Question

[Legbreaker]

Anyone know what this is?
Looks Russian, but it's not one of the usual suspects (PTRS or PTRD)...
Image first appeared online in 2009 from what I can see.

Attachment 4118

[Olefin]

Looks like a gun that the Terminator would just love to have

[Raellus]

It looks like an improvised, custom-made anti-materiel rifle cobbled together from a couple of other weapons. The barrel looks like it's from a DShK heavy machinegun. The stock looks custom-made (but not particularly well).

[Legbreaker]

Barrel is almost certainly from a DShK machinegun, but with a different (bigger) muzzle brake.
Rear end looks cobbled together and if you look closely, the "trigger" appears to be very similar to a bicycle brake lever.

Hmm, now I look closer, it IS a DShK - they've just added a stock with scope (even left the original spade grips and rear sight), thrown on a bipod, changed the brake and looks like they've added a plate to hold an ammo box (the thing that looks like a magazine).

Wonder if it can still fire bursts?

[swaghauler]

I'm on my lunch break so this will be brief. I have to agree with Raellus that it is an improvised weapon. However, I do NOT believe it is a KPV. It is MUCH larger and I think you are looking at a 20mm weapon here. The person holding it is dressed as either a former Yugoslavian Army soldier or a Chechen Army soldier so this gives us a clue to what it might be but I was not really able to ID it until I Googled the Isreali TCM-20 20mm AA Gun. The cannon in the photo is a Hispano-Suiza HS.404 20mm, just like you see ALL OVER Africa, that was probably made by Zastava. The reason I couldn't ID it initially (despite KNOWING I had seen one in person) is that its UPSIDEDOWN. The 404 SHOULD have its mag feed and the gas piston/recoil rod assembly ON TOP of the barrel. This gun has both UNDERNEATH. It eventually dawned on me that they turned the cannon upsidedown and welded on a stock assembly resembling one several types off of various anti-materiel rifles in current use (and probably containing a hydraulic piston to reduce the recoil impulse). They fabricated a pistol grip with a "squeeze-cocker" style trigger because the 404 uses a "butterfly trigger" like the M2 Browning (or a solenoid for electric remote fire). The recoil brake is a Berrett M82 "harmonica style" version on steroids. The mag appears to be a homemade 5 or 6 rounder. The factory 10-rounders are much longer and curved (they probably don't fit between the gun and the ground in this configuration).

Anyway, that's my take on this weapon.

Swag.

[Raellus]

Could be, Swag. You make a compelling case. The feed on both weapons, as you pointed out, is similar. The barrel, however, looks more like that of a DShK than the HS.404- note the ribbing, down almost the entire length of the barrel, and the taper near the ad-hoc muzzle brake- both feature prominently on the DShK. the HS.404 has much less visible ribbing and no discernable tapering. Also, the front post sight on the anti-materiel rifle is nearly identical to the one on a DShK. The HS.404 doesn't have one.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Could be, Swag. You make a compelling case. The feed on both weapons, as you pointed out, is similar. The barrel, however, looks more like that of a DShK than the HS.404- note the ribbing, down almost the entire length of the barrel, and the taper near the ad-hoc muzzle brake- both feature prominently on the DShK. the HS.404 has much less visible ribbing and no discernable tapering. Also, the front post sight on the anti-materiel rifle is nearly identical to the one on a DShK. The HS.404 doesn't have one.

The older M74 variant 20mm had a ribbed barrel too. I also thought it had a very large box magazine hanging down to boot (which a "duska" wouldn't have). In my defense, I was looking at it on my company-issued LG Flip-Phone. I usually use my S7 as a "wifi hotspot" for my laptop. This time I forgot my Galaxy at home. Seeing it on my laptop, it is obviously a DShK. Why on Earth they put that god-awful huge "harmonica brake" on it is beyond me. It's at least TWICE the size of an M82's brake. The "mag" I was seeing must be a big feed tray as it is missing from other photos of the weapon.

This does lead me to an issue I want to let the forum know about. When using the LG (3G), I wasn't always able to bring up a keyboard in Tapatalk. I could NOT bring up a keyboard with EITHER the LG OR my S7 in the Search Forum Function. Is this just me or is that part of Tapatalk just bugged? This is the first time I have ever used Tapatalk so I'm not familiar with it.

[Legbreaker]

Found it.
It's basically just a standard DShK with a few bits added.
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2...d-ground-role/
The link has a fair bit of info about it.

Attachment 4119

Attachment 4120

[Legbreaker]

A closer look. Shame it's all in Russian.
https://youtu.be/g26XjC0Fv8M

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Considering that the situation the Ukrainians found themselves in is presumably one of "lots of heavy MGs and not many tanks to put 'em on", this weapon for similar reasons, would not be out of place in the T2k setting.
It's not as though it's a new weapon, it's essentially a simple buttstock and trigger unit stuck on the end of the DShK - pretty much the kind of field expedient you would expect to see in the T2k world.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

A closer look. Shame it's all in Russian.
https://youtu.be/g26XjC0Fv8M

Yep, just a modernized Dushka.

A closer look. Shame it's all in Russian.
https://youtu.be/g26XjC0Fv8M

This, on the other hand, is a Kord -- an actual production heavy machinegun, and more heavily modernized. The Russians began producing these because the former Soviet Republic (can't remember which one offhand) where the factories for the Dushka are located refused to sell their products (along with any military product of their country) to the Russians anymore. So the Russians basically designed their own Dushka, improving it as they went. It's now the standard heavy machinegun of Russia, and adorns vehicles as well as being found in ground units. I don't know why the Russians didn't push their weight around more over this issue, but thinking about it, they probably didn't think such a small issue was worth the trouble, and they had a chance to modernize the Dushka as well.