WEAPONS DESIGNER: YEVGENY DRAGUNOV Евге́ний Фёдорович Драгуно́в

Yevgeny Dragunov Yevgeny F. Dragunov
Born	Yevgeny Fyodorovich Dragunov February 20, 1920 Izhevsk, Russian SFSR
Died	August 4, 1991 (aged 71) Izhevsk, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet
Occupation	Weapons designer
Known for	Helping to invent the Dragunov sniper rifle

Yevgeny Fyodorovich Dragunov (Russian: Евге́ний Фёдорович Драгуно́в; February 20, 1920 – August 4, 1991) was a Soviet weapons designer, best known his role in helping invent the semi-automatic rifle bearing his name, the Dragunov sniper rifle.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Dragunov

Early life and education

From a family of gunsmiths, Dragunov worked as a factory machinist before beginning military service in 1939.

Career

After 1941, Dragunov was a senior armourer, working on Soviet and also captured enemy weapons during wartime. After 1945 he returned to Izhevsk and joined the Arms Design Bureau, working as a project engineer on sporting and civilian target rifles through the 1950s. One of these, the Biathlon target rifle, went on to the Olympic Gold. In 1959 Dragunov submitted his design for a military sniping rifle, the SVD, which was accepted into Soviet military service in 1963, and later became known as the Dragunov rifle.

Dragunov also participated in the competition that led to the adoption of AKS-74U with a gas-operated design called MA (malokalibrenii avtomat). Although Dragunov's avtomat was comparable in performance to Kalashnikov's, the latter had the advantage that it shared some parts with the AK-74 rifle already in production. The non-metallic parts of the MA were made of polyamides. The MA was Dragunov's last major design. The trigger mechanism used in the MA was fairly similar to the one previously used in the PP-71 sub-machine gun, which is also attributed to Dragunov.

Legacy

Dragunov was awarded the Lenin Prize and the State Prize of the Russian Federation, the latter one posthumously.

VSS Vintorez

VSS
Vss vintorez from russia
Type	Special Sniper rifle
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1987–present
Used by	see Users
Wars	Soviet war in Afghanistan, Chechen Wars, 2008 South Ossetia war, War in Donbass
Production history
Designer	Petr Serdjukov and Vladimir Krasnikov
Designed	1980s
Manufacturer	Tula Arms Plant
Produced	1987–present
Specifications
Weight	2.6 kg (5.73 lb)
Length	894 mm (35.2 in)
Barrel length	200 mm (7.9 in)
Cartridge	9x39mm
Action	Gas-operated
Rate of fire	700 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity	282–292 m/s (925–958 ft/s)
Effective firing range	300 m with iron sight, 400 m with PSO-1
Feed system	10 or 20-round detachable box magazine
Sights	PSO-1 telescopic sight, 1PN51 night vision scope and iron sights

The VSS (Russian: Винтовка Снайперская Специальная, Vintovka Snayperskaya Spetsialnaya or "Special Sniper Rifle", GRAU designation 6P29), also called the Vintorez ("thread cutter"), is a suppressed sniper rifle that uses a heavy subsonic 9×39mm SP5 cartridge and armor-piercing SP6 cartridge. It was developed in the late 1980s by TsNIITochMash and manufactured by the Tula Arsenal. It is issued primarily to Spetsnaz units for undercover or clandestine operations, a role made evident by its ability to be stripped down for transport in a specially fitted briefcase.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Vintorez

Design details

Operating mechanism

The overall operating principle and sound suppression system used on the VSS are derived from the AS assault rifle. The VSS is a gas-operated select-fire rifle. It has a long-stroke gas piston operating rod in a gas cylinder above the barrel. The weapon is locked with a rotating bolt that has 6 locking lugs which engage appropriate sockets machined into the receiver. The VSS is striker fired. It features a cross-bolt type fire selector switch located behind the trigger, inside the trigger guard; the safety lever and the charging handle resemble those used in AK-pattern weapons.

Features

The weapon has an integral suppressor which wraps around the barrel. The barrel itself has a series of small ports drilled in the rifling grooves, leading into the suppressor which slows and cools the exhaust gases. The suppressor can be easily removed for storage or maintenance, but the VSS should not be fired without the suppressor. The weapon's integral suppressor has a length of 284.36 mm and a diameter of 35.86 mm.

The skeletonized wooden stock is a more rounded version of that provided on the SVD rifle; it has a rubber shoulder pad and can be removed when the rifle is dismantled for compact storage. The forward handguard is made from a high-impact polymer.

The VSS is normally fed from a 10-round magazine and fired semi-automatically. Should the operational need arise, the weapon can be used in fully automatic mode using either its original 10-round magazine or the 20-round magazines from the AS rifle.

It uses a subsonic 9×39 mm SP-5 cartridge to avoid a sonic boom. The bullet of this cartridge weighs about twice as much as that of the 9×19mm Parabellum, giving it a muzzle energy about twice as high as that of a subsonic 9×19mm Parabellum bullet fired from e.g. a HK MP5SD.

Additionally, the bullet is very effective at penetrating body armor. It is equipped with a hardened steel or tungsten tip and can penetrate a 6 mm (0.2 in) high-density steel plate at 100 m; a 2 mm (0.08 in) steel plate or a standard army helmet can be fully penetrated at 500 m; however, the rifle is typically employed under 400 m.

 

1PN51 night vision scope

Sights

A side rail is provided, installed on the receiver and used to mount the PSO-1-1 (1P43) telescopic sight. The weapon can also be deployed for night-time use with the 3.46x NSPUM-3 (1PN75), special version of NSPU-3 (1PN51), night sight using an appropriate mount. Back-up iron sights consist of a rear notch on a sliding tangent and forward blade. The rear sight has range graduations up to 400 m, with 100 m adjustments.

Accessories

For carriage and concealment the rifle is dismantled into three main components carried in a special briefcase measuring 450 x 370 x 140 mm (17.7 x 14.5 x 5.5 in). The briefcase also has space for a PSO-1-1 scope, a NSPU-3 night sight and two magazines.

The VSS forms part of the VSK silenced sniper system. With the system, the rifle can be coupled to the PKS-07 collimated telescopic sight or the PKN-03 night sight. When the rifle forms part of the VSK system the range of ammunition can be extended to include the SP-6 and PAB-9 cartridges.

 

VSS carried by Russian Airborne Troops during the 2014 Moscow Victory Day Parade

Users

• Russia
• Soviet Union
• Belarus: Used by various special forces.
• Jordan: Special forces only.
• Ukraine