Yevgeny Dragunov
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Yevgeny Fyodorovich Dragunov was born on February 20, 1920 and died on August 4, 1991. He was a Soviets small arms designer, best known for playing a part in designing the SVD-63 (Dragunov sniper rifle) sniper rifle.
History
Dragunov came from a family of gunsmiths and worked as a factory machinist before entering military service in 1939. In 1941 Dragunov was a senior armourer. He was working on both Soviet and captured enemy weapons during the war. After WWII ended in 1945, he returned to Izhevsk and joined the Arms Design Bureau and worked as a project engineer on sporting and target rifles throughout the 1950s. One of the rifles he designed was a biathlon target rifle that won the Olympic Gold. In 1959 he submitted a design for a military sniper rifle, later known as the SVD. It was accepted into the Soviet military service in 1963. It is commonly called "The Dragunov".
Dragunov submitted a rifle to Project Modern, the trails that lead to the development of the AKS-74U. It was up against several rifles, including the AO-46. While Dragunovs rifle did very well in the trails program, the AKS-74U had the advantage of being parts compatible with the AK-74, which was the service rifle of the Red Army. The MA trails rifle was the last major design from Dragunov.
Awards
- Lenin Prize
- State Prize the Russian Federation (Awarded after his death)
Notable Designs
- SVD-63 Snipe Rifle
- MtsV-56 "Taiga" - Target rifle chambered in 5.6x36 (.220 Russian)
- Machine pistol 71
- MA
- AM-17
- AMB-17
