The Dragunov sniper rifle is the most famous brainchild of the Soviet designer of army and sporting weapons Yevgeny Fedorovich Dragunov. Despite its venerable age, this weapon remains in service in more than 30 countries around the world. In this case, the rifle is used in the vast majority of hot spots. What is the reason for such popularity, and why the frankly outdated SVD is in no hurry to retire.
Mass production weapon
The SVD began its history as part of a project to create a domestic self-loading sniper rifle in 1958. Then in Yevgeny Fedorovich the gunsmiths designers Sergey Simonov and Alexander Konstantinov competed. However, it was the SVD project that was able to surpass all the others. The rifle was easy to use, easy to maintain, reliable in operation, in addition, it had good accuracy of fire, and most importantly, it was cheap to manufacture. In 1963, the SVD became the first specialized rifle of the Soviet army.
In the course of subsequent modifications, the SVD-S, SVU, SVDK models were also adopted. Some of them are in service with domestic units to this day. In 2016, the rifle was modified again and received the SVDM index. It was distinguished mainly by the appearance of new Picatinny rails for scopes and accessories.
Harsh practice
The Dragunov rifle was created for effective shooting at 500 meters - the main job of platoon "field" snipers in motorized infantry and airborne forces. At the same time, the cartridge 7.62x54 mm allows you to hit targets located at a distance of up to 1 km without any problems. An important advantage of the SVD for a long time remained the fact that until the 1980s, no army in the world widely used self-loading sniper rifles. They were all manual reloading. Thus, the snipers of other countries were one-shot snipers. SVD, on the other hand, made it possible to make 3-6 shots in a row in a short time before the start of a change in position.
READ ALSO:Why does a plug need a hole and a few more interesting facts about sockets
One of the most important shortcomings of the SVD was the lack of a silencer, which does not so much unmask the fighter as "illuminates" the optics, which makes shooting very problematic at night. At the same time, especially for night shooting, the SVD can be equipped with a suitable sight, which will allow it to hit targets at a distance of 100-250 meters without a sufficiently high efficiency.
>>>>Ideas for life | NOVATE.RU<<<
But the most important thing is that the SVD is a kind of "Kalashnikov assault rifle" from the world of sniper rifles. It can be put into the hands of the most careless, untrained fighter, and even he can hardly break and spoil something in this weapon. Of course, such a statement is an exaggeration. However, the Dragunov sniper rifle is indeed a very reliable and durable weapon, which, coupled with self-loading, makes it an ideal choice for platoon snipers to this day.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about how in Russia, the Mosin rifle was again adopted and why is it needed now.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/240220/53549/