Features
SVD
Caliber :7.62 mm.
Length :total, 1.22 m;
barrel , 0.54 m.
Weight :complete but empty, 4.350 kg.
Initial speed speed:830 m/s.
Magger capacity :10 rounds.
Range :1000m
The SVD (Samozariyadnyia Vintokvka Dragunova) first appeared in 1963. Since then, it has always been one of the most popular prizes of war. It is a semi-automatic rifle based on the same bolt system as the AK-47, but benefiting from a modified gas borrowing mechanism. Unlike the AK-47, which fires the 7.62mm x 39 (short) ammunition, the SVD is chambered for the old 7.62mm x 54R flanged cartridge that appeared in the 1890s with Mosin-Nagant rifles. This remains a good ammunition for precision shooting at long distances, and is also used on some Soviet machine guns. So there is no supply problem.
The SVD has a long barrel, but the weapon is balanced in such a way that it handles easily and the recoil does not is not excessive. If this long barrel is not an irrefutable criterion of identification, the hollow stock certainly is. Shooting with this rifle is aided by the addition of a sling rather than a bipod, which is relatively original compared to its Western competitors. The rifle scope is a PSO-1. It attaches to the left side of the cylinder head cover and has a magnification x 4. It has the particularity of having an incorporated infrared detector and can thus be used as a passive night optic, insofar as it benefits from L contribution of a third-party infrared source. Normal sights are available in case the Scope is rendered unusable.
But the most curious element of this long-range rifle are the bayonet mounting studs
nette that don't seem to be very rational. The magazine holds ten rounds.,
Tests have shown that the SVD can carry well over 800 m. It is a pleasant weapon to handle and use for shooting, despite the length of its barrel. A large number of copies were supplied to the member countries of the Warsaw Pact, and it is used in Afghanistan where, sometimes, it falls into the hands of the resistance fighters for whom precision shooting is certainly not a novelty. The Chinese make a copy of the SVD and offer an export version which is given to be effective up to 1000m.