Romania Doesn't Make the Dragunov: The PSL

When Romania vocally objected to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, it lost some of its opportunities for technology transfer form the Soviet Union. The USSR had adopted the SVD Dragunov in 1963, and it was looking like Romania would be putting that weapon into domestic production alongside the AK, but after 1968 not so much. If Romania wanted a designated marksman’s rifle, it would be on its own to develop one. So, that’s exactly what the Romanian did.

They already had a very successful factory complex making Kalashnikov rifles, and so they decided to take that design and scale it up to the 7.62x54R cartridge. The result was the PSL, with a semiautomatic only fire control group and 10-round magazines. It also featured an automatic hold open on an empty magazine, a feature only seen on one other AK variant (the early Yugoslav M64). It was fitted with a 4 power LSO-2 telescopic sight; basically a tritium-lit copy of the Soviet PSO-1.

After the Wall came down and the Warsaw Pact disintegrated, the Cugir factory complex would sell the PSL (and many other AK variants) widely on the international military and civilian markets. This has resulted in lots of Romanian PSL rifles here in the US today.

Contact:
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[istvankovasznai]

A bit of trivia at 0:52 - it says "Made by CN ROMARM SA / Cugir" stamped on the side of the rifle. (Cugir is a small town in Romania)
Back in the communist days, before 1989, there used to be a sewing machine factory in the small town in Cugir. My mother had a sewing machine that also had "Made in Cugir" stamped on the side (in Romanian, of course). I remember there were all sorts of legends and jokes that if you disassembled a sewing machine made in Cugir and re-assembled it the wrong way, you would get a machine gun. It seems they weren't that far off.

[skeltonslayer]

Russia: lest design a completely new sniper rifle

Romania: ak on steroids.

[Zumpster]

Russia: "What is better then a Kalashnikov?" . Romania: "A bigger one."

[xCAPTAINPAINx]

As a man that is in the Romanian army, this was heart warming. It really made my day and you have an A for effort on pronouncing the names.

[TheAndrew]

As a romanian its very funny how i learn more about weapons from my own country from someone in america lol

[Chevypotamus]

The PSL is what everyone thinks the Dragunov is, a scaled up AK.

[thatonemf]

I can safely say(as a romanian) that your pronounciantion of pușcă semi-automată cu lunetă was pretty good

[lennyerdody]

My father was issued a PSL when he was in Romanian army during the late 70s early 80s. He was the marksman of his seven person unit.

[costachlle]

I was that member of the infantry unit with the PSL ! As a common soldier in the romanian army, i was able to shoot three bullets at 150 meters, right in the circle of ten (the little circle) . I never held a Dragunov, but the PSL was very accurate!

[Taistelukalkkuna]

Soviets: You no get Dragunov.

Romanians: We´ll make Dragula.



*Runs away after lame joke*

[mbc]

Cugir is the name of the town these guns were produced. The factory is still up today. The name of the factory is "Romarm" and that is short for "Arme Romanesti" which translates to "Romanian Guns" so the meaning of the first row is "Made by National Company Romarm SA in the town of Cugir, Romania".

[ShockedCat]

Romania: what do you want
America: i want an Ak but accurate
Romania: Say no more fam

[snipuhh__enthusiast]

As a Romanian i never thought i'd be this proud of the weaponry of this country!

[LazlowHP]

For English speakers, pronouncing Ceaușescu as "Chow-shess-coo" would be pretty close 👌

[georgedone]

Very good and accurate material, I was doing mandatory military service in Romania in 1989 and we had one of those issued to every group of 9 infantrymen (and an AG7 RPG). Only one observation, Cugir is pronounced in romanian "Cudjir" with a short "u". Same factory was doing sewing machines and automatic washing machines. A popular joke was that a worker in the factory wanted to steal a sewing machine, he stole every day one part and when he thought he had them all, tried to put them together at home but he got a machine gun instead. He, he.

[houstonxyz]

You make about the best, no bs and most informative firearms videos I've seen so far. You also make them easy to watch w/o the so common I know everything attitude most others have. Thank you!

[Trustme]

I kick myself every day for not picking one up when they were $500 bucks around 2010

[lucianlucaci]

my father worked at that factory during the 70'. so nice to see this video and remember him

[Lightspit]

wow, finally!
Actually, the Soviets were always jerks with the Romanians. They never forget that Romanians fought together with the Germans against USSR in WW2.
When Ceausescu came to power were already 20 years of cooperation between Romania and USSR where the norm would be that the cost for any technology was severely overpriced and documentation was commonly incomplete with a lot of delays.
During the 50's and 60's Romania start to purchase licenses from neutral countries (Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, etc) and they realized that it was actually OK (best models at the time). The first diesel-electric and electric locomotives came like this making the soviets really pissed off. They had their own models and hoped to suck more money and products from Romania. Brezhnev was really angry in his visit in Romania when was presented to him the model of the locomotives asking what is that joke and why Romania is purchasing technology from the capitalist scums.
The immediate effect was the delaying of the license for the T55 tanks. The only real T55 in Romanian Army are imported and all of the other tanks are locally made.
When Ceausescu came to the power, as the result of the non-participation in the invasion of Czechoslovakia, almost all of the licenses for weapons were stopped for transfer and so this is the reason why the Romanian version of the AK74 (PA Md. 1986) doesn't really follow the AK 74 and the PSL is not really a Dragunov. Also all of the modernizations of the PK machinegun had to be developed locally. So Romania is still producing a PKM very close to its designing roots.

[sheniloiu]

Cugir is not the commercial name of the factory, it is the town were this beauties were produced.
A typical 8 men Romanian infantry squad was armed with one RPG-7, one RPK, one PSL and 6 AKMs (the RPG operator also had an AKM).