Q&A 31: Russian and Soviet Arms w/ Max Popenker

hey guys thanks for tuning in to another video on Forgotten weapons calm today we have a Q&A session once again with our guest expert on Russian and Soviet small arms Maxim polenka whose name I am little slowly getting better hat so from all of the awesome patrons who support forgotten weapons I have a couple pages of questions here that we are going to go through so max why don't we jump right into these our first question is from Michael who says the colt model 1911 Russian contract he spells it out Incirlik which I can't be of the fifty one thousand one hundred enemies like us English order that one yes of the fifty one thousand one hundred Colt 1911 pistols sent to Imperial Russia during World War one are many seen around Russia there are very fairly rare in the United States where have they all gone I think most very most you know during grid whoa first world war than revolution when the Civil War they few survived mostly Museum some very some private collections they're seldom seen so like activated guns even where solders very expensive fighters that's too bad much better most unfortunately ok that that does happen during worse our next question is from John who actually has two questions so let's address these one at a time first I'd like to ask for clarification on the acceptance standard for the Dragunov in the SVD video max was referring to ten round groups at fired at a hundred meters not exceeding nine centimeters dispersion but the page you reproduced at the 17 minute mark in the video had 500 meters underlined in red just a clarification about what we were looking at and I'm not sure because once again I did read that the second page was showing the figure for 500 meters was wrong field manual it's actually the table that showed maximum number of shots experienced the shooter has to make to engage a specific target a specific range okay that's cool in English sort of manuals of you know if your targets this far you should be able to get them with X number of shots yeah basically it's in most Russian difficult manuals for a K for a machine guns for this VD it says that at specific range a specific target target should require no more than specific number of shots of course standard arranged eye condition not an Oreo combo but it's sort of qualification requirement okay cool and then John's second question was my main question is about the elevation knob on the pso-1 scope being a bullet drop compensator and snipers switching back and forth between LPS and seven and one which ammunition was it actually calibrated for you'll see the seven and one bullet bullet was designed to have a same rate as LPS so for all practical ranges they are not mentioned ballistically so you cannot really expect to hit anything with LPS both so it's only four seven and one or seven and fourteen and even then you have you need a lot of luck to hit anything at this range but for all practical purposes that LPS and 7 and 1 are ballistically much so it's almost a motivation almost Center everybody so Satan adjustments alright and his last question is about the meta scope in the first model pso-1 used to detect infrared light what was the reason to include this feature did it have something to do with the US Army fielding the m3 carbine and it's infrared sniper scope in the Korean world probably yes besides there was a lot of active infrared devices installed on tanks and armored vehicles and so the chance to disable any means infrared projector to limit enemy's ability to see in the dark also has a very practical purpose so they were told that its most limits to engage enemies active infrared seekers so disregard personal or vehicle-mounted or say cruel supported via poems so you just see a peak infrared scope infrared projector through a scope you just should add it because it's probably means some sort of danger okay that makes sense next question is from Commander 31 says is it true that the quality of is mass-produced 8a rifles deteriorated significantly during an after perestroika well early 90s were very hard times across Russia most of in destruction industry much in Russian society headed well full on bad times and yes there were a lot of complaints about quality of many products not only is much decades and so general opinion of soldiers that during Chechen Wars that often prefer to get old Soviet era rifles instead of new product produced right but the situation has changed perestroika has ended toward that early 200 situation improved greatly well steel can be some complaints about civilian guns especially in regards of external looks but mostly in regard of materials workmanship situation certainly improved from the 90s ok cool let's see next up is from Brandon it says when the Soviets per were the Soviets directly influenced by the 5.56 from seeing its use by the United States and Vietnam or were they on their way to developing a small-bore cartridge independently well basically in the early attempts there meat as before the world world before great patriotic war in 1941 there was experimental cartridge 5.6 millimeter caliber but it was a high-velocity spike f-22 NATO or something very fast but powerful but practical work on the assault rifle will reduce caliber assault rifle cartridge begin in 1959 so in 1960 when publish reports were the Americans began to publish reports on a new promising infantry cartridge of promising team so it was actually before Vietnam War okay well as Soviet armies of it experts or see actual trophies lecture m16 rifle from Vietnam they already had their own archetypes to check a god to check against to see how their form have a perform one to reach out okay but it sounds like it was a reaction to it was a reaction to American drones just before World War okay let's see Bjorn says why aren't there any English language reference like detailed serious books on Russian small arms specifically the Mo's in the SKS the SVT 38 and 40 is translation to hard not enough bilingual experts in the area of field or is it just too hard for foreigners to access historical documentation in Russia you see before the last year before word couple years ago there now no Russian accounts details Russian accounts on either Tokarev or most so only during recent years we seen a very good published books on Tokarev from which amok and a couple of very good books on remotion also from chew mark on early development and adoption of motion and from an hour after yet unfortunately cannot remember but it's my book bookcase on the model 1980 1/30 but there are still a huge gap in between and still out of the open so someone has to reach out to the publisher always books are from the same publisher from Atlantis in st. Petersburg to check if someone is willing to translate those books into English well will be invaluable to english-speaking collectors but it's a huge paper because of books are big and very information hey yeah I have some really willing to try do translation you can cut and contact me I will get you in touch with published under there okay is there much interest in Russian for books like this like I think yes because the first edition of the top current books was sought rather quick and the second edition which has improved and expanded is already sales pretty good so yes because you know both doctor if a motion can be put purchase it as a converted leg ow let your civil rights right so there's a lot of practical just you can you can even collect you can get a collector license and you can try to collect different Mosin rifles different aquifers or at less you can buy one it's not expensive go and shoot it and read about it history development okay well hopefully we will be able to get some of those translated into English I have the both of those books myself but I can't read them so Anthony says are there any official Russian texts or trials on the Czech VZ 58 or any reports on why Czechoslovakia developed that instead of the egg that certainly should be very important essay 15 because all words of popped the pons were tested by a Soviet military and I know that some reports on essay 223 submachine gun of Sharapova perigee republished Russian gun pressed years before but sa-58 is still may be classified maybe just known got down to the digital and publish it but as certainly should be reports official reports on it do you know what the Russian military the Soviet military thought on that rifle was did they like it did they not like it yeah well I don't know I know people who use it it's mostly like light cool comfortable so I never heard a lot of complaints but a general opinion was if you really have to go in with most parts of the world you need maximum reliability you better to go with gosh it could be as much technical truth as a national practice okay James says when watching the countless documentaries on the Eastern Front during the Second World War you often see dozens of Soviet soldiers riding on tanks and column and all the infantry have submachine guns so my question is where the submachine guns that commonly issued by the second half of the conflict or was this more propaganda to give a different vision of what people were armed with you see Soviet industry produces more than six millions of spigen the pressure 41 alone lose almost 1 million of sudah of pps43 so yes we're very widely used as part of it was special small infantry units assault units armed entirely with fighting submachine and riding tons so the task was to protect tanks from my infantry from the grenade launcher from a sponsor falls on a consulate and to the keeper top with assaulting tanks and this person engaged German in the close combat actually I guess it was really widely used okay six million that's as many as we made m1 garand rifles so yes yes actually I believe in one gardens will meet about four millions that was six million and one carbines no see Santa Rosa says is there a good source in either language for a detailed development history deployment history and variations on the Russian SKS unfortunately no not yet are you going to write it I'm going to sit in like more broad-spectrum books because that's way you need blue monography on with specific gun you need a lot of time actually digging involves our first to go to lot please ask Podolsk probably its tasks for a retired first and still here about 25 years before my retirement make sense so hopefully the guys doing some of the other books will take on the SKS as a project yeah let's see David David says the Americas have a history of having unrealistic trial requirements like the SBI W a CRO icw etc from an external perspective the Soviets always seem to be much more practical is this actually the case or is this just something that we're seeing well yes in some part it was yes more practical but what a lot of cases of failed cases but just not published because in Soviet Union everything was classified so even successful developments where I keep toddler secrets and get very little info about developments about successes and failures so you it's just not very good just no not advertisement okay they are going to keep to have a lot a new trial for a new super Cooper assault rifle we should be superior everybody else so just watch like mine my parades red square and one years in hope our guys are having some new rifle or some new tongue some new ballistic missile but you have very little yet very little before sometimes knowing for at all I don't know that makes sense the combination is sometimes more realistic trials and then the ones that weren't you never hear about Lou Bush says every country in the Eastern Bloc was building or buying Soviet small arms except Czechoslovakia which almost always went the other way I guess this is actually kind of similar to the question we already touched it is there I'm gonna twist his question a little bit do you know why it was that checklist Livadia sort of alone didn't use the a K and the other standard Soviet weapons it was probably for them but it was a matter of national pride okay so I know that other countries try to develop their own guns like a Poland for example polish produced their own pistols so I think so so Soviets okay if you can make reopen almost as good or as good as ours and firing saying a militia okay go ahead but if you don't have resources okay you can have a license tough i Gayle mcaro from Seoul okay and also makes sense corrosive OTT says what are your thoughts on the ak-12 and the aka 15th well I'm going to buy a civilian version of the gay 12 in 5 44 45 personas keep the shelves gas free I can say I like it I like them both ok any particular reason why those are the the balance recoil guns right no no no as soon as it's a great updated classic Kalashnikovs but I really like the dr. site I like where adjustable telescoping shoulder stock because I have a long arms and I like the feel of the gun so it's free thwarted borrow and actually I found that they're shooting it better with iron sights with dr. Seitz when I read those sight so I certainly need to write over it Ironside shoot what is the difference between the 12 and the 1512 is 5.45 and 15 is 7.62 if there is mostly for special forces or troops who operating the counter which still uses 7.62 okay that one 1911 guy wants to know what was the purpose of the Groza and other nine by thirty nine millimeter rifles like the VSS and the sr3 but they all him with all specific purposes the dss the original nine-millimeter sniper rifle was designed as a Special Forces suppressor tripping sources sort of super sub machine gun firing suppressed ammunition it is much more powerful any nine-millimeter of fortified calendar submachine gun almost as quiet shoots funnel so it was most specific spits nos women a suffering a compact version was originally specific CQB we it's a full VIP protection concealed-carry because it's really short and for operation confined spaces room-clearing can solve because nine-millimeter bullet is much more powerful than a pistol bullet and you can use armor armor piercing bullets if your opponents are very body armor of you shooting the guys sitting in the car and graça was sort of attempt to make a one Gunther could make it on because it was a boopa but it was made in very limited numbers in not was not really successful because it was a conversion of a case style the opponent a bullpup layout and such conversions are always a lot of issues ergonomics balance and so on okay Grayson says what information do you have and this is something I get asked a lot on the levered delayed TKB 5:17 in competition with the AKM from what information is on the internet it's supposed to have been superior to the AKM but was rejected because of familiarity with the a.k system by that point interesting interested to know how accurate this is especially since it's such an unusual action they like him in some of my books actual numbers which says that core above rifle had the less dispersion in full automatic man began but the problem is any delayed ball buck gun is less reliable when a gas-operated ribbon so you have a lot of fall because of early opening I've had a lot of falling inside the receiver besides us it's very sensitive to the material and car coating coverage case so you use brushes like in old skating in cases of French writer so I made tuned a famas to the steel case ammunition and they had a lot of issues with embrace the brass taste cartridges so saying was looted cargo so if you have for example use foreign ammunition which has a brass case you know finish on Chinese and so on you bound to hip issues with a gas operated gun it done doesn't guarantee steel Brussels anything else so basically it was reliability especially under harsh conditions okay chaddy says was there a Russian equivalent in use or in development to the North Korean helicoil magazines for a case that drum like the Besson bison as far as I know no their development for pistol caliber ammunition but for rifle caliber ammunition it's just too heavy and too unreliable so as far as I know high-capacity magazines the people working on for at pants or own drugs but not a mechanical make it too expensive too complicated too unreliable and we should be clear that no one as far as I know no one's really sure that those North Korean magazines are actually real and functional and not just famous all right Noah says where did the majority of the Popish ah 41 submachine guns end up after the USSR adopted the the sued AF Wikipedia gives a very rudimentary explanation I'm interested to hear from someone with some insider knowledge you see a PPS 43 was never intended to ripple the base with Bashar and was intended to serve side by side so the Pasha was a standard infantry gun wooden stock high-capacity Drummond stick magazine so it was like a standard issue the PPS was intended for vehicle crews for recon units for p4 airborne units for people who need more prompt nominal different so a solid side by side so absolute most of the papers are kept from til the end of a war for quite a lot of years afterwards a lot of they're given after Warsaw Pact countries to the China a lot were sent to the Africa to other countries they've got support from Soviet Union a lot worse carpet or just put into the storage it would seem to me that the city had is kind of a better gun in every way than the Fagin nicely what's the problem was that there wasn't even people there in comment or disapprove made a decision didn't want an interruption in production because war needed all the guns you can make so it was better to have a lot of maybe not such good guns but shipped to the front every day but to have just a gap before you can switch production from one gun to the better gun alright we had a little bit of a hiccup there in the connection but I think we had your whole answer max so we will move on to our next question which is from the full nine says why has Russia avoided aperture sights for so long on most military weapons is it mostly due to those darn wobbly dust covers on a case now I don't know why they are working so probably it was just easier to clicking the open sign on a person's ready doctor site the doctor site began to appear only in 80's during the epoch on trials they really decided we need more accuracy I don't know that the question is entirely fair because it's not like Russia is the only country that has stuck with open sights instead of apertures they they're around on a lot of other modern rifles or cold war-era rifles at least will says what was the Soviet procurement of smaller was the Soviet procurement of small arms as hampered by politics and bureaucracy as that of the United States for example the disaster of us development and adoption of the m14 did you have issues like that as well well you see a lot of history still during some papers and soul but airborne like bureaucratic struggles between various powers military-industrial complex struggles between the factories to get orders just over delays for example when we were talking about PKM Kasich at Michigan development that was one of the reasons we became was developed because to law was dragging its feet on development of nichkhun of nicotine machine gun so it just a little bit lazy just taking my time to refine it to polish the things military wanted to speed up the process so most of this the repeal you see the small answer like a small problem there was a lot of bureaucratic and power struggle issues a lot larger systems like a dungeon zone but not our topics they discuss okay Joel says rumors in the West often suggest that very early versions of the SKS went through some field trials with Soviet troops towards the end of World War two and I've heard this as well people suggesting that there were SKS's in the Battle of Berlin is there any truth or evidence to support this you see there was chaos before escapes so action the semen of designer a first for that iPod later more routine tests yes in 1941 it was a car backfiring standard 7.62 X 54 AR in with ammunition it was technically in even external a very similar to the older s K as we know it was actually produced in small number for true trials and belief about 1944 but SPS carbines fired intermediate ammunition model of 1943 they are field tested shortly afterward ich Turing in the summer of 1945 okay that would explain a different there's always there's usually like a little little kernel of truth at the heart of some of those rumors and that would explain it keegan says what was the extent of the russian naval infantry use of the svt40 in world war ii were they more effective fighting troops or worse why did they have more more or less Tokarev rifles compared to the rest of russian forces you see not not near naval infantry was not like a marine corpse United States naval infantry was sailors from where sheets a cannot fight which was sent to fight on the ground so sailors were usually more technically stated to be trained on missionary so they recruited from the better trial people's with you so they had more in training to properly maintain top ref rifles okay keep better care of variety and we were known for it you know fierce fighting like Germans nicknames I will black devils because we've all read black uniforms and yes well we used to pay for rifles a lot that make sense Farris says ultimately what led the Soviet Union to adopt nine by 18 Makarov other than adopting oh ultimately what basically why did the Soviet Union adopt nine by eighteen Makarovs in as a replacement for the 762 Tokarev cartridge see you a 7.62 parrot was deemed to be too powerful for a pistol because of experience of the war of a Great Patriotic War show that these thoughts were often more dangerous to be owners enemy because a lot of negligent discharges and so on just suicides are just bigger gentle and intended discharges so you wanted pistol very safe in handling and to be a shortage because you cannot expect officer to hit anything for about say five or six steps so you don't need that kind of power if you need only pistol round if I need rounded unit for pistol and submachine gun veneers 7.62 and 9-millimeter Luger is good but if you need it only for East Oakland was De Palma so something like n99 my office was considerably sufficient okay makes sense the British did the same thing when they went from 45 to 38 caliber revolvers just nobody could hit anything with the bigger gun anyway so yeah alright we are on to our third and final page here we have heard 0 past do you think nine by thirty-nine will continue to see service as it is and the family of guns that shoot it are there are they going to be replaced by nine-millimeter submachine guns and regular aks well I think it's it low keep will be kept news there's no way and nine-millimeter pistol munition can replace when nine X 49 a machine as a super supersonic suppressed gun cartridge so actually TSM is more like a Polish Special Forces people it's all like always Patrol people 9 X 9 millimeter subsonic is much more powerful and some new guns being developed or improved for this cartridge Special Forces use so I'm not seeing it going away anytime soon it seems kind of like a similar cartridge to the 300 blackout yes yes in some senses Aki says I think by now everyone knows what Finland did with Russian or and Soviet weapons captured or otherwise we know that the Soviets copied what he says is the perfect submachine gun drum magazine is there anything else in the Finnish equipment inventory that the Soviet Union took her adopted well I think the Soviets copy it but huge feeling Cup for Maxim machine guns from Athena sh the one in which you can feel the jacket with the hands full of snow that's true there was a finished thing at Richmond I wasn't it okay anything else can't remember anything else okay in the u.s. there is a perception although usually uninformed of the a.k being grossly inaccurate or the sks being a cheap throwaway weapon are there any preconceived notions like this regarding Western weapons in the Soviet or in the Russian issues of course of course we're so mostly people fingers okay m16 ar-15 are much more accurate than okay but much less reliable so it's basically inverted secretion how babies say but if you actually get standard ar-15 and standards see the Saiga in same caliber like two to three Remington and shoot the same ammunition you get rather close results so it's yeah if you of course if you should certify Kabul some combat or like I don't know so GP air GP are like expensive ar-15 much rifles of course you get much better reliability but if you shoot something which is close to the military is she gone they get same about two to four minutes of angle accuracy with good immunity problem is that solid in Russian ammunition which abomination is not so good always increases dispersion beyond the abilities of gun right yeah we have we have that same ammunition here and a lot of people really like it because it's cheaper than the alternatives yes Samuel says if the SVD was a designated marksman rifle what was the standard sniper rifle in the the Soviet inventory if there was one the mostly normal okay sniper rifles great bolt-action sniper rifles high precision rifles where our development after or for Soviet Union like SV 97-98 or MSA 116 its products of like late 90s and early 2000s when it was need for precision rifles for most law enforcement contact error isn't work polished special operations chance now people getting like american-style sniper teams american-style producing local locally producing american-style precision bolt-action rifles but it's still in development Muslim okay how long did the like the PU Mosin Nagant stay in service sorry the most in the gun sniper oh it was officially retired from service with the transition introduction of SVD but I have seen photos and I know that people use it it's during Chechen Wars for lack of facilities mostly special police units okay we have two questions left the next one is from Andrew who says what is the status of the 12.7 by 55 millimeter subsonic round is it actually in service in any significant manner in Russia and is it accurate enough to function in a sniping role as defined in the West used only special mostly special law enforcement teams of special policy teams only used against terrorists organized crime so it's really used I don't have a specific numbers for accuracy but I believe that our 2 3 or 400 meters you can shoot a hit a bad guy and make sure that he won't may not be being a bet anymore because with 50 caliber bullets that's a lot of punch even at subsonic there was intense okay was it I have to apologize I know absolutely nothing about that cartridge was it designed specifically as a just a heavy subsonic round yes it's based on the free create a poor piece cut down to slightly more than 2 inches and loaded with standard 50 caliber ball or a specific subsonic armor-piercing coal Bowl or italo solids tournament solid brass SWAT of maximum precision and shot through a special designs bullpup bolt-action rifle okay so not semi-auto just a bolt-action no okay alright in our very last question is from Adam says why has Russia never moved away from the 7.62 by 54r IND it would seem the number of generations of magazine and belt-fed weapons that have worked around the rim would eventually prompt a change to a you know a modern rimless cartridge because it never had a chance to complete the switch the attempts were made during 1930s a lot of work was done it's made but wellness preparation for water than a great patriotic war included any work of adoption a new cartridge then in 60s it was attempt to produce a universal cartridge rimless cartridge which would replace both assault rifle cartridge and machine gun cottage not surprisingly failed had been during the 70's 80's inverse attempts to produce and mortar shooting cotton trees fully set for find ammunition and then with six millimeter Rimmel Scottish very fast at very fast bullet but when the Soviet Union fell development co-op student but he is primary user of the rimless cartridge his machine gun and in fact when it became they have a excellent machine gun which cannot be made any better with the traditional formulas cottage in fact it began became heavier right have a new set of problems yes people have issues designing magazine holding 10 cottages for that price but I know that right now people are working commercial 20 round cutter for the SVD or for the tiger rifle and a lot of people are waiting for it to be completed to bind just to here and probably some people from the forces law enforcement we lost by it just to try because sometimes it's better to have 20 car to just SVD turn to 10 okay it really is interesting to look at text of the main gun being the PK which works great with rimmed cartridges so yeah if it's just the PK and the Dragunov really that are using it UK it's easier to put in the work to make a larger magazine for the Dragunov which certainly can be done you know the British made 30 round Bren gun magazines for 300 three rimmed easier to do that then try and develop a whole new rifle and machine gun for a new cartridge oh cool anything else you want to add in that that we skipped over I think he'll know maybe they have a you know a question session sometimes later because could be a lot of more questions but right now okay I think we've got a lot of great information there for people thank you very much for coming on and doing this video for me alright guys well thanks again to all of our patrons who submitted a couple dozen questions here for us and stick around I'm sure we'll have some more videos with max coming up later thanks for watching

Channel: Forgotten Weapons

Views: 92,628

Keywords: history, development, mccollum, forgotten weapons, design, disassembly, kasarda, inrange, inrangetv, q&a, question, answer, max popenker, popenker, groze, vss, vintorez, sr-3, tkb, bullpup, russia. russian, sks, ak, russia, russian, soviet, soviet union, ww2, world war, colt 1911, svd, pso-1, book, izhmash, vz58, naval infantry, smg, submachine gun, shpagin, ppsh41, pps43, sudayev, north korean, makarov, tokarev, 9x18, 7.62x25, 12.7x55, subsonic

Id: JlY7P5QW-mo

Length: 42min 54sec (2574 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 25 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/PsychologicalRoof8]

DAE hate Max Popenker episodes for heavy compression(not his English, which is fine and clear)? My ears hurt...