At the World Shoot 2017 IPSC Rifle just outside Moscow, in one of the shooting bays of the Park Patriot, there was a possibility to shoot a wide variety of Russian firearms.

This place isn’t open to the public normally, so if you’re heading there to shoot some of the rifles shown below you will be disappointed. However it was organized by the Moscow Municipal Sports and Shooting Range and they can be found HERE.

There it was: Maxim’s machine gun. I had to shoot it.

According to the owner of the Maxim, here are the specifications of what it can achieve:

The Maxim gun

Caliber, mm — 7,62 × 54
Overall length, mm – 1067
Weight (with the mount), kg — 64.3
Rate of Fire rounds /min — 450-600
Sighting range, m — 2000
Muzzle velocity, m/s
— 865 (1908 bullet)
— 800 (1931 heavy bullet)

64 kg or 141 pounds, it’s not exactly light weight. Explains the wheels, but I’m sure quite a few Russian soldiers had opinions about moving the Maxim around on the battlefield.

The Maxim machine gun chambered for standard 7.62 mm rifle cartridges was first adopted in the Imperial Russia in 1910. It a variation of the American Maxim machine gun initially designed in the British Empire.

The Russian modification was carried out in Tula by gunmakers Pastukhov, Sudakov and Tretiyakov. The reduced the weight of the machine gun and changed its configurations so that they suited new cartridges with pointed bullets adopted in 1908. As a result the cartridge receiver was modified.

The muzzle end was expanded to reduce shaking while firing. The sighting system was also changed. The barrel casing was upgraded after the Soviet-Finnish War in 1939 the machine gun received an oversized filler cap to allow handfuls of snow to be packed in to melt while firing to cool down the gun.

Loading up, preparing to shoot the Maxim.

Only 10 rounds, but there’s that special feeling with belt-fed firearms.

147 grains, 7,62x54R FMJ by Barnaul.

The Maxim I had the pleasure to shoot was made in 1944, see inscription below:

The trigger was surprisingly good. I guess some wear since 1944 has improved its feel and function. It wasn’t easy to try to hit the targets, due to the sight.

The shooting range is the most impressive I’ve ever seen and had just been finished to accommodate the First World Shoot IPSC Rifle. Those walls are really high.

 

To shoot Maxim’s machine gun, the price was 10 shots for 1000 rubles, or around 18 USD.Totally worth it!

There was also a wide variety of Kalashnikovs to chose from, most of them seemed to have lived a rather hard life.

This one even had a red dot, how modern!

A beaten-up 7,62×39 mm.

I also tried the AK to the right. I don’t know why but the recoil was really hard and unpleasant. Worse than any other AK I’ve fired.

Below you can find the menu:

 

AK-47 Assault Rifle (VPO-136) or AK-74 Assault Rifle (Saiga 08), 10 shots for 600 Rubles. That’s about 11 USD.

SVD Dragunov sniper rifle for 800 rubels.

Some of the others include AK (AKMS) (Hunting rifle МА-136 С), AK (АКSU) (Hunting rifle МА-АК-03), Mosin–Nagantrifle, Machine pistol Sudaeva «PPS-43», Carbine Vepr-9 (VPO-139) anan a SA VZ58 assault rifle.

To the left, you can see a  Degtyaryov machine gun (The DP-27). I think the one to the right is a Kalashnikov RPK light machine gun (VPO-134 carbine).

The Degtyaryov machine gun is a light machine gun firing the 7.62 cartridge. It was adopted by the Red Army in 1927 and since then was used primarily by the Soviet Union till the 1960s when it was replaced by more modern machine guns. The DP-27 was one of the first examples of small arms created in the USSR. This machine gun was a primary weapon for infantry till the end of World War II. The weapon was usually mounted on small torpedo boats for the purpose of self-defense like firing at naval mines, low-flying aircrafts, etc.

Source.

They also have AR15 / M16s, Steyr AUG, HK MP5 and similar firearms, but when in Russia…

One of the Finnish Top shooters Kim Leppänen, he looks happy with the result.