SVT 40 Sniper Rifle, rare bird

[kujuak]

Interesting rifle, 3" groups with ball ammo, a little worse than my M1D. Feels like shooting a bullwhip. A major pain in butt to clean

 

[Spblademaker]

Awesome rifle. Prices are up on them. ?

 

[jamescj]

I heard that SVD's can be a huge pain to clean. What makes them so hard?

 

[kujuak]

Recoil spring guide is two pieces, it has to be juggled to fit back in. Three hands and steel fingers would really help. Guys online will say it's not that hard after awhile. I have not found it so. It is an elegant sort of rifle and slings those 7.62x54R rounds down range with alacrity. It is a bit delicate feeling though compared to a Garand. They have become so valuable that I am leary to shoot it much.

 

[jamescj]

Ya that sounds like it could be challenging, how does the scope attach to the rifle? It almost looks like a claw mount that pinches the rear of the receiver.

 

[kujuak]

There is a rail on the receiver cover, notch at the rear and a cross pin to keep it in place. I have a brass buffer that i made to wrap around the cross pin to keep from peening the notch. Many early SVT had the rail, only the sniper versions had the notch. Faking the notch is a major issue in the milsurp market. Anyway, the scope stays put. Scope and mount are replicas. Original scopes can be found fairly easily. Original SVT scope mounts are unicorns and sell for ++++++$.

If you ever get a chance to field strip an SVT and a FN-FAL the similarities of the recoil system are striking.

 

[Ledzep]

A friend's dad in highschool had one. He just refused to shoot milsurp ammo through it to avoid having to clean it. I do remember thinking it was sort of "delicate" as well. Always wanted one, should've thrown down when they were $600-700.

 

[ACK]

MAS 44, 49, 49/56, FN49, FAL, AG42, SVT38, SKS, SVT40 among a few military rifles operate with the same tilt block mechanism. SVT were designed with a weight constraint, the stocks are slim and somewhat fragile.
I have a later SVT-40 no scope rail. The Soviets realized it s accuracy limitation and MN were simpler to manufacture.
It has a loud muzzle brake. Shooting it at night is fun.

 

[Dendro]

Interesting scope setup, beautiful rifle

 

[Strykervet]

I just saw this on "Exploring Sniper Rifles" on Prime (they've got several good firearms shows and the guy who does these just knows his shit through and through). Anyway, they had the SVT40 and talked about how it wasn't a "real" sniper rifle and how as soon as they got replacements it became an infantry rifle. They explain the reasons. Surely interesting, especially if you own one.

 

[ACK]

Soviet women snipers used the SVT 40; endured major losses during the war.
German troops captured SVT in sufficient numbers as to assign an "article" number Selbstladegewehr 259.
Bayonets are pricey

 

[kujuak]

If you think bayonets are pricey, try and find an original SVT40 scope mount!

 

[jab00]

Beautiful rifle. What’s the cheekweld like with that mount being so high?

 

[kujuak]

More of a chin weld, similar to Mosin PU. I put a leather cheek piece on the latter. Don't shoot the SVT sniper that much.

 

[jab00]

More of a chin weld, similar to Mosin PU. I put a leather cheek piece on the latter. Don't shoot the SVT sniper that much.

It reminds of picture that a buddy sent of a guy that was using a Ruger Scout rifle for a long range class, the guy had a 50mm scope mounted on the scout rail in what looks like an ADM mount and a gigantic cheek riser. He was connecting out to 1k with it, so I guess he was proving the old statement of "it's not stupid if it works"