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| A Dragunov |
OK, you've been hunting all morning and you'll go out again in the evening, but what about the afternoon, after lunch? You shoot, a lot, at the compound's range.
I won't lie, the team had enough weaponry to equip a small insurrection; one of those guns was an old SovBloc Dragunov. I'd never fired one and was keen to get started.
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| PSO1 Reticle |
Developed as a designated marksman/sniper rifle, the semi-auto Dragunov fires a punchy 7.62x54 bullet from its 10 round magazine and boasts a fixed 4 power scope, complete with bullet drop compensator and a range finder going out to 1000 meters. You have to admit, those Sov snipers must've had pretty keen eyes to engage targets at that distance. With that in mind, I chose to pit my wits against some paper at 100.
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| Downrange |
And was happily surprised at the result, with a couple of dead-on bullseyes and a few flyers. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say I liked the obsolete redtech scope. Get the chevron on target and squeeze the, admittedly clunky, trigger. Bang, take that, enemy of the revolution!
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| Kids Love a Dragunov |
What's the verdict? I felt the Dragunov we tested was more of a battle rifle than anything else, lacking the kind of precision and optics that you'd expect from a sniper rifle. But hey, it has iron sights in case the old school scope breaks down and you can even fit a bayonet to the barrel. Useful, when your position's being overrun by fanatical Jihadis in Russel Square, or Syria.
More to the point, it's fun to shoot and works well enough if you do your part. So get one, if you're looking for a Sov 7.62 battle rifle with a rugged scope, just don't expect a lot more than that.
Gun rights,
LSP
