XM2010 The new Army sniper rifle

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After a full and open competition, the Army awarded the firm fixed price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the upgrade of up to 3,600 M24 Sniper Weapon Systems. Upgraded weapon features include:
Bolt action rifle chambered for .300 Winchester Magnum ammunition to increase the effective range
5-round box magazine to make the system easier to load and reload with the additional option to change out ammunition quickly
Rail endowed chassis and free floating barrel that allow for easier mounting of weapon accessories and greater accuracy
Folding and adjustable stock that includes comb and length-of-pull adjustments
Leupold Mark 4 6.5-20x50mm Extended Range /Tactical riflescope with advanced scalable ranging and targeting reticle; fielded with the AN/PVS-29 Clip-on Sniper Night Sight
Quick attach/detach suppressor to reduce audible and visible signature with an available thermal sleeve that reduces mirage effect on heated suppressors
Click here for the Army fact sheet




Makes me want to go shot something

Pretty cool, but snipers, all the way back to Carlos Hathcock and even before have done just fine with a plain old bolt gun, if trained properly. Seems like a waste of money. K.I.S.S. Still a neat weapon though.

*edit* Those leupold mark 4 scopes pretty much take all of the traditional guesswork and mathematical equations
out of long range shooting. Seems they are dumbing down our troops with the aid of technology. Just like the populous with cell phones and gadgets.


Deebo

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!! Is that a hot little piece. I love the adjustable butt pad on the stock, Looks extremely comfortable to shoot. I'll take two please!

reply to post by gunshooter


Yeah well I'm still trying to find a firm price for one...
my guess is forget taking two... maybe I can manage 1 if they have a very long lay-away plan

reply to post by DaddyBare


I went searching to find a price and google produced this ATS thread from member Nickoli in October.
Claims the price to be $7800.
Edit to add: Obviously not civilian market price.

Wow!

Dating myself but I when I went to sniper school the M21

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Was state of the art....

Still a good weapon IMO.

To the person (too lazy to link sorry) who said we are compensating for lack of training and skill with gadgetry and tech - that has been happening for some time.

It's really hard to teach couch potatoes who think weapon skillz involve an Xbox controller and/or the ASDF keys to be a really good marksman in a few weeks.

There are damn few kids enlisting today who are of the outdoor, hunting, and field craft skill sets. There are some and thankfully they gravitate to SF and Ranger BN's naturally.

Unfortunately there are simply not enough to go round.

reply to post by DaddyBare


That is a very sexy rifle. Lately I have been thinking about buying a remington 700 which is the base action for this platform. You could probably buy a remington 700 and buy an aftermarket stock to look somewhat similar and and function the same for far less, i'm assuming.

I tend to judge a rifle based on the cartridge it fires, here's what I dug up;

The US government purchased MK 248 MOD 1 .300 Winchester Magnum match-grade ammunition in 2009 for use in adapted M24 Sniper Weapon Systems and other .300 Winchester Magnum sniper rifles like the US Navy Mk.13s. This ammunition was developed as a .300 Winchester Magnum Match Product Improvement (PIP) and uses the 14.26 g (220 gr) Sierra MatchKing Hollow Point Boat Tail (HPBT) very-low-drag bullet fired at a nominal muzzle velocity of 869 m/s (2,850 ft/s) ± 15.2 m/s (50 ft/s). According to the US Navy this ammunition should increase the maximum effective range of .300 Winchester Magnum sniper rifle systems to 1,370 m (1,500 yd),

Now ~1.4 kms is an amazing effective range, and I suppose that has a lot to do with the .300 Winmag cartridge and the heavy 220gr bullet it fires. I went on to read this;

However, the short neck with the shoulder moved forward does cause some real problems. Since the .300 Winchester Magnum is designed to work out of a standard length action heavier bullets will need to be seated deeper into the case. Since many heavier .30 caliber (7.62 mm) bullets have a long taper, and these bullets will be required to be seated deeper into the case, the neck will end up being positioned in the ogive rather than on the shank of the bullet due to the fact that Winchester had moved the shoulder forward.[6] This prevents the case from having a good grip on the bullet. Under recoil such loosely held bullets in the magazine will be pushed back into the case. Also, if using a highly compressed load the cartridge might “grow” in length and may not be able to fit into the magazine. For these reasons bullets weighing over 200 gr (13 g) are not recommended.[18] Norma goes further recommending that bullets heavier than 180 gr (12 g) not be used with the cartridge

So they went 20-40gr over the recommended limit in bullet weight. And so I wonder, does this problem come up with the XM2010? Could this cause jams or failures to feed into battery properly? I'm sure the Army would have tested it to all lengths necessary, I suppose they chose the greater range over keeping within the recommended limits of the cartridge. What do you guys think?

edit source; en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Darce


I think they should have chambered it in the .338 Lapua.

reply to post by TraptInTheSystem


I don't think Remington makes a rifle with an m700 style action that is chambered in the .338LM. I read about one made by them but it's in a different action. They would have to go with a completely different rifle. The range of the .338LM is greater, and it goes all the way up to 300gr bullets. Maybe silencers aren't as effective with that type of cartridge?

I think I see their reason...
weight for one... guns chambered for .50 and .338 tend to be big and heavy...
Recoil sensitivity has been an on going issue dating back to the 1950's when they first started looking for a replacement for the old M14 .308... that's how we ended up with the .5.56 not because it was better... but your common man could comfortably fire this round and stay on target between shoots... of course a trained sniper is not your common shooter but that mentally still prevails in the US military

reply to post by Darce


I didn't know the 700 action couldn't accept the .338 Lapua. The suppressors for such a big round are also insane. I could see how that would save weight and not me as bulky.