Weapon dshk. Threat from the Museum: What can be done with the DShK

DShK is a heavy machine gun based on the DK machine gun and using a 12.7×108 mm cartridge. The DShK machine gun is one of the most common heavy machine guns. He played a significant role in the Great Patriotic War, as well as in subsequent military conflicts.

It was a formidable means of fighting the enemy on land, sea and air. The DShK had a kind of peace-loving nickname "Darling", which was given by the soldiers based on the abbreviation of the machine gun. At present, the DShK and DShKM machine guns and the Russian Armed Forces have been completely replaced by the Utes and Kord machine guns, as more modern and advanced.

History of creation

In 1929, a very experienced and well-known gunsmith at that time, Degtyarev, was entrusted with the task of developing the first Soviet heavy machine gun, primarily designed to combat aircraft flying at altitudes up to 1.5 km. About a year later, Degtyarev presented his machine gun, which has a caliber of 12.7 mm, for testing. Since 1932, the machine gun under the designation DK was launched into small-scale production.

However, the DK machine gun had certain disadvantages:

• low practical rate of fire;
• big weight shops;
• bulkiness and the like.

Therefore, in 1935, the production of the DK machine gun was discontinued, the designers began to improve it. By 1938, the designer Shpagin designed a tape power module for the recreation center. As a result, the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army on February 26, 1939 under the designation DShK - the Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun.

Mass production of the DShK began in 1940-1941. DShK machine guns used:

• as an infantry support weapon;
• as anti-aircraft guns;
• installed on armored vehicles (T-40);
• installed on small ships, including torpedo boats.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Kovrov Mechanical Plant produced approximately 2 thousand DShKs. By 1944, over 8,400 machine guns had been produced. And by the end of the war - 9 thousand DShK, the production of machine guns continued in the post-war period.

According to the experience of the war, the DShK was modernized, in 1946 a machine gun called DShKM entered service. DShKM was installed as an anti-aircraft machine gun on T-62, T-54, T-55 tanks. The tank machine gun was called DShKMT.

Design features

Heavy machine gun DShK (caliber 12.7) automatic weapon based on the gas principle. DShK fire mode - only automatic, non-removable barrel is equipped with a muzzle brake and has special fins for better cooling. The barrel is locked by two combat larvae, which are pivotally mounted on the bolt.

Power is supplied from a metal non-loose tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the DShK. At the machine gun, the tape feeder is made in the form of a drum with six open chambers. During rotation, the drum simultaneously fed the tape, and also removed the cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the chamber of the drum with the cartridge came to the lower position, the bolt fed the cartridge into the chamber.

The tape was fed using a lever device located on the right side, swinging in a vertical plane during the action of the loading handle, which is rigidly connected to the bolt frame.

The drum mechanism of the DShKM was replaced by a compact slider, which worked on a similar principle. The cartridge was pulled down from the tape, after which it was fed directly into the chamber. In the butt pad receiver spring buffers of the bolt frame and bolt are installed. The fire is conducted from the rear sear. To control the fire, two handles on the butt plate are used, as well as twin triggers. For aiming, a frame sight was installed, and special mounts were installed for the anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was used from a universal machine of the Kolesnikov system, which was equipped with a steel shield and removable wheels. When using a machine gun in the form anti-aircraft gun the rear support was bred into a tripod, and the wheels and shield were removed. The main disadvantage of this machine was the weight, which limited the mobility of the machine gun. The machine gun was also installed:

• on ship pedestal installations;
• in tower installations;
• on remote controlled anti-aircraft installations.

Specifications DShK (1938)

DShK has the following characteristics:

• Caliber - 12.7 mm.
• Cartridge - 12.7 × 108.
• The total weight of the machine gun (on the machine, with a belt and without a shield) is 181.3 kg.
• The mass of the “body” of the DShK without tape is 33.4 kg.
• Barrel weight - 11.2 kg.
• The length of the "body" DShK - 1626 mm.
• The barrel length is 1070 mm.
• Rifling - 8 right-handed.
• The length of the rifled part of the barrel is 890 mm.
• starting speed bullets - 850-870 m / s.
• The muzzle energy of a bullet is an average of 19,000 J.
• The rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute.
• Combat rate of fire is 125 rounds per minute.
• The length of the sighting line is 1110 mm.
• Sighting range for ground targets is 3500 m.
• The effective range for air targets is 2400 m.
• The height reach is 2500 m.
• Machine type - wheel-tripod.
• The height of the line of fire in the ground position is 503 mm.
• The height of the line of fire in anti-aircraft position is 1400 mm.
• For anti-aircraft fire, the transition time to combat position from marching is 30 seconds.
• The calculation is 3-4 people.

Modifications

1. DShKT- tank machine gun, was first installed on IS-2 tanks as an anti-aircraft gun.
2. DShKM-2B- a twin installation for armored boats, where two machine guns were installed in a closed tower, which had bulletproof armor.
3. MTU-2- a twin turret weighing 160 kg, designed for installation on ships.
4. DShKM-4- experimental quadruple installation.
5. P-2K- a mine installation designed for submarines (during the campaign it was removed inside the boat).

12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin DShK heavy machine gun

On February 26, 1939, by a decree of the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, a 12.7-mm easel machine gun of the 1938 model DShK (“Degtyareva-Shpagin large-caliber”) of the system of V. A. Degtyarev with a drum receiver of the belt of the G. S. system was adopted. Shpagin. The machine gun was adopted on the universal machine of the I.N. Kolesnikov with a detachable wheel drive and a folding tripod. During the years of the Great Patriotic War The DShK machine gun was used to combat air targets, lightly armored vehicles of the enemy, his manpower at long and medium ranges, as armament of tanks and self-propelled guns. At the end of World War II, designers K. I. Sokolov and A. K. Norov carried out a significant modernization of the heavy machine gun. First of all, the power mechanism was changed - the drum receiver was replaced by a slider one. In addition, manufacturability has been improved, the mount of the machine gun barrel has been changed, and a number of measures have been taken to increase survivability. The reliability of the system has been improved. The first 250 modernized machine guns were produced in February 1945 at a factory in Saratov. In 1946, the machine gun was put into service under the designation “12.7 mm machine gun mod. 1938/46, DShKM. The DShKM immediately became a tank anti-aircraft machine gun: it was installed on tanks of the IS, T-54 / 55, T-62 series, on the BTR-50PA, modernized ISU-122 and ISU-152, special machines on a tank chassis.
Since the differences between the 12.7 mm machine gun mod. 1938, DShK and modernized machine gun mod. 1938/46 DShKM consists mainly in the device of the feed mechanism, we will consider these machine guns together.

Automatic machine gun and operates due to the removal of powder gases through a transverse hole in the wall of the barrel, with a long stroke of the gas piston. The closed-type gas chamber is fixed under the barrel and is equipped with a three-hole pipe regulator. Along the entire length of the barrel, transverse ribbing is made for better cooling; a single-chamber active muzzle brake is mounted on the muzzle of the barrel. The barrel bore is locked when the bolt lugs are pulled apart. The DShK barrel was equipped with an active muzzle brake, which was subsequently replaced by a flat brake of an active type (such a muzzle brake was also used on the DShK, and became the main one for tank modifications).

The leading link of automation is the bolt carrier. A gas piston rod is screwed into the bolt frame in front, and a drummer is attached to the rack in its rear part. When the bolt approaches the breech breech, the bolt stops and the bolt carrier continues to move forward; The reduction of the lugs and the unlocking of the shutter is carried out by the bevels of the figured seat of the bolt carrier when it moves backward. extraction spent cartridge case provides a bolt ejector, the cartridge case is removed from the weapon down through the bolt frame window, using a spring-loaded rod reflector mounted at the top of the bolt. The reciprocating mainspring is put on the gas piston rod and closed with a tubular casing. In the butt plate there are two spring shock absorbers that soften the impact of the bolt carrier and the bolt at the rearmost point. In addition, shock absorbers give the frame and bolt an initial return speed, thereby increasing the rate of fire. The reloading handle, located at the bottom right, is rigidly connected to the bolt frame and is small in size. The reloading mechanism of the machine gun mount interacts with the reload handle, but the machine gunner can directly use the handle, for example, by inserting a cartridge into it with the bottom of the cartridge case.

The shot is fired with the shutter open. The trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire. It is actuated by a trigger lever pivotally mounted on the butt plate of the machine gun. The trigger mechanism is assembled in a separate housing and is equipped with a lever non-automatic fuse that blocks the trigger lever (the front position of the flag) and prevents spontaneous lowering of the sear.

The impact mechanism is powered by a reciprocating mainspring. After locking the bore, the bolt frame continues to move forward, in the extreme forward position it hits the clutch, and the drummer hits the striker mounted in the bolt. The sequence of operations of rearing the lugs and hitting the striker eliminates the possibility of firing if the barrel bore is not completely locked. To prevent the bolt frame from rebounding after being hit in the extreme forward position, a “delay” is mounted in it, including two springs, a yoke and a roller.

DShKM machine gun incomplete disassembly: 1 - barrel with gas chamber, front sight and muzzle brake; 2 - bolt carrier with a gas piston; 3 - shutter; 4 - lugs; 5 - drummer; 6 - wedge; 7 - butt pad with buffer; 8 - trigger housing; 9 - cover and base of the receiver and feed drive lever; 10 - receiver

Cartridge supply - tape, with the left supply of a metal link tape. The tape consists of open links and fits into a metal box attached to the installation bracket. The visor of the box serves as a feed tray for the tape. The drum receiver DShK was actuated from the handle of the bolt carrier moving backward, it bumped into the fork of the swinging feeder lever and turned it. The pawl at the other end of the lever turned the drum 60°, which pulled the tape. Extraction of the cartridge from the link of the tape - in the lateral direction. In the DShKM machine gun, the slide type receiver is mounted on top of the receiver. The slider with feed fingers is driven by a toggle lever rotating in a horizontal plane. The crank arm, in turn, is driven by a swing arm with a fork at the end. The latter, as in the DShK, is driven by the bolt carrier handle.

By flipping the slider crank, you can change the ribbon feed direction from left to right.
The 12.7-mm cartridge has several options: with an armor-piercing bullet, armor-piercing incendiary, sighting-incendiary, sighting, tracer, armor-piercing incendiary tracer (used against air targets). The sleeve does not have a protruding rim, which made it possible to apply a direct feed of the cartridge from the tape.

For shooting at ground targets, a folding frame sight is used, mounted on a base on top of the receiver. The sight has worm gears for installing the rear sight and introducing lateral corrections, the frame is equipped with 35 divisions (up to 3500 m in 100) and is tilted to the left to compensate for bullet derivation. The pin front sight with a fuse is placed on a high base in the muzzle of the barrel. When firing at ground targets, the dispersion diameter at a distance of 100 m was 200 mm. The DShKM machine gun is equipped with a collimator anti-aircraft sight, which facilitates aiming at a high-speed target and allows you to see the aiming mark and the target with equal clarity. DShKM, which was mounted on tanks as an anti-aircraft gun, was supplied with collimator sight K-10T. Optical system the sight formed at the output the image of the target and the aiming grid projected onto it with rings for firing with lead and divisions of the goniometer.

Tactical and technical characteristics of the DShK machine gun

Production history

Operation history

Weapon characteristics

Projectile characteristics

12.7 mm shipborne machine gun mounts based on the DShK- pedestal anti-aircraft installations, which were in service Navy USSR since 1940. DShK is a 12.7 mm DK machine gun modernized by G.S. Shpagin in 1937. The DShK machine gun was mounted on a marine pedestal stationary installation. By the end of 1945, these installations became a mandatory attribute of virtually any Soviet ship.

Description and characteristics of the gun

The DShK machine gun is a modification of the DK heavy machine gun. In it, store food was replaced by a drum-type receiver with a tape food and supply cartridges were produced by a swing arm, which converted forward movement shutter frame in rotary motion drum.

The kinematic connection of the bolt carrier with the feed lever was not carried out along the entire path of the bolt carrier, and the removal of the cartridge from the tape link was due to squeezing it in the transverse direction during the rotation of the drum.

The machine gun was mounted on a marine pedestal stationary installation. It was usually located in the most convenient place for the line of fire. The installation consisted of a base with a rotating pedestal, a swivel head for attaching a machine gun and a shoulder pad, to which a butt-stop was attached to ensure the convenience of aiming a machine gun when firing by goals. The supply of the machine gun with cartridges, as well as the sights and methods of firing, were the same as the infantry model.

Tactical specifications

The boatswain of the Soviet boat of the type "Small hunter" S.N. Shlykov, who shot down a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber. The boatswain stands behind the ship's pedestal installation of a 12.7-mm DShK machine gun.

History of creation

In 1930, the designer V. A. Degtyarev created prototype 12.7 mm machine gun DK (Degtyareva large-caliber). The DK machine gun was designed for the new 12.7 mm cartridge. Machine gun automation worked due to the energy of powder gases discharged from the bore. Air barrel cooling. For better cooling, the barrel was equipped with 118 transverse ribs with a diameter of 73 mm. The barrel was locked by breeding the lugs to the sides. The percussion mechanism was of the percussion type and was driven by a reciprocating mainspring. The trigger mechanism provided only continuous fire and was equipped with a lever-type fuse that locks the trigger lever. The machine gun was powered from a drum-type magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds. Machine-gun belt metal.

Due to the lack of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns in the USSR (until 1940), 12.7-mm DK machine guns were included in the armament of ships and boats under construction of various projects, but the DKs themselves did not hit the ships.

The modernization of the 12.7-mm machine gun DK was carried out in 1937 under the leadership of G.S. Shpagin. The magazine feed was replaced by a drum-type receiver with tape feed. The supply of cartridges was carried out using a swinging lever that converts the translational movement of the bolt frame into the rotational movement of the drum. In this case, the kinematic connection of the bolt carrier with the feed lever was not carried out along the entire path of the bolt carrier. The extraction of the cartridge from the link of the tape was due to squeezing it in the transverse direction during the rotation of the drum.

Operation history

During the war, our fleet received 4018 DShK machine guns. By June 22, 1941, our Navy had 830 single-barreled DShK machine guns on pedestal mounts. The first days of the war showed the superiority of the DShK over the 7.62 mm machine guns. They were armed with battleships " October Revolution and Sevastopol, the new cruisers Kirov and Maxim Gorky, the old cruisers Krasny Kavkaz and Krasny Krym, leaders, all destroyers of projects 7 and 7U, river monitors, boats of all types, gunboats and even fishing ships. Almost all DShKs were installed on pedestals, but during the war, domestic designers developed other types of DShK anti-aircraft and rifle installations.

Modifications

Modifications of the pedestal installation with DShK include the two-machine gun installation DShKM-2, which was intended for destroyers of the Ognevoy and patrol ships"Hawk" type.

Especially for armored boats of projects 1124, 1125, at the beginning of 1943, TsKB-19 designed a 12.7-mm twin mount DShKM-2B, in which 2 DShK machine guns were placed in a closed turret mount with a turret armor thickness of about 10 mm.

For torpedo, patrol and other types of boats, turrets MTU-2, MSTU and 2-UK were designed. All of them open type, there were no guidance mechanisms, and the aiming was carried out by the shooter manually. The DShK machine guns in almost all ship installations did not have significant design differences. Cooling of the barrels is only air (of course, liquid would be more efficient), and the sights of all installations (except for the turret) are annular foreshortening. Well, and, accordingly, the guidance drives are manual.

Grade

The machine gun has a fairly high rate of fire, which determines the effectiveness of fire on fast moving targets. Maintaining a high rate of fire, despite the increase in caliber, was facilitated by the introduction of a buffer device in the butt plate of the machine gun. The elastic buffer also softens the blows of the moving system in the rearmost position, which favorably affects the survivability of parts and accuracy of fire. In general, installations based on the DShK proved to be remarkable even after the Great Patriotic War. In Czechoslovakia in the early 1950s. An extremely powerful M53 anti-aircraft machine gun was developed, armed with four DShKM machine guns, the next modification of the DShK.

DShK 1938 with armored shield

Well aware of the importance of heavy machine guns for equipping armored personnel carriers, combat boats and ground fortifications in order to destroy armored and air targets, as well as to suppress enemy machine-gun points, the Soviet military command in the late twenties gave the corresponding task to the designer V. A. Degtyarev. On the basis of his light machine gun DP 1928, he designed a model of a heavy machine gun, called DK. In 1930, a prototype caliber 12.7 mm was presented for testing.

armor-piercing incendiary bullet B-32 for cartridge 12.7*108

Cartridges 12.7 for DShK

Degtyarev chose for his machine gun a domestic cartridge for a tank gun M 30, which had dimensions of 12.7x108. In 1930, such cartridges were produced with armor-piercing, and since 1932 with armor-piercing incendiary bullets. Subsequently, they underwent modernization and received the name M 30/38.
The Degtyarev prototype of the 1930 model was equipped with a frame sight designed for shooting up to 3500 m at ground targets, as well as a round sight with crosshairs at a distance of up to 2400 m for air and fast moving ground targets. Ammunition was fed from a 30-round disk magazine. The barrel was threaded to the body and could be replaced. The recoil force was reduced with the help of a muzzle brake. A special machine was created for the machine gun.

Metal one-piece machine-gun belt with a capacity of 50 rounds for a machine gun DShK (Degtyarev-Shpagin large-caliber) arr. 1938

Machine-gun belt with a capacity of 10 rounds each for the DShKM machine gun.

In comparative shooting tests with other machine guns, including the predecessor of the later regular American Browning machine gun, the Soviet model showed promising results. The initial velocity of the bullet was 810 m / s, the rate of fire was from 350 to 400 rds / min. At a distance of 300 m, a bullet, when it hit the target at an angle of 90 °, pierced 16 mm steel armor. The testing committee recommended some design changes, such as changing the cartridge feed mechanism from disk to belt. The machine gun was approved for military trials, and in 1931 a trial batch of 50 units was ordered.
How many of these machine guns were made - it was not possible to establish exactly. Information in the Soviet literature about small-scale production concerns not only this sample, but also its second modification, which appeared in the late thirties. According to these data, until June 22, 1941, the troops received a total of about 2,000 heavy machine guns of 12.7 mm caliber. Samples of the DK model, released before 1935, among them were hardly more than a thousand.

DShK 1938 on an anti-aircraft machine

Degtyarev did not manage to eliminate the shortcomings identified during the tests, in particular, the weak maneuverability of the machine gun and the too low rate of fire. It took too long to redirect a ground machine gun to air targets, since the machine gun developed was imperfect. The low rate of fire depended on the work of a bulky and heavy cartridge feed mechanism.
G.S. Shpagin took up the alteration of the feed mechanism from the disk store to the tape, as a result of which the rate of fire increased significantly, and I.N. Kolesnikov improved the machine developed by him, which made it possible to speed up and simplify the redirection of the machine gun from ground to air targets.
The improved model passed all the tests in April 1938 and was accepted into service on February 26, 1939. Starting next year, it began to be delivered to the troops. Weapons of this type proved to be excellent during the Second World War as a means of destroying ground, water and air targets. It not only was not inferior to other machine guns of this class, but also surpassed them.
In 1940, 566 such machine guns were delivered to the army, and in the first half of the next year - another 234. As of January 1, 1942, the troops had 720 serviceable heavy machine guns DShK 1938, and by July 1 - over 1947. By January 1, 1943, this figure had grown up to 5218, and a year later - up to 8442. These facts allow us to draw conclusions about the growth in production during the war.
At the end of 1944, the machine gun was somewhat modernized, the supply of cartridges was improved, and the wear resistance of some parts and assemblies was increased. The modification received the designation DShK 1938/46.
This modification of the DShK machine gun was used in Soviet army until the 1980s. Also, the DShK machine gun was used in foreign armies, for example, Egypt, Albania. China, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, Indonesia, Korea, Cuba, Poland, Romania, Hungary and even Vietnam. The modification produced in China and Pakistan was called Model 54. It has a caliber of 12.7 mm or .50.
The DShK 1938 heavy machine gun works on the principle of using the energy of powder gases, has an air-cooled barrel and a rigid bolt-to-barrel grip. Gas pressure can be adjusted. A special device holds the bolt so that when moving forward it does not hit the base of the barrel. The latter is equipped with radial cooling fins almost along its entire length. The flame arrester has a significant length.
The practical rate of fire is 80 rds/min, and the theoretical rate of fire is 600 rds/min. Cartridges are fed from a metal tape using a special drum device. During rotation, the drum moves the tape, captures cartridges from it and feeds it into the machine gun mechanism, where the bolt sends them into the chamber. The tape is designed for 50 rounds of type M 30/38. Shooting is carried out in bursts.
The sighting device consists of an adjustable sight and a protected front sight. The length of the sight line is 1100 mm. The sight can be installed at a distance of up to 3500 m. There is a special sight for hitting air targets, developed in 1938, and modernized 3 years later. Although the optimal firing range is indicated as 2000 m, the machine gun can successfully hit manpower at a distance of up to 3500 m, air targets up to 2400 m and armored vehicles- up to 500 m. At this distance, the bullet pierces 15 mm armor.

DShK 1938 on an anti-aircraft machine

Used as machines various designs. To combat ground and air targets, the already mentioned special Kolesnikov machine with a circular view was used. When placed on a wheeled machine with or without a protective shield, the machine gun was mainly used to destroy armored vehicles. After removing the wheels, the machine could be transformed into a tripod anti-aircraft.
During the war, machine guns of this type were also installed on self-propelled carriages, on trucks, railway platforms, on heavy tanks, ships and boats. Twin or quadruple installations were often used. Often they were supplied with a searchlight-seeker.
Characteristics: heavy machine gun DShK 1938
Caliber, mm ............................................... ...............................................12.7
Muzzle velocity (Vq), m/s .............................................. .....850
Weapon length, mm .............................................. ......................1626
Rate of fire, rds/min....................................... ..............600
Ammunition supply ................................. metal tape
for 50 rounds
Weight in an unloaded state without a machine, kg ........... 33.30
Mass of the wheeled machine, kg .............................................. .....142.10
Mass of the full tape, kg .............................................. .................9.00
Cartridge ..................... 12.7x108
Barrel length, mm ............................................... ......................1000
Grooves/Direction ............................................................... ....................4/n
Sighting range, m ........................................... 3500
Effective firing range, m..................................2000*
* Optimal distance.

DShK 1938 on an anti-aircraft machine

DShKM machine gun in incomplete disassembly: 1 - barrel with gas chamber, front sight and muzzle brake; 2 - bolt carrier with a gas piston; 3 - shutter; 4 - lugs; 5 - drummer; 6 - wedge; 7 - recoil pad with buffer; 8 - trigger housing; 9 - cover and base of the receiver and feed drive lever; 10 - receiver.

Soviet machine gun DShKM in anti-aircraft version

Caliber: 12.7×108mm
The weight: 34 kg machine gun body, 157 kg on a wheeled machine
Length: 1625 mm
Barrel length: 1070 mm
Food: tape 50 rounds
Rate of fire: 600 shots/min

The task to create the first Soviet heavy machine gun, designed primarily to fight aircraft at altitudes up to 1500 meters, was issued by that time to the already very experienced and well-known gunsmith Degtyarev in 1929. Less than a year later, Degtyarev presented his 12.7mm machine gun for testing, and since 1932, small-scale production of a machine gun under the designation DK (Degtyarev, Large-caliber) began. In general, the DC repeated in design light machine gun DP-27, and was powered by detachable 30-round drum magazines mounted on top of the machine gun. The disadvantages of such a power supply scheme (bulky and heavy stores, low practical rate of fire) forced the production of the DC to be stopped in 1935 and to improve it. By 1938, the designer Shpagin developed a belt feed module for the DC, and in 1939 the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army with the subdesignation "12.7mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun model 1938 - DShK". The mass production of the DShK was launched in 1940-41. They were used as anti-aircraft weapons, as infantry support weapons, mounted on armored vehicles and small ships (including - torpedo boats). According to the experience of the war in 1946, the machine gun was modernized (the design of the tape feed unit and the barrel mount were changed), and the machine gun was adopted under the designation DShKM.
DShKM was or is in service with more than 40 armies of the world, is produced in China ("type 54"), Pakistan, Iran and some other countries. The DShKM machine gun was used as an anti-aircraft gun on Soviet tanks post-war period(T-55, T-62) and on armored vehicles (BTR-155). At present, in the Russian Armed Forces, the DShK and DShKM machine guns have almost completely been replaced by the Utes and Kord heavy machine guns, which are more advanced and modern.

The DShK large-caliber machine gun is an automatic weapon built on the gas principle. The barrel is locked by two combat larvae, pivotally mounted on the bolt, for recesses in the side walls of the receiver. The fire mode is only automatic, the barrel is fixed, ribbed for better cooling, equipped with a muzzle brake. Power is supplied from a non-loose metal tape, the tape is fed from the left side of the machine gun. At DShK, the tape feeder was made in the form of a drum with six open chambers. The drum, during its rotation, fed the tape and at the same time removed cartridges from it (the tape had open links). After the drum chamber with the cartridge arrived in the lower position, the cartridge was fed into the chamber by a bolt. The drive of the tape feeder was carried out using a lever located on the right side, swinging in a vertical plane when the loading handle, rigidly connected to the bolt frame, acted on its lower part. At the DShKM machine gun, the drum mechanism has been replaced with a more compact slider mechanism, also driven by a similar lever connected to the loading handle. The cartridge was removed from the tape down and then directly fed into the chamber.
In the butt plate of the receiver, spring-loaded buffers of the shutter and the shutter frame are mounted. The fire was fired from the rear sear (from the open bolt), to control the fire, two handles on the back of the vaporized triggers were used. The sight is frame, the machine also had mounts for an anti-aircraft foreshortening sight.

The machine gun was used from the universal machine of the Kolesnikov system. The machine was equipped with removable wheels and a steel shield, and when using a machine gun as an anti-aircraft wheel, the shield was removed, and the rear support was bred, forming a tripod. In addition, the machine gun in the anti-aircraft gun was equipped with special shoulder rests. The main disadvantage of this machine was its high weight, which limited the mobility of the machine gun. In addition to the machine gun, the machine gun was used in tower installations, on remotely controlled anti-aircraft installations, on ship pedestal installations.