M3A1 Grease Gun Foreign Variant - PAM 2 9mm (Argentina)

M3A1 Grease Gun Foreign Variant the PAM 2 9mm LOW Serial Number 11082 of 47688 made .  This was brought to New Zealand via South Africa – Rhodesia.  It is stamped PAM 1 but is a PAM 2 because  it is semi-auto and has the Grip Safety. Most of these were scrapped when the Communist Government fell in Argentina so few remain in circulation. The PaAM 2 being semiauto with the grip safety is a pleasure to shoot.  The PAM 1 had far too high a rate of fire due to design flawes as the bolt should have been heavier instead of a direct scale down for 9mm.

Foreign variants and derivatives

P.A.M. 1 and 2 (Argentina)

In 1954, a variant of the U.S. M3A1 submachine gun was designed at the Argentine FMAP (Fábrica Militar de Armas Portátiles) factory in the city of Rosario and put into production the following year as the P.A.M. 1 (Pistola Ametralladora Modelo 1). Constructed of somewhat thinner-gauge steel than the U.S. M3A1, the P.A.M. 1 was in essence a 7/8-scale replica of the U.S. weapon in 9 mm Parabellum caliber, but was lighter and had a higher rate of fire. This was due to an incomplete transfer of all details to Argentina. In service, the P.A.M. 1's thinner sheet steel receiver tended to overheat with extended firing, while the gun itself proved somewhat more difficult to control in automatic fire despite the smaller caliber. Additionally, triggering the weapon to fire individual shots proved difficult owing to the increased rate of fire. Problems with accidental discharges and accuracy with the P.A.M. 1 led to an improved selective-fire version with a grip safety on the magazine housing known as the P.A.M. 2, first introduced in 1963.

Colloquially referred to as La Engrasadora (the Greaser), 47,688 P.A.M. 1 and P.A.M. 2 submachine guns were produced between 1955 and 1972. A number of P.A.M. 1 and P.A.M. 2 submachine guns were used by the Argentine Army during the Falkland Islands War with the United Kingdom in 1982, and captured examples were tested by British military forces.