Home Reviews Gp Svd Dragunov
by Arnie

G&P
SVD Dragunov
Stock
Specifications
FPS
430fps
/ HFC22
Length:
1220mm
Barrel
Length:
 ?
Weight: 3400g

Ammo
capacity:

30
rounds

G&P


Background
I
can’t remember when I first fell in love with this russian beauty,
that answered to the name Dragunov SVD. I don’t think it was
that many years ago, and it wasn’t until I’ve been into airsoft
for a while that it dawned on me. I just had to have an Airsoft
SVD.

I was
drooling over the PDI Dragunov for a while, but since it’s powered
from an external source, it didn’t really cut it for me. I had
my thoughts of buying a PDI Dragunov and convert it to an AEG
or even better, keeping the gas system and fitting an internal
gas reservoir. These plans, or dreams, did however not go any
further than the inside of my head. The price of the PDI SVD
kept me from even trying to find out if it was at all possible
to do anything about that external reservoir or not.

Then
there are those “Dragunov kits” that supposedly converts
a Marui AK-47 into a Dragunov. These kits are fine if you want
to turn your AK into some kind of Frankenstein’s monster, they
just felt so wrong. Sure, with a little (a lot) of work you
might be able to come up with something that resembles a Romak-3,
which I actually was thinking about for a while. But no, it
was a Dragunov I wanted, nothing else.

I contacted
Trapper Industries in the UK. They had just released an air
rifle variant of a SVD. I was told that they had plans on building
an AirsoftSVD that copied the original to a much higher degree
than their air rifle, which I thought sounded promising. They
kept me up to date with their progress and the first pictures
looked promising. It was being built around an AK mechbox. When
the gun begun to take it’s final form, it no longer looked like
a Dragunov to me. They supposedly based it on a Finnish version
of the SVD instead, a Valmet, but I have never been able to
find any pictures of any Valmets that looks like the thing Trapper
created. The finish Dragunov is actually quite similar to the
russian counterpart. In hind sight, I’m pretty glad that the
Trapper SVD looks like it does. If it looked good, I would probably
have bought it, and considering the experience I have with their
RPK kit, I’m pretty sure of that I would have been extremely
disappointed.

Then,
right out of the blue, just as I was about ready to put my AirsoftSVD dreams aside, G&P released their version. It was exactly
what I’ve been having wet dreams about. A gas blowback Dragunov
that looked real nice according to the pictures available. Gas
might not cut it for everybody, but I’m a big gas blowback enthusiast
and almost fell out of my chair out of joy when I got a confirmation
of that it was using an internal gas reservoir. It was expensive,
but not unobtainable. I just had to have it!

How
is it?
The only parts not made of wood or metal in the gun
is a couple of O-rings and a tube in the gas system. The metal
isn’t of the usual “hobby quality” usually found in
Airsoft guns either. It’s very sturdy and will probably survive
a car running it over in the woods. Ok, chances are that the
long barrel will be bent, but I think you get my point.

The
finish might not be the best, a Marui AK-47 has better finish
and fits together better than the G&P Dragunov. With this
said, the Marui AK-47 is in no way a better replica than the
G&P Dragunov, on the contrary. Those who have used an AK-47
in real life often says that the AEGs are better built and fits
together much better than the real deal. The paint has been
running on the receiver cover, there were small black spots
of paint all over the wood pieces and metal filings was found
in the mechanism. With this said, the only Airsoftgun I’ve
seen first hand that even plays in the same league as the G&P
Dragunov when it comes to looks and feel is the Tanaka Kar98.
My former Sun Project M40A1 felt “toyish” in comparison,
and that was a real nice all wood/metal rifle that got quite
a few “wows” when shown to people used to the standard
Marui AEGs.

After
spending hours on the web and with a bunch of books, comparing
detailed pictures of real Dragunovs to my replica, I’m more
or less sure of that the G&P Dragunov is mostly built using
real SVD parts wherever possible. The only parts that I’m pretty
sure of doesn’t come from a real NDM-86, which is the chinese
built Dragunov, is the outer barrel, and, of course, everything
that makes it into an Airsoftgun. I haven’t pulled the gun
into atoms yet, but I’ve looked inside the receiver, comparing
it to detailed pictures of the real guns, and they look exactly
the same. Same thickness of the goods, same flanges etc.

The
gas reservoir is located inside the front grip, and is
filled through one of the venting holes. When the gun
is gased up it’s time to fill the magazine with some BBs.
The magazine is a gutted, genuine, SVD mag in which they
have put a Marui shotgun shell. It can in other words
be loaded with 30 BBs. To push the magazine into the gun
takes some effort since the mag release is pretty stiff,
but by using some force you are thanked by a distinct
click when it snaps into place. Once there, it sits rock
solid.

When
the magazine is in place and the gas reservoir is full,
you only have to put the safety in the “Fire”
position and pull the trigger. There’s no need to cock
the gun before you can fire the first shot like you have
to do on most gas blowbacks. I guess it functions more
like a non blowback gun with added blowback if we are
going to get technical.

When
you pull the trigger, the gas system pushes the bolt backwards
about as much as on a PSG-1. The difference is that the
bolt on the Dragunov is quite heavy so it produces some
feeling of blowback. Nothing like the kick of a Western
Arms SVI 3,9″ running green gas, but more like something
in between an WA SVI 5″ running hfc134a and the TM
UZI. Or maybe a TM UZI on steroids might be a better (or
worse) description? Anyway, it’s not much, but it gives
you some feeling of blowback.

The
lack of hop up makes the BBs hit the ground faster than you
can say “Vodka”. A good quality spring pistol out
shoots it with ease. Calling it usable right out of the box
would be a big lie, and since it’s made in such small numbers
(I have number 19) I doubt that any after market parts will
ever show up for it. If you want to make it usable, it’ll be
entirely up to you. My next project will be fitting a tight
bore inner barrel and a hop up system to it. The gas system
is quite consistent, pushing out the BBs at a reasonable stable
150m/s (490fps) using green gas. Combined with a new barrel
and an addition of a hop up will hopefully make it at least
skirmishable and on par with a M130 tuned AEG, which is totally
fine by me.

When
it comes to the scope, I felt that I wanted a scope with russian
markings instead of the one that G&P offers along with the
gun which have markings in English, so I bought a russian PSO-1
scope instead. There are bigger and better versions of the PSO
scope available, but I wanted the classic Dragunov scope for
my gun. It comes with an illuminated reticle, retractable sun
shade and a simple range finder and is simply put a rather nice
scope.

Conclusion
Is it worth the money? Probably not. If you are looking
for a sniper rifle, there are a whole bunch of them
out there that are both cheaper and better. I doubt
that it’s even possible to make the Dragunov perform
like a budget upgraded PSG-1, at least as long as
you want to keep the gas system. Do I regret buying
the Dragunov? Hardly! For me, it’s worth every penny,
and hopefully every hour I’ll spend, probably cursing,
trying to make it skirmishable. If you are somewhat
of a Dragunov freak, have plenty of patience and not
afraid of a challenge you won’t be disappointed and
I only have one advice to give to you: Buy one!

Appearance

10/10
(It doesn’t get any more real than this)

Build
Quality

8/10
(Built like a tank but needs a clean up)

Performance 2/10
(Nice power but lack of hop up renders it useless)

Value
for Money

3/10
(It’s hardly the most sensible gun to buy)

Overall
Potential

?/10
(I’ll get back to you on this one)

External
Links:
Seriemordarna

Site
links:
Mats’
KHC Maverick review

Comment
on this review in the forums


Last
modified:
Sunday, January 26, 2003 6:05 PM
Copyright 2003 ArniesAirsoft




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