For more than 50 years, the Dragunov system sniper rifle, unsurpassed as an army model, has been in service and has proven itself in dozens of conflicts around the world.
History of creation
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the question arose about adopting a new sniper rifle, since the SVT-40 was considered unsatisfactory as a sniper weapon, and the Mosin rifle was obsolete by that time.
In 1946, Simonov proposed a sniper rifle based on the SKS-45, but the accuracy of fire of this weapon turned out to be insufficient. A number of samples created by designers Konstantinov and Dragunov were presented at the competition. The Konstantinov rifle was simpler and more technologically advanced to manufacture, but was inferior to the Dragunov rifle in terms of combat accuracy. After a series of tests, it was decided to adopt the Dragunov rifle, which was more expensive but had better combat qualities.
By the time the SVD was created, Evgeniy Fedorovich Dragunov had significant experience in creating sporting weapons, but the main success of his activity was the long and difficult (SVD was finalized for several years) creation of an excellent sniper rifle, which has been in service with a number of countries for more than 50 years.
SVD
The SVD entered service in 1963. The optical sight allows you to fire from a rifle at a maximum distance of up to 1300 meters: mechanical - up to 1200 meters. However, at such distances it is possible to fire at group targets; in practice, snipers usually shoot from much shorter distances.
It is fed from a 10-round box magazine. Shooting is carried out with 7.62 mm special sniper cartridges, and in their absence - with ordinary ones. Firing from a rifle is possible only with single shots. Subsequently, Dragunov attempted to make an automatic sniper rifle, but creating a good model without increasing the mass of the weapon turned out to be impossible at that time, and it was decided to abandon further work in this direction.
The rifle was equipped with a bayonet for the AKM assault rifle. SVD has found application in all military conflicts since the second half of the 60s. One of the largest episodes of the use of SVD was military operations in the Chechen Republic and Dagestan, where during battles in the mountains and in populated areas, the massive use of sniper weapons was noted.
To this day, the SVD, despite its very impressive age, remains one of the best military sniper rifles in the world. Of course, there are special weapons that are superior in combat characteristics to the SVD, but as a mass-produced rifle for an army of thousands, the SVD has no competitors yet.
SIDS
In 1991, the SVD was modernized in Izhevsk and a new version of the rifle with a folding stock was created. Unlike the SVD, the SVDS has an improved gas exhaust unit, a flame arrester and has a shorter barrel. Due to the large length of the SVD, it was not always convenient when landing troops, and when transporting military equipment inside. It was necessary to create a more compact version of the weapon without losing its combat qualities.[
This task was completed by a team led by A.I. Nesterov. The SVDS stock folds onto the right side of the receiver. Thus, when folding the stock, there is no need to remove the optical sight. The rifle is equipped with open and optical (PSO-1M2) sights.
SVDK
In 2006, a large-caliber sniper rifle, created on the basis of the SVD with a 9 mm cartridge, was put into service. The weapon is designed to defeat an enemy located behind an obstacle, who has protective equipment (body armor), as well as light equipment.
In terms of design, the SVDK rifle is a further development of the Dragunov sniper rifle, however, the main components are designed to use a more powerful cartridge. Part of the rifle barrel is placed in a special casing. The pistol grip and folding metal stock are borrowed from the SVDS sniper rifle, but the area of the rubber butt plate is noticeably increased due to stronger recoil when firing. Unlike the SVD, the rifle does not have the ability to attach a bayonet. For better stability when shooting using a powerful 9-mm cartridge, the rifle is equipped with a bipod. Like the SVD rifle, the SVDK, in addition to the optical one (1P70 Hyperon), also has an open sight.
SVD - Dragunov sniper rifle 7.62 mm (GRAU Index - 6B1) - a self-loading sniper rifle, developed in 1957-1963 by a group of designers led by Evgeniy Dragunov and adopted by the Soviet Army on July 3, 1963 along with the PSO-1 optical sight .
SVD sniper rifle - video
Ammunition and equipment
For firing from the SVD, 7.62x54 mm R rifle cartridges with ordinary, tracer and armor-piercing incendiary bullets, 7N1 sniper cartridges, 7N14 armor-piercing sniper cartridges are used; Can also fire JHP and JSP hollow point bullets. Fire from the SVD is carried out in single shots. When firing, cartridges are supplied from a box magazine with a capacity of 10 rounds. A flash suppressor with five longitudinal slots is attached to the muzzle of the barrel, masking the shot and protecting the barrel from contamination. The presence of a gas regulator for changing the recoil speed of moving parts ensures the reliability of the rifle in operation.
A small-scale tactical suppressor-flame arrester, known as TGP-V, developed by NPO Spetsialnaya Tekhnika i Svyaz, was produced in small quantities for the SVD, mounted on top of the standard flame arrester, but its effectiveness was quite controversial.
Operating principle
When fired, part of the powder gases following the bullet rushes through the gas outlet hole in the barrel wall into the gas chamber, presses on the front wall of the gas piston and throws the piston with the pusher, and with them the bolt frame, to the rear position.
When the bolt frame moves back, the bolt opens the barrel, removes the cartridge case from the chamber and throws it out of the receiver, and the bolt frame compresses the return spring and cocks the hammer (puts it on the self-timer).
The bolt frame with the bolt returns to the forward position under the action of the return mechanism, while the bolt sends the next cartridge from the magazine into the chamber and closes the bore, and the bolt frame removes the self-timer sear from under the self-timer cocking of the hammer and the hammer is cocked. The bolt is locked by turning it to the left and inserting the bolt lugs into the cutouts of the receiver.
SVD with plastic butt and forend, PSO-1 optical sight
To fire the next shot, you must release the trigger and press it again. After releasing the trigger, the rod moves forward and its hook jumps behind the sear, and when you press the trigger, the rod hook turns the sear and disconnects it from the cocking of the hammer. The trigger, turning on its axis under the action of the mainspring, strikes the firing pin, and the latter moves forward and punctures the igniter primer of the cartridge. A shot occurs.
When firing the last cartridge, when the bolt moves back, the magazine feeder raises the bolt stop, the bolt rests on it and the bolt frame stops in the rear position. This is a signal that you need to load the rifle again.
SVD with wooden butt
Accuracy and accuracy
When the SVD was put into service, there was no sniper cartridge for it yet, therefore, in accordance with the “Shooting Manual”, the rifle’s accuracy is checked by shooting with conventional cartridges with bullets with a steel core and is considered normal if, when firing four shots from a prone position, at range 100 m, all four holes fit into a circle with a diameter of 8 cm.
In 1967, the 7N1 sniper cartridge was adopted. When firing this cartridge, the dispersion is (depending on the rifling pitch) no more than 10-12 cm at a distance of 300 m.
Initially, the SVD was produced with a barrel rifling pitch of 320 mm, similar to sporting weapons and providing the best accuracy of fire. However, with such a step, the dispersion of the B-32’s armor-piercing incendiary bullets doubles. As a result, in 1975, it was decided to change the rifling pitch to 240 mm, which worsened the accuracy of fire by 25% (when firing conventional cartridges at a distance of 100 m, the permissible diameter of the impact circle increased from 8 cm to 10 cm).
It is interesting that the last updated edition of the “Shooting Manual” for the SVD was published in 1967. All subsequent editions - 1971, 1976 and 1984 - were stereotypical copies of the 1967 edition. Therefore, the “Manual” does not say anything about the sniper cartridge or about changing the rifling pitch.
The direct shot range is:
- according to the head figure, height 30 cm - 350 m,
- according to the chest figure, height 50 cm - 430 m,
- according to a running figure, height 150 cm - 640 m.
The PSO-1 sight is designed for shooting up to 1300 meters. It is usually believed that at such a range it is possible to effectively shoot only at a group target, or conduct harassing fire. However, in 1985 in Afghanistan, sniper Vladimir Ilyin killed a dushman from a distance of 1350 meters. This is a record not only for the SVD, but also for rifles of 7.62 mm caliber in general.
Incomplete disassembly of SVD
1 – barrel with receiver, sights and butt; 2 – bolt frame; 3 – shutter; 4 – receiver cover with a return mechanism; 5 – trigger mechanism; 6 – fuse; 7 – gas tube; 8 – gas regulator; 9 – gas piston; 10 – pusher; 11 – pusher spring; 12 – fore-end pads; 13 – shop.
The main difficulty when shooting at long ranges is the errors in preparing the initial data for shooting (this is true for all sniper rifles). At a range of 600 meters, the median error in height (in determining the range equal to 0.1% of the range) is 63 cm, the median error in the lateral direction (determining crosswind speed equal to 1.5 m/s) is 43 cm. For comparison, the median deviation of bullet dispersion for the best snipers for 600 m is 9.4 cm in height, 8.8 cm in lateral.
There is a known case when a fighter of the FMLN partisan detachment managed to shoot down a jet attack aircraft of the El Salvadoran Air Force with a shot from an SVD. This happened on November 12, 1989 near the village of San Miguel. The Cessna A-37B aircraft coming into the attack successfully fit into the sight and was hit (later the successful sniper said that he was aiming at the cockpit). The bullet hit the pilot, after which the plane lost control and crashed. Iraqi militants used SVD in a similar way, claiming to have destroyed RQ-11 Raven small reconnaissance UAVs with sniper rifle fire.
SVDS - SVD variant for airborne troops with a folding stock and a shortened
Options
SVDS - a variant of the SVD for airborne troops with a folding stock and a shortened but thickened barrel; created in 1991, put into service in 1995.
SVU is a variant of SVD with a bullpup layout.
SVDK is a large-caliber version of the SVD chambered for 9.3x64 mm with a folding stock similar to that of the SVDS.
TSV-1 is a training rifle chambered for .22 Long Rifle, developed by Evgeny Dragunov for initial training of snipers. In fact, it is an independent weapon, only repeating in general terms the appearance of the SVD.
SVDM - a Picatinny rail has been added to the receiver cover. Removable bipod.
Tactical and technical characteristics of the SVD
— Adopted: 1963
— Constructor: Dragunov, Evgeniy Fedorovich
— Developed: 1958-1963
— Manufacturer: Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant
SVD weight
— 4.3 kg (SVD, early release, without a bayonet, with an optical sight, an empty magazine and a butt cheek)
— 4.5 kg (SVD, modern version, without a bayonet, with an optical sight, an empty magazine and a butt cheek)
— 4.68 kg (SVDS with optical sight and empty magazine)
— 0.21 kg (magazine)
— 0.26 kg (bayonet without sheath)
— 0.58 kg (PSO-1 sight)
SVD dimensions
— Length, mm: 1225 (SVD without bayonet); 1370 (SVD with a bayonet); 1135/875 (SVDS with stock extended/folded)
— Barrel length, mm: 620 (SVD, total); 547 (SVD, rifled part); 565 (SVDS)
— Width, mm: 88
— Height, mm: 230
Cartridge SVD
— 7.62×54 mm R
Caliber SVD
SVD rate of fire
— 30 rounds/min (combat)
SVD bullet speed
— 830 m/s (SVD); 810 m/s (SVDS)
Sighting range of SVD
— 1200 m (open sight); 1300 m (optical sight); 300 m (night sights NSPUM and NSPU-3)
SVD magazine capacity
— box magazine for 10 rounds
Maximum range
— 1300 (sighting); 3800 (lethal effect of a bullet)
Work principles: Rotary bolt, removal of powder gases
Aim: open sector (reserve), sighting line length - 587 mm, there is a mount for installing optical (for example, PSO-1) or night (for example, NSPU-3 or NSPUM) sights
Photo SVD
Snipers are one of the most important “castes” of any modern army. A lot depends on their actions, since in combat conditions a well-aimed shooter incapacitates enemy officers and the most active soldiers. This creates panic and forces the enemy to retreat. It's no wonder that gunsmiths pay so much attention to creating sniper rifles. Of the modern modifications, an experienced shooter can hit a target from a distance of 1.5-1.9 km! But practice shows that the first violin in a real battle is played not by such virtuosos of sniper skill, but by ordinary shooters who are armed with a simple and reliable rifle. Evgeniy Fedorovich Dragunov once created just such a weapon.
Timeless classic
In 2013, it was exactly 50 years since the legendary SVD rifle was adopted by the Soviet army. In November of the same year, information appeared that domestic gunsmiths had created a modernization kit with which the weapon was supposed to be included in the new “Ratnik” kit. The weapon gets a completely new barrel, a new receiver cover with a Piccatini rail on it. It significantly expands the range of possible “body kits” that can be installed by a fighter at any time. Vladimir Zlobin, who currently holds the post of leading designer at Izhmash, reports that a folding bipod and a telescopic butt will be added to the design.
These measures will help significantly improve the ergonomics of the weapon. After all these events, the soldiers will have a practically new rifle in their hands. Dragunov at one time created an excellent, without a doubt, scheme, but modern conditions place slightly different demands on sniper weapons. Currently, there is talk about creating fundamentally new rifle systems based on the “dragunk”, which will fully meet the realities of the 21st century.
Beginning of work
The SVD is a fairly old rifle. Dragunov began its development back in 1958. More precisely, at that time he was entrusted with the creation of a fundamentally new self-loading weapon for the army. The choice was not accidental, since Evgeniy Fedorovich by that time had vast experience. Thanks to this, he managed to create a truly excellent and “long-lasting” rifle in the shortest possible time.
Already at the beginning of 1963, it passed all the complexes of state tests and was adopted by the SA. In just five years! Over the half century that this rifle has existed, it has literally received worldwide recognition: to date, it and its clones are in service with more than 30 countries! Even foreign experts say that the SVD is the best in its class. By the way, Western gunsmiths for a very long time had no idea about the structure of this rifle. The first copies fell into the hands of the US foreign intelligence department only in 1980, after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.
Device Basics
The rifle operates on a semi-automatic principle. Powder gases affect the automation after being removed from the barrel. Like the legendary AK, locking occurs by turning the bolt. Unlike Kalashnikov's brainchild, three lugs are used. This has a positive effect on the accuracy and accuracy of shooting. Experts believe that Evgeniy Fedorovich would have made both four and five stops, but this was prevented by the requirements of the USSR Ministry of Defense to simplify the design as much as possible so that the rifle, if necessary, could be produced at any enterprise.
In general, this rifle was not easy to create! Dragunov faced a bunch of mutually exclusive factors and demands during his work. Firstly, Evgeniy Fedorovich was tasked with creating weapons with high shooting accuracy, but the Ministry of Defense required high reliability. It was necessary to greatly increase the gaps between the parts, and this had a very bad effect on the accuracy and accuracy... But Dragunov was able to find the ideal compromise, as a result of which his weapon is still able to compete with the best foreign self-loading rifles. Considering that the SVD, the price of which is many times lower than the cost of the main Western analogues, was produced in huge quantities, there will not be a replacement for it for a very long time.
The opinion of leading domestic experts should also be taken into account. They believe that the performance characteristics of the SVD could provide for the creation of weapons with better accuracy, if not for the requirement for maximum unification of the rifle with the AK-47. This was justified from the point of view of minimizing production costs, but did not have a very good effect on the characteristics of the product. However, SVD military snipers are quite happy, since this weapon occupies exactly the niche for which it was developed. Only the absence in combat units of true sniper weapons capable of conducting aimed fire at a distance of more than 900 meters forces the use of the Dragunov in this role.
About accuracy and firing range
What is the standard SVD range? If a soldier is well trained, he can fire at a distance of up to 500 meters. The accuracy indicators do not exceed 1.04 arc minutes. The following types of targets (subject to the use of high-quality cartridges) can be hit at the following distances: head target - 300 meters, chest figure - up to half a kilometer, waist figure - up to 600 meters. A sniper can “picture” a running person at a distance of up to 800 meters. The rifle is equipped with a well-proven SVD PSO-1 sight, which theoretically allows firing at 1300 m. But in practice, at this distance it is only possible to hit group targets or use the rifle for harassing fire.
It is important to understand this: Dragunov rifles (SVD) do not belong to sniper weapons in the modern sense of the word. A person armed with it supports a standard motorized rifle company at a distance of 600 meters. The shooter suppresses firing points, “takes off” grenade launchers and flamethrowers, preventing them from approaching infantry fighting vehicles and tanks within aimed shot range. Therefore, it is stupid to compare SVD and Barrett. The same American troops actively use weapons similar to it (in some places you can even find old M14s), and no complaints are made against it.
Operating principle and creation stages
As we have already said, the rifle was adopted for service in the USSR in 1963. The state competition started in 1958, at the same time it was won by a team of gunsmiths headed by Evgeniy Fedorovich. It should be noted that Kalashnikov himself participated in the competition. Mikhail Timofeevich presented to the commission a rifle created on the basis of a conventional AKM, converted for single-shot fire and with a reinforced barrel. But Dragunov’s design, in no way inferior to Kalashnikov’s brainchild in terms of reliability, was much more accurate and more accurate. Taking into account the wishes of the commission members, the gunsmith created his legendary SVD.
Ammo and scope
Since the characteristics of the standard cartridges that existed by that time did not satisfy Dragunov, a special sniper type was created. In this case, the SVD bullet has a hardened steel core, which significantly improves ballistics and penetration characteristics. Despite this, the rifle can use the entire range of 7.62x54 mm cartridges (standard SVD caliber), which were created in the USSR and the Russian Federation. Of course, shooting with machine gun ammunition shows extremely poor results. The point here is a frankly poor quality control system for this type of ammunition, when cartridges from the same batch contain completely different powder charges. The lower quality of the gunpowder itself also plays a role. This leads not only to a decrease in range, accuracy and accuracy, but also to increased contamination and wear of the weapon.
In the usual case, the SVD sight is PSO-1. It was created in 1963 specifically for the brainchild of Dragunov, and the PSO was for a long time one of the most advanced sights in the whole world; For a long time it was produced by Soviet industry in huge quantities. A special feature of this product was a successful aiming grid, which made it possible to make adjustments to the horizontal deflection “on the fly”, without resorting to adjustments using the side flywheels. This significantly increases the likelihood of a successful shot and eliminates the need to move the weapon from the aiming line.
Shooting
Few people remember this, but the SVD caliber allows the use of expansive cartridges such as JSP and JHP. Fire is only single. Ammo is fed from a detachable box magazine that holds exactly ten rounds. The weapon is equipped with a five-slot flash suppressor, which not only significantly reduces the shooter's visibility at night, but also protects the weapon barrel from contamination. The rifle also includes a gas regulator. With its help, you can adjust the recoil force of the moving parts of the weapon, which has a beneficial effect on durability and SVD. The price of the rifle itself and its spare parts is such that it turns out to be practically “eternal.” An extremely important feature for a mass, conscript army.
Stock, shortened version
The butt is a hard, skeletal type. Another feature of the SVD is the location of the fuse, as well as the receiver, which is manufactured by a simple and cheap stamping method. It also differs from most similar rifles in the standard bayonet included with the weapon. During the entire period of operation, the soldiers clearly pointed out only one drawback - the length. If we were talking about a classic sniper rifle, this value would seem completely normal, but for motorized infantry, especially airborne forces, it was unnecessary.
Therefore, during the war in Afghanistan, an SVDS with a folding stock was created, equipped with a shortened type flash suppressor. It should be noted that today most combat units use this particular option. In addition, the Tula Design Bureau subsequently created a modification of the VCA (OTs-03). This is the same SVD, but converted according to the bullpup design. While maintaining the same barrel length, it is much shorter than the original. However, the troops were not delighted with this variety: it has a shorter sighting range and more pronounced recoil with the barrel being thrown up.
The automatic mode, which was the highlight of the Tula development, in reality turned out to be useless due to the terrifying recoil and low magazine capacity of this version of the SVD. The characteristics of the IED (OTs-03) also did not satisfy the fighters of the special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB (for whom it, in general, was created). Basically, they are not satisfied with the characteristics of the standard 7.62x54r cartridge. The fact is that the bullet of this cartridge has too high penetration power, which is unacceptable for operations in the city and other populated areas, since this factor can lead to death or serious injury to civilians.
Automation operating principle
Powder gases are removed from the barrel through a special hole. The bolt that locks the barrel moves counterclockwise. We have already said that the SVD is equipped with three combat lugs, but this is not entirely true: the cartridge rammer is used as the third. This solution made it possible to significantly increase the area of the combat lugs without increasing their number. The result of this design decision was compact shooting from the SVD with high accuracy of the latter.
Some of the powder gases that follow the bullet enter the gas chamber, after which the pressure they create simply throws the gas piston back. The bolt frame goes along with it. At this moment, the barrel channel opens by turning the bolt, the spent cartridge case is ejected, and the bolt frame puts the trigger on cock (self-timer). The return mechanism sends the gas piston with the frame to their original position, and the bolt, using the third stop, sends a new cartridge into the chamber while simultaneously closing the channel of the latter.
The shutter turns to the left. The lugs fit into special protrusions cut into the wall of the receiver. As a weapon, the SVD is distinguished by its extreme simplicity and manufacturability. This still brings honor to Evgeniy Fedorovich.
The principle of firing a new shot
To fire again, the soldier simply needs to pull the trigger again. As soon as it is released, its pull and hook pull out the sear, it turns and disconnects from the combat platoon. The trigger hits the firing pin, which pierces the cartridge primer. This is how a new shot occurs. If it was produced by using the last cartridge, when the bolt moves back, a special stop rises, to which it clings and is fixed in the rearmost position. Simply put, the combat SVD has a bolt delay, for the absence of which some criticize the same AKM.
Other expert opinions
For its time, according to weapons experts, the rifle had excellent ergonomic characteristics: it is perfectly balanced, fits like a glove in the hands, inspiring confidence in the shooter, and is easy to hold in the line of fire. If a truly trained soldier acts as a shooter, then in a minute he can fire up to 30 targeted, well-calibrated shots. If we talk about comments regarding its length and practical range, then we discussed all these points above.
This rifle was used in all armed conflicts in which the USSR and then the Russian Federation participated, starting in 1963. During this time, it was highly appreciated by foreign military experts, as a result of which Dragunov clones and its derivatives ended up in service with more than three dozen countries around the world. Thus, the SVD (the characteristics of which were discussed in the article) still remains a light, reliable and widespread weapon that fully copes with the tasks for which it was created.
Large-caliber modification
Separately, I would like to dwell on the large-caliber version of the legendary rifle - SVDK. This weapon was developed precisely with the aim of getting rid of some of the shortcomings of its progenitor, leaving other characteristics unchanged. In particular, the designers wanted to achieve greater accuracy and the likelihood of hitting targets wearing body armor. Instead of the usual 7.62*54 mm cartridge, which is used in a conventional SVD, 9.3*64 mm caliber ammunition (9SN/7N33) was chosen. In general, this cartridge is unique for military practice, since it was originally a 9.3 * 64 Brenneke, used exclusively for hunting purposes.
It first appeared in Germany. This happened in 1910. The author was Wilhelm Brenneke, and the development was carried out for the Mauser bolt-action rifle. An analogue of this cartridge is still used in domestic hunting carbines "Tiger-9", "Los-9". The resulting weapon has a lot in common with the standard SVD. Of course, there are certain differences in details, but they are associated with a different cartridge. Thus, the SVDK has a heavier barrel, a massive stamped magazine, and a bipod with mounts. The last element significantly increases the weight of the weapon, which not all shooters are unambiguous about. Some people like the increased stability, others complain of increased fatigue.
In any case, this weapon was not widely used among the troops. The culprit turned out to be Brenneke's patron. The fact is that its main positive qualities are revealed at a distance of up to 300 meters. At this distance, the standard SVD performs excellently... As the distance increases, accuracy and accuracy drop sharply, and the penetrating qualities of the new ammunition turned out to be much lower than necessary. However, this cartridge performed well against an enemy wearing body armor, so the weapon still has prospects. However, so far the modernized SVD is performing better. This review of the rifle can be considered complete. In our article, we tried to consider all the positive and negative aspects of the weapon, which recently celebrated its half-century anniversary.
SVD - Dragunov sniper rifle was created almost 60 years ago, and is still in service in the Russian Army to this day.
Sniping is considered a real art. In order to hit the target accurately, a sniper needs high-precision weapons. This type of weapon is exactly that.
The SVD, thanks to its technical characteristics, has always been the pride of the USSR. There are legends about her. Until now, there are no analogues in the world to this rifle, both in accuracy and in penetrating power.
History of creation
The SVD rifle began to be created in the 50s, when the question of new weapons for the Soviet Army arose (Wikipedia).
The development of the newest rifle for a sniper was entrusted to E.F. Dragunov, who was the developer of firearms intended for sports.
He was a famous gunsmith, but became famous thanks to the excellent qualities of the SVD sniper rifle.
In 1963 it was put into service, and in 1964 mass production began. Not everything was so simple when its design was carried out.
She had to meet certain requirements. The difficulties in creating weapons lay in the gaps between the various parts of the SVD.
It was necessary to ensure shooting accuracy, accuracy and density. The designers thought about this difficult problem for a very long time, but still came to the optimal solution.
And in 1962, the design of the rifle was completed. This type of rifle found a solid competitor - Konstantinov.
The designers' developments were carried out simultaneously. Both types of rifles were subjected to many tests, but the Dragunov SVD turned out to be the best.
Its superiority was both in accuracy and accuracy of fire. It has a unique profile, which has its own shot sound and unsurpassed technical characteristics.
Specifications
Click to enlarge
This rifle has excellent technical data:
- SVD caliber - 7.62x54 mm;
- magazine capacity is ten rounds;
- weight with loaded magazine is four point three kg;
- targeted shooting is carried out from a distance of 1300 m;
- efficiency and range – 1300 meters;
- the bullet flies at a speed of 830 m/s;
- the weapon has a length of 1.225 m;
- shooting is carried out at a pace of thirty shots in 1 minute;
- ammunition is supplied by a ten-round magazine.
- the cartridge has a size of 7.62×54;
- the rifle weighs four kg 550 g with an optical sight and fully loaded;
- SVD has a barrel length of 62 dm;
- There are four right-hand riflings.
Firing accuracy
Since 1970, the SVD rifle has been used to participate in targeted combat and its rifling pitch is 0.320 m. Such barrels in this weapon were used until the end of the seventieth year of the last century.
Using a sniper cartridge, grade (7N1) 9mm, the accuracy of this type of rifle is 1.04 MOA (Minute Of Angle - minute of angle).
This weapon hits the following targets with excellent shooting accuracy and destructive power:
- chest at a distance of 0.5 km;
- head - 0.3 km;
- lumbar region 0.6 km;
- moving figure - 0.8 km.
The PSO-1 sight is used for shots up to 1.2 km.
Design Features
Click to enlarge
The Dragunov rifle is a self-loading weapon with a 7.62 caliber.
As for automation, it fires shots using powder gases that come from the barrel of the rifle itself.
Using the bolt rotation, the rifle must be rotated by 3 lugs. The SVD has a box magazine from which live ammunition comes. The magazine includes ten of them in caliber (7.62x54R). Shots are fired from the SVD with the following ammunition:
- Sniper cartridges.
- Cartridges with hollow-point bullets.
- Regular cartridges with tracer bullets.
- Cartridges using armor-piercing incendiary bullets.
If we take, for example, another Degtyarev sniper rifle, which is also designed to destroy enemy personnel at ranges of up to 1.5 km, then, unlike the SVD, it has one drawback.
There is no special 12.7x108 mm caliber cartridge made for this rifle, and the regular sample makes it insufficiently accurate when shooting.
The prototype of the SVD was the civilian model - “Tiger” (carbine), unlike the SVD, it has a bayonet - there is no knife in it.
The purpose of the SVD sniper rifle is to destroy the enemy (moving and camouflage targets).
Fire from a sniper rifle is carried out in single shots. Assembling and disassembling the rifle does not require much effort. The price of SVD starts from $2000 and above.
Sniper scope
An optical sniper scope (index 6Ts1) is necessary for accurately hitting the target.
It improves aiming accuracy and ensures good observation in all conditions.
Today he is the best among all his predecessors. When using the device, the eye gets used to one distance, which makes it easier to aim the weapon at the target.
A necessary element for the SVD sight is the sighting reticle. It makes it possible to better see the target, since it is in the same plane with the image.
The sight is illuminated, which is important for a sniper. This allows him to shoot accurately, even at night.
It is very important to note that the SVD rifle is still the most popular type of weapon in the Russian Army.
The data in the table above refers to the basic SVD model At the end of the 50s of the 20th century, in connection with the rearmament of the Soviet Army, the government set the next task for gunsmith designers - to create a semi-automatic sniper rifle. Evgeniy Fedorovich Dragunov, by that time already a well-known inventor of a whole line of sporting weapons, also joined this work almost immediately.
In order to better understand the topic we touched on about the legendary sniper rifle, we should dwell briefly on the biography of the designer himself, on those moments that became fundamental for the subsequent creation SVD. Before the start of the Second World War, that is, until 1939, Dragunov studied at a weapons technical school, after which he was drafted to the front, where until the end of the war he worked in weapons workshops and schools, and in the last years of the Second World War he served as a senior weapons master in artillery school. In other words, this man had plenty of experience, namely practical experience in working with various weapons. Dragunov began seriously designing rifles in 1945, after demobilization from the ranks of the Soviet Army, as soon as the Great Patriotic War ended. Immediately after the end of the war, Dragunov returned to his native Izhevsk arms factory, where he took the position of senior foreman. In the fifties, the designer created a lot of sporting rifles, for example, one of his first works was the S-49 sporting rifle, which showed amazing combat accuracy and set a world record for this parameter, by the way, the first for the USSR. During the first shootings, this rifle showed a dispersion diameter of a hundred meters of slightly less than 22 mm with a series of TEN (!) bullets. And this was in 1949 (hence the numbers “49” in the title). Then Dragunov created many more sporting rifles, among which the most outstanding weapon was the TsV-55 Zenit sporting rifle of the 1955 model. The rifle featured several new solutions from Dragunov’s design team, the totality of which made the rifle a real breakthrough in the arms industry. The bolt of the new weapon was locked with 3 lugs (this solution was later used in the design SVD), the barrel was, as they call it now, “floating”, suspended, attached only to the receiver and not touching the rifle’s fore-end, which had an even better effect on the accuracy of the battle. To this day, almost all high-precision long-barreled sporting weapons are made this way. This rifle also had an orthopedic stock, which was quite rare and not very common at that time.
As we can see from the above facts, Dragunov was an extra-class master in the design of high-precision rifles. And finally, in 1958, when an order was received to develop a new semi-automatic sniper rifle and a competition was announced with a list of tactical and technical requirements, Evgeniy Fedorovich was already fully armed, having vast positive experience in successful designs of sporting rifles and extensive practice in working with firearms on fronts of the Second World War, which, of course, played a fundamental role in the master’s approach to his work and in the degree of his qualifications. It would seem that who else but Dragunov is capable of providing the best sniper rifle for competitive field testing, because it was he who created a number of successful designs of high-precision sporting rifles. But in reality everything turned out to be much more complicated, because the designer had no experience in developing self-loading weapons, where the accuracy of the shot is significantly influenced by the operation of the automation. Dragunov, having led a strong design team, began to create his best brainchild, not suspecting that it would turn out to be such a difficult task. Until this moment, many gunsmiths from different countries tried to make semi-automatic sniper rifles, but all these models were very much inferior in terms of accuracy to rifles with manual reloading, which is not surprising, because the work of automation is always the movement of the weapon mechanisms when fired, and a non-automatic rifle is in state of complete rest. Evgeniy Fedorovich himself spoke about the difficulties that Dragunov’s design team faced at that time; the meaning of his words boiled down to the following points: During the design process, it was necessary to resolve a number of contradictions. For example, in order for a rifle to operate smoothly in abnormal conditions, it is necessary to create relatively large gaps between the moving parts, and in order for the rifle to have better shooting accuracy, it was necessary to fit everything as tightly as possible. Or, say, the weapon should be light, but to achieve better accuracy - the heavier, of course, up to a certain limit, the better, the mass of the barrel plays a particularly important role. Thus, gradually ridding the design of all negative nuances, by the end of this long and After painstaking work, the group arrived only in 1962, having overcome a number of serious setbacks. Suffice it to say that the designers tinkered with the cartridge magazine alone for more than a year. And the barrel forend assembly, which looked very simple, in reality turned out to be almost the most difficult, requiring enormous effort, and the group finally finalized it only at the very end of the entire working process. All this was said by E.F. Dragunov himself, but in slightly different words.
As a result of the very hard work and efforts of the entire group of specialists, and thanks to the undoubted talent and vast experience of the head of the design group, Evgeniy Fedorovich Dragunov, his rifle won the difficult competition at the range tests in 1960, where a self-loading sniper rifle was selected for arming the Soviet Army .Let us dwell on the testing process in more detail, since some moments that took place during these tests became the fundamental factors why SVD has been in service with several armies around the world for almost half a century. In 1959, Dragunov presented to the competition his first prototype of a self-loading sniper rifle called SV-58, which he had designed a year earlier, in 1958, when a competition was announced for a new sniper rifle for the army . The competitors at the competition for the creators of the SV-58 were more than worthy: the group of the venerable weapons designer S.G. Simonov and the group of designer A.S. Konstantinov, who was also a very talented and well-known specialist in his circles.
Simonov and Konstantinov spent their entire lives designing mainly self-loading weapons, so the accuracy and reliability of the automatic operation of the samples they presented was significantly higher than on the Dragunov self-loading rifle. But the SV-58 had a more accurate combat, because Evgeniy Dragunov spent his entire life creating high-precision weapons; there were no semi-automatic or automatic models in his track record until that moment. But good accuracy was the only advantage of Dragunov’s first sniper rifle; all other qualities were negative, the reliability and service life of parts and mechanisms were at an extremely low level. Dragunov's first rifle was created according to the principles of high-precision sports weapons, where the fit of parts is very tight, all contacting moving parts in the mechanisms work with virtually no gaps between each other. It was this tight fit that ensured a significant superiority in combat accuracy over rivals. But an army semi-automatic rifle and a sporting rifle with manual reloading are completely different things, it is precisely because of this difference that the Dragunov rifle passed beyond the first stage of testing with great difficulty, which the design team put into its refinement. All three samples, Dragunov, Simonov and Konstantinov, were tested in Thousands of rounds of ammunition were fired under the most extreme conditions, as it should be when testing weapons intended to be used by the army. As a result, in terms of the probability of hitting a target, accuracy of combat and effective firing range, these most important characteristics for a sniper weapon, the SV-58 designed by E.F. Dragunov showed the best results, but the rifle constantly jammed, parts broke, and there were too frequent technical delays when shooting, which was not even close to the competitors, whose rifles worked like clockwork. But during these field tests, Dragunov’s design team, at the cost of extreme stress, constantly eliminated shortcomings in reliability and the reasons for the unstable operation of the automation; this had to sacrifice the accuracy of the rifle’s combat. In order to increase the reliability of the automatics of the Dragunov rifle, the gaps between the contacting parts in the moving mechanisms of the weapon were increased, the friction force was reduced and some other minor changes were introduced, which, of course, entailed a decrease in the accuracy of fitting parts and, accordingly, a decrease in shooting accuracy. But, nevertheless, the initial superiority of the Dragunov rifle in terms of the probability of hitting a target at long distances and the accuracy of the battle over the Simonov rifle was so significant that some losses in these characteristics due to increased reliability still left the superiority of combat accuracy to Dragunov’s creation. The accuracy of the presented samples was compared with the accuracy of the Mosin sniper rifle, taking it as a conditional standard. In comparison with the Mosin sniper rifle, Simonov’s sample produced accuracy 1.5 times lower than the “standard” and at the next stage of testing was removed from the competition due to insufficient accuracy and large spread of bullets at long distances, despite a higher degree of reliability, in comparison with the Dragunov rifle, which, during control shooting at the first stages of testing, showed either identical combat accuracy with the Mosin rifle, and according to some data, sometimes even surpassed it. But after modifications aimed at increasing reliability, the only remaining competitor - the Konstantinov rifle - was approximately equal in combat accuracy to the Dragunov rifle, but surpassed it in reliability. As a result, two samples remained at the competition - the Konstantinov rifle and the Dragunov rifle. Neither one nor the other met the requirements of the technical specifications of the competition, and the commission chose the lesser of two evils. Konstantinov's design was quite reliable, but excluded the possibility of aiming with open sights if an optical sight was installed on the rifle. This happened because the designer sought to align the axis of the barrel with the aiming line and raise the barrel as much as possible in order to simplify firing, because in such an arrangement it is necessary to make fewer corrections for the range, and also the line of the butt, in which the mainspring was located, was also brought to trunk line. As a result, high open sights were required, which, when installing optics, folded to the receiver cover, and when removing the optical sight, the open sight had to be raised. This was unacceptable for the commission; the technical specifications required the possibility of simultaneous aiming from mechanical and optical sights without any additional manipulations. Konstantinov’s rifle was also affected by the release of residual powder gases in the area of the shooter’s face, which, of course, made it difficult to conduct aimed fire. In general, the commission chose the Dragunov design, which was actively refined for another two years and only in 1963 was adopted by the Soviet Army under the name Dragunov sniper rifle(SVD) caliber 7.62 mm.
The tasks assigned to a sniper rifle are quite narrow. This is the destruction of moving, slow-moving and stationary single targets, which may be partially hidden behind various types of cover or located in unarmored vehicles. The presented weapon is semi-automatic, aimed fire is carried out in a single mode, but the self-loading design significantly increased the combat rate of fire of the weapon, compared to non-automatic sniper rifles, for example, such as the Mosin sniper rifle. The automation of the new rifle worked due to the removal of primary powder gases through a hole in the wall working bore. The gases acted on a short-stroke piston, which in turn drove the bolt. The bolt, moving backward by inertia from the push of the gas piston, ejected the spent cartridge case through the reflector, cocked the firing pin and, under the action of the return spring, moved backward, firing a new cartridge from a ten-round magazine. The chamber was locked by turning the bolt to the left, in a counterclockwise direction, by three lugs. This locking scheme was used by Dragunov during the development of sports weapons, in particular in the above-mentioned TsV-55 Zenit rifle. The cartridge rammer from the magazine acts as the third combat stop. This made it possible, while maintaining the same transverse dimensions of the bolt and the rotation angle when locking, to increase the total area of the lugs by 1.5 times. Thus, already three supporting surfaces provide a more stable position of the bolt, which improves the accuracy of fire. The fuse is a mechanical safety lever with a double action. It simultaneously locks the movement of the trigger and limits the rear movement of the bolt frame by locking the reloading handle located on the bolt frame. Lowering the striker to fire a shot is possible only with a completely locked bolt, when all three lugs are locked by turning the bolt all the way. A flash suppressor is attached to the muzzle of the barrel, designed to mask the shot during combat operations at dusk and night operations, protecting the muzzle from contamination barrel and acts as a muzzle brake-compensator, reducing the longitudinal displacement of the barrel from recoil. This muzzle device was specially designed for the SVD and has five longitudinal slot-like cutouts. Installation of a gas regulator on the rifle was required to quickly change the recoil speed of the moving parts. The SVD ensures the reliability of the rifle under different operating conditions, for example, when there is heavy contamination or when too much accumulates in the gas system soot from intense shooting. For firing from SVD, standard 7.62x54 mm rifle cartridges are used in several versions: cartridges with the LPS bullet, increased penetration cartridges with the ST-2M bullet (7N14), tracer, armor-piercing (7N26) and cartridges with the B-32 armor-piercing incendiary bullet . To improve the accuracy of this rifle, a special 7N1 sniper cartridge was developed, which has a bullet with a pointed steel core, which provides twice the best shooting results than a conventional cartridge. According to most weapons experts, the rifle SVD, from an ergonomic point of view, it is well designed - the weapon immediately inspires complete confidence in the shooter, it is perfectly balanced, comfortable and easy to hold when performing an accurate aimed shot. If we compare it with a conventional magazine sniper weapon, which has a practical rate of fire of within 5 rounds per minute, the Dragunov rifle, according to weapons experts, reaches 30 effective aimed shots per minute, which raises doubts if you think about this figure from the point of view of common sense. That is, in 2 seconds you need to have time to aim after the previous shot (and the recoil takes the target out of the field of view of the optics), shoot and hit. This is unlikely. Soviet soldiers SVD received the nickname “whip” - for the characteristic “clicking” sound of the shot.
