The SVT-38 was chambered - as was the AVS-36 - to fire the powerful 7.62x54R Russian cartridge. The firing action centered around a gas-operated, short-stroke piston with tilting bolt. The internal gas system was adjustable. Muzzle velocity was rated at 2,756 feet per second with and effective range out to 550 yards. The rifle weighed in at 3.95kg when unloaded and featured a length of 1,222mm with a barrel length of 610mm sporting 4-grooves with a right-hand twist.
The SVT-38 saw its first taste of combat in 1939 when it was issued to Soviet troops during the Winter War (1939-1940) against Finland. Initially, the weapon proved too heavy and rather long for the hold of Soviet soldiers and her complicated and sometimes fragile nature proved poor against the abuse inherent in modern combat. One detrimental effect was the magazine completely falling out of its feed from under the receiver during action, much to the shock of the operating Soviet soldier. The rather fragile construction and after-action reports of the rifle soon led to a cancellation of further production in April of 1940. By this time, some 150,000 examples were in circulation with some taking advantage of the telescopic sights fitting. Regardless, the SVT-38 proved both as something of a success and a failure. As a success, it pioneered solutions to some rather difficult problems involved in a self-loading rifle design, particularly when taken in the scope of Soviet arms design up to this point in history. As a failure, the Soviets were still without that standard-issue, war-winning automatic rifle that they had sought since the middle of the 1930s.
It was not long before an improved Tokarev self-loading rifle appeared to take the place of the failed SVT-38. The SVT-40 appeared in July of 1940 out of the Tula facility as a revised and lighter automatic rifle design. The cleaning rod was relocated to the underside of the barrel and the stock was of a single piece. The SVT-40 was purposely designed as a tougher and easier-to-produce alternative to the original SVT-38 and succeeded for the most part. Its success was showcased in the use of the weapon by German forces who managed to capture examples intact. Hundreds of thousands of SVT-40s were soon generated and at least 50,000 were specialized scoped sniper variants.
Soviet self-loading technology impressed the Germans enough for them to study and engineer their own self-loading types during the war. These became the Gew 41 of 1941 and its replacement, the Gew 43 of 1943.
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