sometimes the enemy has this annoying habit of staying really far away while maneuvering into a better position or setting up a machinegun

its pretty lame of them i think

what is an infantry squad to do

how can they reach out and touch someone

this is the svd

it can help the squad stretch real far

for when the enemy is being lame

so back in the early days the soviets had the mosin nagant

and according to their movies they had people using to to snipe since the very beginning

its a cool movie with great cinematography you can watch it free

but usually we think of soviet snipers really coming to the forefront in the seiges of wwii

you know the famous names

these guys were in the cities and taking out officers and pinning down squads so soviet infantry had an advantage in a firefight

after wwii there was an interesting dilemma

the soviets adopted the ak47 because it had a rapid fire capability like submachineguns with farther range than the pistol rounds of the smg

but its intermediate cartridge still had a shorter range than the weapons their snipers were using up to that point

they tried modernizing by putting a scope on the svt40 but it kinda sucked

the svt40 had some very good features but it also had problems which led to a short service life in spite of the large numbers made

so towards the end of the 50s the red army requested designs for a new sniper rifle

they wanted it to use the fullsize 7.62x54r cartridge and be semiauto

several designs were submitted including one from yevgeni dragunov

it was adopted in 1963

his design uses a short stroke gas system with a detachable 10rd magazine and detachable scope mounted on siderail

to provide a common manual of arms it uses iron sights and front post that function identically to the ak sks and mosin nagant

the magazine release and safety selector are similar to the ak

and disassembly lever on the rear receiver and removal of the fire control group is similar to the sks

but the weapons internals are all their own

the gas cylinder has a very short piston and separate operating rod that pushes on the bolt carrier

bolt is similar to an ak but with a third lug for extra repeatability for accuracy

the recoil spring and guide rod are connected to the receiver cover for easy removal and reinstallation

there is also a two position adjustable gas valve with slots to allow use of a cartridge case as a wrench

because is weapon is designed to be carried by an infantryman moving with the squard it needs rapid fire and ease of portability

the barrel is 24 inches long but pretty thin and light

it will heat up quickly but the rifle still gets around 1.5 moa which is plenty to hit a guy

soviet marksmen were expected to have a 50 percent hit probability at 800 m

and rapid followup shots make that very deadly

plus the light barrel helps the rifle weigh less than 10lbs

and thats with scope mounted

and the scope was cutting edge in the early 60s

the pso-1 scope has a fixed 4x magnification

turrets on the side giving 100 m increments between 100 and 1000 m

the reticle is pretty cool

it has a center chevron and addition chevrons for use beyond 1000 m at 1100 and 1200 m

a curved scale on the left side allows you to estimate range on a 1.7 m high target

this is based on a running soldier ducking slightly as he rushes for cover

and there are hashmarks allowing adjustment for moving targets and wind deflection

it can light up for night time use

and the most advanced feature is the infrared detector

in the 50s the west started using infrared illuminators on its scopes

this allowed a sniper to bathe an area in invisible light that could be seen by his equipment

the pso1 picks at up and let soviet snipers take shots at these previously invisible foes

this feature isnt really useful anymore but the scope is still pretty good

the rifle was pretty popular and remains in russian service to this day

now there are two noteworthy foreign rifles to briefly discuss as well

first is the chinese ndm 86

this is a reverse engineered svd

and i really mean reverse engineered

unlike the chinese sks or the original chinese ak the ndm86 was not built with any support from the soviet union whatsoever

by the time the soviets adopted the svd they were super mad at china for not saying stalin actually sucked and so the soviets didnt give them any of the technical data

it wasnt until after the sino vietnamese war that china captured soviet svds from the vietnamese and extensively studied it

it was an impressively succesful program as the chinese rifles are excellent

the other rifle to note is the romanian psl

now it may look similar to the svds

but it isnt the same

the romanian psl was created to fill the same role as the svd but it absolutely is not an svd

it is a recalibered kalashnikov and uses the ak system

long stroke gas system

similar fire control etc

same stamped receiver as the ak instead of the svds milled receiver

so pretty different from the dragunov

today the russian army has given the svd a few updates like adding polymer

folding stock

bullpup edition

and there are other rifles that are much newer and more accurate

but overall the svd is still doing its job really well and will likely see continued service with russia for a good while longer

pew pew

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