The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I have had a couple of Russian night vision scopes knocking about for a while but really wanted a 1pn21 pancreatic sniper scope for the Dragunov and was lucky to be offered one in exchange for my 1pn58 nv scope by a guy in the States.The 1pn21 is usually a 3-9x42 zoom scope, but this one is a 4-12x42 and they differ from normal zoom scopes in that once it is zeroed on the lowest setting ("4"= 400m) you never touch the windage and elevation turrets again and the zoom settings, 4,5,6 etc then correspond to range in 100s of metres, so if your target is 700m away just turn the zoom to "7" and aim dead on and it is calibrated for standard Russian 150gr steel-cored 7.62x54r ammunition.The scope itself is built like a tank with brilliantly clear optics and a fully illuminated reticule.I can't wait to get it zeroed on the Dragunov and try it out on F range at Sennybridge.The photo shows the PSO-1 4x24 for comparison




The reticule, the numbers around the outer edge are the zoom/range settings, the small box with the line below it is a rangefinder based on a 1.7 m high target (feet at bottom line, head at top of box) and the aimpoint is the inverted chevron in the centre of the horizontal scale with windage correction marks either side of it and the chevron below is used as a 1300m aimpoint when the zoom/range is on "12".


How it works, image is of the 3-9 version but the operation is the same

Here's a pic of it mounted on the Dragunov.I emailed the BeLoMo factory in Belarus regarding a manual for the scope and received a reply yesterday from a very nice lady called Olga who sent me a copy of the user manual, in Russian but I've translated the important bits, so its all systems go to get it zeroed on Saturday.

I remember the Viking having a 3-9X with some odd BDC system on her SVD, it took some setting up however it worked well once sorted.

Thanks for showing , I thought all Russian Mil scope used stadiametric range finders.
It Looks great - When did those 1pn21 started to be produce ?

froggy wrote:Thanks for showing , I thought all Russian Mil scope used stadiametric range finders.
It Looks great - When did those 1pn21 started to be produce ?

Development started around 83/84 and they were field tested in Afghanistan and officially adopted by the Russian military in 1989.They 3-9x42 version is more common than the 4-12 which is rare even among the military and was only produced by special order in batches of 200.The lady at BElomo was actually very surprised I have one in the UK and said they have been out of regular production for quite a few years.It is an interesting scope in that the main body is connected to the mount by two thin but incredibly strong pieces of steel and as the zoom and therefore the range is adjusted the main body is raised or lowered accordingly.The early trial versions used a different mount that sat a lot higher than the final production version.

Early PSP-1 version, note the higher mount


From dragunov.net

"This is the Pre-'85 NPZ-developed early variant PSP-1 (aka military Index code 1P21) pancreatic sniper sight, circa 1983/84. It was extensively field tested in Afghanistan on the SVD. Through these efforts, a much improved version entered pilot production at Novosibirsk by 1985 and was officially adopted by the Soviet Army in 1989. At that point in time, series production was transferred to the big Soviet optics factory located in Minsk (Zenit) in modern day Belarus. The improved version is the one we commonly know today. Normally optics don't get their GRAU codes until they are "adopted' but apparently they called this early version a 1P21 before the improved version came out, and didnt bother to change or modify the nomenclature when this was done (factory nomenclature was PSP-1). Although the mount was heavily modified, I guess the basic optical mechanism was pretty much left as is and they didnt think this called for a revision on the model designation. They do that quite often with their equipment, then at other times they seem to add a prefix code for the smallest of reasons".

Great . Thanks for those details . How does the range finder work exactly ?

froggy wrote:Great . Thanks for those details . How does the range finder work exactly ?

This is for the 3-9x42 version but the principle is identical





Once the scope’s magnification dial mark 3 set up on the 12 o’clock mag readout mark and the scope is zeroed at 300m (330yds) distance, you can automatically determine the distance to the target and zero the upper chevron for distances of upto 900m (990yds), if the size measurements of the target are known and fit within rectangular.By rotating the magnification / range dial knob you have to bring the target within the limits of the rectangular & horizontal line, which measure the hight levels 0,75 - 1.5m & 0.5m width. The distance to the target is the number on dial mark set on 12 o’clock readout mark: 3 - 300m; 4 - 400m; 5 - 500m ... and upto 9 - 900m. If the target size differs from the pre-set measurements of the rectangular, you can calculate the distance and zero on the target by

using the horizontal aiming scale. Eg: if the width of the target is 2m and it fits within two horizontal marks, the distance to the target is 100m, if it fits in one mark, the distance is 200m. Each division of horizontal scale measures 1m width at 100m distance and can be used for windage correction by shifting the aiming point left or right by one division, which moves the point of impact by 10cm (4”) at 100m (110yds) distance or 1m at 1000m distance

Thanks VM for your comprehensive answer - ingenious and fast
Enjoy Tovarich !!

That sounds like a really fun scope to shoot with!

Got out to the range yesterday to get the PO zeroed and was confronted with an inch and a half of snow, so ideal for the Dragunov!.
Initial shots where around 7" high and 3" to the left but after about 30 rounds and some tweaking this was the resulting 5 rounds at 100m with Russian 150gr steel cored milsurp, not bad for machine gun ammo!!!.Very impressed with the scope and now it is zeroed at 100m the BDC is calibrated so I can't wait to stretch its legs at Sennybridge.


Smoking Kills.......so does 54r!.


Not as cold as it looks and zero wind