Weapons of Russian Snipers Seen During a Live Fire Exercise
While doing a research for another article I came across a set of photos taken during live firing exercises of Russian Ground Forces’ snipers in Alabino proving grounds. Reportedly, the images are taken in December 2017. Let’s take a look at them and discuss the most interesting aspects.
The large rifle shown in the images is a KSVK anti-materiel rifle. It is a .50 caliber bullpup bolt action rifle chambered in 12.7x108mm. It is manufactured in V.A. Degtyarev Plant located in Kovrov, Russia. This rifle has a 1,000mm or one-meter long (39.4″) barrel and an overall length of 1,420mm (56″). It feeds from 5-round detachable box magazines. KSVK rifle weighs 12.5 kilograms (27 lbs 9 oz) with an attached empty magazine and without the scope.
I think it is probably not the best choice to use a full-size AK as a secondary weapon for the snipers and designated marksmen. I suspect if these guys are deployed, they’ll be issued something more compact like AKS-74U. The lack of any camouflage on the AKMs as opposed to the rest of the gear, makes me think that these AKMs are not a part of their standard gear but were issued for this particular exercise only.
Two snipers working in pairs and practicing shooting through a window or a hole in the wall. You gotta be creative on the battlefield, too – note the improvised chairs. Note also the non-standard muzzle device on the rifle of the soldier on right.
If you have noticed anything interesting that I missed, let’s discuss it in the comments section.
Managing Editor Being a lifelong firearms enthusiast, Hrachya always enjoys studying the history and design of guns and ammunition. Should you need to contact him, feel free to shoot him a message at Hrachya@TheFirearmBlog.com
More by Hrachya H
Comments
Join the conversation
It's probably layered training. They are issued standard AK's and need to know how to use them, so they have to carry them around for training quals. When they're operational they would likely have sub-guns or an 74. These guys look very capable. They use Western gear when they can as I can see in many images. The difference between their specwar snipers is probably the tech. and I see they have a different uniform, similar but different.
I'm interested in the ATACS rip off as well.. doesn't really look like an improvement and in a few cases the blotching looks improvised ( green blotches on the ATACT FG knock off).. e.g. rattle canned.
Still that big bullpup bastard looks like it's a hoot to shoot..once