During the war, there was an intensive development of rapid-fire aircraft machine guns, designed to replace the reliable ShKASS.
One of the options that passed the test at the test site was a machine gun designed by Sokolov (it seems he never went into series - with its rate of fire, which made it possible to cut the pillars in one burst, the ammunition quickly ran out, and the service life was short).
And so the designer came to the test site, where comparative tests of machine guns were carried out. He had a brotherly conversation with weapons technicians, among whom were just machine gun aces, and in the course of the conversation slightly encouraged them:
- And can any of you put out a candle with a machine gun, let's say from 50 meters?
The guys immediately caught fire, got hold of candles, installed them at the training ground … but just before they had time to move away from the lighted candle, the wind extinguished it right there.
Fortunately, there was a shed of some kind on the landfill. Here is a candle in this shed and installed. It is more visible at the same time. The door, of course, was wide open, measured the distance. Well, since the machine gun shoots only in bursts, they simply loaded one cartridge at a time. And then it turned out that the task is not so simple.
There were a couple of snipers who managed to interrupt the candle, but decided that this was not according to the rules - they only needed to extinguish it. In general, when everyone tried it and decided that it could only be done by accident, the designer said: "Okay, let me try." I must say that the designer of the weapon rarely shoot decently themselves, but they respected them, gave way to the machine gun, trying not to smile. Sokolov took a long and careful aim, then fired, the candle went out. They ran and checked, my darling is intact. The designer was greatly respected.
When the delegation was returning to the car, the driver who had brought Sokolov to the training ground quietly asked:
“I saw that you loaded the machine gun with a cartridge that you took out of your pocket. Is this a special, targeted one?
Sokolov chuckled.
- No, the cartridge is ordinary, only a hole is drilled at an oblique angle in the bullet. When flying, it creates such turbulence - you can put out a fire, not like a candle.
- Why did you aim for so long?
“You see, I was afraid not to hit the door of the sary,” Sokolov answered sadly.
