For most people, "Kord" is associated with a heavy machine gun. However, not only the machine gun was created by the Degtyarevtsy of Kovrov ORUzheiniki, in addition to it there is also a large-caliber sniper rifle known as ASVK ASV "Kord" or simply 6S8. Let's try to get acquainted with this weapon in more detail, well, let's compare it with what a potential enemy has.
The basis for the ASVK large-caliber sniper rifle was the previous work of the designers Zhuravlev, Kuchin, Negrulenko and Ovchinnikov, namely the KSV SVN-98. This rifle is made in a bullpup arrangement to reduce the overall length of the weapon, it is powered by a detachable box magazine with a capacity of 5 rounds. A weapon with a sliding bolt has been built, which locks the barrel bore when turning. A distinctive feature of this KSV is a high rack on which open sights are installed, it also serves as a handle for carrying weapons. The optical sight is installed on the side mounting bar, while the handle with open sights is folded, which indicates the low efficiency of the rear sight and front sight. In addition, the length of the rack is very short, because the distance between the whole and the front sight is small, which makes it very difficult to use weapons without optics at distances over 400-500 meters, but this is better than nothing, because optics are fragile and when damaged, weapons that have no other sighting adaptations, just become useless.
In addition to a high-quality barrel and good quality cartridges for accurate shooting, the recoil of the weapon when firing is also an important point. Agree, it is difficult to shoot normally when the shooter is subconsciously afraid that the weapon will kick him during the shot. They decided to fight recoil when firing using already proven methods, without introducing complex recoil damping systems into the design. So the muzzle brake-recoil compensator and the butt pad made of porous rubber ensure comfortable shooting. It is the muzzle brake of the weapon that is the main distinguishing feature of the SVN-98 from the ASVK. The muzzle brake is cylindrical, has many holes directed at an angle away from the target, which ensures the braking of the weapon during the shot and, as a result, reduces the recoil when firing.
As a result of the work of the designers, a weapon was obtained with a meter-long barrel, a total length of 1350 millimeters and a weight of 11 kilograms without an optical sight and cartridges. However, some points in the weapon could be improved, so the weapon continued to evolve.
First of all, it was decided to abandon the open sights on the folding handle. To increase the effective fire from the weapon, the front sight and rear sight were carried to a longer distance and they began to be attached at the muzzle brake and on the receiver, and the front sight was made folding back. Separately, it is worth noting a completely redesigned muzzle brake-recoil compensator, but more importantly, the barrel of a Kord machine gun and a sniper rifle were now made from the same blanks and by the same technological process, which significantly reduced production costs, but to argue that the trunks are by no means the same.
The rifle barrel length remained the same - 1000 millimeters, but the total length increased to 1400 millimeters. Accordingly, the weight of the weapon increased to 12 kilograms. The rifle is powered by the same single-row box magazines with a capacity of 5 rounds. The muzzle velocity of the bullet is 850 meters per second. Dispersion at a distance of 300 meters when using machine-gun cartridges is 16 centimeters, at least so the manufacturer claims.
It is quite difficult to characterize domestic weapons with an open mind, but in this case it should be noted that the considered CWS is somewhat inferior to foreign counterparts in its accuracy, even when using high-quality ammunition. But at the same time, one should not forget about the goal set for the designers, because no one planned to create high-precision weapons. This large-caliber rifle is designed to be used where the use of a large-caliber machine gun is impossible due to its size and weight. In other words, this VSWR is designed to defeat opponents in personal protective equipment and behind shelters at a maximum distance of 1500 meters with good luck, and not in order to shoot a squirrel in the eye 2000 meters away. After all, domestic sniper 12, 7 are far from being as sniper as we would like, which should also be taken into account.
Summing up everything written above, it should be noted that when considering this large-caliber rifle separately from a machine gun, it can hardly stand out from the total mass of such weapons, but when we consider both the SWR and the Kord machine gun together, then there is already something to brag about. We can say that a rifle and a machine gun are a kind of complex complementing and partially replacing each other, because where you cannot carry a large-caliber machine gun in your hands, you can easily deliver a light SWR behind your back. In addition, the rifle can also be used as a weapon to indicate targets for a machine gun crew. In general, the weapon turned out to be really necessary and in demand. The rifle may not be as accurate as we would like, but it copes with the tasks assigned to it perfectly. Well, the fact that no one sets records for the range of hits on the enemy from it, in most cases, such exorbitant ranges of fire are not needed, and no one here measures the distance to the enemy with a successful hit with a tape measure - hit and good. In other words, this large-caliber sniper rifle is the simplest weapon that is relatively cheap to manufacture for the government to pull, and yet effective and convenient enough.
