PTRS 41: The Soviet Semiauto Antitank Rifle (aka an SKS on Steroids)

Cool Forgotten Weapons merch Prior to World War Two, the Soviet Union had a rather lackluster interest in antitank rifles a series of guns were developed, but slowly and without all that much success. The Barbarossa invasion gave a very immediate need for just this sort of weapon, however, to give Soviet infantry units an organic antiarmor capability. Two star Soviet designers were tasked with designing AT rifles, Degtyarev and Simonov. The cartridge they were to use was the new a highvelocity monster using a tungsten carbine cored projectile. After a shockingly fast development period, the guns from both design bureaus were accepted. The Degtyarev became the PTRD41, a singleshot autoejecting design that was extremely cheap and fast to produce. The Simonov design became the PTRS41, a 5shot semiaut