Dragunov -The all weather sniper.The Russian SVD ( Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova), “Dragunov Sniper Rifle”, is a 7.62 mm semi-automatic sniper rifle, took its birth in the Soviet Union. The rifle was designed by Evginy Dragunov.The main design aspect was to craft a sniper rifle to hit the target with deadly accuracy at all weather conditions. The Dragunov rifle entered into Soviet service in 1963 and still remains into the front line sniper of Russian army and a large no of other n Izhmash weapons factory Russia. A large no of countries including China ,Israel, Poland etc are now carrying out the licensed production of Dragunov sniper rifles.
Design.
The Dragunov sniper rifle is a semi-automatic gas-operated rifle with a short-stroke type gas-piston mechanism. The barrel breech is locked through a rotating bolt and uses three locking lugs to engage corresponding locking recesses in the barrel extension. The rifle has a two-position gas regulator. The rifle is fed from a curved box type magazine with a capacity of 10-rounds and the bullets are stacked doubly in a checkered pattern to save space. After the last cartridge is discharged from the magazine, the bolt carrier and bolt are held back on a catch mechanism that is released by pulling the cocking handle to the rear. The rifle has a hammer-type striking mechanism and a manually operated lever type safety selector. The machined receiver of the rifle provides higher accuracy and better strength. The receiver of Dragunov rifle has a lot of similarities to the receiver of AK 47, such as the big dust cover, iron sights and lever safety selector. Any way all these similarities are just cosmetic and there is a great deal of difference in the internal design.
The barrel of Dragunov is made slotted with a flash suppressor to increase stealth. The inside of the barrel is chrome plated to increase the life avoids the need of frequent cleaning. A distinctive feature of the SVD is that its barrel is that, it is not rifled to the entire length. Only 547 mm contains the rifling. This reduces the rifling of bullet a little bit and resultantly slight decreases the accuracy with standard bullets .But this was used to make the rifle able to fire tracers and amour piercing rounds which requires a lesser twist rate for better stabilization.
The SVD has a vented, two-piece wooden hand guard/gas tube cover and a wooden thumb hole stock equipped with a detachable cheek rest. Latest production models have synthetic furniture made of a black polymer – the hand guard and gas tube cover are almost identical in look, but the thumb hole stock is having a different shape.
Typical Dragunov receiver
Sights.
PSO 1 is the standard scope issued with the Dragunov sniper rifle. It has features such as a bullet drop compensation adjustment knob, elevation adjustment knob, illuminated range finder grid, a reticle that enables target acquisition in low light conditions as well as an infrared charging screen that is used as a passive detection system. With a properly tuned PSO-1 scope and suitable ammunition the rifle can accurately hit targets up to 1300 meter. The rifle also has a mechanically adjustable backup iron sight with a sliding tangent rear sight that can be adjusted to a maximum range of 1200 m.
Ammunition.
For accurate shooting, specially designed cartridges called 7N1 ware used. This cartridge is developed by V. M. Sabelnikov, P. P. Sazonov and V. M. Dvorianinov. The 7N1 cartridge has a steel jacketed projectile with an air pocket, a steel core and a lead knocker in the base for maximum terminal effect. By the year 1999 the 7N14 cartridge replaced the 7N1 cartridge. The 7N14 cartridge is a new load developed especially for the SVD. The 7N14 consists of a 151 grain projectile which travels at the 830 m/s, same as that of the old 7N1 rounds but it has a lead core projectile.
The standard 7.62×54mmR Mosin-Nagant ammo with either conventional, tracer or amour piercing incendiary rounds can be also fired from the rifle with deadly accuracy and power.
Variants of Dragunov.
A large no of countries including China, Israel, Poland, Finland, India, Iraq etc are carrying out licensed manufacturing of the Dragunov rifle. Some variants are,
Poland - Known locally as the SWD.
Iraq – Al Kadesiah.
Iran – Made by Defense Industries Organization as the Nakhjir.
India - Officially designated as the Dragunov SVD59.
Finland - Known as the 7.62 TKIV Dragunov.
Russia - In addition to the military versions they also produce a civilian version called “Tigr“.
Dragunov Specifications.
Dragunov sniper has proven its muscle in battle fields including subzero artic mountains, Amazon rain forests ,baking deserts of the middle east and a lot more. No other sniper rifle has performed this satisfactorily in such challenging conditions. The ruggedness of Dragunov is as famous like that of the AK47.I have seen Dragunov hitting bulls eye at a distance of 1000 meters even after it’s been subjected to killing conditions such as putting in fire, soaking in dust, plunging in boiling water, and even run over by a 6 ton pick up truck. That’s what all makes Dragunov the most reliable and all weather rifle.
