#VssVintorez

Recently a very burnt VSS 9x39mm marksman’s rifle turn up on a Ukrainian auction site. The remains of the rifle are described as a trophy and photographs show most of the major metal components of the weapon including its bolt, main spring, receiver and suppressor shroud. The weapon’s stock, plastic forend and top cover aren’t present, however, the cover is probably lost and the stock/pistol grip and forend are probably destroyed by fire. The remains of the metal tab for the sling are still attached to the sling loop.

It’s now three weeks since Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine. We have seen the Ukrainian Armed Forces put up an impressive fight while Russia’s forces have stalled since their initial attempts at a lightning advance failed. While images of burnt-out or abandoned Russian armoured vehicles have dominated the news and social media there have been some interesting small arms seen. Everything from the newest Ukrainian AR-15s to Russia-backed separatists with Mosin-Nagants.

Today we have pictures from the Russian-Pakistani Friendship shooting competition from 2018. The results were a draw, but we’re left with images of interesting firearms.

Each day a different image from the world of firearms. We call this POTD, short for Photo Of The Day, and it is our daily article series where we go to great lengths trying to find the most interesting pictures for you out there. Above you have a VSS Vintorez used by Special Forces of the Central Military District, at the Ironiya complex during an exercise near Novosibirsk (Russia).

Photo Of The Day and above you have one of the best photos of the VSS Vintorez ( GRAU designation 6P29) we’ve ever seen. We’re looking at a Russian soldier from the tank army of the Western Military District, as he provides overwatch for an ambush with the ultimate aim to seize “secret documents”.

Welcome back to Photo Of The Day, daily articles run by The Firearm Blog since 2014. To our knowledge, this is the most well-known place on the Internet for photos of firearms and soldiers. Fairly recently we had a look at the Slavic Brotherhood 2019 Exercise, now it’s time for a look at the participants in the “Slavic Brotherhood 2020”. In the event, there were 250 paratroopers from Russia and Belarus that practiced together.

Russian Photo Of The Day, from an event where more than 1,000 soldiers from about 100 different military and special units were involved. Firearms like the AS “Val” and VSS “Vintorez” in 9x39mm as well as the KSVK 12.7 large-caliber sniper rifle were involved in the event.

Photo Of The Day – TFB is now on our 7th year of bringing you high-quality photographs from the world of firearms. Today we have a photo report from the Russian Army around the Moscow area. There are several pictures for those who like the muzzle flash.

Photo Of The Day – TFB is now on our 7th year of bringing you high-quality photographs from the world of firearms every day. Today we take a look at Russian Recon and Special Operation units (Russian Airborne Forces) as they prepare themselves for the Polar Star competition.

Today’s Photo Of The Day is a mixture of photos from the Russian exercise Tsentr 2019, which involved 8 countries in 17 locations.Tsentr 2019 was aimed at “countering the threat of international terrorism” and involved no less than 128 000 troops, 20 000 pieces of military equipment, 600 aircraft and 15 ships.

VSS Vintorez is one of the iconic Soviet/Russian special forces’ weapons. It is unique in every aspect – from the cartridge it is chambered in to the integrally suppressed design. No wonder why the demand for clones of this weapon on the Russian civilian market is also high. Who doesn’t want a Vintorez even if it has a fake suppressor and fires in semi-auto mode only? Here is a brief overview of the Vintorez clones that we saw at Arms & Hunting 2018 exhibition held in Moscow, Russia.

A few weeks ago, I had a pleasure of working with Larry Vickers on his trip to Russia. He had a unique chance to check out some of the newer Russian weapons, we visited some amazing museums and saw some incredible weapon collections.

Russian Tula Arms Plant, the manufacturer of the VSS “Vintorez” integrally suppressed rifle, has recently added a couple of versions of the rifle to the list of civilian products on their website. In order to qualify as civilian firearms, these weapons were converted to semi-automatic only. Both rifles are chambered in 9x39mm just like the original VSS “Vintorez”.

In this article we’ll take a look at three unusual and less-known firearms design by Pyotr Serdyukov, the designer of the SR-1 “Gyurza” pistol,  VSS “Vintorez” and  AS VAL suppressed rifles. Just like the more famous ones created by Serdyukov, the guns discussed in this article were made for the special forces.

The Belarusian Historical and Cultural Complex “Stalin Line” has published a video telling about current small arms of Belarusian special forces. None of them is an unknown firearm, yet it is still interesting to see what combination of guns and accessories they use. You can watch the video (in Russian) and as always, we’ll take a brief look at each of the guns.