Wednesday 19 August 2020

PTRD Instructions

 "Instructions on handling the PKB* 14.5 mm anti-tank rifle
  1. The PKB anti-tank rifle uses the force of the recoil to open the breech and extract spent casings.
  2. The loading of the rifle is done manually by inserting and ramming the cartridge through the opening in the top of the receiver with a subsequent locking of the bolt.
  3. The bold is locked by vigorously pushing the bolt forward so that the bolt handle touches the cutout in the receiver and slides downwards along it until it is locked in place to avoid misfires due to an improperly locked bolt.
  4. In case there is a misfire with a properly locked bolt, the firing pin must be recocked by pulling it back until the hammer is raised. If there is a second misfire, the cartridge is extracted by opening the bolt (up and to the left) and pulling it back to the rearmost position. A new cartridge is loaded. If the new cartridge also misfires, check if the firing pin is broken or the firing mechanism is dirty. Correct the fault.
  5. To fire the rifle correctly, the shooter must place it on the bipod such that the legs are vertical in such a way that the barrel can move freely towards the shooter during recoil.
  6. To place the firing pin in safe and lock the breech during movement, the firing pin is pulled back to the rearmost position and turned to the right by 90 degrees until the tab lines up with a slot on the receiver.
  7. To make aiming easier, the cheek weld can be adjusted and fixed with bolts.
  8. When firing, the shooter's left hand must be propping up the wooden stock. It is not acceptable to hold the neck of the stock to avoid being hit by the recoiling bolt.
  9. When firing at up to 400 meters, the sight must be pushed downwards. When firing at over 400 meters, the sight must be flipped upwards.
  10. Firing dirty or lubricated ammunition may result in partial fouling of the breech. In this case extraction is performed manually. If extraction is tough, it is permitted to knock on the bolt handle and metal parts.
  11. To remove the bolt when cleaning press the stopper on the rear left of the receiver.
  12. The following steps are taken when cleaning and inspecting the bolt.
    1. Take the handle with the left hand and pull back the striker with your right to the rearmost position, then turn right to decouple the case and the bolt.
    2. Using the body of the striker that prevents the firing pin from decoupling from the guide rod, move it to the side to take it off the firing pin. All parts can now be easily removed.
  13. The assembly of the bolt is performed in the following order: first assemble the firing mechanism the insert it into the bolt.
    1. Put the striker casing, limiting tube, and spring on the firing pin guide rod.
    2. Put the striker casing on, compressing the spring with the smooth rear part, put the firing pin on the striker guide rod in such a way that the circular opening in the casing completely encompasses the thicker part of the firing pin and the tab in the firing pin fits into it.
    3. Take the bolt with your left hand by the handle and insert the firing mechanism into it by pushing the hammer down, pushing on the striker with the thumbs of both hands to push it into the breech. When turning the striker case to the left the tab should easily enter into a slot on the breech.
      Turn the firing pin to the left to enable the safety and insert the bolt.
      Correctness of assembly is tested by dry firing.
Composed by anti-tank rifle courses chief Major Zamyatin
Approved by chief of production, Technical Intendant 1st Class Savtskiy"

* The PTRD rifle was initially called PKB after the design bureau that developed it.

3 comments:

  1. PTRD rifle that's interesting case- according Polish manual from 1945, PTRD that's a gun which automatically ejected case after shot. Soviet manual also show this information. But according my knowledge, PTRD typically don't ejected empty case after shot. IIRC PTRD typically only partially unlocking bolt after shot. Even oryginal movies from WWII show that PTRD don't ejected empty case automatically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1zl4S4t7Uo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, in this video you can see in the third shot that the case is not ejected automatically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw7mvYn7JdQ And it's also quite illogical. For this to work, there had to be a system that lifted the bolt handle, then pushed the bolt back to eject the case. How could this possibly work on a bolt action rifle?

      Delete
    2. Actually, I now found this video explaining how the automatic ejection works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUO3Bmt5XTQ In the video in my previous message, the cases must have just failed to eject properly, maybe because of the type of ammunition or something.

      Delete