RIFLES AND MEDIUM WEAPONS

JACKHAMMER

Pancor Corporation's Jackhammer is a combat shotgun that was developed by the US firearms designer John Andersen in early 1980s as a special military weapon. He patented the design that was used as a base for all future modifications in 1984. Only several working prototypes of this combat shotgun were built at the end of 20th - beginning of 21st century. Mass production of these shotguns started two years prior to the WWIII.
H&K SL6

Despite having decent technical characteristics H&K SL6 rifle is barely used nowadays having been replaced by a superior SVD rifle.
АК-74

In 1974 Soviet Army adopted several weapons with 5.45 mm ammunition. It includes AK-74 (standard version), AKS-74 (a version with a folding metal stock for Airborne Forces) and squad automatic rifle RPK-74. AK-74 is an extremely popular weapon. It is often a used by those who wielded Benelli rifles previously. AK-74 has many positive features: long effective range, large clip, high rate of fire, good shock damage and mounts for additional accessories (from barrel jack to the grenade launcher). The only negatives are its large weight and shortage of ammunition.
BENELLI RIFLE

"Benelli rifle" - is a weapon equally well suited for hunting humans and rats. This rifle is very popular with 5th-6th level characters, especially Corsairs or characters training to be Corsairs. It takes 12mm ammunition and has an 8 round magazine. Benelli rifle has good shock damage and grouping.
XM117

XM-117 - compact automatic rifle (assault rifle or Submachine Gun per Colt's internal classification) Colt Commando was created in 1965 due to a need for shorter and handier weapon expressed by the US special forces during the Vietnam war. Colt's Engineering team simply took the M16 design and shortened the gun barrel almost in half (from 508 to 254 mm) and shortened the stock by 76 mm while also making it folding. Nowadays, this carbine is practically not used anymore due to its short effective range, low grouping and shock damage.
SVD SNIPER RIFLE

The Dragunov Sniper Rifle was designed by E. Dragunov in 1958 and adopted by Soviet Army in 1963. The SVD is chambered for a special sniper grade bullet with a steel core, also known as "Sniper ammo 7.62S mm". Even in our post nuclear time this is still the most effective sniper rifle.
STEYR AUG

The Austrian company Steyr Mannlicher started working on a new design of an assault rifle in the early 1960s. Steyr AUG was intended as a replacement for obsolete Stg .58 caliber NATO 7.62 mm ammo rifles (a licensed version of the Belgian rifle FN FAL). Steyr AUG went into main production in 1978.
M16A2

The history of the design and adoption into the army use of the second (after AK-47) most popular assault rifle in the world, M16, deserves its own book. By early 1970 this assault rifle was already a fully operational and accepted model with quite a few technical advantages (it had its shortcomings too). Compared to its main competitor Kalashnikov assault rifle (AKM), M16 has better accuracy and grouping in semi automatic mode, is lighter and easier to use. On the other hand, M16 is not as rugged and requires better grade ammo. It is also not as reliable as AKM in harsh conditions (dirt and dust).
SPAS-12

While Italian pasta manufacturers "Barilla" and "De Cecco" were marching under "Make pasta, not war!" slogans, "Franchi" and other main Italian gun manufacturers were faced with an increasing terrorist threat. In 1960s Italy and many other European countries were engulfed in a wave of terrorist activity. For this reason "Beretta", "Benelli" and other gun manufacturers joined together to design a new shotgun for antiterrorist units. Thus, in 1980, was born "Franchi SPAS-12" with its pump action semi automatic firing mode and many other unique technical characteristics, which made it the best shotgun of the time.
H&K PSG-1

"H&K PSG - 1" - is one of the most successful models ever made by Heckler & Koch. It took over a year to design and another six months to finalize the rifle. The result was a highly accurate and reliable model. The only drawback of PSG-1 is, its relatively short for a sniper rifle, effective range.
SAIGA

Semi automatic carbine Saiga is a decent rifle with good effective range, high shock damage and mounts for additional accessories. However, its heavy weight, small magazine capacity and low grouping prevent it from becoming a popular and widely adopted rifle.
H&K G36

The German gun maker Heckler and Koch started working on the design of a new assault rifle G-36 in the early 1990s, initially under the internal name of HK-50 (or Project 50). In 1995 G-36 was adopted by Bundeswehr (West German Army) and in 1999 by the Ejercito de Tierra (Spanish army). Other than that, G-36 was also used by United Kingdom's police and was exported to United States for use by law enforcement agencies.
AKSU

AKSU is a shortened version of the AKM-74. It has a shorter effective range, lower grouping and shock damage but it still somewhat popular.
XM8

In 2002 Alliant Techsystems (ATK) received a contract for development of a new lightweight assault rifle that could replace M16 rifle. Heckler and Koch worked on the actual design of the rifle under ATK's supervision. XM8 was considered a good candidate for the replacement rifle. It was supposed to have reduced by 20% mass compared to that of M16, which in combination with 5.56mm cartridges with light composite shell would have made this rifle much lighter. The rifle was adopted and mass-produced starting in 2006. Nowadays, this rifle is relatively rarely used but its good technical characteristics do place it in the pack of effective modern weaponry.
XM8 COMPACT

Assault rifle XM8 in Compact Carbine configuration. This variant has a shorter barrel thus reducing the overall length of the rifle and is intended for use by vehicle crews. Unfortunately, the reduced barrel length had a negative effect on grouping and effective range.
VSS VINTORES

Silenced sniper rifle VSS VINTORES (Special Sniper Rifle) was designed for special operations that require silenced weapons. The rifle was designed by TSNIITochMash located in city Klimovsk. Special subsonic cartridges with effective range up to 400 meters had to be developed especially for this rifle. The ammunition used is a 9x39 mm cartridge with regular or armor piercing bullets that were based on 7.62x39 cartridges of 1943 design. VSS has been in active use by Russian Army since the end of 1980s. Every weapon has its followers and so does this one. Its good technical characteristics make it quite an attractive rifle.
AS VAL

The AS "Val" (Special Assault Rifle) was developed in the second half 1980s and was intended for use by various Soviet Special Forces. The design was based on the 9 mm VSS VINTORES sniper rifle as a part of the 9 mm family of silenced weapons for special operations. AS was adopted by the Soviet Army and law enforcement agencies at the end of 1980s together with the special 9 mm subsonic cartridge with armor piercing bullet designed for it. The assault rifle can effectively penetrate body armor of the enemy for up to 400 meters. Nowadays, AS VAL is not really used by any Special Forces units but can still be found.
PPSH

The PPSh-41 (Shpagin Machine Pistol) was created and adopted for use in 1941 in the USSR. PPSH-41 was an extremely simple and inexpensive to produce weapon of that time. It was mass-produced only during the World War II (approximately 6 million guns were made). Right after WWI PPSH-41 was phased out from the active duty but was still manufactured and exported to third world countries. In some African countries it could still be seen in active use even in 1980s. Nowadays, this is the weapon of choice for improving rifle weapon skill. PPSH-41 is primarily used against monsters only. Its main advantage is large capacity magazine and relatively low AP single shot requirement.
SKS-45

The SKS-45 is a Russian semi-automatic carbine, designed in 1945 by S. G. Simonov. It is formally known as the Samozaryadnyi Karabin sistemi Simonova (Self-loading Carbine system, Simonov). It was tested during the WWII and adopted by the Soviet Army alongside with AK-47 in 1949. Even though SKS-45 was as reliable and simple to use as AK-47 it was less effective compared to an assault rifle with fully automatic fire capability. The evidence for this was clearly seen during the war and SKS-45 was soon phased out of the Soviet Army service. Nowadays, carbine is not very popular due to its low grouping and short effective range.
THOMPSON M1921

US Army captain John Thompson started designing machine pistols after creating the Auto-Ordnance Company in 1916. He purchased a patent for delayed blowback breech system that he used later in his designs. The first working prototypes were introduces in 1919 and the mass production started in 1921. M1921 is the first major production model. It featured a distinctive vertical fore grip, partially ribbed barrel and high rate of automatic fire. M1921 is a very popular weapon for fighting monsters and improving rifles weapon skill, yet it is rarely used in large battles.