Tokarev SVT-38

History of Tokarev SVT-38

Tokarev The SVT-38 was the beginning of the Tokarev line of self-loading automatic rifles. The SVT-38 was developed in the mid-1930s and entered service with the Soviet Armed Forces shortly after the start of World War II. After deployment, the SVT-38 proved to be both robust and fragile.

After a brief time in the field, the limitations of the SVT-38 became apparent, and the type was replaced by the similar but more powerful SVT-40.

The Soviet interest in self-loading rifles was sparked in 1935 when leader Joseph Stalin launched a competition to find the next standard Soviet infantry rifle. By that time, engineer Fedor Tokarev had given up trying to create a self-loading rifle based on recoil operation, focusing instead on creating a similar one that operated on the gas-guided principle. Competing firearms designer Sergei Simonov submitted his own design, which proved to be what Stalin wanted, and Simonov won the contract. Its self-loading rifle was designated the AVS-36 and entered service in 1936.

This was the first automatic rifle to be accepted in large numbers by the Red Army.

However, once in service, the AVS-36 was not what it seemed. Muzzle flash and recoil are two of its downsides. To revise the design, Simonov added a dual-baffle muzzle brake to control recoil, and the receiver was dug out to allow the open handle to move. Changes to the former are welcome, but the latter unnecessarily exposes the AVS-36's inner working parts to dirty and abusive combat, making it unsuitable for use as a service rifle.

As a result, the AVS-36 had a rather short lifespan in the Red Army stockpile, and replacements began shortly thereafter.

Fedor Tokarev resubmitted his simpler automatic rifle design to combat and was officially accepted by the Red Army as the SVT-38 (also known as "Tokarev 1938"). Released in 1938, the rifle was quickly delayed to replace the Simonov AVS-36 series.

What makes the SVT-38 unique in the history of Soviet weapons is its relatively complex design. Until now, Soviet guns were generally simple in design and easy to manufacture, and could be continued to be used by almost anyone with little training.

The SVT-38 is made from a two-piece wooden stock. The wood makes up the stock, receiver and foreguard. It was only later that the steel gauntlets replaced the former wooden gauntlets. All major inner working components are built into the metal part of the receiver. An elongated trigger ring hangs below the receiver, near an ergonomic handle that houses the curved trigger assembly.

The magazine feed is located before the trigger assembly and is fed by a curved 10-round detachable magazine. Feed is also accessible from the top of the receiver, allowing the use of a 5-round stripper clip that matches the Russian Mosin-Nagant rifle. The magazine release lever is placed directly behind the magazine feed. The receiver features a milled rail system to accommodate the optional range - a forward-thinking addition to the SVT-38 design. A pull handle is located on the right front side of the receiver, near the cartridge ejection opening.

The forearm is long, set far back from the gun body, and the wood is double wrapped with steel tape, then tapers to reveal the barrel. The front end features a section with circular cooling holes and rectangular cooling slots at the rear of the barrel.

The barrel had a front post and was fitted with a muzzle brake with multiple baffles (6 initially) to control recoil. After 1940, a muzzle brake with two flaps was installed. Interestingly, the gun's cleaning wand rests on a sculpted groove on the outer right side of the stock.

Traditionally, such attachments are mounted under the barrel to keep the gun clear of possible obstructions.

The SVT-38, like the AVS-36, can fire the powerful Russian 7.62x54R cartridge. At the center of the shooting movement is a pneumatic short-stroke piston with an inclined bolt. The internal gas system is adjustable. The muzzle velocity is rated at 2,756 feet per second, and the effective range is up to 550 yards.

The rifle has an unloaded weight of 3.95 kg, a length of 1,222 mm and a barrel length of 610 mm with 4 grooves and a right-hand twist.

The SVT-38 was first used in combat in 1939, when it was issued to Soviet troops during the Winter War against Finland (1939-1940). Initially, the weapon proved too heavy and long for Soviet soldiers, and its complex and sometimes fragile nature proved unsuitable for the abuse inherent in modern combat. The unfavorable effect was that the magazine fell completely from under the receiver during the operation, much to the shock of the Soviet soldiers in action. Reports of the rifle's rather flimsy construction and sequelae soon led to the cessation of further production in April 1940.

There are approximately 150,000 examples in circulation at this time, some using range adjustments. Regardless, the SVT-38 proved both a success and a failure. As a success, it was the first to solve some rather difficult problems associated with the design of self-loading rifles, especially in the context of Soviet weapons design, until this point in history.

As a defeat, the Soviets still didn't have the standard winning automatic rifle they had been looking for since the mid-1930s.

The upgraded Tokarev semi-automatic rifle soon replaced the failed SVT-38. The SVT-40 appeared in Tula in July 1940 as an improved and lighter automatic rifle design. The cleaning rod is moved to the bottom of the barrel, the stock is one piece.

The SVT-40 was intentionally designed as a stronger, easier-to-manufacture replacement for the original SVT-38, and as such was largely successful. The use of this weapon by the German army proved its success, and they managed to capture the specimen intact.

Hundreds of thousands of SVT-40s were quickly built, and at least 50,000 were specialized scope sniper variants.

The Germans were so impressed with Soviet self-loading technology that they researched and designed their own type of self-loading throughout the war. This became the Gew 41 in 1941 and its successor, the Gew 43 in 1943.

Specification

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Changes