DShK machine gun: performance characteristics and modifications. Heavy machine guns dshk and dshkm The procedure for incomplete disassembly of the dshkm

21.09.2019

DShK is a heavy machine gun based on the DK machine gun and using a 12.7×108 mm cartridge. DShK machine gun- one of the most common large-caliber machine guns. He played a significant role in the Great Patriotic War, as well as in subsequent military conflicts.

It was a formidable means of fighting the enemy on land, at sea and in the air. The DShK had a peculiar nickname "Dushka". At present, in the armed forces of Russia, the DShK and DShKM are completely replaced by the Utes and Kord machine guns as more modern and advanced.

Story

In 1929, the experienced and well-known gunsmith Degtyarev was instructed to develop the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to combat aircraft at altitudes up to 1.5 km. About a year later, the gunsmith presented his 12.7 mm machine gun for testing. Since 1932, this machine gun under the designation DK was launched into small-scale production.

However, the DK machine gun had certain disadvantages:

low practical rate of fire;
big weight shops;
bulkiness and heavy weight.

Therefore, in 1935, the production of the DK machine gun was discontinued, and the developers began to improve it. By 1938, the designer Shpagin had designed a DC tape power module. As a result, the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army on February 26, 1939 under the designation DShK - the Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun.

Mass production of the DShK began in 1940-1941. DShK machine guns used:

as an infantry support weapon;
as anti-aircraft guns;
installed on armored vehicles (T-40);
installed on small ships, including torpedo boats.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Kovrov Mechanical Plant produced approximately 2,000 DShKs. By 1944, more than 8400 machine guns had already been produced. And by the end of the war - 9 thousand DShK, the production of machine guns of this system continued in postwar period.

According to the experience of the war, the DShK was modernized, and in 1946 a machine gun called DShKM entered service. DShKM was installed as an anti-aircraft machine gun on T-62, T-54, T-55 tanks. The tank version of the machine gun was called DShKMT.

Design features

Heavy machine gun DShK (caliber 12.7 mm) - automatic weapon using the principle of removal of powder gases. DShK fire mode - only automatic, non-removable barrel is equipped with a muzzle brake and has special ribs for better cooling. The barrel is locked by two combat larvae, which are pivotally mounted on the bolt.

Power is supplied from a metal non-loose tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the DShK. The tape feeder is made in the form of a drum. During rotation, the drum simultaneously fed the tape, and also removed the cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the chamber of the drum with the cartridge came to the lower position, the bolt fed the cartridge into the chamber.

The feed of the tape was carried out using a lever located on the right side and swinging in a vertical plane during the action of the loading handle, rigidly connected to the bolt frame.

The drum mechanism at the DShKM was replaced by a compact slider, which worked on a similar principle. The cartridge was removed from the tape down, after which it was fed directly into the chamber. Spring buffers are installed in the butt plate of the receiver bolt carrier and shutter. The fire is conducted from the rear sear. To control the fire, two handles on the butt plate are used, as well as twin triggers. For aiming, a frame sight was installed, and special mounts were installed for the anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was mounted on a universal machine of the Kolesnikov system, which was equipped with a steel shield and removable wheels. When using a machine gun as anti-aircraft gun the rear support was bred into a tripod, and the wheels and shield were removed. The main disadvantage of this machine was the weight, which limited the mobility of the machine gun. The machine gun was installed:

on ship pedestal installations;
in tower installations;
on remote controlled anti-aircraft installations.

Specifications DShK model 1938

Cartridge - 12.7 × 108.
The total weight of the machine gun (on the machine, with a belt and without a shield) is 181.3 kg.
The weight of the “body” of the DShK without tape is 33.4 kg.
Barrel weight - 11.2 kg.
The length of the "body" DShK - 1626 mm.
Barrel length - 1070 mm.
Rifling - 8 right-handed.
The length of the rifled part of the barrel is 890 mm.
The initial speed of the bullet is 850-870 m / s.
muzzle energy bullets - an average of 19,000 J.
The rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute.
Combat rate of fire - 125 rounds per minute.
Sighting line length - 1110 mm.
Sighting range for ground targets - 3500 m.
Sighting range for air targets - 2400 m.
Reach in height - 2500 m.
Type of machine - wheel-tripod.
The height of the line of fire in the ground position is 503 mm.
The height of the line of fire in anti-aircraft position is 1400 mm.
For anti-aircraft fire transition time to combat position from marching - 30 sec.
Calculation - 3-4 people.

Modifications

DShKT- tank machine gun, was first installed on IS-2 tanks as an anti-aircraft gun
DShKM-2B- twin installation for armored boats, where two machine guns were installed in a closed tower, with bulletproof armor
MTU-2- a twin turret weighing 160 kg, designed for installation on ships
DShKM-4- experimental quad installation
P-2K- mine installation designed for submarines(during the campaign I cleaned inside the boat)

Video about the DShK machine gun

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12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin DShK heavy machine gun


	Tactico specifications DShK Caliber................................................. .......................12.7 mm Cartridge................................................. ...................12.7x107 Machine gun body weight................................................. ..33.4 kg Machine gun body length.................................................1626 mm barrel length................................................. ............1070 mm muzzle velocity......................................850-870 m/s rate of fire...............................................80-125 rds/min rate of fire................................................550-600 rds/min Sighting range.................................................3500 m Tape capacity................................................. ....50 rounds

On February 26, 1939, by a decree of the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, a 12.7-mm easel machine gun of the 1938 model DShK (“Degtyareva-Shpagin large-caliber”) of the system of V. A. Degtyarev with a drum receiver of the belt of the G. S. system was adopted. Shpagin. The machine gun was adopted on the universal machine of the I.N. Kolesnikov with a detachable wheel drive and a folding tripod. During the years of the Great Patriotic War The DShK machine gun was used to combat air targets, lightly armored vehicles of the enemy, his manpower at long and medium ranges, as armament of tanks and self-propelled guns. At the end of World War II, designers K. I. Sokolov and A. K. Norov carried out a significant modernization of the heavy machine gun. First of all, the power mechanism was changed - the drum receiver was replaced by a slider one. In addition, manufacturability has been improved, the mount of the machine gun barrel has been changed, and a number of measures have been taken to increase survivability. The reliability of the system has been improved. The first 250 modernized machine guns were produced in February 1945 at a factory in Saratov. In 1946, the machine gun was put into service under the designation “12.7 mm machine gun mod. 1938/46, DShKM. The DShKM immediately became a tank anti-aircraft machine gun: it was installed on tanks of the IS, T-54 / 55, T-62 series, on the BTR-50PA, modernized ISU-122 and ISU-152, special vehicles on a tank chassis.
Since the differences between the 12.7 mm machine gun mod. 1938, DShK and modernized machine gun mod. 1938/46 DShKM consists mainly in the device of the feed mechanism, we will consider these machine guns together.
Automatic machine gun and operates due to the removal of powder gases through a transverse hole in the wall of the barrel, with a long stroke of the gas piston. Gas chamber closed type fixed under the barrel and equipped with a three-hole nozzle regulator. Along the entire length of the barrel, transverse ribbing is made for better cooling; a single-chamber active muzzle brake is mounted on the muzzle of the barrel. The barrel bore is locked when the bolt lugs are pulled apart. The DShK barrel was equipped with an active type muzzle brake, which was later replaced by a flat brake of an active type as well (such a muzzle brake was also used on the DShK, and became the main one for tank modifications).
The leading link of automation is the bolt carrier. A gas piston rod is screwed into the bolt frame in front, and a drummer is attached to the rack in its rear part. When the bolt approaches the breech breech, the bolt stops and the bolt carrier continues to move forward; The reduction of the lugs and the unlocking of the shutter is carried out by the bevels of the figured seat of the bolt carrier when it moves backward. extraction spent cartridge case provides a bolt ejector, the cartridge case is removed from the weapon down through the bolt frame window, using a spring-loaded rod reflector mounted at the top of the bolt. The reciprocating mainspring is put on the gas piston rod and closed with a tubular casing. In the butt plate there are two spring shock absorbers that soften the impact of the bolt carrier and the bolt at the rearmost point. In addition, shock absorbers give the frame and bolt initial speed return movement, thereby increasing the rate of fire. The reloading handle, located at the bottom right, is rigidly connected to the bolt frame and is small in size. The reloading mechanism of the machine gun mount interacts with the reloading handle, but the machine gunner can directly use the handle, for example, by inserting a cartridge into it with the bottom of the cartridge case.
The shot is fired with the shutter open. The trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire. It is actuated by a trigger lever pivotally mounted on the butt plate of the machine gun. The trigger mechanism is assembled in a separate housing and is equipped with a lever non-automatic fuse that blocks the trigger lever (the front position of the flag) and prevents spontaneous lowering of the sear.
The impact mechanism is powered by a reciprocating mainspring. After locking the bore, the bolt frame continues to move forward, in the extreme forward position it hits the clutch, and the drummer hits the striker mounted in the bolt. The sequence of operations for spreading the lugs and hitting the striker eliminates the possibility of firing if the barrel bore is not completely locked. To prevent the bolt frame from rebounding after being hit in the extreme forward position, a “delay” is mounted in it, including two springs, a yoke and a roller.

DShKM machine gun in incomplete disassembly: 1 - barrel with gas chamber, front sight and muzzle brake; 2 - bolt carrier with a gas piston; 3 - shutter; 4 - lugs; 5 - drummer; 6 - wedge; 7 - butt pad with buffer; 8 - trigger housing; 9 - cover and base of the receiver and feed drive lever; 10 - receiver.

Cartridge supply - tape, with the left supply of a metal link tape. The tape consists of open links and fits into a metal box attached to the installation bracket. The visor of the box serves as a feed tray for the tape. The drum receiver DShK was actuated from the handle of the bolt carrier moving backward, it bumped into the fork of the swinging feeder lever and turned it. The pawl at the other end of the lever turned the drum 60°, which pulled the tape. Extraction of the cartridge from the link of the tape - in the lateral direction. In the DShKM machine gun, the slide type receiver is mounted on top of the receiver. The slider with feed fingers is driven by a toggle lever rotating in a horizontal plane. The crank arm, in turn, is driven by a swing arm with a fork at the end. The latter, as in the DShK, is driven by the bolt carrier handle.
By flipping the slider crank, you can change the ribbon feed direction from left to right.
The 12.7-mm cartridge has several options: with an armor-piercing bullet, armor-piercing incendiary, sighting-incendiary, sighting, tracer, armor-piercing incendiary tracer (used against air targets). The sleeve does not have a protruding rim, which made it possible to apply a direct feed of the cartridge from the tape.
For shooting at ground targets, a folding frame sight is used, mounted on a base on top of the receiver. The sight has worm gears for installing the rear sight and introducing lateral corrections, the frame is equipped with 35 divisions (up to 3500 m in 100) and is tilted to the left to compensate for bullet derivation. The pin front sight with a fuse is placed on a high base in the muzzle of the barrel. When firing at ground targets, the dispersion diameter at a distance of 100 m was 200 mm. The DShKM machine gun is equipped with a collimator anti-aircraft sight, which facilitates aiming at a high-speed target and allows you to see the aiming mark and the target with equal clarity. DShKM, which was mounted on tanks as an anti-aircraft gun, was supplied with collimator sight K-10T. Optical system the sight formed at the exit the image of the target and the aiming grid projected onto it with rings for firing with lead and divisions of the goniometer.

The task to create the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to fight aircraft at altitudes up to 1500 meters, was issued by that time to the already very experienced and well-known gunsmith Degtyarev in 1929. Less than a year later, Degtyarev presented his 12.7 mm machine gun for testing, and since 1932, small-scale production of a machine gun under the designation DK (Degtyarev, Large-caliber) began. In general, the DK repeated the design of the DP-27 light machine gun, and was powered by detachable magazines for 30 rounds. The disadvantages of such a power supply scheme (bulky and heavy stores, low practical rate of fire) forced them to stop producing the DC in 1935 and start improving it. By 1938, another designer, Shpagin, developed a belt feed module for the recreation center, and in 1939 the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation “12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun mod. 1938 - DShK. The mass production of DShK was started in 1940-41, and during the years of World War II, about 8 thousand DShK machine guns were produced. They were used as anti-aircraft weapons, as infantry support weapons, mounted on armored vehicles and small ships (including torpedo boats). According to the experience of the war in 1946, the machine gun was modernized (the design of the belt feed unit and the barrel mount were changed), and the machine gun was adopted under the designation DShKM.

DShKM was or is in service with more than 40 armies of the world, it is produced in China ("type 54"), Pakistan, Iran and some other countries. The DShKM machine gun was used as an anti-aircraft gun on Soviet tanks of the post-war period (T-55, T-62) and on armored vehicles (BTR-155).

Technically, the DShK is an automatic weapon built on the gas principle. The locking of the barrel is carried out by two combat larvae, hinged on the bolt, for recesses in the side walls of the receiver. The fire mode is only automatic, the barrel is non-removable, ribbed for better cooling, and equipped with a muzzle brake. Power is supplied from a non-loose metal tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the machine gun. At DShK, the tape feeder was made in the form of a drum with six open chambers. The drum, during its rotation, fed the tape and at the same time removed cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the drum chamber with the cartridge arrived in the lower position, the cartridge was fed into the chamber by a bolt. The tape feeder was driven by a lever located on the right side, which swung in a vertical plane when on its lower part the loading handle, rigidly connected to the bolt carrier, acted. At the DShKM machine gun, the drum mechanism has been replaced with a more compact slider mechanism, also driven by a similar lever connected to the loading handle. The cartridge was removed from the tape down and then directly fed into the chamber.

In the butt plate of the receiver, spring buffers of the bolt and bolt carrier are mounted. The fire was fired from the rear sear (from an open bolt), two handles on the butt plate and a push-type spook were used to control the fire. The sight is frame, the machine also had mounts for an anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was used from the universal machine of the Kolesnikov system. The machine was equipped with removable wheels and a steel shield, and when using a machine gun as an anti-aircraft wheel, they were removed, and the rear support was bred, forming a tripod. In addition, the machine gun in the role of an anti-aircraft gun was equipped with special shoulder stops. In addition to the machine gun, the machine gun was used in tower installations, on remotely controlled anti-aircraft installations, on ship pedestal installations.
At present, in the Russian Armed Forces, the DShK and DShKM are almost completely replaced by the Utes machine gun, as more advanced and modern.

12.7 mm heavy machine gun cartridges

Domestic heavy machine gun cartridges originate on October 27, 1925, when the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR proposed to the Artillery Committee Artillery Directorate By May 1, 1927, the Red Army to develop a machine gun of 12–20 mm caliber.

In the design bureau (PKB) of the First Tula Arms Plants (TOZ), under the leadership of I. A. Pastukhov, a machine gun was created based on the 12.7-mm English large-caliber Vickers cartridge, which received the designation "P-5" - "machine gun 5 -linear "(that is - caliber 0.5 inches). The following year, 1928, the head of the Design Bureau of the Kovrov Plant No. 2, V. A. Degtyarev, also received the task of developing a large-caliber machine gun for anti-tank and air defense under the English 12.7 mm cartridge. The locking in the first model of his machine gun was similar to the design of the DP machine gun, and the power was supplied from a rigid metal cassette similar to the Hotchkiss M.1914 machine gun. The problems that arose with ammunition for heavy machine guns forced Soviet designers to abandon direct copying of English 12.7 mm cartridges and begin work on designing their own cartridges that meet the requirements of the time. Only after the creation of such a cartridge by the specialists of the Cartridge and Pipe Trust in 1930, Degtyarev was able to present two versions of his heavy machine guns to Artkom as soon as possible.

The report of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR of December 1929 stated: “The adopted system infantry weapons The Red Army provides for the introduction of a semi-automatic self-loading rifle in the near future, self-loading pistol, a submachine gun, a heavy machine gun - for combating armored parts and an air enemy, caliber 18-20 m / m with a working rate of fire up to 500-600 shots ... ”In 1930, in the workshop of the Bureau of New Designs and Standardization (as the PKB was renamed) of plant No. 2 collected first prototype large-caliber machine gun Degtyarev with a flat disk magazine designed by A. S. Kladov with a capacity of 30 rounds. In February 1931, two 12.7-mm machine guns were tested - the “Dreyse system for manufacturing TOZ” and the Degtyarev system. The commission that conducted the tests preferred the Degtyarev large-caliber (DK-32) as lighter and easier to manufacture. The DK was put into service, the production of a small series began at plant No. 2 in Kovrov in 1932, but in 1933 only 12 pieces were assembled, and in 1934 the production of the Degtyarev heavy machine gun was completely suspended.

1. 12.7mm tracer cartridge with lead
core T-38, 2. 12.7-mm cartridge with incendiary
instant bullet MDZ-46

For the Degtyarev heavy machine gun, a caliber of 12.7 mm was chosen. A new cartridge with an armor-piercing bullet was designed at the Tula Cartridge Plant in 1928-1930. The 12.7-mm large-caliber cartridge consisted of: a bimetallic bottle sleeve 108 mm long without a rim with a groove; charge of smokeless pyroxylin powder brand 4/1 fl and armor-piercing bullet B-30, modeled on the 7.62-mm armor-piercing bullet B-30 mod. 1930 with a steel core and a cylindrical tail. Cartridge weight - 132.2–139.8 g.

A brass bottle wafer sleeve serves to connect all parts of the cartridge, while the method of fastening the bullet is a tight fit and a 2-row segmental crimping of the sleeve mouth. The sleeve has: a body inside which a powder charge is placed; slope to stop in the cone of the chamber; the muzzle into which the bullet is inserted; groove for ejector hook and bottom. The bottom of the case housing has: a socket for the primer; an anvil on which the primer breaks with a striker; two seed holes through which the flame from the primer penetrates to the powder. The capsule serves to ignite the charge. It consists of a brass cap with an impact composition pressed into it, covered with foil. Powder charge consists of smokeless powder. When the charge is burned, powder gases are formed, the pressure of which ejects the bullet from the bore and the entire mobile system is activated for the next shot.

Due to the fact that the main task of the DK-32 machine gun, for which this cartridge was developed, was the destruction of lightly armored targets, first of all, cartridges with armor-piercing bullets mod. 1930 and armor-piercing incendiary arr. 1932. In addition, before the Great Patriotic War, under this promising 12.7-mm large-caliber cartridge, aircraft machine guns were also developed by three design teams: V. A. Degtyarev (TsKB-2); Ya. G. Taubina and M. N. Baburina (OKB-16); and M. E. Berezina (TsKB-14), as well as several designs of anti-tank rifles, including Sholokhov, Rukavishnikov, Vladimirov, and others.

Later, at the end of the 1930s and during the Great Patriotic War, the 12.7 x108 large-caliber cartridge was repeatedly upgraded by creating new bullets:

T-38 - a tracer bullet with a lead core,
BS-41 - armor-piercing incendiary bullet,
BZT-44 - armor-piercing incendiary tracer bullet,
MDZ - instantaneous fragmentation incendiary bullet.

Currently, large-caliber cartridges are mainly used with B-32 armor-piercing incendiary bullets, BZT-44 armor-piercing incendiary tracer and MDZ fragmentation incendiary bullets. Cartridges 12.7x108 are used for firing from heavy machine guns DShK / DShKM; NSV and their variants, as well as aviation machine guns UB; A-12.7 A; YakB-12.7. The production of 12.7-mm large-caliber cartridges was established at cartridge factories No. 3; 17; 46; 188; 335.

1. Armor-piercing incendiary bullet B-32,
2. Armor-piercing incendiary tracer bullet BZT,
3. Fragmentation-incendiary bullet MDZ

Here, speaking of large-caliber machine-gun cartridges, it should be noted that, in general, ordinary in ammunition small arms a bullet is called solid (lead or tompak), or consisting only of a shell and not having an armor-piercing core, i.e. not being special - tracer, armor-piercing, armor-piercing incendiary, sighting, etc. But in relation to heavy machine guns that do not have (with rare exceptions, mainly in the past) of an ordinary bullet proper, due to its inappropriateness for such a caliber, armor-piercing bullets (as bullets of the main purpose) armor-piercing, armor-piercing incendiary, armor-piercing incendiary tracer, etc., having a conventional armor-piercing hardened steel core. Special, in relation to heavy machine guns, are called bullets equipped with a special armor-piercing core made of hard, tungsten-containing alloys.

12.7 mm armor-piercing bullet B-30 mod. 1930 weighing 51.1–51.9 g consisted of a steel clad tompak (bimetallic) shell, a lead jacket and a steel hardened pointed core 52.48–52.88 mm long, 19.4–19.9 mm in diameter and weighing 29.25–30.50 g. The core was made of cold-drawn heat-treated tool steel grade U12 A. The lead jacket was designed to ensure the tightness of the bullet assembly, soften the load on the barrel when the bullet cuts into rifling and protect the bore from excessively intense wear. The length of the bullet with a conical rear was 62.6–63.5 mm. 12.7 mm armor-piercing bullet B-30 mod. 1930 had an initial speed of 830-850 m / s and at a distance of 500 meters it pierced armor up to 16 mm thick. The muzzle energy was 18,000 J.

Large-caliber cartridges with a B-30 bullet were produced with a brass sleeve. The fixation of a 12.7-mm large-caliber cartridge with a non-protruding rim in the chamber was carried out by the slope of the sleeve into the slope of the chamber, which, in turn, increased the requirements for the manufacture of chambers and sleeves.

The tip of the B-30 bullet was painted black. When hitting an armored barrier, the bullet core destroyed the lead jacket and bullet jacket, and then pierced the barrier, hitting the crew of the armored vehicle, as well as its instruments and equipment. Possessing significant armor penetration, the B-30 bullet had at the same time a big drawback, which consisted in its low armor action. The production of this cartridge was established in the early 1930s. With the start of production of large-caliber cartridges with a more universal armor-piercing incendiary bullet B-32, the release of 12.7 mm cartridges with a B-30 bullet was discontinued. During the Great Patriotic War, the DShK heavy machine gun was used as anti-aircraft weapons, and when firing armor-piercing bullets, the B-30 could shoot down an enemy aircraft, which at that time flew quite high - more than 2000 m and from high speed 500 km/h At the same time, cartridges with B-30 armor-piercing bullets for it had limited use and were gradually forced out of circulation by cartridges with more versatile B-32 armor-piercing incendiary bullets, equivalent in armor penetration, but additionally providing an incendiary effect due to the presence of an incendiary composition between the warhead core and shell of the bullet.

1. 12.7 mm cartridge with an armor-piercing incendiary bullet
B-32 arr. 1932 (57-BZ-542), 2. 12.7 mm cartridge with
armor-piercing incendiary bullet BS-41 arr. 1941

In 1933, for the Degtyarev DK-32 heavy machine gun, a new machine-gun cartridge of 12.7 x108 mm caliber was adopted with a brass sleeve and an armor-piercing incendiary bullet B-32 mod. 1932 (GRAU index - 57-BZ-542), designed for firing at enemy manpower and equipment, which had high power and armor penetration. The 12.7 mm armor-piercing incendiary bullet with a steel core B-32 was designed similarly to the 7.62 mm B-32 rifle bullet. She had a bimetallic steel shell clad with tombac; a lead shirt, an armor-piercing core (with a bullet length of 62.6-63.5 mm and a bullet weight of 47.4-49.5 mm), and a pyrotechnic (incendiary) composition located in the head part (with a mass of 1.0 g). The cartridge core for the B-32 bullet weighing 29.25-30.5 g was produced from cold-drawn heat-treated tool steel grades U12 A, U12 XA. Initially, the shell of the bullet was made with one belt, but the increased rate of fire from 12.7-mm aircraft machine guns required an increase in the strength of the connection between the bullet and the cartridge case, the use of double rolling of the wall of the muzzle of the cartridge case into two belts. When firing cartridges with a conventional B-32 armor-piercing bullet, armor penetration along the normal (that is, at an angle of 900) was 20 mm armor steel at a distance of up to 100 meters and 15 mm at a distance of up to 500 meters. The head of the bullet is painted black with a red belt.

There are two types of large-caliber cartridges with a B-32 bullet - “military production” (preserved from the time of the Great Patriotic War) and “new”, post-war ones. The fact is that in order to reduce the mass of the machine gun, the barrel of the NSV-12.7 machine guns was noticeably lighter compared to the DShKM. The designers abandoned the use of radiators - in addition to reducing weight, the barrel has become much more technologically advanced. But this, in turn, affected its survivability - the first batches of barrels "burned out" after 3,000-4,000 shots. In the infantry version, the machine gun had to be equipped with 3 barrels in order to maintain the guaranteed resource of the entire machine gun - 10,000 rounds. As a result, it was decided to use gunpowder with the so-called phlegmatizing additives of the brand 4/1 fl. in the production of cartridges. Until that time, they were used only in artillery. The survivability of the barrel when using new cartridges has grown to acceptable limits - on periodic tests, with a hard firing mode - 50 shots in one burst and 50 - in three bursts of 15-20 shots, - the barrel has already withstood about 6,000 shots.

In addition, 12.7 mm large-caliber machine-gun cartridges with a sighting and incendiary bullet PZ (index 57-ZP-542) and with an incendiary bullet ZP (index 57-ZP-532), similar to 7.62 mm rifle cartridges, were adopted by the Red Army. cartridges with similar types of incendiary bullets.

1. 12.7 mm cartridge with armor-piercing incendiary bullet
BS sample 1974 (7-BZ-1), 2. 12.7 mm cartridge with
armor-piercing bullet B-30 arr. 1930

In 1941, the ammunition load of DShK machine guns was supplemented with a new 12.7-mm large-caliber cartridge with a special armor-piercing incendiary bullet BS-41 mod. 1941, designed to fight enemy armored vehicles. It differed from the B-32 in a new shorter length (bullet length - 50.5–51.0 mm, weight 53.6–53.8 mm). The armor-piercing core for the BS-41 bullet was made of a hard-alloy metal-ceramic alloy of the RE-6 brand based on tungsten carbide weighing 37.2–39.0 g. The head of the bullet is painted black, and the body of the bullet is red. The cartridge with the BS-41 bullet was two times superior to the cartridge with the conventional B-32 bullet in terms of armor penetration and provided through penetration of the armor plate 20 mm thick when hit at an angle of 200 at a distance of 750 m. They received certain use in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War .

In 1974, the armor-piercing incendiary bullet BS-41 was modernized by the designer V. M. Bobrov and received the designation BS of the 1974 model (index 7-BZ-1). The 12.7 mm BS armor-piercing incendiary bullet of the 1974 model with a bullet weight of 55 g was equipped with a refractory heavy cermet core. It was designed when it became clear that the armor penetration of the B-32 was no longer enough to deal with modern armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. Bullet BS sample 1974 - ogival shape with a rear cone and girdle consists of: a bimetallic shell; incendiary composition in the head and tail sections; pointed core without a back cone made of hard alloy VK-8 in an aluminum jacket. The BS bullet of the 1974 model penetrates armor 20 mm thick at a distance of 765 m at an encounter angle of 200. The head of the bullet is painted black, the body of the bullet is red.

Initially, 12.7 mm cartridges with a tracer bullet T-38 (index 57-T-542) were used in the DShK and UB machine guns, which were soon replaced by more effective 12.7 mm large-caliber machine gun cartridges with an armor-piercing incendiary tracer bullet BZT (bullet weight 44.32–45.6 g), which were not only intended for adjusting fire and indicating the target, but also for firing at enemy manpower and equipment. The armor-piercing core had to be shortened somewhat (length 31.5 mm), which led to a decrease in penetration. A bullet fired from a distance of 100 m is capable of penetrating a steel sheet 15 mm thick at an encounter angle of 10°. Bullet BZT had White color tracks, and bullets BZT-44 and BZT-44 M - the red color of the track. Tracing range - 1000 m. The head of the bullet is painted in purple with red belt.

Currently, for the 12.7-mm NSV heavy machine gun and its modifications, which are in service Russian army 12.7 mm heavy machine gun cartridges B-32, BZT-44, MDZ and BS are used.

In addition, in the late 1990s, Russia mastered the production of a special sniper cartridge of caliber 12.7 x108 CH with an armor-piercing bullet SPB under the symbol 7 H34. It is designed to defeat manpower equipped with personal armor protection, ground and low-flying equipment when firing from 12.7-mm sniper rifle 6 B7. The sleeve is bimetallic. The weight of the SPB sniper armor-piercing bullet is 59.2 g. at the same time, the accuracy is R100 at least 8.5 cm at a distance of 300 m. The metal box contains 80 pieces of 12.7 mm SPB sniper cartridges, and in a wooden box 2 metal boxes each - 160 SPB cartridges.

1. 12.7mm High Density Dual Bullet Cartridge
fire with an armor-piercing incendiary bullet "1 SL"
(9-A-4412), 2. 12.7 mm two-bullet cartridge with increased
density of fire with a tracer bullet "1 SLT" (9-A-4427)

DShK cartridges were also used in the 12.7-mm Berezin UB domestic aviation machine guns. But for aviation machine guns, cartridges were produced that had other types of bullets, specially developed taking into account the specifics of their use in aviation weapons.

12.7 mm machine gun cartridge with armor-piercing incendiary bullet BZF-46 mod. 1932 (index 57-B-532) (bullet weight 48 g) were intended for firing at enemy aircraft and balloons from aviation and anti-aircraft machine guns, as well as for adjusting machine-gun fire and indicating the target.

The armor-piercing incendiary bullet BZF-46 had an ogive shape with a rear cone with two belts and consisted of: a bimetallic shell; armor-piercing core weighing 17.3–18.2 g from cold-drawn heat-treated tool steel grades U12 A, U12 XA and increased pyrotechnic incendiary composition based on phosphorus, weighing 1.1–1.3 g, located in the bottom part. The head of the bullet was painted black with a yellow belt.

The 12.7-mm machine gun cartridge with an instantaneous incendiary bullet MDZ (instant action, incendiary) was developed by the specialists of the Design Bureau of Plant No. 3 (Ulyanovsk Machine-Building Plant) and adopted for aircraft machine guns under the designation GRAU - 7-Z-2. The cartridge is designed to destroy low-flying air targets from anti-aircraft machine guns and create fires, so the MDZ bullet was equipped with a mixture of explosives. Bullet MDZ - ogival shape with a rear cone and two belts, consisted of a bimetallic shell with a tompak tip; a bimetallic cup in a lead jacket with a mixture of explosive (PETN) and incendiary (No. 7) compositions; an impact mechanism of non-cocking instantaneous action, having a chopping tube, a bimetallic bushing and a blasting cap. When a bullet hit the barrier, the tip was deformed and pierced with a chopping tube, the fragments of the tip actuated the detonator cap, which initiated the explosion of the charge explosive. The flash achieved by the MZD bullet was visible at a distance of up to 1500 m. Subsequently, 12.7-mm machine-gun cartridges with an MDZ instant incendiary bullet were replaced with similar, but with more powerful bullets: with an MDZ bullet designed by Zabegin "MDZ-Z", with a modernized bullet MDZ "MDZ-M" and an instantaneous bullet "MD" with a fuse brand "V-166". The bullets of the MDZ-46 and MDZ-3 variants differed primarily in the design of the warhead. In the MDZ-46 bullet, the brass bushing simultaneously served as a ballistic tip, while in the MDZ-3 bullet, the tip was absent, and the shell covered the body of the detonator cap. Bullet cases MDZ-46 and MDZ-3 differed primarily in the design of the head. In the MDZ-46 bullet, the brass bushing simultaneously served as a ballistic tip, while in the MDZ-3 bullet there was no tip, and the shell covered the body of the detonator cap, which was painted red.

In the period 1959-1964 in the USSR to destroy intelligence balloons of the enemy from the airborne weapons of aircraft and helicopters, a special 12.7-mm cartridge was created with a bullet of incendiary-explosive instantaneous action of high sensitivity ZMDBCH of the 1966 model (abbreviated name - FZ-12.7, full - 12.7-mm cartridge with high-explosive incendiary bullet ZMDBCH).

In addition, for 12.7-mm YakB-12.7 aircraft machine guns mounted on Mi-24 combat helicopters, special two-bullet cartridges of increased fire density were developed with bullets - armor-piercing incendiary "1 SL" (9-A-4412) and tracer "1 SLT" (index 9-A-4427). These cartridges are produced by the Novosibirsk plant of low-voltage equipment. Cartridges 1 SL are equipped with two armor-piercing incendiary bullets of reduced mass (31 g) type B-32. Each of the bullets of these cartridges consists of a steel shell, clad with tombac, and two cores: steel and lead. The muzzle of the cartridge case for fixing the first bullet has two belts. To fix the second bullet in the case body, three round punches are formed by punching on three sides, which is external difference two-bullet large-caliber machine-gun cartridge from an ordinary one. Cartridge 1 SLT is also equipped with two bullets: the first is an armor-piercing incendiary type B-32 (weighing 31 g) and the second is an armor-piercing incendiary tracer bullet of the BZT type (weighing 27 g), located one after the other. Tracing range - up to 1000 m, tracing time - at least 29 seconds.

In addition, when training in shooting to simulate combat shooting without a bullet, 12.7 mm large-caliber machine-gun blank cartridges (index 7 X1) are used. They have a sleeve closed on top with a textured green cap. In addition, training cartridges are also used for training purposes (index 7 X2).

The 12.7 mm heavy machine gun cartridge is the most widely used in the world, since these cartridges were supplied to many countries (not only the Warsaw Pact, but also third world countries), and also produced under license, for example, in China.

Large-caliber machine gun cartridge 12.7x108 is used in the following types of weapons:

DShK/DShKM machine guns (USSR);
aviation machine guns UBT/UBK/UBS (USSR);
aviation machine gun A-12.7 (USSR);
ship turret-turret machine-gun installation "Utes-M" (USSR/Russia);
machine gun NSV "Utes" (USSR/Russia/Kazakhstan);
NSVT tank machine gun (USSR/Russia/Kazakhstan);
machine gun 6 P50 "Kord" (Russia);
sniper rifle KSVK (Russia);
sniper rifle V-94 (Russia);
machine gun type 54 (PRC);
machine gun type 77 (PRC);
machine gun type 85 (PRC);
machine gun W85 (PRC);
sniper rifle "Gepard" (Hungary).

Sergei Monetchikov
Photo by Dmitry Belyakov and from the author's archive
Brother 05-2012

Articles » Cartridges
Mercenary 17568 0

DShK(GRAU index - 56-P-542) - easel heavy machine gun chambered for 12.7 × 108 mm. Developed on the basis of the design of the DK heavy machine gun.

In February 1939, the DShK was adopted by the Red Army under the designation "12.7 mm heavy machine gun Degtyarev - Shpagin model 1938".

PERFORMANCE AND TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS DShK MACHINE GUN
Manufacturer:	Kovrov Arms Plant
Cartridge:
Caliber:	12.7mm
Weight, machine gun body:	33.5 kg
Weight, on the machine:	157 kg
Length:	1625 mm
Barrel length:	1070 mm
Number of grooves in the barrel:	n/a
Trigger mechanism (USM):	Impact type, automatic fire mode only
Operating principle:	Removal of powder gases, locking with sliding lugs
Rate of fire:	600 shots/min
Fuse:	n/a
Aim:	open/optical
Effective range:	1500 m
Target range:	3500 m
Muzzle velocity:	860 m/s
Type of ammunition:	Non-loose cartridge belt
Number of rounds:	50
Years of production:	1938–1946

History of creation and production

On February 26, 1939, an improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation "12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun of the 1938 model - DShK."

The mass production of the DShK was launched in 1940-41.

DShKs were used as anti-aircraft weapons, as infantry support weapons, mounted on armored vehicles (T-40) and small ships (including torpedo boats). In accordance with the state of the rifle division of the Red Army No. 04 / 400-416 of April 5, 1941, the regular number of DShK anti-aircraft machine guns in the division was 9 pieces.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War Kovrovsky mechanical plant about 2 thousand DShK machine guns were produced.

On November 9, 1941, GKO Decree No. 874 “On the strengthening and strengthening of air defense Soviet Union", which provided for the redistribution of DShK machine guns for arming the created units of the air defense forces.

By the beginning of 1944, over 8400 DShK machine guns had been produced.

Until the end of the Great Patriotic War, 9 thousand DShK machine guns were produced, in the post-war period, the production of machine guns continued.

Design

The DShK large-caliber machine gun is an automatic weapon built on the gas principle. The locking of the barrel is carried out by two combat larvae, hinged on the bolt, for recesses in the side walls of the receiver. The fire mode is only automatic, the barrel is fixed, ribbed for better cooling, equipped with a muzzle brake.

Power is supplied from a non-loose metal tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the machine gun. At DShK, the tape feeder was made in the form of a drum with six open chambers. The drum, during its rotation, fed the tape and at the same time removed cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the drum chamber with the cartridge arrived in the lower position, the cartridge was fed into the chamber by a bolt. The drive of the tape feeder was carried out using a lever located on the right side, swinging in a vertical plane when the loading handle, rigidly connected to the bolt frame, acted on its lower part.

In the butt plate of the receiver, spring buffers of the bolt and bolt carrier are mounted. The fire was fired from the rear sear (from an open bolt), two handles on the butt plate and twin triggers were used to control the fire. The sight is frame, the machine also had mounts for an anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was used from the universal machine of the Kolesnikov system. The machine was equipped with removable wheels and a steel shield, and when using a machine gun as an anti-aircraft wheel, the shield was removed, and the rear support was bred, forming a tripod. In addition, the machine gun in the role of an anti-aircraft gun was equipped with special shoulder stops. The main disadvantage of this machine was its heavy weight, which limited the mobility of the machine gun. In addition to the machine gun, the machine gun was used in tower installations, on remotely controlled anti-aircraft installations, on ship pedestal installations.

Combat use

The machine gun was used by the USSR from the very beginning in all directions and went through the entire war. It was used as an easel and anti-aircraft machine gun. The large caliber allowed the machine gun to effectively deal with many targets, up to medium armored vehicles. At the end of the war, the DShK was massively installed as an anti-aircraft gun on the towers Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns for self-defense of vehicles in case of attacks from the air and from upper floors in urban battles.

Soviet tankers of the 62nd Guards Heavy tank regiment in a street fight in Danzig.
The DShK heavy machine gun mounted on the IS-2 tank is used to destroy enemy soldiers armed with anti-tank grenade launchers.

Video

DShK machine gun. TV program. Weapon TV