Yevgeny Dragunov

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Fyodorovich and the family name is Dragunov.
Yevgeny F. Dragunov
Born
Yevgeny Fyodorovich Dragunov

(1920-02-20)February 20, 1920
Izhevsk, Russian SFSR
DiedAugust 4, 1991(1991-08-04) (aged 71)
Izhevsk, Soviet Union
NationalityRussian
Occupationfirearms designer
Known forHelping to invent the Dragunov sniper rifle

Yevgeny Fyodorovich Dragunov (Russian: Евге́ний Фёдорович Драгуно́в; February 20, 1920 – August 4, 1991) was a Soviet weapons designer, best known for his role in helping invent the semi-automatic rifle bearing his name, the Dragunov sniper rifle.[1]

Early life and education

Coming from a family of gunsmiths,[2] Dragunov worked as a factory machinist before beginning military service in 1939.

Career

After 1941, Dragunov was a senior armorer working for the Soviet Union and also captured enemy weapons during wartime. After 1945, he returned to Izhevsk and joined the Arms Design Bureau, working as a project engineer on sporting and civilian target rifles through the 1950s. One of these, the Biathlon target rifle, went on to the Olympic Gold. In 1959, Dragunov submitted his design for a military sniper rifle, the SVD, which was accepted into Soviet military service in 1963 and later became known as the Dragunov rifle.[3]

Dragunov MA

Dragunov also participated in the competition that led to the adoption of AKS-74U with a gas-operated design called MA (malokalibernii avtomat). Although Dragunov's avtomat was comparable in performance to Kalashnikov's, the latter had the advantage of sharing some parts with the AK-74 rifle already in production. The non-metallic parts of the MA were made of polyamides. The MA was Dragunov's last major design.[4][5] The trigger mechanism used in the MA was fairly similar to the one previously used in his PP-71 sub-machine gun,.[4]

Awards

Inventions

References

  1. ^ Chivers, C. J. (2011). The Gun. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-7432-7173-8.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Драгунов Евгений Фёдорович // Большая Российская Энциклопедия / редколл., гл. ред. Ю. С. Осипов. том 9. М., научное издательство "Большая Российская Энциклопедия", 2007.
  3. ^ Shilin, Valery N. (1996). "Dragunov The Man Behind the Rifle". Soldier of Fortune Magazine. 26 (12). Boulder, Colorado.
  4. ^ a b "МА - малокалиберный автомат" КАЛАШНИКОВ. ОРУЖИЕ, БОЕПРИПАСЫ, СНАРЯЖЕНИЕ 2000/1, pp. 26-30
  5. ^ From Dragunov MA to AM-17 – how rejected designs become future weapons
  6. ^ Юрий Пономарёв, СВД постскриптум, Kalashnikov magazine, 2005/3, p. 82
  7. ^ Конструктивные разработки Е. Ф. Драгунова // журнал "Оружие", № 7, 2000. стр.7-11
  8. ^ Сергей Монетчиков, ОРУЖИЕ СПЕЦНАЗА: Малогабаритные пистолеты-пулемёты, Bratishka, April 2003