A crash program to produce the PPD 34/38 after the initial battles of the Winter War, even as the improved PPD 40 was being rapidly developed. These are very rare gun today, and we have the chance to take the example out to the range and see how it handles…
Vintage photo
Vintage Saturday: Faye Schulman
Faye Schulman was born in the small Polish town of Lenin in 1919 to a large Jewish family. After the German attack on Russia, the town was occupied, and in August 1942 the town’s roughly […]
Revolver
The S&W No.3 Russian Model Made at Tula in Russia
This is lot #3124 in the upcoming RIA Premier Auction. It was scheduled for April, but has been postponed – check their web site for upcoming Online Only auctions every month, though! The Russian government […]
Heavy MGs
Russia’s Big Fifty on the Range: DShK-38
Yesterday we looked at the history and the mechanics of the Soviet heavy machine guns from World War Two, the DShK-38. Today, we are taking it out to the range!
How to get hold of them? Good question. PPSh-41 is not much different; holding it in front of trigger guard is not a good proposition either – it does not provide enough leverage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_06eehCXhYw
Perhaps that is why you see them being held by magazine. But then you run a chance of malfunction. Same applied for assault rifles.
“(…)why you see them being held by magazine(…)”
Regarding PPD (with original box magazine) this is what user manual http://militarylib.com/ww2/ww2-weapon-book/13458-nastavlenie-po-strelkovomu-delu-ppd-pistolet-pulemet-degtyareva-obr-1934-g.html does want, see drawing 55
thank you. so, according to the original user manual, they simply held the gun by box magazine, or two finger in the front grip and 3 fingers on the box magazine. curious.
I bet it handled a lot better with the original 25 round box magazine. Any pictures of that magazine?
Odds are the Red Army would have been much better off just producing the original form of the SMG with the box magazine, and emphasizing semi-auto fire vs full-auto. Stalin’s interference and insistence favoring drums looks very counterproductive in hindsight.
“(…)pictures of that magazine?”
See left half or 2nd image photos from bottom https://www.kalashnikov.ru/rozhdenie-ppd/
haha, according to your page there was a pneumatic tool to slow the rate of fire! it was in the place for the main spring. never heard about that. thanks
Remove stock. Cut two inches off fore-end. Refit stock. Look officer in the eye and say “Struck by bullet. Field-expedient repair, Comrade Commissar”. Operate holding barrel-shroud.
“(…) Operate holding barrel-shroud.”
If you want to do this consider using KF-42 see 1st image from bottom
https://www.jaegerplatoon.net/MACHINEPISTOLS1.htm
During Continuation War a small number Suomi submachine gun M/31 copies in 7.62 mm x 25 calibre were manufactured in Leningrad. The Soviets called this unlicensed copy KF-42 (Karelo-Finskij 42).
It did incorporated elements from SUOMI and PPD (among others shroud of latter)
How to clean a weapon which cannot be disassembled?
Solvent tank.
…makes sense. When a tank went over a weapon (and its sleeping owner) during my service in a Warsaw Pact army, there was indeed no need to clean the affected AKM-47. Issue ‘solved’.
At least one pre-Warsaw Pact Soviet manual I’ve looked at has this to say about “cleaning” the PPSh41–Shpagin: Remove magazine. Pull bolt back until the sear engages and the bolt is locked to the rear. Pour a little kerosene into the ejection port. Use a rag or a hank of tow or hemp to wipe off the bolt face, chamber area. Pull the trigger. Work the bolt handle back and forth a few times. Done.