Puşca Semiautomată cu Lunetă

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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with ROMTEHNICA-RATMIL PSL. (Discuss)

Ethiopian soldier fires a PSL sniper rifle at a shooting range outside Camp Ramrod, Ethiopia

The PSL (Romanian: Puşcă Semiautomată cu Lunetă, semi-automatic rifle with scope) is a Romanian military sniper rifle.

PSL rifles are made at the Regia Autonomă de Tehnică Militară (RATMIL) - CUGIR arsenal in Bucharest Romania. Their primary purpose is to be used by a Designated Marksman and is used to extend the reach of a typical soldier beyond the capabilities of their issued AKM carbines. It is built around the stamped steel RPK light machine gun receiver and its operation is that of the Kalashnikov family of weapons, but is similar in appearance to the SVD Dragunov. The weapon is chambered for the venerable M1908/30 7.62 x 54R (rimmed) cartridge, and feeds from a ten-round detachable box magazine. The magazine used on the PSL differs from that of the SVD in that it is stamped with an X shaped pattern on the side, rather than the waffle style stamp found on the Russian magazines. The magazines, though they look similar in shape, are not interchangeable between the SVD and PSL.

The PSL is typically issued with a version of the PSO-1 telescopic weapon sight, this version lacking the battery compartment is illuminated by mildly radioactive Tritium. The tritium is usually removed before export. The optical sight is of 4X magnification and the lens is 24 mm in diameter. It shares the basic design and rangefinder found in the reticle of the original Russian scope. The scope can be easily removed from the receiver of the rifle by swinging the locking lever open, then sliding the scope mount to the rear. This allows easy use of the iron sights.

A sporting version of the PSL, intended for export, is offered as the Romak-3, or SSG-97. This weapon is similar in almost every respect, but typically has had the bayonet lug ground off, as well as several other minor aesthetic modifications to comply with the U.S. import laws regarding assault weapons. The rifle is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "FPK" as well as "Dragunov". If a person encounters a Romanian PSL with a receiver stamped with "FPK" or "Dragunov" they have found an example which was assembled in the US from a parts kit (and stamped with the wrong name). Workmanship of military issue PSL is generally slightly higher than it's export versions which is relatively crude and unfinished in the same manner of finish as the AK-47.