- Avtomat Shpagina Obr. 1944
The Shpagin is known as a light machine gun, like the PPSh-41, which entered trials in 1944 to become the new M43 medium automatic weapon. While other designs – including the Kalashnikov’s successful AK predecessor – used a gas piston-driven system, Shpagin’s pistol was a simple adaptation of a direct blowback design to the new cartridge.
In order to successfully slow down the movement of the trigger to allow firing, the bolt was made very heavy. With the weapon weighing 5.5kg, the bolt weighs 1.2 kg. When the gun was fired, the vibrations were described as extreme. Due to the poor performance of the Shpagin rifle, there were no further attempts to create a blowback rifle in intermediate calibers.
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Avtomat Shpagina Obr. 1944 and Avtomat Simonov AS-106-11-56