PTRS-41

The PTRS-41 is a 14.5x115mm-firing anti-tank rifle used by the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II. It appears in Call of Duty as a mounted weapon and Call of Duty: World at War as a portable weapon.

History
The rifle entered mass production in 1941 and was widely used on the Eastern Front in World War II. It was expensive to produce a Russian anti-tank rifle. Due to its scarce availability of ammo and the awkward design, it was rarely seen on the battlefront and it was mainly only in use in the 1941 campaign, but the Germans began producing their tanks with much heavier armored plating, so it was somewhat ineffective due to the new anti tank weaponry.

The 14.5 mm antitank rifles were put to a variety of other uses. Besides tanks and armored vehicles, they were used to destroy mortars, anti-aircraft, and machine gun emplacements. Some ambitious gunners even shot at aircraft.

During World War II, a number of these rifles were captured by the Germans and used by them. The Germans used the designation Panzerbüchse 784(r) or PzB 784(r).

The PTRS-41 and rifles like it were given to the Chinese and North Koreans during the Korean War, where they were used against light tanks and other vehicles.

The use as a sniper rifle in Call of Duty: World at War is greatly exaggerated. The design would make it close to impossible to be used as a sniper rifle in real life.



Design
In the years between the World Wars, the Soviet Union began experimenting with different types of armor-piercing anti-tank cartridges. Finding the 12.7x108mm insufficient, they began development of what would become the 14.5x114mm armor piercing round. Famous Soviet weapons designers such as Vasily Degtyaryov and Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov designed rifles to accommodate this cartridge. In 1938, Simonov designed the PTRS-41, a magazine fed, anti-tank rifle which later became the inspiration for the design of the SKS rifle.

The five round magazine is loaded into the receiver and held under pressure by a swing magazine under the receiver. On firing the last round the bolt is held open, and the magazine release catch can only be operated when the bolt is locked back. The PTRS is gas operated. It has a tendency to jam when dirty, and the 14.5 mm cartridge produces significant residue, which may lead to a blockage in the gas port. The 14.5 mm armour-piercing bullet has a muzzle velocity of 1012 m/s. It could penetrate an armour plate up to 40 mm thick at a distance of 100 meters.

Call of Duty
In Call of Duty, the PTRS-41 appears in the level Pavlov like it did in the real battle but in the real battle he had them on the roof and would shoot the roof of the tank, where the armor is weak, whenever they got close enough to the house. Pavlov also had them in a semi-basement area, as the tank turrets couldn't depress enough to fire at them. It has unlimited ammo, does not need to be reloaded, and will fire as long as you hold down the fire key\trigger. The PTRS-41 can destroy a Panzer with 4 or so frontal hits, which would be impossible in real life.

Call of Duty: World at War
The PTRS-41 is unlocked at level 57. It is seen during the Soviet Red Army Campaign missions of Call of Duty: World at War. It is often likened to the Barrett .50 Cal seen in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. In real life, its 6 foot length and 44lb weight would prevent it from being used as a conventional sniper rifle. It is designed to be used while prone for medium range engagements with a spotter/loader, and does not mount a scope. How it is held ingame is impossible, as the barrel would dip the weapon downwards. It also portrayed in the game as a bolt action rifle even though the player uses it like the semi automatic rifle it is in real life.

In singleplayer, it is extremely powerful being the only weapon that takes only one hit to kill anywhere at any range. In the mission Vendetta, it can be used. To find it, when you fend off the first large group of German soldiers while covering your comrades, after they advance, and after you fend off some Wehrmacht in close range, there will be a mounted MG42. Near it leaning against a wall will be the PTRS-41. The mission Heart of the Reich also harbors this sniper rifle during the end of the mission in which it is located in a ruined building before stepping foot inside the Reichstag. It is also available in the mission Downfall in which you snipe the opposing German forces on the opposite side of the balcony and then provide fire support for your comrades on the bottom of the Parliament floor.

The PTRS-41 and the Barrett .50 Cal are often compared to each other, though the PTRS-41 has a larger bullet and is much longer. They are similar in that they are both very loud with similar recoil. The PTRS does the exact same damage as all of the scoped bolt actions (multipliers aside) in-game. Note that it can fire faster than the other bolt action rifles (there is still a small pause between the shots, but not as much as bolt actions) and reloads quicker by placing a full magazine in instead of reloading each round one by one, though, this becomes a slow reload at the cost of pulling the operating bolt back for an empty magazine. In this case, the bolt action rifle's reload would be far faster if you were to fire 1 or 2 shots and then reload, or use Reload Cancel. Also, the PTRS-41 does not sway around as much as the bolt actions when scoped (4 degrees instead of 6). This makes it the second most accurate sniper, behind the M1 Garand. For sniping, the PTRS-41 outclasses all bolt action rifles in terms of rate of fire and accuracy, but ties them in everything else, as the base damage for all snipers is 70, which it should be higher for the PTRS because it has an extremely big bullet, roughly 57-58 caliber due to it being an Anti-Tank rifle at one point.

The general rule in a multiplayer game is that the PTRS-41 is a single-shot kill anywhere except the limbs when using the Stopping Power perk. Without the Stopping Power perk however, it requires two shots to any section of the body except the head, chest, and neck. The PTRS-41 is extremely loud as shots can easily be heard from across even the largest maps. Also, the PTRS-41 is the only primary weapon that can do noticeable damage to tanks. Although it doesn't do very much (depending on where the shot hits it can do from around 10-30 damage, out of 1350 health), other guns do less than 1 damage per bullet. Unlike other sniper rifles the PTRS-41 is so powerful that it is possible to shoot off an opponent's limbs and send gore flying out from the opponents body.

Occasionally, people will spam with the PTRS-41 due to its semi automatic nature. This is could be interpreted as a sign of an inexperienced sniper who is vainly trying to hit a target by firing as fast as possible or someone who is attempting to intimidate the other team with the blast.

Trivia

 * On the back of the gun in CoD WaW, a Soviet hammer-and-sickle engraving can be seen.
 * Even though there is the back half of the iron sight, there is no forward sight.
 * This is the only weapon that cannot fill into the space in the weapon stats menu at http://www.callofduty.com/ (you have to have an account linked to your console or PC's online mode to see this)
 * This is the only sniper rifle capable of blowing limbs off soldiers.
 * It is the only sniper rifle available in Verrückt, Shi No Numa, and Der Riese
 * In both multi-player and zombie modes players tend to reload cancel after their character inserts the five round en-bloc clip to save time.
 * The PTRS-41 produces a large sound similar to the Barrett .50 cal, which can be heard across most of the map
 * The PTRS-41 is similar to Call of Duty 4's MP44, as both weapons lack any Marksman challenges, don't have any unlockable attachments, and are the last weapons of their class to be unlocked.
 * If you look closely at the PTRS-41 when you're out of ammo, you will notice that there is still a cartridge in the chamber.
 * Converted to American measurements, the PTRS-41 uses a .57 caliber cartridge (as it was an anti-tank rifle), making it the largest caliber sniper rifle in any Call of Duty game, closely followed by the Barrett M82, which uses a slightly smaller .50 caliber cartridge.
 * In real life, the PTRS-41 can have a bipod (it was an anti-tank rifle)
 * When the PTRS-41 is placed in the Pack-a-Punch Machine it is turned into "The Penetrator".
 * The Weapon is unlocked in multiplayer at a level equal to its caliber, 57 (the cartridge the PTRS fires is a .57 of an inch in diameter).