Squad Designated Marksman (SDM) ?

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Lovesbeer99

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I see this barrel and AR upper on the WhiteOak website for a SDM.

Does the US Military have such a designation, and spec for an AR upper, or is this a sales technique?
 
There is extra marksmanship training for soldiers who are tasked as SDM. They often use the same weapons as the rest of the squad, but sometimes will be issued weapons other than M4's, such as M16A4's or M14's or maybe M110's (our scouts have those in my unit, not us grunts). Scoped or not. MTOE plays a role. Depends on the infantry unit in question. We had M14's the last time I was here in 04. Our mission is different this time (convoy security as opposed to full spectrem ops) so we just have our M4's.

But yeah, its marketing.

We don't have the accurized SDM-R's in our BCT... yet.
 
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as far as i know the only unit that has them in the big army is 3ID.(more units may have them now but we were the 1st to have em and the only for a good while) i have shot them and since i am in the unit we had 1-2 per squad on our last deployment. i have not seen them come out of the arms room in a while, there was an sdm course a couple weeks ago.

they have a free floated handguard rail system by daniel defense, a 20" ss fluted barrel, a match trigger and they are pretty accurate, the only issue us that we don't get match ammo for em.
 
in the US military the SDM is more like a eastern block sniper more so than anything else, they support the dismount/ infantry elements with accurate semi auto fire at mid range distances. generally beyond our sdm's have acogs. 300m, however with the current fighting it is much less than that, however if the need arises they can go out farther. i personally have hit targets at 600m with my m4 and acog. (few weeks ago during an ARF live fire.

basically the SDM fills the gap between rifleman and sniper.
 
The whole designated marksman concept is the only Eastern Bloc military theory that seems to have caught on in the west. I often wondered why the US Army limited sniping to a tiny cadre of super-duper elite guys for so long.
 
SDM rifle = A standard A3 upper in DCM configuration, the heavy part of the stainless barrel fluted, painted black and the 3 shot burst replaced with a Knight's match trigger group. Optics range from ACOG's to Leopolds, whatever's in the unit's inventory.

The upper is maximized for Mk.262, but usually M855 is the norm.
 
Hey Possum what unit are you with in 3ID, cant remember if Ive asked you before. I was in C co 1/30th Inf in 3rd Brigade.

I had one of those SDM rifles depicted in Wiki during my 05 deployment and it was an excellent rifle.
 
Hell, I was in C Co. 1/30 back in the early nineties when 3rd ID was in duetchland. Glad to see its still around.
 
Hey Possum what unit are you with in 3ID, cant remember if Ive asked you before. I was in C co 1/30th Inf in 3rd Brigade.
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i am currently in A Co 1-64AR however that is about to change.
of all the Infantry plts in the BDE our plt was chosen to be the Division ARF/PRT/HVT/HVI/DART guys. we pretty much spanked the rest of the plts all together and at NTC too which we just got back from we went head to head with another plt and we got the job.

so basically my plt is it's on plt and we will be getting our own UIC as well. The concept is Called a "Blues" plt. traced back to vietnam. lots if cool guy gear, and great training. as a matter of fact that is why i am at Pathfinder School right now the CG gave us the slots. 6 for our PLT. so squad leader and above are in school and we got 10 slots for Air assault .
 
WOW, they made an AR as Eugene Stoner designed it, in .308...Think it's called an AR10 that's been tricked out a bit...The Army calls it the SDM (Squad Designated) and the Marines call it the SAM (Advanced Marksman)

I thought the the M39 was one of the DM rifles for the army...you know the M14NM with a pistol grip...Most of the guys in the "Sandbox" I've seen were carrying the standard M14 National Match with a scope on it...
 
There are many rifles and calibers in use in the field including the M14.

5 of the top 10 competitors at Camp Perry in the 1000 yard Service Rifle championship (Farr Trophy) were shooting the M110.
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our bn has 3 of em and they are sweet shooters especially when using the suppresors.
 
I thought the the M39 was one of the DM rifles for the army...you know the M14NM with a pistol grip...Most of the guys in the "Sandbox" I've seen were carrying the standard M14 National Match with a scope on it...
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Or just regular old M14s with a scope slapped on them.
 
hey possum, if you didnt already know this there is "match" ammo available for the 5.56. the dodic is: AA53. the nomenclature for the round is: 5.56 ball spec match LR. you can have your ammo tech, in the army i believe it is 89B, request the ammo. i know the we (USMC) had the ammo available to us in iraq.
 
These days, most of your Squad Designated Marksman rifles are TACOM M14 EBRs.

Tacom is delivering over 300 of these per month with a majority of them going to AFG.
 
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