Recently, a group of photos of the 85 sniper rifle appeared on the Internet, and this 85 sniper rifle appeared on the battlefield of Russia and Ukraine and was taken by Ukrainian soldiers. Many foreign netizens judged based on the inscription of the gun body that this Type 85 sniper rifle should have been imported from Iranian from China in the early years and was prepared to be provided to Houthi armed . Later, it may have been intercepted by the US military and finally sent to Ukraine as military aid. Although many netizens believe that this sniper rifle may also come from Iraqi , Iraq has not provided arms everywhere at present, so the outside world generally believes that this Chinese sniper rifle is likely to come from Iran.
Judging from the inscription of the gun body, this sniper rifle should have a history of decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, China exported a large number of Type 85 sniper rifles to Asia, Africa and Latin America. Because of its excellent performance, good reliability and cheap price, it was an important product for China to export foreign exchange earnings at that time. The early exported Type 85 sniper rifle was directly named type-1985, and the subsequent export business was mainly managed by Poly Group and Northern Industrial Group. The model exported by Poly Group was PDM-86, and the model exported by Northern Industrial Group was NDM-86.
From the inscription on the picture, it can be seen that the gun model is type-1985, and there is also a triangle factory logo of Factory 296, which shows that the gun should have been exported directly by the state in the early stage. Based on the timeline and historical situation, this Type 85 sniper rifle was probably exported to Iran during the -Iraq War. After many years, Iran was given to as military aid to Syrian , Iraq, Houthi armed forces and other armed forces, and was finally intercepted or seized by the US military.
In fact, in recent years, the West has often intercepted Iran's arms assistance, including the Chinese 80 general machine gun , the Type 85 anti-aircraft machine gun and the Type 40 bazooka are all the main weapons of Iran's military aid. Since the Type 85 sniper rifle is the product of China's imitation of the Soviet svd sniper rifle, for Ukraine, which also operates the SVD sniper rifle, it is natural for the United States to send this gun to Ukraine. Therefore, it is obvious that the outside world speculates that this Type 85 sniper rifle is from Iran.
85 sniper rifle, as my country's first large-scale sniper rifle, has been the main sniper rifle of our army and the armed police forces for a long time since its launch, and has also kicked off the research and development of our army's special sniper rifle. In fact, as early as the 1960s, our army began to actively explore and research sniper rifles. At that time, we successively installed special scope on the Type 53 Rifle and 6 Semi-automatic Rifle as sniper rifles to meet the PLA's needs for accurate shooting at long distances.
However, it can be seen from this that China did not have a systematic understanding of sniper rifles at that time, and its understanding level was still in the World War II period. It believed that sniper rifles only provided precise firepower support to infantry at medium and long distances. Therefore, these two types of rifles were only small-scale equipment and did not receive attention from the army. This situation changed in the Sino-Vietnam self-defense counterattack.
In the Sino-Vietnam self-defense counterattack, the elusive Vietnamese snipers frequently conducted precise shooting and harassing our army, which once caused a considerable loss. In order to reverse this situation, China began to urgently develop sniper rifles. In order to gain time, China directly used the captured Soviet-made SVD sniper rifle to survey and map and imitate it, and launched the 9 sniper rifle , which was provided to the frontline for use. The gun was later formally finalized in 1985 and was renamed the Type 85 sniper rifle.
The Soviet Army's SVD sniper rifle is the first modern semi-automatic sniper rifle designed for squad-level sniper and medium- and long-range fire support. It has high shooting accuracy and good reliability. Once launched, it was deeply loved by Soviet officers and soldiers. In terms of gun structure, SVD largely follows the automatic principle of AK-47 automatic rifle . In order to improve accuracy, SVD uses a short-stroke piston to replace the piston air-guiding principle of AK-47.
SVD uses a 4x24mm PSO-1 scope with a magnification of 4 times and is designed with a distance reticle, each divided into 100 meters, which can facilitate shooters to quickly calculate distance parameters and adjust shooting status. The SVD adopts a hollow wooden stock, and the air conduit is also designed with a gas regulator to adjust the gas volume as needed. The SVD is also equipped with a bayonet seat and a mechanical aiming device for easy use by infantry in special circumstances. The 7.62x54mm special sniper rifle bullet 7N1 used in SVD has an initial muzzle velocity of 830m/s, high accuracy and powerfulness, and is also equipped with a dedicated tracer armor-piercing bullet.
However, since SVD adopts a semi-automatic launch method, the bullet will have a collision with the upper bullet slope when loaded, causing wear to the warhead, which will affect the accuracy of long-distance shooting. Therefore, the accuracy of SVD is 1.5-2MOA at a distance of 600 meters, which is a significant gap with high-precision sniper rifles. Moreover, since the gun is not equipped with a bipod, the scope is also fixed on the side, which is not only troublesome to load and unload but also prone to bumps, but also makes the gun's accuracy easily affected. However, the SVD is very manipulated and durable. The air guide device and the interior of the gun barrel are chromed, which is highly corrosion-resistant and easy to clean, making it ideal for large-scale equipment use. The gun has also been exported to many countries due to its excellent comprehensive performance, and it can be seen in hot spots around the world.
China conducted a comprehensive survey and mapping and 1:1 imitation of the SVD provided by the Soviet Union to Vietnam. It is basically the same as SVD in terms of principle structure, gas-guided automatic method, 10 round magazine supply, 4x optical scope , etc. However, although this Type 85 sniper rifle looks almost the same as the SVD, the Type 85 sniper rifle is still very different from the original SVD in terms of performance.
First of all, in order to save costs, the Type 85 sniper rifle did not develop special high-precision sniper bullets, but used Type 53 7.62x54mm machine gun bullets. Although the size is appropriate, since the original SVD adopted a 315mm rifle-entangled barrel designed for 7N1 sniper bullets, this led to the early imitation of sniper rifles with bullet scattered circles with a diameter of significantly larger than the captured sample gun, and even 100 meters of zeroing, which was not accurate at 200 meters, and the phenomenon of transverse bullets occurred kilometers away, and the accuracy became worse. Later, China changed the rifle entanglement distance of the Type 85 sniper rifle to 240mm to solve this problem.
Secondly, because China did not have the original drawing during the imitation process at that time, the sample gun was not in good condition, and the domestic mechanical processing level and optical level were insufficient, resulting in poor quality of the scope and large adjustment knob retraction. The dovetail slot and gun body of the scope are not tight enough. When used, due to recoil and various vibrations, the scope often becomes loose, which affects the shooting accuracy.
In addition, China lacked the use information of the original SVD and the lack of experience and theoretical knowledge of sniper rifles at that time, resulting in many problems during the use process. For example, the Soviet army's use regulations opposed the frequent disassembly and assembly of scopes and gun body accessories, but China's regulations stipulate that the scope should be frequently disassembled when maintaining and entering the warehouse, which led to the scope being often loosened. In order to avoid obvious cumulative errors in the adjustment mechanism, the scope requires that there are many restrictions and precautions when adjusting the scope's handwheel, which is more troublesome to use.
Although there are certain problems with 85 sniper rifle , it is undeniable that its reliability is excellent. The large power and collagen range make it still have strong vitality. Our army snipers have used the Type 85 sniper rifle to create a 1,300-meter sniper record. In actual combat, they have also effectively suppressed the enemy's large-caliber machine gun, general machine gun, bazooka and other weapons. More importantly, the Type 85 sniper rifle has also made China pay attention to and study the relevant technologies and combat concepts of sniper rifles, laying a solid foundation for my country's subsequent research and development of sniper rifles.
Based on the Type 85, my country has successively developed the Type 88 sniper rifle, CS/LR4 high-precision sniper rifle, and the latest QBU-191 precision shooter rifle. It can be said that the Type 85 sniper rifle opened the curtain for China's sniper rifle research, and also made our country begin to realize the advanced sniper concept in the international field, greatly improving our army's understanding of the field of sniper.From this perspective, the Type 85 sniper rifle is of great significance.
Now, the Type 85 sniper rifle is still in service in some troops, and relevant domestic units have also made a series of improvements to the Type 85 sniper rifle and launched an improved version of the NSG85, namely the CS-LSR19 sniper rifle. The gun uses a floating barrel, is equipped with a bipod, is equipped with an tactical guide rail, and a new scope, which can undergo continuous magnification of 3-12 times, and can also be installed with night vision equipment. The gun is also equipped with a specially developed .62x54mmBFL7 745R high-precision sniper bullet. The shooting accuracy of the improved NSG85 sniper rifle has been greatly improved, and the overall accuracy is comparable to that of the German G28 precision shooter rifle.
And the 85 sniper rifle that appears in Ukraine has reappeared on the battlefield for decades, but it also indirectly reflects the change process of Chinese sniper rifles from nothing to something from weak to strong. However, this 85 sniper rifle that looks basically the same as the SVD, if the Ukrainian army directly uses the SVD bullet, it may feel that the accuracy is not good. Although the two appearances are the same, the development directions of the two guns are not the same.
