Vladimir Onokoy is a small arms subject matter expert and firearms instructor. Over the years he worked in 20 different countries as a security contractor, armorer, firearms industry sales representative, product manager, and consultant.
His articles were published in the Recoil magazine, Small Arms Review, Small Arms Defence Journal, and Silah Report. He also contributed chapters to books from the “Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov” series.
► Email: machaksilver at gmail dot com.
► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vladimir-Onokoy-articles-and-videos-about-guns-and-other-unpopular-stuff-107273143980300/
► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vladonokoy/
► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/machaksilver
It is hard to write gear reviews. If you only used an item for a few weeks, you hardly have a valuable experience to share. But when you own something for many years, like this 5.11 Sabre 2.0 jacket I am going to talk about, that kind of long term use creates a real [Read More…]
In 2018, leading Russian small arms research, development, and testing institute called TSNIITOCHMASH (and yes, even Russians can’t pronounce this name) presented a new pistol called “Udav” (in Russian, “Udav” means Boa constrictor). Last [Read More…]
Normally, when you report from a defense expo, you only talk about new products, updates and stuff that was never seen before. But when you take a path less travelled to go to regional defense exhibitions like DEFEXPO, there are a lot of weapons there that have been [Read More…]
In a previous post, I mentioned that the Indian Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is perhaps the largest firearms manufacturer in the world. But, OFB isn’t the only decision maker when it comes to Indian small arms development – there is also DRDO (Defence [Read More…]
After you’ve been to dozens of defense expos all around the globe, you don’t really expect to see anything new and exciting. The time when “big reveals” of new products were done at exhibitions are almost gone, there is the internet for that. And [Read More…]
At the moment, the Indian Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is the largest firearms manufacturer on our planet. With over 80 000 employees, 41 factories and 9 Training Institutes it dwarfs any other firearms manufacturer in any other country. And DEFEXPO exhibition is [Read More…]
The second most famous creation of Michail Kalashnikov, general-purpose Kalashnikov machine gun, had a multitude of names over the last 50 years: PK, PKM, M84 in former Yugoslavia, Konekivaari KK PKM in Finland. In some southern regions of Russia, where shooting at [Read More…]
“PAPER BOOKS ARE DYING” – I keep hearing that over and over again. In a way it makes sense, but in the last few years, when I started doing more serious research about small arms (serious meaning just one level above articles like “The Deadliest [Read More…]
Every year I come to the one and only Russian civilian firearms exhibition called “Arms & Hunting”. And when I am tired of looking at petty at pitiful booths of tiny Russian gunshops and barely alive small firearms manufacturers I come to the [Read More…]
This year, Vietnam had its first large international defense exhibition, DSE Vietnam 2019. The expo was located in Hanoi downtown, next to all the museums and government buildings, just a two-minute walk Vietnam Ministry of Public Security. Not surprisingly, the [Read More…]
Even among professionals, not much is known about modern Vietnamese small arms. You can seldom see Vietnamese manufacturers at defense exhibitions and every time they make an appearance, there is a lot to talk about. This year, Vietnam had it’s first large [Read More…]
Thompson submachine gun is one of the first weapons of the XX century that become a true mass culture icon. Even now very few weapons are as legendary as an old Tommy Gun (“Chicago Typewriter”, “Trench Broom” or any other nickname you want to [Read More…]
I know many will disagree, but I think we live in a Golden Age of gun culture. Never before so much good (and bad) information was readily available. There are blogs, sites, forums, reviews, videos, manuals and training classes available to anyone who wants to learn [Read More…]
Last year, I had an opportunity to work with Larry Vickers during his visit to Russia, when he and his co-author James Rupley were working on the “Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov” series of books. One day we were at a so-called “dungeon” – the [Read More…]
Many people cringe when they hear the term “universal holster”. I understand why, and frankly, for years I had exactly the same opinion. I thought that the holster is either good or universal, but never both. And turns out I was completely wrong. As with [Read More…]
In our day and age, it is hard to imagine that some weapons still remain literally unknown to the general public. It seems that because of TFB, “Forgotten weapons” and other specialty gun blogs, no weapon is truly forgotten anymore. That is why I was really [Read More…]
After WW2, the Soviet Union was replacing its entire fleet of small arms. And while some Russian weapons that were accepted into service in the late 40s and early 50s, like AK-47 and SKS, became a timeless classic and overtime proved itself, there was at least one gun [Read More…]
When it comes to the improvement of the main service rifle of the Armed Forces, different countries demonstrate various approaches. Some decide to completely replace the existing stock of weapons, like France, that replaced the venerable FAMAS with HK416. Other [Read More…]
For the last five years, ARMY-2019 have been the biggest military weapons exhibition in Eastern Europe. Unlike many other military shows that occur every two years, “Army” is an annual exhibition, so Russian firearms manufacturers have to come up with [Read More…]
When we carry a concealed weapon, there are many choices that we have to make. Pick the right gun, the right holster, find the clothes that won’t expose it, find a way around gun free zones and overly sensitive colleagues and relatives that don’t support [Read More…]
In the previous post about Browning High Power, I already talked about the fact that great weapon designs are not always appreciated at the time of their invention. CZ75 is definitely one of those designs. Developed in Czechoslovakia in 1975 by František Koucký, it [Read More…]
Walther P99… I always wondered why this weapon wasn’t more popular back in the day. This pistol was used by James Bond (who apparently has the worst trigger discipline in history) and other movie characters. It came from a reputable manufacturer, was light [Read More…]
In XX century very few weapons were truly ahead of their time. You can argue about many designs, and if they were actually innovative, but there is no doubt that when FN Herstal Browning HP was designed in 1935 it was way ahead of any competition. Original prototypes of [Read More…]
There are very few weapons as legendary as MP5. Developed in the mid-60s by German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, it became one of the most well-known submachineguns in history and weapon of choice for many special units all around the world. It truly [Read More…]
Some time ago, I had a chance to use Birchwood Casey Super Blue to refinish a large amount of AKs (over a hundred, to be more precise). When I was looking for an effective bluing solution, I found a surprisingly little amount of actual reviews featuring different [Read More…]
A lot of people these days are complaining, that the firearms industry in recent years is very boring and there is no real innovation anywhere. Companies are mostly tinkering with proven 60-year-old designs, inventing new, often useless, accessories, and trying to sell [Read More…]
When it comes to concealed carry, just having a gun and successfully concealing it is only half of the equation. Another half are skills – situational awareness, legal knowledge and last but not least – marksmanship. In the previous article, I talked [Read More…]
Everyone knows about the Soviet “burp gun” – PPSh-41. But its predecessor, PPD 34, is much less known, both in Russia and internationally. There are many reasons for that – one of them is the fact that very few of those guns are still existing [Read More…]
The concept of balanced recoil has been around for a long time. The main idea of this design is pretty simple – to counter the impulse of the bolt carrier moving back, there is a special rod that moves forward at precisely the same time. Both counter [Read More…]
Everyone knows the first rule of a gunfight – “bring a gun”. But just having a firearm is not enough to maximise you chances in case of a self-defence shooting. You would also benefit from proper gear and most importantly – solid gunhandling [Read More…]
Your Privacy Choices