Posted July 31, 2015 9:55 am by Comments

By Bob Owens

I’m kidding.

The Marine Corps is not holding a bake sale to equip the best scout/snipers in the world with a modern precision rifle capable of firing a .338 bullet to 1,600 meters with deadly accuracy.

MAKING DO: The Marines spend considerable time and effort to create world-class snipers, and then equip them with rifles chambered in a 7.62 NATO cartridge that is increasingly obsolete on the modern battlefield.

Instead, they’ll be putting lipstick on the same pig they’ve been hauling around since the Vietnam War.

The U.S. Marine Corps is sticking with its Vietnam-era, M40 sniper rifle series, despite complaints from scout snipers who say they need the modern, longer-range weapons used by special-ops snipers.

Marine scout snipers are considered to be among the best snipers in the world, but many are frustrated at the limitations of the current M40A5 sniper rifle. The A5 is based on the Remington M700 short-action design that’s chambered for 7.62x51mm NATO, like the original M40 Marines used in Vietnam.

Seasoned scout snipers are deadly accurate with the A5 out to 1,000 meters.

Elite special operations units use sniper rifles chambered in more potent calibers such as .338 Lapua Magnum, a round that allows snipers to reach out …read more

Source:: Bearing Arms

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