Russian SVT 40

[OlManDow]

Have owned and fired several, own one currently. If you haven't already purchased the rifle, examine the rear of the chamber carefully before purchasing. A large number of these were used with ammunition that suffered case separations about 1/2" up from the case head, so much so that the chamber is gas cut or ringed at this point. I suspect these were in the Finno-Russian conflict, when ammunition quality and SVT40 reliability weren't subjects for polite conversation. It the chamber is ringed, it may still shoot reliably with steel case ammo, but the softer brass case ammo is prone to binding at the gas cut, and causing failure to extract. Chambers are fluted to aid extraction, which is an admission that extraction was a design problem. My current one shoots dependably with standard ball, either steel case or brass, but I wouldn't use the yellow tip heavy ball. Accuracy is just short of appalling. None of the several I have shot yielded targets that made me smile. I recently covered the sniper version of this rifle in an article in Sportsman's Gazette - you might find it relevant.

OlManDow