FutureTank
Banned Member
In nay case, as I said, my idea of future warfare is quite different from the ideas in the yet to be named book that started the thread
The Army has a new sniper rifle called the XM110 it is a semi-automatic rifle that fires 7.62X51mm(.308) NATO match grade ammunition. It will replace the bolt action M24 used by the Army. It's effective range is 1000m and it has a muzzle brake like the one on the M16 to hide the flash. A QD suppresor can be attached to the barel to reduce the nosie by 30 desibals.
At 1000 metres with a semi-auto SR25 (which is what the XM-110 is, and SR25 plus suppressor, specialist sights etc) you'd be lucky to get anything more accurate that a torso hit. The max effective range of this rifle has to be nearer 700-750 metres if you are talking about head shots, if that?
The SR25 is a modernised/accurised 7.62mm version of Eugene Stoner's AR-15/M-16 design.
A bolt action 7.62mm NATO rifle such as one of the AI ones, with the right ammo may give you a head shot at a 1000 metres but you need a bloody good Sniper to do this consistently. One reason why the .338 Lapua Magnum is now to the fore of bolt actions........better guarantee of a long range hit.
Torso shots you are reportedly talking about 1200 metres for the latter rifle.
There are people, the creme de la creme of the Sniper fraternity, who will pop head shots at that range under ideal conditions.
And that is the crux of the matter, it has to be ideal conditions, no wind, not too hot and at sea level!![]()
Regards,
BUG
The Army has a new sniper rifle called the XM110 it is a semi-automatic rifle that fires 7.62X51mm(.308) NATO match grade ammunition. It will replace the bolt action M24 used by the Army. It's effective range is 1000m and it has a muzzle brake like the one on the M16 to hide the flash. A QD suppresor can be attached to the barel to reduce the nosie by 30 desibals.
I was under impression that current Australian Army sniper capability is out to 2km with a 12.7mm weapon.
As far as WW2 Soviet snipers using 12.7mm anti-tank rifles and basic optics from a standard sniper rifle were able to achieve head shots at 1000m. Of course they had a lot of opportunity to practice.
Army operates the AMR-50, which is the Australian designation of the 12.7mm version of the Accuracy International L-96. the 12.7mm rifle can apparently fire accurate shots to 2.5k's, but, that would be a LUCKY hit as opposed to a controlled hit, I'd imagine.
The AMR-50 is however designated as an, anti-materiel rifle and designed for the destruction of materiel, as opposed to personnel, though of course there would be nothing stopping a soldier, using the weapon for this purpose.
The SR-98, the 7.62mm is the Army's preferred sniper weapon at present and is the weapon on issue to Sniper cells in the reg and reserve battalions.
The SR-25 is on issue to deployed forces and, I suspect, generally issued to "spotters" rather than the actual "number 1's". Depending on the tasking of course...
Certainly the SR-98 has been deployed to the Ghan and Iraq however, as I'm sure the AMR-50 has too....