How accurate is Dragunov sniper rifle?

Answer 1

The Soviet military standard was approximately 1 to 1.25 MOA with 7N1 ammunition, depending on the barrel twist (the Soviets changed it somewhere in the 70's).

Accuracy of 1 MOA (minute of angle) is a 1 inch group shot on 100 yards.

With standard military ball, the accuracy went down drastically to 2-4 MOA. Contrary to popular belief, the SVD is a sub-MOA capable rifle. I have shot 0.9+ MOA groups with the 7N1 ammo and there are people who achieve 0.7 and less with their own handloads.

There are several facts that add to the urban legend that the SVD is an inaccurate rifle. Firstly, there are people who mistake the Romanian PSL for a Russian SVD even though they are only superficially similar rifles. Many people also shoot standard light ball out of the rifle and expect it to perform to the top of its abilities, which is silly - no sniper in the world would expect to get the best out of his rifle with ammo made to achieve sufficient accuracy in machine guns. Anyway, a lot of it also depends on the shape of the rifle and on the barrel twist. And last but not least, many people just can't shoot. If anything, the rumors about SVDs being 4+ MOA rifles are greatly exaggerated.