92x24 mm N cartridge. For now, this weapon has not yet been released and is not yet available on the market. So, there is already a 1911 competition to the .30 Super Carry 1911 pistols.

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VBR-Belgium PDW Sidearm. 

The PDW Sidearm was originally developed for the 9x19 mm armor-piercing cartridge of VBR-Belgium. Standard Glock 9x19mm magazines were used for this project. These magazines were later also used for the 7.92x24 mm S exchange set in the Glock 17 pistol. With some minor adjustments, this PDW design can be converted for the 7.92x24 S cartridges. The production of this PDW requires a large number of investments and given the unfavorable investment climate in the Flanders and the opposition against the firearms industry, this project has been put on hold for the time being.

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The VBR-B conversion set 7.92x24 S for Glock 17 was developed in the Flanders, but due to the lack of a suitable infrastructure, contact was first sought for production with foreign companies such as IGB Austria. Limited production has recently become possible in Flanders. This Glock 17 with the first 7.92x24 mm VBR-B interchangeable barrel has already been approved by the Belgian test bench in Liège and has all legal inspection stamps.

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Finally, the first license for an interchangeable barrel 7.92x24 mm for Glock 17 pistol was signed on December 16, 2013 by the Federal Weapons Service in Brussels.

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The 7,92x24mm project was presented at the Glock boot on IWA 2009 according to the Glock sales representative, Glock has only interests in military and law enforcement calibers. A project as the 7.92x24mm caliber should been worked out with aftermarket parts. 

IGB Austria is a well know European manufacture for aftermarket slides and pistol barrels. 

A production of the 7.92x24mm barrel was possible from the minimum amount of 300 pistol barrels. 

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