Degtyarev Plant PK LMG

The PK is a 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun designed in 1960 in the Soviet Union and it was made from 1961 to 1969 in ZID factory in Kovrov, Russia. The new machine gun was to replace the RP-46 company machine gun, and the SGM medium machine gun. The development project was embarked on by two teams of TsKB-14 designers, including G. I. Nikitin and Yu. M. Sokolov in the first one, and V. I. Silin and V. F. Pererushev in other one, and designer G. S. Garanin of the Kovrov-based OKB-575 design bureau. The gun uses a non-reciprocating charge handle on the right side of the receiver to charge the gun, and the gun fires from an open bolt, which improves cooling compared to a closed bolt design, and prevents the gun from being able to cook off if extremely overheated. Firing is performed from bipods. The machine gun fires cartridges with conventional, tracer and AP-incendiary bullets and bullets of increased penetrability. The cartridges are fitted in a non-disintegrating belt. The 100 and 200 rd belts are stowed in portable boxes. Typical of Soviet machine guns, the standard model feeds from the right and ejects its spent cases via an ejection port on the left side of the weapon, contrary to the right side ejection port seen in most Western machine guns. The PK was modernized in 1969 into PKM machine gun.