Vintorez-M: from ergonomics to technical characteristics
In the previous articlewhich was predominantly descriptive, the exterior of the speeding courier replacement train was examined in detail
Since all the pros and cons of the configuration were discussed in the previous part, I will not return to them here. In this material I will try to give my own, subjective
Let's start right with ergonomics, which is the most understandable and tangible thing. In the case of ergonomics, in principle, everything is clear. We can have three options for assessing: "convenient", "inconvenient" and as old as the world "and so will come down."
In principle, the ergonomic parameters of the new Vintorez-M, due to the adjustable butt plate and cheek piece, can be adjusted within a fairly wide range, providing a comfortable fit for shooting from different positions for shooters with different anthropometric data. In the photo above, both the adjustment elements themselves and the mechanisms for their fixing are clearly visible. It's simple: loosen the nuts, set the butt plate and cheek to the desired position, tighten the nuts. The adjustment is complete, everything about everything took 10-15 seconds, no more!
Yes, sir ... I was dreaming, sorry. This is Russia, a country of harsh and strong warriors who cannot imagine their lives without difficulties, hardships and hardships and despise the effeminate and cutesy, effeminate NATO servicemen mired in sodomy and same-sex marriages.
Meet! The photo below shows the Steel Finger simulator developed by the best minds of the Russian defense industry for servicemen of the RF Armed Forces and other law enforcement agencies. I have never observed such a serious and comprehensive approach to personnel training in 20-plus years of close handling of various types of weapons. I am sure that regular exercises on this simulator will raise the strength indicators of the military personnel to whom these products will be assigned to a completely new, previously unattainable level.
Let's step back a bit from ergonomics and talk about technology. Fixation of the butt plate and cheek guides occurs due to the friction force arising between the guide rods and the corresponding cylindrical surfaces of the butt body. The effort required to apply 15 mm to the nuts on the shoulder to ensure reliable fixation of the guides due to friction is no less than 25-30 kg. Most likely even more. The specific value was not checked using a dynamometer, but it was possible to fix both the butt plate and the cheek only by using the ramrod link as a lever. At the same time, the effort on this lever was about 5-10 kg. Of course, trying to loosen the nuts with bare hands after that was initially a failure, but I tried. Even with gritting teeth, it is impossible to unscrew the nuts. But to injure your fingers is easy.
Clinging to the little things, I will ride along the design of the cheek.
A small wooden block screwed to the base with six countersunk self-tapping screws purchased at the nearest "Krepmarket" or construction market at the intersection of Mosin and Frunze streets. It is clear that countersinking for countersunk heads is very expensive and unprofitable, TOZ will be ruined if it begins countersinking all the holes for screws and self-tapping screws with countersunk heads. But still, honestly, the heads of self-tapping screws sticking out outward are surprising and give rise to disbelief in the seriousness of the manufacturer's approach to his brainchild.
The next stage of the travel along the butt will be the actual operation. The fact that an adjustable butt, in fact, can only be adjusted once at the base before exiting is already clear. Do not carry the secret lever with you always and everywhere, right?
As before, the stock can be detached from the receiver for covert transportation of the rifle. The butt attachment assembly has not undergone any changes and is a dovetail guide with a locking mechanism.
In contrast to the "warm" and pleasant to the touch the butt of the progenitor, made of glued bakelized plywood, the metal butt of the VSSM is perceived tactilely differently. So, in hot or cold weather, when gripping with a bare hand, the shooter experiences some discomfort. As far as I know, work is underway to develop a polyamide stock, but at the moment, the date for the appearance of a rifle with a polyamide stock has not been determined.
In general, the butt of the "grandfather" seems more practical and quite comfortable. Practicality and convenience are slightly different things. The VSSM stock in any configuration may be more convenient for someone, but it is unlikely that it will become more practical than the plywood stock of the old Vintorez. This is the private opinion of the old grump and critic, not claiming to be true, but rather extensive personal experience allows us to count on a high degree of objectivity.
From the stock, let's go further, to the receiver, forend and barrel with an integrated silencer.
The changes affected both the exterior and interior of the rifle. I will not go into details describing changes in the design of mechanisms and parts of automation elements. weapons... I can only say one thing: they exist and should provide the "baby" with an advantage over the "parent" in terms of increasing the survivability of parts, increasing the reliability of work in normal and difficult operating conditions, and firing accuracy and accuracy. If with the first two characteristics, clarity will come gradually, as experience of practical operation in various units is accumulated, then with accuracy and accuracy we are able to figure it out on the very first practical firing. Which, in fact, was done.
It should be noted here that, by and large, one should deal only with the accuracy of fire, since accuracy is ensured by the correct reduction of the weapon to normal combat. So, according to the results of shooting from a "prone" position at 100 meters with SP-5 cartridges in series of 5 shots, the leader could not be identified: in the accuracy of shooting, both "grandfather" and "granddaughter" are practically on par. From each sample, three series of shots were fired using a standard optical sight and two series with a mechanical sight. At the same time, due to the peculiarities of the approaches to design "then" and "now", the shooting of the "grandfather" took place much faster. The reason is that the shooting was carried out according to the "optics-mechanics-optics-mechanics-optics" scheme. If with the "grandfather" everything is simple and clear: I worked five episodes in succession and went to see the result, then with the "grandson" it is more difficult: after each episode with a telescopic sight, I had to take it off to work with the "mechanics". Accordingly, next it was required to carefully and carefully install the "optics" back.
The reason is simple: with an installed optical or other sight, the “mechanic” is not visible from the “granddaughter”. Absolutely. Unlike "grandfather". And why "carefully and carefully" is a separate story, we will tell it in the next article. Someday later. For now, let's return to the object of our research.
"Grandson" has completely lost the side bar for the installation of sighting devices. Personally, I cannot call it anything other than sabotage. Yes, the Picatinny rail carries the same function - the base for optical and optical-electronic sights, but practically for a fighter it carries it worse than
Of course, this position needs to be substantiated, at least briefly. In general, the appearance of the Picatinny rail on domestic small arms was due to the spread at the turn of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, first among civilian shooters, and then in special units of foreign-made aiming devices, which had certain advantages over the domestic sighting systems that were on supply ...
The reality was that the most widespread Soviet and Russian optical sights, in terms of their technical characteristics, were much inferior to the products of famous manufacturers: Nightforce, Leupold & Stevens, Shmidt & Bender, Aimpoint, etc. etc. For use with domestic weapons of imported sights, brackets were first “collective farmed” by literally each owner individually. Then there were various kinds of adapter brackets, including those of industrial production, both from the upper "dovetail" standard for Soviet-Russian sporting and hunting weapons, and from the side bar, to the "Picatinny rail" standard. Given that at the same time period, domestic enterprises were in serious decline, and foreign manufacturers of weapons and optics entered the Russian market, offering a wide range of their products in a variety of price categories, the transition to the Picatinny bar in civilian weapons was only a matter of time determined by the growth of consumer demand.
As for the army and other power structures, everything here seems to be not so simple. The fact is that the vast majority of weapons in the military have historically had a side bar as a standard place for installing optical sights. Stored weapons, too. Exactly the same story with the aiming devices available in huge quantities in warehouses and in parts. Thus, the absence of a side bar on a weapon made in accordance with new trends automatically cuts off the possibility of using, in the event of failure of the standard 1P86 sight for VSSM, the sights of the PSO-1 line and the like, available almost everywhere. The same, only to an even greater extent, applies to night sights.
In addition to the designated moment, which creates only economic and logistical problems, there are others that directly relate to the operation and use of weapons. I'll start with the question of bringing the weapon to normal combat. In accordance with the requirements of the "Instructions", all Soviet-Russian long-barreled small arms of normal and large caliber are brought to normal combat at a distance of 100 meters. When installing the optical sight, its primary alignment was carried out on the mechanical sight, and the optical sights installed on the side bar did not block the line of sight of the mechanical sight. With VSSM it is a different matter. It will not work to make a reconciliation according to "mechanics". TKHP and KPPO kits are not available in every department. Where there are - you will not always take it quickly, and if you did take it - it is not a fact that they are fully equipped and in working order. It is not always possible to "catch" at 100 meters with the first shot even for a shield the size of one and a half "chest" ones. Interesting situation, isn't it? Unlike rifles with PSZ, the VSSM will also not be able to perform "cold" alignment along the bore of the barrel: the design of the receiver does not allow to look from the breech into the barrel. Yes, you can use a mirror, but why all these dances if the "old man" "Vintorez" does not have these questions in principle?
In practice, it is not uncommon for a weapon to be exposed to external influences: falls, impacts when moving, especially when loading and exiting a vehicle (far from uncommon). If on the "grandfather" the check for "knocked down or did not knock down the optics" was quickly and easily carried out at a remote point, then the "granddaughter" has serious problems with this, which certainly does not add confidence to the fighter armed with him.
The next point is to replace the sight when the lighting conditions change. When changing the time of day during a multi-day task, the operator will have to "flip" the sights: remove the optics and set the "night light", and vice versa. The photographs show that the new standard sight has to be removed and installed using a tool, at least primitive, such as a knife blade of a suitable size. In this case, for removal and installation, you will have to work with two screws. Re-installation is required to be done in the same grooves, since, as practice shows, displacement of the sight along the bar by one groove can lead to displacement of the STP by up to 1.5 mrad. In addition, the tightening torque of the screws must also be more or less constant with each reinstallation, which is not so easy to accomplish when there is a lack of time and the absence of the appropriate tool.
We will face exactly the same question when installing optical-electronic sights. And taking into account the fact that on most OEPs the screws are made for an imbus key ... At the right time, by the way, either it will not be at hand, or it will be in the bowels of pockets or a raid backpack. In general, a set of tools is now a necessary piece.
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No tools or groove counting by sight or touch is required. Only hands and four movements: open the clamping lever - remove the scope with a backward movement - push the other sight along the bar until it stops - close the clamping lever. That's it, the sights have been re-deployed.
Taking into account that Vintorez is a melee weapon, where the firing range of over 100 meters is a rarity, the ability to quickly change the type of fire from the option “accurate” to “very wide and fast” will be a definite plus. Again, "grandfather" is all right with this. We need it for sure - we use the PSO-1-1 sight with 4x magnification, we need it quickly - we instantly switch to "mechanics", because nothing interferes with this. For the "granddaughter" such a number will not work, since the "mechanics" are completely blocked, the transition to the multiplicity "1" in the 1P86 sight requires the use of one of the hands to move the lever of changing the multiplicity to the appropriate position. The latter, in turn, will lead to a change in the spatial position of the weapon and the loss of time for the withdrawal of the weapon to the target location.
As they say, draw preliminary conclusions, for "to be continued" ...
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