Soviet Unobtanium - The AS Val and VSS Vintorez
More of a meme than an actual firearm at this point, the AS/VSS lineage has become positively famous for their sleek looks, impressive media appearances, and the fact that NOBODY owns one and 9x39mm itself is just as hard to get.
The famous rifles have existed since the late 1980s, and have since rocketed into fame with their inclusion in cult classic games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., plus the general reputation that comes with being fielded as a Spetsnaz-only rifle.
However, to understand these rifles, it’s key to understand the design philosophy of the unobtainable 9x39mm round. Based on 7.62x39mm with an expanded neck, the cartridge was designed ground-up as a suppressed round for special forces, optimized for armor penetration within their effective range (roughly 300 meters), to fill a yet unexplored role between suppressed handguns and suppressed traditional rifles. To compensate for low muzzle velocity and thus, theoretically, less kinetic energy, the bullet weighs roughly twice as much as the traditional 9x19mm round, and it has about twice as much muzzle energy as 9x19mm. 9x39mm also weighs over twice as much as its parent case, the venerable 7.62x39mm round. Some cartridges, like the SP-5, are even designed to yaw on impact, further bolstering the rifle’s on-paper lackluster power, a claim which has been demolished by clever use, bullet development, and metallurgical work.
The VSS and AS rifles were produced at roughly the same time, and for the record, are essentially the same rifle. They share 70% of their parts, have the same effective range, and the same barrel length. Essentially, the AS Val is a more rugged VSS with a larger magazine capacity, while the VSS squeezes out roughly 100m over its steel counterpart with optimization for scoped use in the hands of a trained marksman. Though Russia is known for being… optimistic in the claims of their weapons’ performance, the paired silent rifles (and yes, they are actually EXTREMELY quiet, sounding more like a ruler hitting a mattress than a true gunshot) have absolutely stood the test of Russia’s Cold War era military career, seeing service from Afghanistan to Chechnya, and in recent times, in Donbass.
However, to neglect this rifle’s media legacy is to neglect half of its reason to be. Making its first major appearance in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, the VSS/AS were handled as incredible endgame rifles, showing up only in the hands of the most skilled soldiers. In-game, the rifle was effective in its niche, interesting, irregular, and highly expensive, indicative of 9x39mm’s extreme rarity, even in countries neighboring Russia.
The silent snipers have appeared in a myriad of other games, from Survarium to several Ghost Recon games to ArmA II, several Battlefield games, and even Metal Gear Solid.
The rifles have featured in an inexplicably low amount of films and TV shows, however, with IMFDB indicating two TV appearances and eight film appearances between the two. Anime has also neglected the rifles, with only two appearances for both rifles, one of which was in the gun-heavy show Black Lagoon.
Poorly scaled, for sure, but undeniably a VSS Vintorez.
As for being made of pure unobtanium, the Vintorez and Val have, to anybody’s knowledge, hit markets that aren’t military, and the same goes for the 9x39mm round. Several projects have started up produce US-made clones, and some homebrew projects have emerged with attempts to produce 9x39mm from widened 7.62x39mm casings, but to my knowledge, nobody has been remotely successful in anything but cloning the exterior appearance of the AS Val.
From the real world to media to airsoft, the AS Val and VSS Vintorez have been immortalized due to their smooth looks, hard-hitting ammunition, several monumental media appearances, and inaccessibility.
So, if you’re looking for one, it’s as they say, good hunting, Stalker.
