One of my co-workers sent me some photographs of himself at a WWII reenactment in Kiev, Ukraine. One of the ‘Germans’ atop an armored scout car had a rifle I’ve never seen before, and I know most of the basic WWII long guns from that theater. Is this some kind of experimental weapon? It almost looks like a prototype Simonov, but part of it looks like a G-41 or G-43 in places. It’s obviously not a normal G-41/43 or an AVS-36, and it’s not right for either the SVT-38 or SVT-40, but I just can’t think of another self-loading battle rifle from that time period that would show up in that theater.
sorta looks like an old johnson. That’s one of the lesser known, yet awesome, WWII era rifles.
the heat shield and mag are different though
It’s some mock up, using a SVT-40 stock and receiver, with a G43 mag, and some weird forend.
I’m betting that they can’t have real firearms, even realistic deacts, without a whole lot of paperwork and regulation.
VZ 52/57?
It is a SKS.
If you cover the front portion of the firearm at the front of the top handguard, you can see that it is a SKS, modified to look like a Tokarev or a carbine version. It has a modified magazine, I can’t really tell what type. Remember, the overall length of the stock magazine on a SKS is alot longer than the 7.62x39 round, thus the magazine openning is alot larger. The front of the stock appears to have a Mauser 98k bayonet lug and front band(appears to be a milled model)on the front and a cut down metal heat shield from a Tokarev rifle, modified as an extension of the upper wood handguard.
Hope this helps.
RBMIII
Still working on ID’ing the mag, I like a challenge.
I thought I saw some Simonov influence there 
Some of the other photos showed ‘normal’ MP40s and PPSh’s, and Vlad said they were firing like mad during the reenactment. Then again, Vlad’s not a gun guy, and had no idea if those weapons were capable of firing live ammo. I was impressed with the amount of WWII materiel they had. Lots of them were wearing pea-camo smocks, etc. They were rolling some SdKfz-222 armored cars, and of course plenty of T-34s and such. Apparently they were reenacting the liberation of Kiev.
More, photos you say:D
One of the guys I work with is a re-enactor here in the Twin-Cities with a S.S. unit. Some of those guys, oy the money they have into it. The vehicles alone, halftracks, kubelwagens, motorcycles, etc and the guns.
Hell of an interesting hobby, but the wifey keeps me in check, otherwise I’d join, but I would probably be trying to build a Tiger tank in the garage from scratch.
I know a guy in Phoenix who had a T-34/85, SdKfz 251-D, Pak-36/37, and several motorcycles with sidecars. Those guys really get into it. Watching him mount his MG-34 onto the halftrack, towing the Pak, was awesome.
I don’t know about Ukraine, but AR-15’s are readily available for sale legally in Russia.
On topic, that appears to be some sort of VZ or SKS mock up.
Here’s the full photo:
Nice, I wonder if I were to build one in the garage, if I could hide it.
Maybe a BBQ grill?
Thanks for sharing, it is nice to see living history reenacting go strong
elsewhere.
I’ll ask him to send me some more photos from the event. They were apparently rocking some flamethrowers in the dry grass, and much hilarity ensued.
+1 to SKS receiver and it looks like an M38 or M44 Mosin carbine stock to me.