SVT-40

The Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva, Obrazets 1940 goda (Tokarev Self-loading Rifle, Model of 1940, Russian: Самозарядная винтовка Токарева, образец 1940 года) is a Soviet semi-automatic rifle, which saw widespread service in World War II, but was never an official Service Rifle (standard-issue rifle).

History
The design of the gun traces back to the early 1930s when Fedor Tokarev gave up his attempts to design a recoil-operated self-loading rifle, and concentrated on the gas operating principle. Stalin had a great interest in semi-automatic infantry rifles, and in 1935 a design competition was held, which was won by the rifle designed by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. By the time of the German invasion of Russia, the SVT-40 was used by the Red Army, but the Russians lost many of the rifles during the war. The SVT-40 was relatively expensive to manufacture, and troops with poor training had difficulty maintaining the rifle. The Germans observed use of this semi-automatic rifle and some German troops even captured and used them themselves. The German weapon engineers studied the gas systems of the captured rifles and later based their Gewehr 43 design on it, updating their previous semi-automatic rifles and solving many problems with their ineffective gas system. The rifle fell out of use before the war's end because of its complexity to manufacture, although it was used in Vietnam in small numbers by the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong.

Call of Duty United Offensive
The SVT-40 semiauto rifle appears in United Offensive and holds 10 rounds inside a detachable box magazine. It has good accuracy and can kill with two to three shots to the torso or from one shot to the head. However, it has harsh recoil that makes it difficult to focus on your target after firing. It's ironsights are cramped and hard to aim with, making it difficult to get precision shots. It can be used in close quarters, but the recoil might make it difficult to continuously fire on a target.

Strangely, the SVT-40 reloads faster from an empty magazine than reloading it while there are still rounds in it. However, upon further viewing of the reloading animation it becomes clear that due to the cocking handle being held to the rear after running out of ammunition it is not necessary for the soldier to fully cock the weapon, only release the handle before firing.

The SVT-40 is named the "Tokarev SVT-40" in Call of Duty, to include the name of its creator, Fedor Tokarev.

Call of Duty 2
The Call of Duty 2 SVT-40 has managed to fix everything that was wrong with the UO one. It has much more manageable recoil, making it much easier to get a bead on a target after firing. The ironsights are much more open, giving the firer some breathing room while he's trying to find a target and make accurate shots, and it has the accuracy and damage (two to three chestshots or one headshot for a kill of its UO counterpart). Those changes make the CoD2 SVT-40 a very worthy rifle, right up with the Garand.

Call of Duty: World at War
This is the rifle everyone starts out with in multiplayer and it is a good starting weapon. The SVT's iron sights are quite similar to the Heckler and Koch weapons found in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Many players will be at a stalemate when attempting to find the best rifle. It is only up to preference if the player chooses the SVT-40 or the Gewehr 43, as neither, minding attachments, are very different from each other.

The Aperture Sight for the weapon appears to increase recoil, as the Aperture Sight will bounce back and then snap right back into place. However, this is merely a visual effect and does not affect accuracy whatsoever. With the Telescopic Sight, the SVT-40's chevron-shaped sight is slightly smaller than on the Gewehr's telescopic sight, for more accurate shots, and has a slightly larger viewing area, for a broader view when scoped.

The SVT-40 has high accuracy, low recoil, and good power (30-40). However, it has a relatively low ammo capacity of 10 rounds, which is paired with its qualities as a semi-automatic. Restating the fact, the SVT-40 can attach a Flash Hider, an Aperture Sight, and a Telescopic Sight.

The weapon is available in the later stages of the Soviet Red Army Campaign missions. Mainly "Heart of the Reich" and "Downfall" contain this weapon. It is used by some Soviet troops (the weapon replaces the Mosin-Nagant in "Heart of the Reich" but in "Downfall" the Mosin-Nagant is still present) while other Soviet troops will use the PPSh-41 extensively. The SVT-40 has had an unfortunate reputation for being a cumbersome and some what inaccurate semi-automatic rifle, indeed it was the longest semi-automatic rifle of the war but when paired with a trained marksman it was devastating at medium to long range.

Trivia

 * When equipped with the Telescopic Sight, the SVT-40 looks remarkably like a sniper rifle, more-so than the Gewehr 43 w/ Telescopic Sight, as the scope is somewhat larger and the front sight is removed.


 * The SVT-40 shares ammo with the Mosin-Nagant, but the Mosin-Nagant does more damage.
 * The icon shown when picking up the SVT-40 shows the magazine is way farther up the rifle than it should be.
 * In the official game guide (which was released before the actual game) states that on can earn the AVT-40 upgrade making the magazine bigger and adding a fully automatic capability. It seems as if this was originally intended for the game but was scrapped.
 * The magazine is much farther forward in the game than in real life, as shown when AI soldiers put their hand behind the magazine.