Mosink rifle in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, the reliability of the Dragunov sniper rifle and the Kovrov large-caliber sniper rifle "Kord".
The history of the creation of sniper weapons in Russia - how did you manage to make an accurate "scalpel" out of Mosin's infantry "boots", why the SVD is the most reliable of all, and for what the Americans called the newest Russian rifle "Kord" a monster.
"Spartan" designed by Mosin
By the mid-thirties of the twentieth century, it became clear that specially trained and armed people are absolutely necessary on the battlefield for accurate and lightning-fast shooting. It's no joke - 10-12 such shooters could disrupt, or even completely change the course of a major battle. In 1931, according to new goals, the Mosin rifle, model 1891, which had already earned the highest praise, was adapted to the requirements of the newly created units of front-line snipers of the Red Army. However, the standard equipment of the rifle met the requirements of sniper shooting only partially.
For the front-line shooters of the country of the Soviets, the rifle had to be significantly modified. First of all, the "mosinka" was subjected to changes in the very heart - the rifle barrel was made using a special technology that did not allow errors in cutting the barrel bores as much as the production technology of that time allowed. The new technology has made the sniper "Mosinka" more accurate by almost one and a half times. However, the main difference between a sniper rifle and a conventional one, in addition to the manufacturing process, was the presence of an optical sight mounted on a special bracket. The designers also thought about the ergonomics of the rifle - the bolt handle, with which the sniper reloaded the weapon and sent the cartridge into the chamber, was bent down. The bayonet, which relied on rifles for infantry - the sniper version of the "Mosinka" was absent in principle, and the aiming front sight, due to the absence of a bayonet, was raised one millimeter higher. Aimed shooting from a Mosin rifle with optics could be carried out at ranges from 100 to 600 meters, inclusive, however, the very first battles showed that Soviet snipers can effectively hit the enemy at much greater distances.
An expert in the field of small arms and the head of the tactical shooting club Roman Vyaznik, in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel, told a curious fact related to this rifle: “In general, the Red Army did not think about creating special weapons and did the right thing, having adapted the Mosinka for sniper needs. … She is reliable as an ax, she did not refuse even in the most severe conditions. The weapons were used both by front-line snipers, who were shooting, as they say, in the thick of the battle, and by "special sniper companies", whose tasks included covert shooting mainly at the officers. In this sense, the Mosin rifle was the best weapon that could be imagined at all for that time - German rifles and others, of course, were more technologically advanced, but Soviet designers once again managed to do the impossible - to make a surgical scalpel out of an ordinary infantry “felt boot”.
It is with the Mosin sniper rifle during the Great Patriotic War that a lot of interesting, exciting and dramatic episodes are associated, which rightfully attribute this sniper weapon not just to a successful model of design thought, but to the category of tools for the most difficult work. The most striking advertisement for the Mosin rifle is the sniper duel between the Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev and the favorite of Himmler, the mentor of the Wehrmacht sniper school Heinz Torvald, which, after four days of "hunting" for each other, ended with the victory of the Soviet sniper. Such an experienced shooter and a hardened "wolf" of sniper war as Torvald, Zaitsev was just helped to overcome the Mosin sniper rifle, which, according to military historians, Vasily Zaitsev did not specifically alter. Using the sniper version of the Mosinka, Zaitsev killed about 5-6 German soldiers a day.
Despite its "clumsy" and simple, like five kopecks, design, the Mosin sniper rifle became the first domestic rifle, brought to the "sniper standards". It was for this rifle that uniform requirements for weapons were first formed, which are now called technical specifications, and the sniper version of the Mosin rifle of the 1891 model was in service with the Soviet army for 50 years, although it underwent a number of significant changes. It was thanks to the appearance of the Mosin rifle that the domestic army received such a necessary staff unit as a sniper into the ranks of the army and special services.
Dragunov's gift
Having served its age, the Mosin rifle gradually ceased to meet the requirements of a sniper weapon, and, in the end, gave way to a rifle designed by Evgeny Fedorovich Dragunov. Made in the traditional spirit of Soviet gunsmiths and in the best, most reliable materials - the SVD 7.62mm rifle became a real revelation. A sniper squad, armed with SVD rifles, could quite calmly resist the offensive of enemy infantry or motorized riflemen. The successful design of a self-loading rifle with a rate of fire of 30 rounds per minute in the skillful hands of three or four snipers is able not only to reverse an enemy attack, but also to resolve the issue of destroying small "live targets" on the battlefield. The SVD rifle has served both the Soviet army and the Russian army in a variety of conflicts.
Former army sniper and weapons maintenance engineer Nikolai Savinykh speaks of this weapon as follows: “During the time that I served in the intelligence service in Chechnya, neither I nor any of my colleagues spoke badly about the SVD. The rifle, after all, from the very beginning, from the moment of its creation to its adoption, was not crude. And later, when it was finalized, it made it possible to work in mountainous terrain at distances of up to 800 meters. Believe me, in the mountains such a range is a very serious test for both the shooter and the weapon. But if I happened to once again hold her in combat conditions, I think she will not fail even then."
Americans tend to be wrong
Zvezda's interlocutor, a retired army sniper and now the director of an IT company Marat Minegallin, spoke about an interesting fact related to the SVD rifle: “In the West, despite the obvious dislike for everything Russian, they highly value and respect domestic weapons. A special place in this series is occupied by the SVD. In the early 2000s, I managed to talk to an amazing person who was just writing a book about Russian small arms. Of course, Charlie Katshaw knew what he was writing about, but he still focused on assault rifles, or submachine guns, as we call them. However, when it came to the SVD, Katshaw said literally: "If I had a chance to be in battle, I would definitely take the SVD."
Katshaw's words engraved in my memory, because until that moment I had not come across a positive assessment of our rifles from American weapons experts, and indeed any Western ones, in principle, because they generally always considered our snipers weaker. No wonder, in general, given that our average distance for a sniper to work is 500 meters, and theirs is twice as high. But when it came to tactical use, and Katshaw found out in what conditions I worked with the SVD in Chechnya, he admitted that the US Army did not have a rifle at its disposal that would help in such conditions. Like this".
Making the best
In 2013, the Russian army adopted the 6S8 "Kord" sniper complex - a monstrous "monster-gun" as it was called by American journalists, which uses 12, 7x108mm ammunition and is capable of fighting lightly armored vehicles, communications equipment or enemy personnel at ranges 1500-2000 meters. The appearance of this rifle marks a completely new niche for domestic sniper weapons - anti-material snipers, such as the 6S8, give domestic snipers one important advantage - it is now possible to perform shooting tasks at distances from which it will be quite difficult for the enemy to make a return shot.
At the same time, few people know that "Kord" is not just a sniper rifle, but also a large-caliber machine gun. It combines a machine gun and a rifle not only with a 12, 7mm caliber, but also the production process - the barrels for both the machine gun and the rifle are made in the literal sense of the word on one machine. The method that is used to make the barrel of the most powerful Russian sniper rifle is called the radial compression method and it is. completely different from the traditional method of rifling bore holes. Despite the unique shooting properties of the Kord rifle, the method of radial compression of the barrel has been used at the Degtyarev plant, where the rifle is actually manufactured, since 1975. The full production cycle of the barrel (from the blank to the finished product) for the Kord rifle lasts about 15 minutes. Such a phenomenal figure for a sniper rifle is rarely achieved by anyone.
"Kord" has in common with its ancestor - the Mosin rifle - the ability to withstand a colossal shot. The Mosin rifle for front-line snipers withstood many shots, since the barrel was made using a special technology. In the case of "Kord", the picture is about the same - the unique technology of manufacturing, assembling and checking the barrel made it possible to achieve a high indicator - a sniper barrel during maintenance and cleaning can easily "work out" 4-5 thousand shots.
A fire training instructor and an expert in the field of small arms, Roman Vyaznik, described his impressions of this rifle as follows: “The 6S8 generally captivates, first of all, with its size. Power and strength is immediately felt in the hands. With regard to production processes and fire properties - "Kord" is a traditional brainchild of domestic gunsmiths. "Degtyarevtsy" never made bad weapons at all, and in this case, in their traditional spirit, they made an excellent apparatus for army snipers. I remember that before the Mosin sniper rifle was, on which they pinned great hopes, and now they pinned great hopes on our "Kord"."
Despite the innovations, ammunition, new technologies and technical progress, the "Kord" with the Mosin rifle has one simple thing in common - both sniper rifles are designed taking into account the training of an ordinary soldier in combat and are easy to use.
