Dshk machine gun decoding 12.7 1938. DShK machine gun: performance characteristics and modifications. Information about the technical device

The DShK machine gun entered the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army back in February 1939, but despite the seven decades that have passed since then, it is still present among the staff heavy weapons in many armies. In this article we will briefly outline the history and design features of this outstanding example domestic design thought.

DShK machine gun. Photo. History of creation

A product of the First World War. Initially, they were tasked with fighting the then weakly armored tanks, aircraft and infantry in light shelters. It was precisely these opportunities that the Red Army command craved to receive from the new domestic machine gun, issuing technical specifications for it to the designers. The DShK machine gun was born for ten whole years, one might say, when the most advanced and powerful domestic cartridge for its time, 12.7 x 108, was invented, which, by the way, is still actively used in modern rifle systems. However, for a long time Degtyarev was unable to create something acceptable for the army. The main disadvantage of the DK (Degtyarev large-caliber) model of 1930 was the drum magazine for thirty rounds and the low rate of fire, which did not allow the machine gun to be effectively used as an anti-aircraft gun. Only by inviting another outstanding designer, G.S. Shpagin, to participate in the development, it was possible to solve the problem. A drum-type chamber was installed on the Degtyarev machine gun for belt ammunition designed by Shpagin, as a result of which the machine gun acquired a very decent rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute, belt feeding and the now well-known name “DShK Machine Gun”. Since 1939, he entered combat units and since then has participated and is participating in all armed conflicts in the world. It is currently in service with forty armies. Produced by China, Iran, Pakistan and some other countries.

The automatic machine gun operates on the common principle of removing expanding powder gases. The gas exhaust chamber is located under the barrel. Locking occurs with the help of two combat larvae, which cling to recesses carved in opposite walls receiver. The DShK machine gun can only fire automatically; the barrel has a non-removable barrel and is air-cooled. The cartridge belt is fed from the left side to the drum, which has six open chambers. The latter, rotating, feeds the tape and at the same time removes cartridges from it. In 1946, changes were made to the design that affected the steel grades used, production technology and cartridge feeding device. The “drum” was abandoned and a simpler slider mechanism was used, which made it possible to use new cartridge belts, on both sides, and was lighter and more technologically advanced. The improved machine gun was called DShKM.

Conclusion

There are only two truly famous 12 mm machine guns in the world. These are the DShK and M2 machine guns, and the domestic machine gun, due to its more powerful cartridge and heavy bullet, is superior to its American counterpart. Until now, DShK fire is considered highly effective and terrifies the enemy.

DShK (GRAU Index - 56-P-542) - heavy-caliber machine gun chambered for 12.7×108 mm. Developed based on the design of the large-caliber heavy machine gun DK. In February 1939, the DShK was adopted by the Red Army under the designation “12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun, model 1938.”

DShK machine gun - video

With the start of work on a machine gun with a caliber of 12-20 millimeters in 1925, they decided to create it based on light machine gun magazine-fed to reduce the mass of the machine gun being created. Work began at the design bureau of the Tula Arms Plant on the basis of the 12.7-mm Vickers cartridge and on the basis of the German Dreyse (P-5) machine gun. The design bureau of the Kovrov plant was developing a machine gun based on the Degtyarev light machine gun for more powerful cartridges. A new 12.7-mm cartridge with an armor-piercing bullet was created in 1930, and at the end of the year the first experimental large-caliber Degtyarev machine gun with a Kladov disc magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds was assembled. In February 1931, after testing, preference was given to the DK (“Degtyarev large-caliber”) as easier to manufacture and lighter. The recreation center was put into service; in 1932, a small series was produced at the plant named after. Kirkizha (Kovrov), however, in 1933 only 12 machine guns were produced.

Military tests did not live up to expectations. In 1935, production of the Degtyarev heavy machine gun was stopped. By this time, a version of the DAK-32 had been created that had a Shpagin receiver, but tests in 1932-1933 showed the need to refine the system. Shpagin remade his version in 1937. A drum feed mechanism was created that did not require significant changes to the machine gun system. The belt-fed machine gun passed field tests on December 17, 1938. On February 26 of the following year, by resolution of the Defense Committee, it was adopted under the designation “12.7 mm heavy machine gun arr. 1938 DShK (Degtyarev-Shpagina large-caliber)" which was installed on universal machine Kolesnikova. Work was also carried out on the DShK aircraft installation, but it soon became clear that a special large-caliber aircraft machine gun was needed.

The automatic operation of the machine gun was carried out due to the removal of powder gases. A closed gas chamber was located under the barrel and was equipped with a pipe regulator. The barrel had fins along its entire length. The muzzle was equipped with a single-chamber active-type muzzle brake. By moving the bolt lugs to the sides, the barrel bore was locked. The ejector and reflector were assembled in the gate. A pair of spring shock absorbers of the butt plate served to soften the impact of the moving system and give it an initial rolling impulse. A return spring, mounted on the gas piston rod, activated the impact mechanism. The trigger lever was blocked by a safety lever mounted on the buttplate (setting the safety to the front position).

Feeding – belt, feeding – from the left side. The loose tape, which has semi-closed links, was placed in a special metal box attached to the left side of the machine bracket. The bolt carrier handle activated the DShK drum receiver: while moving backward, the handle bumped into the fork of the swinging feed lever and turned it. A pawl located at the other end of the lever rotated the drum 60 degrees, and the drum, in turn, pulled the tape. There were four cartridges in the drum at a time. As the drum rotated, the cartridge was gradually squeezed out of the belt link and fed into the receiving window of the receiver. The shutter moving forward caught it.

The folding frame sight, used for firing at ground targets, had a notch of up to 3.5 thousand m in increments of 100 m. The machine gun's markings included the manufacturer's mark, year of manufacture, serial number (series designation - two-letter, serial number of the machine gun) . The mark was placed in front of the butt plate on top of the receiver.

During operation with the DShK, three types of anti-aircraft sights were used. The ring remote sight of the 1938 model was intended to destroy air targets flying at speeds of up to 500 km/h and at a distance of up to 2.4 thousand meters. The sight of the 1941 model was simplified, the range was reduced to 1.8 thousand meters, however possible speed the target being destroyed increased (along the “imaginary” ring it could be 625 kilometers per hour). The sight of the 1943 model was of the foreshortening type and was much easier to use, but allowed firing at various target courses, including pitching or diving.

The universal Kolesnikov machine of the 1938 model was equipped with its own charging handle, had a removable shoulder pad, a cartridge box bracket, and a rod-type vertical aiming mechanism. Fire at ground targets was carried out from a wheeled vehicle, with the legs folded. To fire at air targets, the wheel drive was separated, and the machine was laid out in the form of a tripod.

The 12.7 mm cartridge could have an armor-piercing bullet (B-30) of the 1930 model, an armor-piercing incendiary bullet (B-32) of the 1932 model, sighting and incendiary (PZ), tracer (T), sighting (P), against anti-aircraft guns targets, an armor-piercing incendiary tracer bullet (BZT) of the 1941 model was used. The armor penetration of the B-32 bullet was 20 millimeters normal from 100 meters and 15 millimeters from 500 meters. The BS-41 bullet, whose core was made of tungsten carbide, was capable of penetrating 20 mm armor plate at an angle of 20 degrees from a range of 750 meters. The dispersion diameter when firing at ground targets was 200 millimeters at a distance of 100 meters.

The machine gun began to enter service with the troops in 1940. In total, in 1940, plant No. 2 in Kovrov produced 566 DShKs. In the first half of 1941 - 234 machine guns (in total, in 1941, with a plan of 4 thousand DShK, about 1.6 thousand were received). In total, as of June 22, 1941, there were about 2.2 thousand in the Red Army units. heavy machine guns.

From the first days of the Second World War, the DShK machine gun proved itself to be an excellent anti-aircraft weapon. So, for example, on July 14, 1941, on the Western Front in the Yartsevo area, a platoon of three machine guns shot down three German bombers; in August, near Leningrad in the Krasnogvardeisky area, the Second Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun Battalion destroyed 33 enemy aircraft. However, the number of 12.7-mm machine gun mounts was clearly not enough, especially considering the enemy's significant air superiority. As of September 10, 1941, there were 394 of them: in the Oryol zone air defense– 9, Kharkov – 66, Moscow – 112, on the South-Western Front – 72, Southern – 58, North-Western – 37, Western – 27, Karelian – 13.

Since June 1942, the staff of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment of the army included a DShK company, which was armed with 8 machine guns, and since February 1943 their number increased to 16 units. The anti-aircraft artillery divisions of the RVGK (Zenad), formed since November 42, included one such company per anti-aircraft small-caliber artillery regiment. Since the spring of 1943, the number of DShKs in Zenad decreased to 52 units, and according to the updated state of the 44th in the spring, Zenad had 48 DShKs and 88 guns. In 1943, small-caliber regiments were introduced into the cavalry, mechanized and tank corps anti-aircraft artillery(16 DShK and 16 guns).

American infantrymen fire from a DShKM on a Romanian URO VAMTAC during joint US-Romanian maneuvers, 2009

Usually anti-aircraft DShK used by platoons, often included in medium-caliber anti-aircraft batteries, using them to provide cover from air attacks from low altitudes. Anti-aircraft machine gun companies, armed with 18 DShKs, were added to the staff of rifle divisions at the beginning of 1944. Throughout the war, losses of heavy machine guns amounted to about 10 thousand units, that is, 21% of the resource. This was the smallest percentage of losses in the entire system. small arms, however, it is comparable to losses in anti-aircraft artillery. This already speaks about the role and place of heavy machine guns.

In 1941, as German troops approached Moscow, backup factories were identified in case Factory No. 2 stopped producing weapons. The production of DShK was carried out in the city of Kuibyshev, where 555 devices and machines were transferred from Kovrov. As a result, during the war, the main production took place in Kovrov, and “duplicate” production took place in Kuibyshev.

In addition to easel ones, they used self-propelled units with DShK - mainly M-1 pickups or GAZ-AA trucks with a DShK machine gun installed in the body in the anti-aircraft position on the machine. "Anti-aircraft" light tanks on the T-60 and T-70 chassis further prototypes no progress. The same fate befell the integrated installations (although it should be noted that the built-in 12.7-mm anti-aircraft installations were used to a limited extent - for example, they served in the air defense of Moscow). The failures of the installations were associated, first of all, with the power system, which did not allow changing the direction of feed of the tape. But the Red Army successfully used 12.7-mm American quad mounts of the M-17 type based on the M2NV Browning machine gun.

The “anti-tank” role of the DShK machine gun, which received the nickname “Dushka,” was insignificant. The machine gun was used to a limited extent against light armored vehicles. But the DShK became a tank weapon - it was the main armament of the T-40 (amphibious tank), BA-64D (light armored car), and in 1944 a 12.7-mm turret anti-aircraft gun was installed on heavy tank IS-2, and later on heavy self-propelled guns. Anti-aircraft armored trains were armed with DShK machine guns on tripods or stands (during the war, up to 200 armored trains operated in the air defense forces). The DShK with a shield and a folded machine could be dropped to partisans or landing forces in a UPD-MM parachute bag.

The fleet began receiving DShKs in 1940 (at the beginning of the Second World War there were 830 of them). During the war, industry transferred 4,018 DShKs to the fleet, and another 1,146 were transferred from the army. In the navy, anti-aircraft DShKs were installed on all types of ships, including mobilized fishing and transport ships. They were used on twin single pedestals, turrets, and turrets. Pedestal, rack and turret (coaxial) installations for DShK machine guns, adopted for service navy, developed by I.S. Leshchinsky, designer of plant No. 2. The pedestal installation allowed for all-round firing, vertical guidance angles ranged from -34 to +85 degrees. In 1939 A.I. Ivashutich, another Kovrov designer, developed a twin pedestal installation, and the later appeared DShKM-2 gave all-round fire. Vertical guidance angles ranged from -10 to +85 degrees. In 1945, the 2M-1 twin deck-mounted installation, which had a ring sight, was put into service. The DShKM-2B twin turret installation, created at TsKB-19 in 1943, and the ShB-K sight made it possible to conduct all-round fire at vertical guidance angles from -10 to +82 degrees.

For boats of various classes, open turret twin installations MSTU, MTU-2 and 2-UK were created with pointing angles from -10 to +85 degrees. The “naval” machine guns themselves differed from the base model. For example, in the turret version, a frame sight was not used (only a ring sight with a weather vane front sight was used), the bolt handle was lengthened, and the hook for the cartridge box was changed. The differences between machine guns for coaxial installations were the design of the butt plate with the frame handle and release lever, lack of sights, fire control.

The German army, which did not have a standard heavy machine gun, willingly used captured DShKs, which were designated MG.286(r).

At the end of the Second World War, Sokolov and Korov carried out a significant modernization of the DShK. The changes primarily affected the food system. In 1946, a modernized machine gun under the DShKM brand was put into service. The reliability of the system has increased - if on the DShK according to the specifications 0.8% of delays during firing were allowed, then on the DShKM this figure was already 0.36%. The DShKM machine gun has become one of the most widely used in the world.

In 1929 designer Vasily Degtyarev received the task of creating the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to combat aircraft at altitudes of up to 1500 meters.

However, military tests showed that this model did not live up to the military’s expectations, and the machine gun was sent for revision. At the same time he worked on the design Georgy Shpagin, who invented an original tape power module for the DC.

The combined forces of Degtyarev and Shpagin created a version of the machine gun, which passed all field tests in December 1938.

Armor-piercing incendiary power

On February 26, 1939, the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation “12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun, model 1938 - DShK.” The machine gun was mounted on a universal machine Kolesnikova model 1938, which was equipped with its own charging handle, had a removable shoulder pad for firing at aircraft, a cartridge box bracket, and a rod-type vertical aiming mechanism.

Fire at ground targets was carried out from a wheeled vehicle, with the legs folded. To fire at air targets, the wheel drive was separated, and the machine was laid out in the form of a tripod.

The 12.7 mm DShK cartridge could have an armor-piercing, armor-piercing incendiary, sighting-incendiary, tracer, and sighting bullet. Armor-piercing incendiary tracer bullets were used against flying targets.

Serial production of the DShK began in 1940, and the machine gun immediately began to enter service with the troops. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army had about 800 DShK machine guns in service.

DShK 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, model 1938. Photo: RIA Novosti / Khomenko

The nightmare of Nazi aviation

Almost from the first days of the war, DShKs began to cause serious damage to enemy aircraft, demonstrating their high efficiency. The problem, however, was that with the Nazis dominating the air, several hundred DShK installations on the entire front could not radically change the situation.

Increasing production rates made it possible to solve this problem. By the end of the Great Patriotic War, up to 9,000 DShK machine guns were produced, which were not only equipped with anti-aircraft gunner units of the Red Army and the Navy. They began to be installed en masse on the turrets of tanks and self-propelled guns. artillery installations. This allowed tankers not only to combat air attacks, but to increase their effectiveness in urban combat, when they had to suppress firing points on the upper floors of buildings.

The Wehrmacht never acquired a standard heavy machine gun of this type, which became a serious advantage for the Red Army.

Soldier Syrian army behind the DShK machine gun. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev

Continuing the tradition

Upgraded model DShKM machine gun was in service with the armies of no less than 40 countries for several post-war decades. brainchild Soviet designers and is still in service in the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and in Ukraine. In Russia, the DShK and DShKM were replaced by the Utes and Kord heavy machine guns. The name of the latter stands for “Kovrov gunsmiths Degtyarevtsy” - the machine gun was developed at the Kovrov plant named after. Degtyarev, where the history of Soviet heavy machine guns once began.

DShK is a large-caliber heavy machine gun, created on the basis of the DK machine gun and using a 12.7x108 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. DShK had a unique nickname “Dushka”. Currently, in the Russian armed forces, the DShK and DShKM are completely replaced by the Utes and Kord machine guns as more modern and advanced.

Story

In 1929, the experienced and famous gunsmith Degtyarev was tasked with developing the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to combat aircraft at altitudes of 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 put into small-scale production.

However, the DK machine gun had certain disadvantages:

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

Therefore, in 1935, production of the DK machine gun was discontinued, and the developers began improving it. By 1938, designer Shpagin 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 - Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun.

Mass production of DShK began in 1940-1941. DShK machine guns were 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 thousand DShKs. By 1944, more than 8,400 machine guns had already been produced. And by the end of the war - 9 thousand DShKs; production of machine guns of this system continued in the post-war period.

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

Design Features

The DShK heavy machine gun (12.7 mm caliber) is an automatic weapon that uses the principle of removing powder gases. The DShK fire mode is automatic only, the fixed barrel is equipped with a muzzle brake and has special fins for better cooling. The barrel is locked by two combat cylinders, which are hinged on the bolt.

The feed is made from a metal non-scattered tape; the tape is fed from the left side of the DShK. The tape feeder is made in the form of a drum. As the drum rotated, it simultaneously fed the belt and also removed cartridges from it (the belt 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 tape was fed 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 of the DShKM was replaced with a compact slider mechanism, which worked on a similar principle. The cartridge was removed from the tape downwards, after which it was fed directly into the chamber. Spring buffers for the bolt frame and bolt are installed in the buttplate of the receiver. The fire is fired from the rear sear. To control the fire, two handles are used on the butt plate, as well as twin triggers. A frame sight was installed for aiming, 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 raised into a tripod, and the wheels and shield were removed. The main disadvantage of this machine was its 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.

Technical characteristics of the 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 mass of the DShK “body” without tape is 33.4 kg.
• Barrel weight – 11.2 kg.
• The length of the DShK “body” is 1626 mm.
• Barrel length - 1070 mm.
• Rifling - 8 right-hand.
• The length of the rifled part of the barrel is 890 mm.
• starting speed bullets - 850-870 m/s.
• The muzzle energy of the bullet is on average 19,000 J.
• The rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute.
• Combat rate of fire is 125 rounds per minute.
• The length of the aiming line is 1110 mm.
• Sighting range for ground targets - 3500 m.
• Sighting range against air targets is 2400 m.
• Height reach - 2500 m.
• Type of machine: wheeled tripod.
• The height of the firing line in a ground position is 503 mm.
• The height of the firing line at anti-aircraft position is 1400 mm.
• For anti-aircraft shooting, the time to transition to a combat position from a traveling position is 30 seconds.
• Calculation: 3-4 people.

Modifications

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

Video about the DShK machine gun

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them

It is difficult to overestimate the role of machine guns in the development of military affairs - having cut short millions of lives, they forever changed the face of war. But even experts did not immediately appreciate them, at first considering them as special weapons with a very narrow range of combat missions - for example, at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, machine guns were considered just one of the types of fortress artillery. However, already during Russo-Japanese War automatic fire proved its highest efficiency, and during the First World War, machine guns became one of the most important means of fire defeating the enemy in close combat; they were installed on tanks, combat aircraft and ships. Automatic weapons made a real revolution in military affairs: heavy machine-gun fire literally swept away the advancing troops, becoming one of the main causes of the “positional crisis”, radically changing not only tactics combat, but also the entire military strategy.

This book is the most complete and detailed encyclopedia of Russian, Soviet and Soviet machine gun weapons to date. Russian army from the end of the 19th century to beginning of the XXI century, both domestic models and foreign ones - purchased and captured. The author, a leading expert on the history of small arms, not only cites detailed descriptions device and operation of easel, manual, single, large-caliber, tank and aviation machine guns, but also talks about them combat use in all the wars that our country waged throughout the turbulent twentieth century.

The DShKM is in service with more than 40 armies around the world. In addition to the USSR, it was produced in Czechoslovakia (DSK vz.54), Romania, China ("Type 54" and modernized "Type 59"), Pakistan (Chinese version), Iran, Iraq, Thailand. However, the Chinese were also embarrassed by the bulkiness of the DShKM, and to partially replace it they created the Type 77 and Type 85 machine guns chambered for the same cartridge. In Czechoslovakia, based on the DShKM, a quad M53 anti-aircraft gun was produced, which was also exported - for example, to Cuba.

12.7 mm Type 59 machine gun - Chinese copy of DShKM - in anti-aircraft firing position

Soviet, and more often Chinese-made DShKMs fought in Afghanistan and on the side of the dushmans. Major General A.A. Lyakhovsky recalled that the dushmans “used large-caliber machine guns, anti-aircraft mountain installations (ZGU), small-caliber Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns as air defense weapons, and since 1981 - portable anti-aircraft guns missile systems and DShK made in China.” 12.7-mm machine guns turned out to be dangerous opponents of the Soviet Mi-8 and Su-25, and were also used to fire at convoys and checkpoints from a long distance. In the report of the Head of the GUBP Ground Forces dated September 22, 1984, among the weapons captured from the rebels it was indicated: DShK for May - September 1983 - 98, for May - September 1984 - 146. Afghan government troops from January 1 to June 15, 1987, for example, destroyed 4 ZGU, 56 DShK rebels, captured 10 ZGU, 39 DShK, 33 other machine guns, losing 14 of their own ZGU, 4 DShK, 15 other machine guns. Soviet troops during the same period, 438 DShK and ZGU were destroyed, 142 DShK and ZGU, 3 million 800 thousand units of ammunition for them were captured; divisions special purpose destroyed 23 DShKs and 74,300 units of ammunition for them, captured 28 and 295,807 units, respectively.

Homemade installation of a DShKM machine gun on a Mitsubishi pickup truck. Cote d'Ivoire. Africa

Despite repeated attempts to replace them, the Soviet DShKM and the American M2NV "Browning" have been sharing primacy in the family of heavy machine guns (generally small) for half a century and are the most widely used in the world - in a number of countries they are used together. At the same time, the DShKM, being larger and heavier than the M2NV, noticeably surpasses it in fire power.

Order incomplete DShKM disassembly

Disconnect the guide tube from the barrel by pulling it towards the muzzle and turning it to the left until the tube stop comes out of the groove on the barrel.

Remove the butt plate pin and, using a hammer, separate the butt plate downwards, holding it with your hand.

Separate trigger, moving it back.

Using the reloading handle, pull the moving system back and remove them together with the guide tube, supporting the latter.

Separate the bolt with the firing pin from the bolt frame and the lugs from the bolt.

Knock out the ejector axis, reflector pins and striker, then separate these parts from the bolt.

Knock out the frame clutch axis and separate the bolt frame from the return mechanism.

Place the return mechanism vertically and, pressing on the guide tube, knock out the front axis of the coupling, then smoothly release the tube and separate it and the return spring from the rod.

Unscrew and unscrew the receiver axle nut, push the latter out of the receiver socket and remove the feed mechanism.

Unscrew and unscrew the barrel wedge nut, push the wedge to the left and separate the barrel from the receiver.

Reassemble in reverse order.

TACTICAL AND TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DShK (MOD. 1938)

Cartridge - 12.7?108 DShK.

The weight of the machine gun without belt is 33.4 kg.

The weight of the machine gun with the belt on the machine (without shield) is 148 kg.

The length of the machine gun “body” is 1626 mm.

Barrel length - 1070 mm.

Barrel weight - 11.2 kg.

Number of grooves - 8.

Type of rifling - right-handed, rectangular.

The length of the rifled part of the barrel is 890 mm.

The mass of the moving system is 3.9 kg.

The initial bullet speed is 850–870 m/s.

Muzzle energy of the bullet - 18,785 - 19,679 J.

Rate of fire - 550–600 rounds/min.

Combat rate of fire - 80 - 125 rounds/min.

The length of the aiming line is 1110 mm.

Sighting range - 3500 m.

Effective firing range - 1800–2000 m.

The height of the fire zone is 1800 m.

The thickness of the armor penetrated is 15–16 mm at a range of 500 m.

The power supply system is a metal belt for 50 rounds.

The weight of the box with tape and cartridges is 11.0 kg.

Machine type - universal wheeled tripod.

Pointing angles: horizontal - ±60 /360° degrees.

vertical - ±27/+85°, –10° deg.

Calculation: 3–4 people.

Transit time from stowed position in combat for anti-aircraft shooting - 0.5 min.