Top five for bunyip

[gridlore]

Who asked two questions:

top 5 sniper rifles

1.The M40A1 Simple, effective, deadly. What more do you want?

2. The M21 Sniper Rifle/M24 Sniper Weapons System You never forget your first love. I trained on and used the M21, which is basically a retooled and highly accurate M-14 battle rifle. The M-24 is the next evolution of the system.

3. The M1903A4 Springfield. What can you say about a weapon adopted initially in 1903, made into a sniper rifle in WWII, and still in use 20 years later? I've had the pleasure of firing one of these beauties, and was getting center-mass shots at 700 meters with massive penetration.

4. The M82A1A .50 Caliber Special Application Scoped Rifle Penguin likes BIG booms. Look at that effective range: 1800 meters! Load it with SLAP rounds and you are shredding engine blocks a mile away! Admittedly, carrying the son-of-a-bitch sucks..

5. The 7.62-mm Dragunov SVD This wouldn't make a lot of lists, but it's a Kalashnikov design, and shows his determination to build rifles that can survive combat.

The second question is a bit harder. There are so many great moments.. the duel between Zaitsev and Thorvald, Carlos Hathcock holding up an entire VC battalion at a river for close to eight hours.. I'll just provide this link and let you enjoy the great moments yourself.

But if I had to pick...

1. Union General John Sedgewick is rudely interrupted.

2. Zaitsev and Thorvald duel in Stalingrad

3. Alvin York wins a battle with precision fire.

4. The very existence of Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock is a great moment in sniping. We all live in Long Trang's shadow.

5. The sacrifice of two Delta Force snipers during the "Blackhawk Down" incident.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

The Barrett 82 makes for wonderful movie-ish stunts like the "Magic IR scope that can see throught walls" and the sniper shooting the person through said wall.

OTOH, I'm not up on current IR technology, so such a thing may exist outside of movies.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

If the wall is thin enough, uninsulated, and doen't have things like hot water pipes or a chimney ruuning through it, a thermographic scope can read body heat through walls.

Of course, thermographic scopes a heavy and eat power like nothing else. They tend to be vehicle mounted.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Daniel Shipstone, where are you?

[kshandra]

Waiting for Muriel to come along and get his ass in gear?

[kengr]

millimeter wave "radar" can see thru many building walls. And produce the sort of images seen. There's a different name they've started using for such stuff that I can't recall.

Scary stuff.

[shadowcat48li.livejournal.com]

or for truly subtle applications of superior firepower with a rifle, I read somewhere about a version of the Barrett chambered for 25mm

[kengr]

I saw a post about that recently, but it was 20 mm (a rather more common round). 5 round box magazine, too. Yeesh.

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

According to Popular Mechanics (9/04) the Barret XM109 has a box mag with 5 rounds of 25mm. The 25mm round was specced for a "cargo round" as well as a new AP projectile, but I haven't kept up on the development. The first prototypes were supposed to be field tested in August 04. I don't think the system is in full service yet, but I don't know for sure.

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

Thanks, mate. I was rather interested in your lists

Record-setting gear...

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

I give you the McMillan Tac-50... (http://www.sfu.ca/casr/101-tac50.htm) A Princess Patricia scored the world's longest-range confirmed kill in Afghanistan with one: 2,430 meters.

[hartt-tommel.livejournal.com]

What about the SR-25 (called the SR-25 MK 11 MOD 0 if you're a SEAL)?

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2000/Oct/Navy_SEALS.htm
http://www.impactguns.com/store/KMC-21035.html

-Tom

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Looks very nice, but I was limiting myself to weapons I have personal experience with.