Mystery Russian Rifle in Photo on the Front Page of August 20th Wall Street Journal

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Anthony

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Can anyone identify this Russian service rifle pictured in the hands of a Russian soldier stationed in the republic of Georgia?

The photo appeared on the front page of today's (August 20th) Wall Street Journal.

Thank you for the input.
 

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It's a fully integral silenced sniper rifle used by Speznaz. I forget the exact designation....
 
as_val1.jpg


It's a Russian AS "Val" in 9x39mm. Integrally suppressed.
 
Okay, this is like the third time someone's asked what the VSS Vintorez is.
Geez, guys, why can't you just spend all day reading world.guns.ru like me? :rolleyes:
Oh, because you have lives. :uhoh:
Hey, I'm getting one of those, too. :D
 
The repeat of threads tells us two things. First of all that this is the first time we've seen old Ivan in a few decades. He has some new hardware. Secondly that this particular firearm is getting paraded around a lot more now than in the past.

Also, I want one.
 
The VSS seems to be near-general issue! Either that or Russia has exclusively sent the best of the best.
 
PTK: The VSS seems to be near-general issue! Either that or Russia has exclusively sent the best of the best.
Click to expand...

Probably the latter, given the nature of the conflict (a curb-stomping). It will be interesting to see how they deal with poland... here's hoping the spetznatz aren't involved.
 
Dunno, Poland *is* a NATO member, but they might be able to repel a Russian incursion without the aid of NATO, given the (relative) sophistication of their armed forces (i.e. they make Georgia look like Madagascar in comparison).

Still very interesting to speculate on at this point, but stocking up on the odd can of spam might not be a bad idea :D
 
The previous thread on this subject was locked because it wandered into political territory. Since the question has been answered here, this thread will also be locked if it wanders even a little bit off-topic.
 
Do you have any information on how widespread the VSS is issued? Thanks!
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assuming that it is a 'specialized' weapon, i believe that it is in quite widespread use; it was spotted in hands of military recon / scout troops, Spetsnaz, as well as in the hands of various LE SWAT-type organizations.

Latter also use less expensive 9A-91 and VSK-94 guns in the same caliber.

The 9x39 is generally liked for urban work due to its serious stopping power and AP capabilities, although ammo tends to be quite expensive compared to standard 5.45 or 7.62
 
Does that caliber have any potential as a hunting round?
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well, guess yourself - an .35 cal FMJ with 260gr bullet and at about 920 fps at muzzle - that's about 480 ft-lbs of energy...

sort of extra-heavy .357 Magnum, possibly will work well on deer in thick woods.

....

in full automatic, from a suppressed weapon - that's some serious hunting indeed :evil:
 
I was going to post a thread yesterday asking this same question about that Journal image. However I looked and looked and could not find the image on the internet. Glad someone posted a thread about it, at least now I have my answer.
 
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