No such thing as sniper rifles?

[dgarvin1]

In the last couple of years, I have heard from some pretty outspoken people (all of them in internet forums) that there is no such thing as a sniper rifle and this is some hollywood/media/videogame invention.

Some quotes:
1. "There is no such thing as a sniper rifle, and I don't care what your video games tell you. ANY rifle has the potential to be a sniper's rifle, but only when a highly trained and qualified sniper is using it."

2. "Sniper rifles don't exist. Its either called a designated marksman's rifle, anti-personnel rifle or anti-matériel rifle"

I hear this all of the time. My question is this: what is a SVD? FRF2? A Swedish M41? A 1903-A4? Last I checked, military rifles were for killing people, not hunting or other sports. Am I missing something?

 

[Loosedhorse]

Well, if there are snipers, and they use rifles, then there are "sniper's rifles."

I think that the crux here is that rifles used by military rifles are of course selected for things like accuracy at distance and effectiveness at range. And these are exactly the features of fifles that are most valued by hunters, competitors, collectors--and even casual hobbyist shooters. Our current Army sniper rifle is the Remington 700--a darn fine rifle for many uses. So any attempt to define "sniper rifles" for the reason of regulation or banning will inevitably ban rifles valued by all law-abiding riflemen (and riflewomen).

As Jeff Cooper said, "Only accurate rifles are interesting." The fact that the average private citizen is never going to have need of sniping an enemy soldier (or counter-sniping an enemy sniper) should in no way persuade anyone that "sniper rifles in the hands of civilians" is anything except both desirable and necessary.

And every once in a while, those civilian sniper rifles come in handy: see the North Hollywood and Texas Tower shootings, for example.

 

[451 Detonics]

Actually it was Townsend Whelen who wrote that, "Only accurate rifles are interesting." Cooper may have quoted him at some point however.

snip·er
n.
1. A skilled military shooter detailed to spot and pick off enemy soldiers from a concealed place.
2. One who shoots at other people from a concealed place.

The argument about the term "sniper" rifle is an argument in semantics. It is somewhat similar to the clip/mag argument or the AD/ND argument. Fact is just about any rifle including a 22 can be used in the capacity of a sniper rifle. So in one sense there really isn't a specific "sniper" rifle and at the same time all rifles are potential "sniper" rifles.

 

[M-Cameron]

there are two things i cant stand....people who argue over pointless semantics........and the Dutch.


honestly, if you know what the other person is saying......whats the point in "correcting" him.

if someone is talking about a 'sniper' or a 'sniper rifle'.....you know damn well what he is asking......either answer his question...or dont say anything........by "correcting" them, you just come off as a pretentious snob and create more useless arguments.

 

[BigN]

Any rifle capable of killing a human can be called a sniper rifle. I believe the term "sniper rifle" was invented by the lefties in the news media to attach some type of mystique and danger to pretty much any rifle anyone could own. You know how they are...

 

[el_jefe]

I dunno, Accuracy International seems to think they build sniper rifles.

 

[JDGray]

if someone is talking about a 'sniper' or a 'sniper rifle'.....you know damn well what he is asking......either answer his question...or dont say anything........by "correcting" them, you just come off as a pretentious snob and create more useless arguments.

+1000

 

[taliv]

question asked and answered