As always, I still come back to these threads.
I'll probably be coming back every few months, as I dig up more info...and here's some: "Johne Fletcher shows off armourer Phil Morgan’s converted RPD 1 for close–quarter fighting. The butt has beenchopped off, the barrel shortened and the recoil feed mechanism reversed— something the Soviets were never
able to achieve."
That's the caption to the original photo. Unfortunately, the armorers, Mr. Morgan, passed on about a year ago. Always seems to happen this way, and I wish I would have gotten on the ball earlier, especially since I've known about this pic for many years now. Too much stuff to do, so it goes.
Now I've got to go back to researching heat treating on those rpd receivers. I've got one or two 80%'ers that are in storage, but one of these years I'll start working on them. Or the son will, once I'm dead.