Brief Operational History

The SVD rifle has its origins in 1946 when the Soviet Army desired a self loading sniper rifle to replace their aging Mosin sniper rifles.  Creating such a weapon in the past had been fraught with failure.  The SVT-40 sniper rifle had proven to be unreliable under battlefield conditions.  Sergei Simonov offered up a version of his SKS-45 carbine chambered in 7.62x54R, but it could not meet the accuracy requirements demanded of it.  The army then decided to keep the Mosin sniper rifle until an appropriate replacement could be found.

The desire for a self loading sniper rifle became more intense in the early 1950's as the Soviet Army began to equip its soldiers with automatic weapons like the AK-47.  To remedy this situation a special design group was created in 1950 to begin work on the new sniper rifle.  The group was to be headed by Evgeny Dragunov and Ivan Samoylov.  After several years of research work began on the sniper rifle in 1958.

The rimmed cartridge of the M-91 cartridge also caused Dragunov no end of problems.  It resulted in the rifle's magazine taking almost a year to design.  A final area of difficulty was the foregrip assembly which was only completed near the very end of the design process.

When the weapon was finally completed it had to compete against another sniper rifle designed by Aleksandr Konstantinov.  The winning design was to be adopted by the Soviet Army as their standard precision rifle.  The trials were long and difficult.  Both rifles underwent a variety of modifications to eliminate the flaws that testing uncovered.  Konstantinov's rifle was considered to be more technologically advanced, but Dragunov's design was highly accurate and reliable under difficult conditions.  The rifle was made even more accurate with the introduction of a special steel cored sniper rifle cartridge that increased the rifle's accuracy by 2.5 times.  It was this accuracy and reliability that impressed the evaluators the most, and on July 3rd 1963 Dragunov's sniper rifle was chosen to be the next sniper rifle of the Soviet Army.

Since its introduction the SVD has seen service all over the world in the hands of Communist governments and in the armies of third world nations.  Its appearance during the Vietnam war gave rise in the West to it being known as a super weapon that was far superior to the rifles used by NATO nations.  This proved to be a wartime exaggeration, but it should be mentioned that the SVD loses none of its accuracy when it has been exposed to weather and minor damage.

While it saw action around the world in foreign service, the Soviets only used the weapon extensively during the Afghanistan war.  Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the weapon would also see action in the Chechen conflicts in the service of both MVD and Russian army units.  A folding stock version called the SVDS has also recently been fielded with Russian troops.

It should also be mentioned that since the fall of the Soviet Union versions of the SVD have been exported commercially.  These variants are known as the Medved and the TIGR rifles.  The TIGR was sold in the United States in both pre- and post-1994 gun ban configurations.

Tactical Use and Limitations

In keeping with Soviet sniper doctrine, the SVD sniper rifle was designed to be issued to a large number of soldiers.  Like its predecessor, it was envisioned to be issued at the platoon level to one of the better shooters of the unit.  He would then engage enemy officers and non-commissioned officers.  In this role the sniper would disrupt the squad level actions of opposing forces.  It was not designed to be a sniper rifle in the Western sense of the term, regularly engaging targets at distances of over 1000 meters, but rather as a close range tactical weapon.

It is a very accurate weapon out to 1300 yards when equipped with its special sniper cartridge.  Its accuracy falls off dramatically when conventional ball ammo is used.  The weapon is also highly reliable under field conditions.  Its four power scope is quite useful and has an integral range estimator and infrared viewing capability.  It can also mount the standard M-59 Kalashnikov bayonet if needed.

Unfortunately, the bayonet is of limited utility on a modern sniper rifle so it would probably see little use.  The PSO-1 scope issued with the rifle also suffers from a major limitation - it can only be used with an infrared illumination source.  This makes it much less effective than Western models that amplify ambient light.

Method of Operation

The SVD is a short stroke gas operated weapon.  When a round is fired, some of the gases that are produced from the burning of the powder enter a small gas port and push on a series of small pistons.  This forces the bolt back.  As the gas pressure drops, the bolt is then pushed forward by a spring.  It then strips another round from the magazine and is ready to fire again.  

Its short stroke system allows the rounds to be fired without causing very much recoil or unwanted barrel movement.  Its low recoil make the weapon very pleasant to fire, the trigger being very smooth.

Deployment Chronology

Here you will learn more about the SVD sniper rifle, including what weapon it replaced when it came into service in the 1960's.  You can also learn more about that weapon by clicking on the links to them below.  It has yet to be replaced by another sniper weapon although many have been tested in the 1990's.

Sources Cited

Here are some of the most informative sources that we have used in compiling this information for you.  We hope you can find them as useful as we have.

• Soviet Small-Arms and Ammunition, by D.N. Bolotin, published by Finnish Arms Museum Foundation 1995

• Military Small Arms of the 20th Century 7th Edition, by Ian V. Hogg and John S. Weeks, published by Krause Publications, 2000

• The Mosin Nagant Rifle, by Terence W. Lapin, published by North Cape Publications, 1998