The famous Danish company Dansk Industrie Syndicat AS `Madsen`, usually referred simply as Madsen, manufactured various weapons since the early 1900s. Soon after the war Madsen produced a 9mm m/46 submachine gun, which was one of the last wood-stocked SMG`s to be produced. In 1949 Madsen introduced more modern design, the m/49, which featured an entirely stamped receiver, integral with pistol grip and magazine housing. This SMG also featured unusual charging handle, a bracket-shaped slider above the receiver. But the most unusual feature of the m/49 was the field stripping procedure. The receiver was made from two halves, left and right, hinged at the rear, and held together at the front by the screw-on barrel nut. To disassemble the gun, one must unscrew the barrel nut, and then open the left side of the receiver/housing. Barrel, bolt, return spring and trigger unit will remain in the right "half" of the gun, easily accessible. The hollow pistol grip contained magazine loading tool, and there wee no manual safeties; instead, Madsen m/49 had an automatic safety in the form of the lever just behind the magazine housing; to fire the gun, one must grasp the magazine and this lever securely by non-firing hand, to be able to release the bolt. Otherwise, the m/49 was a fairy conventional blowback design, which fired only in full auto.
Next year Madsen introduced the M/50, a slightly modified M/49 with more conventional and comfortable charging handle at the top of the gun, and in 1953 Madsen introduced the last gun in this line, M/53, which differed mostly in that it used a curved magazines instead of straight ones, and can be fitted with optional barrel shroud, which had a bayonet mount lug. Madsen SMG`s were sold to various Asian and South American countries. Brazil makes licensed copy of Madsen in .45ACP caliber.
