NAME (NATIVE) – Pistolet-Pulemyot Degtyareva obraztsa 1940
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
DATE OF MANUFACTURE – 1940
CALIBER – 7.62x25mm Type P
OVERALL LENGTH – 78.7 cm (31 in)
BARREL LENGTH – 26.7 cm (10.5 in)
RIFLING (TYPE & TWIST) – 4 groove, Right-hand twist, 1 turn in 24 cm (9.45 in)
BULLET DIAMETER – 7.82 mm (0.308 in)
BULLET WEIGHT – 5.64 g (87 grains)
MUZZLE VELOCITY – 488 m/s (1600 fps)
MUZZLE ENERGY – 671 j (495 ft/lb)
WEIGHT (EMPTY) – 3.40 kg (7 lb 7.2 oz)
WEIGHT (LOADED) – 5.19 kg (11 lb 5.2 oz)
SIGHTS – Front – Stepped inverted “V” with removable hood, Rear – Adjustable tangent type with square notch, graduated from 50 to 500 meters (55 to 547 yards) in 50 meter (55 yard) intervals
MANUFACTURER – Sestioretsk Arsenal, Voslov, Soviet Union
STATUS – Obsolete
SERVICE – Soviet military
This was an improved version of the earlier PPD weapons with an eye to improving ease and speed of manufacture. The short magazine well that required the feed drums to utilize a tower was eliminated entirely. Instead, the drum magazine would be inserted into the receiver of the PPD-40 to put the ammunition more directly in line with the feed ramp and barrel. The new feed system also made a much more secure attachment point for the large drum with it being more fully supported on the front and back surfaces when attached to the weapon. There is an additional wooden section of stock in front of the magazine well to allow for a handgrip.
The PPD-40 retained a machined receiver along with some of the internal parts. The front barrel jacket is threaded onto the rear receiver with the muzzle end cap also being threaded in place on the jacket. Though the jacket is made from drawn tubing and some internal parts are heavy stampings, the weapon was still fairly labor intensive to manufacture.
The sliding spring-loaded latch on the cocking handle had become a standard safety by this time. The latch could be slipped into a square notch on the upper part of the cocking lever slot to lock the bolt in the forward or rearward (safe) position. Using the same safety system as the earlier designs in the series minimized any changes in the training time for troops using the new weapon. The rotating fire selector lever at the right front of the trigger guard was also retained from the earlier designs. The barrel was internally hard chromed to help cut back on corrosion. The barrel jacket has five rows of three 9.5 mm 90.375 in) wide by 5.1 cm (2.0 in) long slots per row.
