Russian Orsis T-5000 Sniper Rifle
Russia has had a major impact on the development of the 20th century small arms but it is not known for producing accurate weapons. While the West obsessed about firearm accuracy, in the East they instead focused on reliability and ease of maintenance. Whenever I see photos of Russia target shooting competitions I always notice many overseas manufactured rifles and optics being used. That said, during the past few years I have seen more and more match/target-quality rifles being produced in Russia (or at least marketed outside Russia).
I recently learn't about a Russian company called Orsis who are making custom high-accurate rifles. They produce the entire rifle, including barrel, of their own design. The company can produce one-off custom rifles or small batches or rifles. They also provide high-precision shooting and load development.
They recently had a rifle called the Orsis T-5000 on display at an arms expo. MicroBalrog has translated an article about it into English ...
The rifle is produced in two calibers: .308 Winchester for short and medium ranges and .338 Lapua Magnum for medium and long ranges, and is intended for use by Russian counter-terrorist and special-operations units.
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The Moscow arms factory owned by the company is the first in Europe to manufacture rifle barrels using single-pass cutting on computer-controlled equipment. “We are the only company in the world that uses such technologies on an industrial scale”, – A. Kostin added.
He also stressed the fact that “Promtechnologii” is a full-cycle company. “We make the rifle completely and assemble it. All our solutions are unique. The barrel, bolt, frame – all of them are made using our own technological solutions”, said the Orsis representative – “Our advantage is the fact we study the world’s industrial and technological experience, rework it artistically and add some of our own inventions.”
[ Many thanks to Boris for emailing me the info. ]
As long as the accuracy is more consistent than the SVD. I’ve heard horror stories.
Clearly the lack of Soviet calibers makes this a export only rifle. Too bad it didn’t come in 7.62X54R.
No argument about your original claim — the AK-series rifles and the AR-15 are a very different approaches to the modern assault rifle — but USSR always did produce some excellent .22lr firearms for competitive target shooting; no domestic markets obviously — but when their national pride was at stake — their leaders were happy to bankroll the production of Olympic quality target pistols. The TOZ-35 was a pretty top-notch gun in its day — still a beautiful and well made firearm.