Arms, Armor and Militaria

7.62x54mmR. 24.6" barrel length. SN: KZh4150. Blued metal refinish overall with dipped blued parts set in a lacquered birchwood stock. Short-stroke piston driven tilting-bolt semi automatic rifle fed by detachable double stack magazines. The original serial number appears on the left stock with the last four digits re-struck vertically in the fashion of the Bulgarian refurbishment program. Receiver is struck with the {Star} logo of the Tula Arms factory with a further {Star with Arrow} struck into the right side of the stock. Both the stock and receiver are dated 1943. Serial numbers match on the interior upper handguard, triggerguard, bolt, bolt carrier. Features the reinforced stock and two-port muzzle brake typical of later production SVT pattern rifles. The A on the right stock indicates it was originally manufactured as an AVT, which is confirmed by the serial number range, but the trigger group provides semi-automatic fire only, and displays the flat knob to the safety lever indicative of the SVT rifle. Rifle comes with one non numbered magazine and a cleaning rod. The internals of the rifle and the majority of the barrel are still in the Cosmoline. Comes with an unmarked SVT pattern sling.

Originally introduced as a product-improved version of the SVT-38 rifle, the SVT-40 served as the Soviet Union's primary self-loading rifle of World War II with some 1.6 million examples produced by 1945. Despite its promising performance in the hands of some of the Red Army's most experienced troops, a combination of desperate factory conditions, limited resources, and limited training for further recruits and conscripts of the USSR, resulted in the gradual reduction in production of the SVT. Instead, the Soviet Union invested in enormous numbers of submachine guns to provide enhanced automatic firepower to their infantry. The AVT-40 was introduced in 1942 as a select-fire version of the infantry rifle, but the rifles exhibited high rates of failure during full-auto fire, and demonstrated poor accuracy, particularly compared to period submachine guns. As a result, most of the AVT rifles were converted back to semi-automatic only trigger groups, with the failure of select-fire arms in 7.62x54mmR serving as a catalyst for the development of intermediate caliber arms such as the SKS rifle and AS-44, and eventually, the AK-47.