U.S. to get new hunting guns from Russia

The first batch of guns, which were jointly produced by the world-famous Remington Arms Company of the United States and Russia's Izhevsk mechanical factory, has already been sent to the United States. (Izhevsk is the capital of Russia's republic of Udmurtia west of the Urals - Ed.) The relevant joint-production contract was signed in January 2004. The two partners did accomplish a lot over this short time period.

Six Spartan guns were displayed at the sprawling 35th Las Vegas international exhibition, stealing the limelight there. Arms manufacturers and US consumers became quite interested in them.

This gun, which embodies all the best features of Russian firearms, features an extremely simple mechanism, thus operating without a hitch in any conditions. Such are its main features. Gunsmiths and clients alike prefer reliability and failsafe operation, in the first place.

Talking to reporters at a press conference, Remington Arms Company president Thomas L. Millner noted that his company was quite happy about its cooperation with the Izhevsk mechanical factory, and that it was pinning high hopes on this joint project. Our company got convinced that the Spartan gun was easy to manufacture, also acquainting itself with top-notch gunsmiths, who can turn out top-quality weapons, Millner went on to say.

For his own part, Nikolai Parfenov, director general of the Izhevsk Mechanical Factory federal state unitary enterprise, noted that the joint-production contract opened up new sales markets for Russian weapons manufacturers, also facilitating the factory's subsequent technical development.

The U.S. side had an opportunity to learn more about new Izhevsk guns, i.e. rudimentary double-barrel and single-barrel guns. Meanwhile the Guns & Ammo magazine says that such guns, which may not be a masterpiece, are as hard as stone; their price is also wonderful.

President Alexander Volkov of Udmurtia, who also attended the press conference, noted these qualities, as well. According to Volkov, experts perceive the Remington - Izhevsk-factory alliance as an extremely powerful rival, which can drastically change the present-day global arms market's structure, the Izhevsk-Express newspaper writes.

Millner was absolutely delighted, after admiring all the best hunting-gun engravings. Our company engraves very few weapons today, he admitted; in fact, only one full-time engraver still works for Remington Arms Company. That's why both sides agreed that the Izhevsk mechanical factory's engravers will help their US colleagues to master the subtle art of engraving. We'd like to remind our readers that only three countries, i.e. Germany, Austria and Russia, train arms engravers at this stage.