bowace

What is the caliber and rifle of choice for our military and police snipers, swat, special units, etc. ? Also what the the most winning cal. and rifle in 1000 meter match shooting.

Danny45

Most military and police snipers, or sharpshooters, use the Remington 700, specially made with bedded synthetic stock, bull barrel and target trigger in .308 caliber, using 165 grain match grade bullets. Military snipers practice regularly out to 1000+ yards. Police snipers only shoot about 70 yards on the average in situations, but practice out to whatever their facilities will allow. In almost every case, they strive for 1/4" groups at 100 yards, and regularly get them. There was some experimentation with the .300 Winchester Magnum but found that on human targets, there was no real advantage to it, and the recoil was not as manageable as the .308. Some of the military now have specialized snipers that use a special 50 caliber rifle. These however are not your typically thought of snipers as these guns are far to heavy, usually in the vacinity of 20-25 lbs with huge muzzle brakes on them, to hump thru the bush. They have exceptional range and will shoot thru darn near anything though.

XTP

The .308 Winchester( 7.62mm NATO) round is the most widely used round,although the .300 win mag and .338 Lapua have a strong following with the long range military shooters.Rifles built on the Remington 700 action are common,but with law enforcment agencies,alot has to do with their budget.Big budgets could even mean custom rigs where those dept.' s on tighter cash flows may only use factory options.I have even heard of some using confiscated rifles in their tactical units.

Sorry...can' t answer your second question for sure.

bowace

But doesn' t the 308 have a good bit of drop at longer ranges. I know it will shoot the 1000 meter matches when you know the range but what about for hunting and the long shots.

Celt

The 308 does have more drop and is affected by wind more than say the 300 Win at extended ranges.
Drop at range is really not a huge factor, because all bullets no matter what they are fired from have drop at range from the zero point (say 100 yards)
You still have to know the targets range and the atmospheric conditions and dial in your dope for the above mentioned factors. You just hacve less to dial in for a " flatter" shooting round.
Wind is really yhte same, although it becomes a bit easier with bullets less effected by wind because wind is one of the hardest things to dope.



The 308 is extremely accurate with a ton of very acurate factiory loading available.
The 308 also has a long barel life and is easy on the shooter and ammo costs much less, even for the good stuff.

The military started using it because it is a NATO chambering and once again, had proven to be extremely accurate with plenty of kiling power for the intended target out to 1K.

Celt

bigbuck270

If you are just plinking or going after varmit try a smaller round like a 223. The police dept here has a couple

corey006

How much money do you want to spend??

If your talking about a SERIOUS hunting or competition rig you will probably have to spend at least 1000+ on a rifle and another 1000+ on a good tactical scope with some sort of range finding reticle. This would probably be the mininum and go up from there.

I think one of the most popular calibers right now to shoot is 6.5mm(.264). Alot of guys are shooting wildcats such as 6.5-284 Winchester, 6.5-300 WSM, 6.5-06...

here is a link where you can get some REALLY GOOD advice...

http://www.longrangehunting.com/

M118LR

Danny 45,

FYI, the issue US military " sniper" round is the M118LR. It' s the 175 gr. SMK loaded at 2600fps.

Also, the Marines use a bedded McMillian A4 stock. The Army M24 uses a HS Precision stock with aluminium block. It is not otherwise bedded in the stock.

Danny45

I stand corrected. Civilian police snipers tend to use the 165 grain match grade bullets.

The use of aluminum " bedding" block is considered " bedded in the stock" .

Celt

All the law enforement agencies we work with use either 168GR Federal Gold medal or Black hills, OR 175GR Federal GM or Black hills.
all the above use the Sierra Match king bullets.

A number of LE agencies do however use the 165GR Trohpy bonded Bear claw bullet for shooting through glass.

The Aluminum block is not considered bedded. It is a bedding block only.
Almost all civillian competetive shooters that use the HS blocked stocks, will have then bedded as well.

Some parts of the Military use the 300 WinMag as the Sniper chambering.
These government loads use either Winchester or Federal as the ammo makers. Both loads shoot a 190GR Sierra match king and are very accurate.

Celt