What, in your opinion, is the best long range bullet for sniping (sigh, besides the 50bmg)

Am I alone when I name the Lapua round as the best all-around bet for sniping bullet of the century, lol. I say this because sometimes a fifty (the rifle) can be too big and bulky to schlep around...and since that good old 8.6 is a nice niche filler between the 50bmg and the 7.62, I think it serves it's purpose well...
Keep in mind, also, that the 7.62 has a maximun effective range of about 600 yards while the Lapua Magnum is more than double that at 1,500 yards...and the 50, though possesed of an incredible amount of energey when fired gives off a terrible muzzle flash and has a tendency to kick up dust...both are are qualities that can easily give away positions.
Also, with a 50 or a 7.62, what you see is what you get...no variants that can be loaded and fired without swapping out the barrel...well not many...maybe matchgrade for the 7.62 and slug for the 50, but thats it...the Lapua has both and also ELR capable variants as well as frangible and even an experimental air burst frag round which can also explode from inside the target when performing light armor penetrating duty.

Please nobody mention tracer rounds or I'll die of a massive heart attack!

oh oh trace..
jking
y not use a titanium top half and coat it in francium !
ouch goes through the armor then burns and radiation poisons u !

because i cant afford U-238, lol

ah that might be a prob oh well never mind
thats just my exspensive way of doing things

Assuming the thread was "aimed" towards anti-material or special-purpose snipng, I am very intrigued by the 25mm conversion of Barrett's M82 .50bmg rifle, not just because it is from Tennessee, my home state. It has a variety of special purpose ammo and is essentially an extremely long range grenade launcher. Information is kind of sparse, here is a good PDF on the project:
25mm "Payload Rifle"

...and from an article quite a while back:
Basically, the new rifle will fill the military's need for a "dumb" weapon that can fire the same type of ammunition as the OCSW. Where the OCSW's main round will be a "smart" airburst munition with PD (point detonating) backup, the Barrett Payload Rifle will employ a high explosive round that uses only a simple point-detonating fuse, and a shaped-charge round that employs a PIBD (point initiating, base detonating) fuze. Barrett is apparently currently involved in negotiations to develop these rounds with the help of an as yet unnamed independent ammunition design and develpment company.
Defense Review

funny how we always end with a 50bmg or higher in any ammunition thread,,,,lol sorry hard red ,,,,but its a fact of life bigger is better,,,,lol

now if you want raw firepower ,,,,this weapon is a great pick! the ocsw!!

All these massive calibers are theory and speculation for me. As much as I'd love to do some "research" with the big boys, the only long-range rifle experience I have top out with the .308 Winchester and the .338 Winchester Magnum that that was liimited to firing on a 300 yard outdoor range.

and the ocsw has a scope that would make nasa green with envy..

.308 is effective to 1500 yards, but not officially
338 lapua is 2000 yards
.408 is good to 3000 yards i heard (it is transonic there)
14.5x114 is good to the samerange, but not accurately

spectre,,great find!! this looks realy powerfull.

DanD9...although I'm the biggest Lapua round fan, it's calculated effective range is 1,500 yards, but if you're real good, I can see it going 2,000...during Operation Enduring Freedom, I think it was an Australian, using a Lapua who hit a mark at 2,600 yards or so...breaking the previous record of about 2,200, I believe.

.50 BMG and .338 Lapua share one huge advantage that other antimateriel rounds lack: match quality ammo!

Most snipers and sharpshooters will tell you it's not the power of the round, but consistency and reapeatability. One shot, one kill.

Police and military sharpshooters have stuck with the trusty .308 for years because of the outstanding ammo available. However just looking at ballistics tables the .308 is not particularly flat.

If somebody out there offered match quality loads for some other weapon system, then sure it could compete with .338 Lapua and .50 BMG. Both the Lapua and BMG are overkill for most antipersonnel sniping. Cops can't use the Lapua for fear of overpenetration.

Since this thread started out by talking about the heavy stuff, let's stick with antimateriel weapons.

Thus, here is a short list of stuff that wouldbenefit from match quality ammo:

12.7 x 108 Soviet - for KSVK and others

20 x 83.5 Mauser - for NTW-20

14.5 x 114 Soviet - for NTW-20/14.5

20 x 138B Long Solothurn - for L-39 Lahti

[Edited on 14-5-2004 by Amet Khan]