#7.62x54R

According to Ukrainian Industrial Portal, a company called RAROG (Kharkov, Ukraine) has developed a polymer made disintegrating belt for the PKM machine guns. The standard  PKM belts are non-disintegrating (the links are connected to each other) and they are made of metal. Polymer construction of the new belt should allow saving some weight.

During the Belarusian MILEX 2017 expo, Russian ORSIS introduced a Mosin-Nagant rifle chassis called “ORSIS Mosin”. The chassis features a folding and adjustable stock as well as short quad Picatinny rail section in the front portion of the forearm. There is also some sort of a side mount for the scope.

I have no doubt that the majority of our readers know about SAAMI (Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute), which sets the ammunition standards, cartridge and chamber drawings etc. These standards are guidelines for manufacturers, but many reloaders, builders, wildcatters and others also use them as a reference. Anyway, if you hear about SAAMI first time, you can see and download the SAAMI cartridge drawings and much more interesting information on their website by clicking here.

Dmitry Shevchenko is a Ukrainian knife maker, who among conventional knives makes ones from all kind of unusual sources. For example, ha has knives made of motorcycle engine piston connecting rods, cables, bicycle chains etc. However especially interesting are his knives made of Mosin-Nagant rifle barrels.

Russian company “FRONT – Tactical Systems” has developed, patented and manufactures a backpack style ammunition belt storage and feeding system called Scorpion. It works with 7.62x54R ammunition and with PKM machine gun and its versions.

Kalashnikov Concern’s newest weapon releases have received quite a lot of attention since they were first shown off at the ARMY 2016 military and technology forum in Moscow, and as the conference winds down, I want to take a more thorough pass through four of these new products from the company. Since we published announcements for three of these new weapons, Maxim Popenker, gun expert and TFB contributor, has published more detailed descriptions of the RPK-16, MA, and SVK rifles on his website, Modern Firearms. Let’s take a look at what he has to teach us about these new weapons:

Modern? Sure, but let’s take a step back… Way back. It’s 1890 and smokeless powder has just been invented. There’s this guy named Rubin going around and spreading the gospel of the small caliber, high velocity .30″ bore round. You’re in Imperial Russia; what’s your country to do to keep up with this new tide of ammunition innovation?

The Russian Army will be upgrading its automatic infantry support weapons soon. The legacy 7.65x54mmR PKM belt-fed general purpose machine gun will be supplanted in the dismounted role by the PKP “Pecheneg” automatic rifle designed at the end of the 20th Century, reports ArmyRecognition.com:

I believe few will contest that the VEPR series of AK’s are excellent rifles. From torture tests to general reputation, VEPR rifles from Molot are solid weapon systems. Using “RPK” thickness receivers, heavier barrels, and stock wooden furniture, they are commonly “battle-ready.”

Before the famous Tokarev SVT-38 and -40 rifles of World War II, a Soviet engineer who would later become famous in the West for another of his designs developed a light weight select-fire infantry weapon in the standard full-power 7.62x54R caliber. That engineer was Simonov, and his AVS-36 was set in the mid-1930s to become the foundation of the future Soviet infantry rifle squad, supplanting the aging repeating bolt action Mosin M1891 rifle. A member over at Guns.ru posted pictures of his demilled AVS-36 to the forum, a few of which are presented below:

The title of this article is an Anglicized version of the title of the article linked below.

Kevin Phillips, who is in the photo above, brought out SGM’s latest products. SGM Tactical contracts with a South Korean military manufacturing facility to make their magazines. Right now they offer happy sticks in 9mm and .45acp. They will be making standard capacity magazines as well as hi-cap .40 s&w 26rd happy sticks. Standard capacity mags will be $14.99

Hognose at WeaponsMan takes a look at an interesting photo in one of his most recent articles. He writes:

Photographer Konstantin Lazarev is a reliable source for photos of the latest and greatest small arms to come out of Russia. His latest batch of photos shows several different Pecheneg and PK machine guns, configured with night vision and holographic optics. Some of the photos are below:

A week ago, Alex C. and Miles Vining pitted the Russian Mosin-Nagant against the German Mauser Gewehr 98 in a battle royale shootout to see which was the best rifle. Unsurprising to some, and outrageous to others, Paul Mauser’s masterpiece took home the gold and handily beat the Three Line Rifle, scoring more hits more quickly in all the shooting sessions.