The Rimfire Report: The Raiders Arms VSS-22 Chassis System

The Russian VSS “Vintorez” has to be one of the coolest and most impossible-to-get guns out there. Pressed into service back in ‘87 when the USSR was on its last leg, VSS’s claim to fame largely lies in its design. The rifle featured an integral suppressor, special rounds built for punching through armor, and a closely related assault rifle variant dubbed the AS Val. Chances are, none of us will ever actually lay hands on a real Vintorez, but that’s where Raiders Arms comes in. “Penny,” the creator of the VSS-22 Chassis System, has whipped up a pretty awesome kit that lets you build your own lookalike version on any regular 10/22—no need to hunt down rare ammo. The kit’s up for pre-order, so in today’s edition of The Rimfire Report, we’ll take a closer look at this neat aftermarket body kit.

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: HUSH Holsters Suppressed MK IV Adapter
• The Rimfire Report: The Henry Magnum Express Review
• The Rimfire Report: New Budget Turkish Plinker - TriStar/KRAL KR-22

The Rimfire Report: The Raiders Arms VSS-22 Chassis System

What is the VSS-22

The VSS "Vintorez" was a USSR sniper rifle made for special operations. While this never made its way over to the States, you can own this.

The VSS-22 is a chassis system for the Ruger 10/22.

Due to the lack of a VSS in the market, we came up with a very easy drop-in chassis for a common firearm.

The chassis has an AK side rail. The chassis and hand guard itself is made from Nylon 12 SLS printed.

The butt stock is Baltic birch plywood with a clone Tula finish on it from pine tar and shellac, including a rubber butt pad.

AK sling swivel on stock, and a cutout on the aluminum tube for your sling.

That front shroud is large enough to have any integrally suppressed barrel or suppressor under it.

Scope, sling, and firearm are not included.

The expected release date of the chassis is January of next year.

Install is simple. Screw in the butt stock, same style as a regular AK. Drop in the rifle, screw it down, screw in the top band over the barrel, slide down the hand guard, and shroud. screw in place and you're finished.

As a boutique product being produced by one man on a fairly small scale right now, the pre-order cost for the VSS-22 chassis is set at $375. However, aside from the central portion of the kit, the remainder of the parts are not 3D printed but are, in fact, real hand-finished and shellacked wood, a high-quality TPU printed buttpad, and a knurled 6061 aluminum tube to match the real thing. The only thing missing is the iron sights, which would be a real neat inclusion for future versions of this kit.

Installation and Function

The kit is pretty straightforward to put together. I have a pre-production version of Penny’s VSS-22 kit, and it was extremely easy to put together if you know your way around a Ruger 10/22. You can use your existing takedown screw and the included hardware with the kit to completely assemble the thing in about 5 minutes. The tube is wide enough to accommodate suppressors on shorter barrels or even integrally suppressed barrels like the Vanquish-22 barrels from Angstadt Arms.

The rifle, once assembled, behaves pretty normally and is extremely well-balanced when in the kit with a scope attached to it. While Penny has access to a real PSO-1 scope - which the VSS-22 is compatible with - I think it looks just fine with this fairly inexpensive SIG TANGO MSR 1-10 LPVO. Down the road, Penny hopes to add magazine bodies for Ruger BX-15 and BX-25 magazines to complete the look of the chassis. For what it's worth, though, I really do like how my rattlecanned BX-15s look, and from what I’ve seen, regular old BX-25 mags look pretty good too. The kit, probably obviously, is not compatible with 10-round BX-1 magazines.

The stock/grip is attached to the inside of the SLS printed Nylon 12 chassis body via an included metal lug and a flathead screw. Meanwhile, the tube and front-end pieces are held together by a combination of friction and small pieces of hardware. I’ve only had the rig out to a couple of range sessions so far, but I haven’t noticed any loosening of the stock or forend from regular use. While it is possible to use a regular 10/22 that doesn’t feature an extended magazine release, one is highly recommended as it really adds to the “rock and lock” action that is oh-so-familiar for the AK platform.

Thoughts So Far

While expensive, it's clear that Penny has put in a lot of hard work with this kit, and I actually don't think the asking price is too far-fetched for what you’re getting out of the deal. The primary chassis body and related parts are all printed from extremely tough Nylon 12, which would be easy enough for any hobbyist to figure out how to replicate. Where the real value comes in is the real metal knurled and pre-cut barrel shroud, as well as the hand-finished stock and TPU buttpad. These two parts alone represent a lot of man and machine hours, in addition to a lot of skills that most of us likely don’t have.

If you’re looking for something to gift a 10/22 rimfire junkie in your life for Christmas, that’ll give them something to look forward to in January 2026, the VSS-22 is available for pre-order on the official Raiders Arms website. I’m used to seeing a lot of high-end competition chassis or complex bullpup chassis, but this is quite the refreshing change from that sort of lineup. The VSS is such an iconic firearm that I’d highly recommend this kit, and an on-sale Ruger 10/22 for anyone who wants to scratch that VSS itch, and doesn’t mind the rimfire core. Despite it being a 3D-printed product, I think it's coming from a guy with a lot of experience, and already healthy catalog of innovative and forward-thinking carbon fiber products for the AK platform.

I would like to extend a personal thank you to Penny for loaning me his pre-production sample for this article and for taking the time to develop the project. If you want to support him, the best way to do so is by purchasing a pre-order chassis kit or one of his other really cool products for the AK platform. Thanks as always for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report, and we’ll see you all again next week!