DShK machine gun: characteristics. DShK large-caliber machine gun. DShK machine gun: TTX and modifications Dshk machine gun decoding 12.7 1938

DShK is a heavy machine gun based on the DK machine gun and using a 12.7×108 mm cartridge. The DShK machine gun is one of the most common heavy machine guns. He played a significant role in the Great Patriotic War, as well as in subsequent military conflicts.

It was a formidable means of fighting the enemy on land, at sea and in the air. The DShK had a peculiar nickname "Dushka". Currently, in the armed forces of Russia, DShK and DShKM are completely replaced by Utes and Kord machine guns as more modern and advanced.

Story

In 1929, the experienced and well-known gunsmith Degtyarev was instructed to develop the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to combat aircraft at altitudes up to 1.5 km. About a year later, the gunsmith presented his 12.7 mm machine gun for testing. Since 1932, this machine gun under the designation DK was launched into small-scale production.

However, the DK machine gun had certain disadvantages:

• low practical rate of fire;
• large weight of stores;
• bulkiness and heavy weight.

Therefore, in 1935, the production of the DK machine gun was discontinued, and the developers began to improve it. By 1938, the designer Shpagin had designed a DC tape power module. As a result, the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army on February 26, 1939 under the designation DShK - the Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun.

Mass production of the DShK began in 1940-1941. DShK machine guns used:

• as an infantry support weapon;
• as anti-aircraft guns;
• installed on armored vehicles (T-40);
• installed on small ships, including torpedo boats.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Kovrov Mechanical Plant produced approximately 2,000 DShKs. By 1944, more than 8400 machine guns had already been produced. And by the end of the war - 9 thousand DShK, the production of machine guns of this system continued in the post-war period.

According to the experience of the war, the DShK was modernized, and in 1946 a machine gun called DShKM entered service. DShKM was installed as an anti-aircraft machine gun on T-62, T-54, T-55 tanks. The tank version of the machine gun was called DShKMT.

Design features

Heavy machine gun DShK (caliber 12.7 mm) is an automatic weapon that uses the principle of removal of powder gases. DShK fire mode - only automatic, non-removable barrel is equipped with a muzzle brake and has special ribs for better cooling. The barrel is locked by two combat larvae, which are pivotally mounted on the bolt.

Power is supplied from a metal non-loose tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the DShK. The tape feeder is made in the form of a drum. During rotation, the drum simultaneously fed the tape, and also removed the cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the chamber of the drum with the cartridge came to the lower position, the bolt fed the cartridge into the chamber.

The feed of the tape was carried out using a lever located on the right side and swinging in a vertical plane during the action of the loading handle, rigidly connected to the bolt frame.

The drum mechanism at the DShKM was replaced by a compact slider, which worked on a similar principle. The cartridge was removed from the tape down, after which it was fed directly into the chamber. In the butt pad receiver spring buffers of the bolt frame and bolt are installed. The fire is conducted from the rear sear. To control the fire, two handles on the butt plate are used, as well as twin triggers. For aiming, a frame sight was installed, and special mounts were installed for the anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was mounted on a universal machine of the Kolesnikov system, which was equipped with a steel shield and removable wheels. When using a machine gun as anti-aircraft gun the rear support was bred into a tripod, and the wheels and shield were removed. The main disadvantage of this machine was the weight, which limited the mobility of the machine gun. The machine gun was installed:

• on ship pedestal installations;
• in tower installations;
• on remote controlled anti-aircraft installations.

Specifications DShK model 1938

• Cartridge - 12.7 × 108.
• The total weight of the machine gun (on the machine, with a belt and without a shield) is 181.3 kg.
• The weight of the “body” of the DShK without tape is 33.4 kg.
• Barrel weight - 11.2 kg.
• The length of the "body" DShK - 1626 mm.
• Barrel length - 1070 mm.
• Rifling - 8 right-handed.
• The length of the rifled part of the barrel is 890 mm.
• The initial speed of the bullet is 850-870 m / s.
• The muzzle energy of a bullet is an average of 19,000 J.
• The rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute.
• Combat rate of fire - 125 rounds per minute.
• Sighting line length - 1110 mm.
• Sighting range for ground targets - 3500 m.
• Sighting range for air targets - 2400 m.
• Reach in height - 2500 m.
• Type of machine - wheel-tripod.
• The height of the line of fire in the ground position is 503 mm.
• The height of the line of fire in anti-aircraft position is 1400 mm.
• For anti-aircraft fire, the transition time to combat position from marching is 30 seconds.
• Calculation - 3-4 people.

Modifications

1. DShKT- tank machine gun, was first installed on IS-2 tanks as an anti-aircraft gun
2. DShKM-2B- twin installation for armored boats, where two machine guns were installed in a closed tower, with bulletproof armor
3. MTU-2- a twin turret weighing 160 kg, designed for installation on ships
4. DShKM-4- experimental quad installation
5. P-2K- mine installation designed for submarines(during the campaign I cleaned inside the boat)

Video about the DShK machine gun

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12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin DShK heavy machine gun

On February 26, 1939, by a decree of the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, a 12.7-mm easel machine gun of the 1938 model DShK (“Degtyareva-Shpagin large-caliber”) of the system of V. A. Degtyarev with a drum receiver of the belt of the G. S. system was adopted. Shpagin. The machine gun was adopted on the universal machine of the I.N. Kolesnikov with a detachable wheel drive and a folding tripod. During the years of the Great Patriotic War The DShK machine gun was used to combat air targets, lightly armored vehicles of the enemy, his manpower at long and medium ranges, as armament of tanks and self-propelled guns. At the end of World War II, designers K. I. Sokolov and A. K. Norov carried out a significant modernization of the heavy machine gun. First of all, the power mechanism was changed - the drum receiver was replaced by a slider one. In addition, manufacturability has been improved, the mount of the machine gun barrel has been changed, and a number of measures have been taken to increase survivability. The reliability of the system has been improved. The first 250 modernized machine guns were produced in February 1945 at a factory in Saratov. In 1946, the machine gun was put into service under the designation “12.7 mm machine gun mod. 1938/46, DShKM. The DShKM immediately became a tank anti-aircraft machine gun: it was installed on tanks of the IS, T-54 / 55, T-62 series, on the BTR-50PA, modernized ISU-122 and ISU-152, special vehicles on a tank chassis.
Since the differences between the 12.7 mm machine gun mod. 1938, DShK and modernized machine gun mod. 1938/46 DShKM consists mainly in the device of the feed mechanism, we will consider these machine guns together.
Machine gun automation and operates by removing powder gases through a transverse hole in the barrel wall, with long stroke gas piston. The closed-type gas chamber is fixed under the barrel and is equipped with a three-hole pipe regulator. Along the entire length of the barrel, transverse ribbing is made for better cooling; a single-chamber active muzzle brake is mounted on the muzzle of the barrel. The barrel bore is locked when the bolt lugs are pulled apart. The DShK barrel was equipped with an active type muzzle brake, which was subsequently replaced by a flat brake of an active type as well (such a muzzle brake was also used on the DShK. and for tank modifications became the main).
The leading link of automation is the bolt carrier. A gas piston rod is screwed into the bolt frame in front, and a drummer is attached to the rack in its rear part. When the bolt approaches the breech breech, the bolt stops and the bolt carrier continues to move forward; The reduction of the lugs and the unlocking of the shutter is carried out by the bevels of the figured seat of the bolt carrier when it moves backward. extraction spent cartridge case provides a bolt ejector, the cartridge case is removed from the weapon down through the bolt frame window, using a spring-loaded rod reflector mounted at the top of the bolt. The reciprocating mainspring is put on the gas piston rod and closed with a tubular casing. In the butt plate there are two spring shock absorbers that soften the impact of the bolt carrier and the bolt at the rearmost point. In addition, shock absorbers give the frame and bolt initial speed return movement, thereby increasing the rate of fire. The reloading handle, located at the bottom right, is rigidly connected to the bolt frame and is small in size. The reloading mechanism of the machine gun mount interacts with the reload handle, but the machine gunner can directly use the handle, for example, by inserting a cartridge into it with the bottom of the cartridge case.
The shot is fired with the shutter open. Trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire. It is actuated by a trigger lever pivotally mounted on the butt plate of the machine gun. The trigger mechanism is assembled in a separate housing and is equipped with a flag non-automatic fuse that blocks trigger lever(front position of the flag) and preventing spontaneous lowering of the sear.
The impact mechanism is powered by a reciprocating mainspring. After locking the bore, the bolt frame continues to move forward, in the extreme forward position it hits the clutch, and the drummer hits the striker mounted in the bolt. The sequence of operations of rearing the lugs and hitting the striker eliminates the possibility of firing if the barrel bore is not completely locked. To prevent the bolt frame from rebounding after being hit in the extreme forward position, a “delay” is mounted in it, including two springs, a yoke and a roller.

DShKM machine gun in incomplete disassembly: 1 - barrel with gas chamber, front sight and muzzle brake; 2 - bolt carrier with a gas piston; 3 - shutter; 4 - lugs; 5 - drummer; 6 - wedge; 7 - butt pad with buffer; 8 - trigger housing; 9 - cover and base of the receiver and feed drive lever; 10 - receiver.

Cartridge supply - tape, with the left supply of a metal link tape. The tape consists of open links and fits into a metal box attached to the installation bracket. The visor of the box serves as a feed tray for the tape. The drum receiver DShK was actuated from the handle of the bolt carrier moving backward, it bumped into the fork of the swinging feeder lever and turned it. The pawl at the other end of the lever turned the drum 60°, which pulled the tape. Extraction of the cartridge from the link of the tape - in the lateral direction. In the DShKM machine gun, the slide type receiver is mounted on top of the receiver. The slider with feed fingers is driven by a toggle lever rotating in a horizontal plane. The crank arm, in turn, is driven by a swing arm with a fork at the end. The latter, as in the DShK, is driven by the bolt carrier handle.
By flipping the slider crank, you can change the ribbon feed direction from left to right.
The 12.7-mm cartridge has several options: with an armor-piercing bullet, armor-piercing incendiary, sighting-incendiary, sighting, tracer, armor-piercing incendiary tracer (used against air targets). The sleeve does not have a protruding rim, which made it possible to apply a direct feed of the cartridge from the tape.
For shooting at ground targets, a folding frame sight is used, mounted on a base on top of the receiver. The sight has worm gears for installing the rear sight and introducing lateral corrections, the frame is equipped with 35 divisions (up to 3500 m in 100) and is tilted to the left to compensate for bullet derivation. The pin front sight with a fuse is placed on a high base in the muzzle of the barrel. When firing at ground targets, the dispersion diameter at a distance of 100 m was 200 mm. The DShKM machine gun is equipped with a collimator anti-aircraft sight, which facilitates aiming at a high-speed target and allows you to see the aiming mark and the target with equal clarity. The DShKM, which was mounted on tanks as an anti-aircraft gun, was equipped with a K-10T collimator sight. The optical system of the sight formed an image of the target and a target reticle projected onto it with rings for firing with lead and divisions of the protractor.

The task to create the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to fight aircraft at altitudes up to 1500 meters, was issued by that time to the already very experienced and well-known gunsmith Degtyarev in 1929. Less than a year later, Degtyarev presented his 12.7 mm machine gun for testing, and since 1932, small-scale production of a machine gun under the designation DK (Degtyarev, Large-caliber) began. In general, the DK repeated the design of the DP-27 light machine gun, and was powered by detachable magazines for 30 rounds. The disadvantages of such a power supply scheme (bulky and heavy stores, low practical rate of fire) forced them to stop producing the DC in 1935 and start improving it. By 1938, another designer, Shpagin, developed a belt feed module for the recreation center, and in 1939 the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation “12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun mod. 1938 - DShK. The mass production of DShK was started in 1940-41, and during the years of World War II, about 8 thousand DShK machine guns were produced. They were used as anti-aircraft weapons, as infantry support weapons, mounted on armored vehicles and small ships (including torpedo boats). According to the experience of the war in 1946, the machine gun was modernized (the design of the belt feed unit and the barrel mount were changed), and the machine gun was adopted under the designation DShKM.

DShKM was or is in service with more than 40 armies of the world, is produced in China ("type 54"), Pakistan, Iran and some other countries. The DShKM machine gun was used as an anti-aircraft gun on Soviet tanks of the post-war period (T-55, T-62) and on armored vehicles (BTR-155).

Technically, the DShK is an automatic weapon built on the gas principle. The barrel is locked by two combat larvae, pivotally mounted on the bolt, for recesses in the side walls of the receiver. The fire mode is only automatic, the barrel is non-removable, ribbed for better cooling, and equipped with a muzzle brake. Power is supplied from a non-loose metal tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the machine gun. At DShK, the tape feeder was made in the form of a drum with six open chambers. The drum, during its rotation, fed the tape and at the same time removed cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the drum chamber with the cartridge arrived in the lower position, the cartridge was fed into the chamber by a bolt. The tape feeder was driven by a lever located on the right side, swinging in a vertical plane when the loading handle, rigidly connected to the bolt frame, acted on its lower part. At DShKM machine gun the drum mechanism has been replaced by a more compact slide mechanism, also driven by a similar lever connected to the charging handle. The cartridge was removed from the tape down and then directly fed into the chamber.

In the butt plate of the receiver, spring buffers of the bolt and bolt carrier are mounted. The fire was fired from the rear sear (from an open bolt), two handles on the butt plate and a push-type spook were used to control the fire. The sight is frame, the machine also had mounts for an anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was used with universal machine Kolesnikov systems. The machine was equipped with removable wheels and a steel shield, and when using a machine gun as an anti-aircraft wheel, they were removed, and the rear support was bred, forming a tripod. In addition, the machine gun in the role of an anti-aircraft gun was equipped with special shoulder stops. In addition to the machine gun, the machine gun was used in tower installations, on remotely controlled anti-aircraft installations, on ship pedestal installations.
At present, in the Russian Armed Forces, the DShK and DShKM are almost completely replaced by the Utes machine gun, as more advanced and modern.

DShK(GRAU index - 56-P-542) - easel heavy machine gun chambered for 12.7 × 108 mm. Developed on the basis of the design of a large-caliber easel machine gun DK.

In February 1939, the DShK was adopted by the Red Army under the designation "12.7 mm heavy machine gun Degtyarev - Shpagin model 1938".

History of creation and production

The task to create the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to fight aircraft at altitudes up to 1500 meters, was issued by that time to the already very experienced and well-known gunsmith Degtyarev in 1929. Less than a year later, Degtyarev presented his 12.7 mm machine gun for testing, and since 1932, small-scale production of a machine gun under the designation DK (Degtyarev, Large-caliber) began. In general, the DC repeated in design light machine gun DP-27, and was fed from detachable drum magazines for 30 rounds, mounted on top of the machine gun. The disadvantages of such a power supply scheme (bulky and heavy stores, low practical rate of fire) forced the production of the DC to be stopped in 1935 and to improve it. By 1938, the designer Shpagin had developed a tape power module for recreation centers.

On February 26, 1939, an improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation "12.7 mm heavy machine gun Degtyarev - Shpagin of the 1938 model - DShK."

The mass production of the DShK was launched in 1940-41.

DShKs were used as anti-aircraft weapons, as infantry support weapons, mounted on armored vehicles (T-40) and small ships (including torpedo boats). In accordance with the state of the rifle division of the Red Army No. 04 / 400-416 of April 5, 1941, the regular number of DShK anti-aircraft machine guns in the division was 9 pieces.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Kovrov Mechanical Plant produced about 2 thousand DShK machine guns.

On November 9, 1941, GKO Decree No. 874 “On strengthening and strengthening air defense Soviet Union", which provided for the redistribution of DShK machine guns for arming the created units of the air defense forces.

By the beginning of 1944, over 8400 DShK machine guns had been produced.

Until the end of the Great Patriotic War, 9 thousand DShK machine guns were produced, in the post-war period, the production of machine guns continued.

Design

The DShK large-caliber machine gun is an automatic weapon built on the gas principle. The barrel is locked by two combat larvae, pivotally mounted on the bolt, for recesses in the side walls of the receiver. The fire mode is only automatic, the barrel is fixed, ribbed for better cooling, equipped with a muzzle brake.

Power is supplied from a non-loose metal tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the machine gun. At DShK, the tape feeder was made in the form of a drum with six open chambers. The drum, during its rotation, fed the tape and at the same time removed cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the drum chamber with the cartridge arrived in the lower position, the cartridge was fed into the chamber by a bolt. The drive of the tape feeder was carried out using a lever located on the right side, swinging in a vertical plane when the loading handle, rigidly connected to the bolt frame, acted on its lower part.

In the butt plate of the receiver, spring buffers of the bolt and bolt carrier are mounted. The fire was fired from the rear sear (from an open bolt), two handles on the butt plate and twin triggers were used to control the fire. The sight is frame, the machine also had mounts for an anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was used from the universal machine of the Kolesnikov system. The machine was equipped with removable wheels and a steel shield, and when using a machine gun as an anti-aircraft wheel, the shield was removed, and the rear support was bred, forming a tripod. In addition, the machine gun in the role of an anti-aircraft gun was equipped with special shoulder stops. The main disadvantage of this machine was its heavy weight, which limited the mobility of the machine gun. In addition to the machine gun, the machine gun was used in tower installations, on remotely controlled anti-aircraft installations, on ship pedestal installations.

Combat use

The machine gun was used by the USSR from the very beginning in all directions and went through the entire war. Used as an easel and anti-aircraft machine gun. large caliber allowed the machine gun to effectively deal with many targets, up to medium armored vehicles. At the end of the war, the DShK was massively installed as an anti-aircraft gun on the towers Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns for self-defense of vehicles in case of attacks from the air and from the upper floors in urban battles.

Video

DShK machine gun. TV program. Weapon TV