The Chukavin Sniper Rifle (SVCh) is a DMR that was designed to replace the venerable SVD in the Russian military. We have covered the life of this rifle from its development history to its adventures in Russian military trials. Today, we’ll tell you about another event in this rifle’s life: Kalashnikov Concern has introduced the limited edition civilian version of SVCh rifle called MR1.

One of the key design features of SVCh and MR1 rifles is that the bolt carrier group runs on a top rail in the very compact steel upper receiver. This solution relieves the stresses from the lower receiver and makes it possible to manufacture the latter from lightweight materials such as various polymers or as in the case of MR1, aluminum. Interestingly, this design concept was pioneered by Yevgeny Dragunov, the designer of SVD, in his experimental MA compact assault rifle. Here is a video showing the disassembly of the MR1 rifle where you can see the described design solution.

The MR1 is available on the Russian market in two caliber options – .308 Winchester and 7.62x54mmR. The 7.62x54R rifle is fed from SVD magazines, has a 530mm (20.9″) barrel and is offered with a folding stock similar to the one seen on SVCh rifles. The .308 Win version is offered with two barrel length options, 530mm (20.9″) and 410mm (16.1″), and comes with fixed or folding adjustable skeletonized stocks made by Sureshot Armament Group. Depending on the barrel length, the overall length of MR1 is 955mm (37.6″) or 1075mm (42.3″). The rifle weighs in at about 4.5 kilograms (around 10 lbs).

MR1 rifle chambered in 7.62x54mmR

Other features of this rifle include the aluminum M-LOK handguard, ambidextrous safety selector lever, 3-lug rotating bolt, short stroke gas piston, adjustable gas block, and adjustable trigger. The barrels are chrome lined, threaded with М18х1 metric thread pitch and equipped with flash hiders.

MR1 rifle chambered in .308 Winchester

Here is a video that Kalashnikov Concern released when announcing the civilian SVCh.

The price of MR1 rifles on the Russian market is 115,00 rubles (about $1,800) for the 7.62x54R gun and 145,000 rubles ($2,300) for the .308 Win one. As a comparison, the civilian SVD rifles in 7.62x54mmR and 7.62x51mm have MSRPs of 54,000 ($850) and 65,000 ($1,025) rubles on Kalashnikov Concern’s website.

Images by Kalashnikov Media