Poland
Polish Military MUA SzM41M Gas Mask Review
I am the Aardvark Coo coo coo choo!
Price: £5.00 (Mask only) free shipping
Manufacturer: Phaser S.A.
Model: MUA SzM41M
Country: Poland
Year of manufacture: 1981
Years in service: 1970s - 1980s?
Size: 2
Sizes available: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
Condition: Unissued, excellent condition, stored well.
Vendor: eBay seller bea27storee
Shipped from: UK
Description: New polish MUA military Gas mask. Excellent quality
My helpful assistant the Honeydew Melon
First Impressions
These cold war relics are becoming a regular thing now at our house. The girlfriend thinks I'm preparing for the apocalypse and looks at me funny...No matter though as the buying continues and this time I wanted to buy a Russian GP-5 mask. eBay is awash with the GP-5 and it's many copies and variations and for a change I decided to do a little research on them before I pulled the trigger. It turns out that the GP-5 is pretty common due to the way the Soviets produced and stock piled the stuff. Everyone was issued a GP-5 in Russia I believe so these tend to be plentiful in numbers.
So now I'm looking at my favourite eBay seller for some inspiration and prices and I notice that he has some excellent unissued polish copies, the rather splendid MUA mask. Which to the untrained eye looks like a Russian GP-5 but really has some great improvements and costs the same.
I like this sellers honesty when he says that these MUA versions are miles better than his GP-5 masks.
I decided to trust the seller and just order the mask for now to see how good it was with the intention of buying the tube, filter can and bag at a later date.
The mask cost me £5 on its own with free shipping which I thought was unbelievable considering the seller was using a courier to send it. How much of that fiver did that cost the seller?? It arrived well packaged as usual but this time had a few surprises inside!
I get some free stuff too!
I wasn't expecting anything to arrive except the MUA mask. I hadn't ordered anything else.
Rather than just recieving the mask wrapped in piece of bubblewrap the kind seller decided to give me a few little extras
The seller chucks in a free haversack and fog wipes!
Free MP-4 Haversack
I know it's not the right haversack for this mask but it's great as a spare for my MP-4 which has a crapper bag than this I must say. It saves me the bother of buying something to store it in for now anyway. The quality of this bag is outstanding.
Hey this MP-4 mask bag is pretty good! It's like new
Everything about this haversack is fresh and new looking. It's hard to work out how old it is. You would need the Rosetta stone to fathom out the date codes but it's gotta be at least 25 years old I would have thought.?
I reckon this haversack is worth a fiver on its own so to the seller I'm grateful.
Some 1975 Anti-fog wipes thrown in for free! Can't complain
Vintage Anti-fog Wipes
Rooting throw the bottom of the haversack I found these ancient Anti-fog Wipes. (Above photo) Dated 1975 and still in their rolled up state inside a plastic bag. Funnily enough I never got any wipes inside my MP-4 mask kit so these are a welcome addition.
Who were these issued to?
These MUA masks were issued to Tank commanders, group leaders, higher ranking officers and generally personnel in an important role who had to convey orders clearly - hence the speech diaphragm on this model.
The speech diaphragm for clear communication (not!)
Speech Diaphragm
The civilian version of this mask had no round button on the nose, nor did the original GP-5 but this one does.
The round pepper pot button is of course the speech diaphragm. Although it's placed nearer to the nose than the mouth it is meant to work.
Inside the mask a moulded latex piece is fitted to either guide your nose or your mouth towards the speech piece. It looks a little strange to be honest.
The classic Russian GP-5 inlet/outlet arrangement
Inhale/exhale valve assembly
Although looking identicle to the Russian GP-5 it's actually a little longer. Wether this improves performance remains to be seen but it does make the mask look slightly more freaky than it normally might expect.
Unlike the GP-5 this MUA has a longer metal trunk piece
Zinc Plating
That gold-ish looking finish on all the metal components is not rust, chemical tarnish or smoke damage its apparently Zinc plating (don't quote me). Zinc plating seems pretty rare on gas masks to me but I could be wrong (probably am)
A nice touch though
Testing
As I don't yet have a filter hose/can set up I can't do the air freshener test yet. That's for another time I'm sure. Instead I'm just going to mention the "getting it on and off" testing which is just as important.
As this mask incorporates an all over skull cap instead of a flexible multi-point harness it's both painful and a little awkward to get on.
These masks are not "one size fits all" - you have to get the right size to get a firm air tight seal and if you don't know your size it could be a little hit and miss.
Luckily for me this one is a size 2 which seems to be the right size. Despite it being tight at first, it's not too restrictive and is perfectly air tight.
To counter fogging up the eye pieces this mask is fitted with some rather good tissot tubes. These effectively clear any mist on the glass. I must admit I haven't noticed any fog yet.
The only time pain comes into the mask donning equation is when your hair gets dragged backwards when it's coming off. It's a tight fit so it has to be expected I suppose.
Other than that it's really good.
The field of vision is great. It's made better when the glass lens are brand new and scratch free like these.
It's a awesome mask
I could go on but I can't be arsed...
Bloody freakish looking isn't it?.........the mask, not me!
Rating: ✅✅✅✅✅ 5 out of 5
It just shows how far a fiver will go. Not only do you get a brand new (if not 35 years old) gas mask but also a fantastic haversack and original Anti-fog wipes! This must be the best polish mask deal of the month. No question!
£5....it's outrageous!