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Difference between a "sniper " rifle and a "hunting" rifle

  • 29-05-2009 11:46am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 14,934 ✭✭✭✭


    Taken from the Gun owners of America website.

    Think it is revelant,because as we proably know by now,that once gun grabbers worldwide,including the Irish variety have got one thing banned another evil guntype must be banned .And my guessing will be big calibre rifles are next to be demonised here as deadly sniper rifles capable of tens of milles of accruacy.Take what you want from it &enjoy.





    Monday's article, "The difference between 'assault weapons' and 'patrol rifles," prompted an email from helpful reader Woody Woodward, which has in turn prompted this companion article. Quoted with permission:
    Back in 2005, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement

    Officers Standards and Education (TCLEOSE) decided to split their definition of a “rifle” into two separate categories, those being; “patrol rifles” and “precision rifles”.

    It appeared at the time, and I have seen no reason to change my mind, that TCLESOE was trying its dead level best to be as politically correct and inoffensive as possible with its definitions.
    I would say that Mr. Woodward's assessment is spot-on, and the parallel between referring to a firearm as a "sniper rifle," when owned by a private citizen, and a "precision rifle," when in the hands of a police tactical unit member, should be obvious.
    "Sniper rifles, " of course, have not yet received nearly the volume of demonizing press that has been inflicted on so-called "assault weapons," but as I've mentioned before, groups like the Violence Policy Center (VPC) have been laying the ground work (pdf file).
    Sniper rifles are radically different from standard hunting rifles. Sniper rifles are “purpose-designed” and “purpose-built” weapons of war. This terminology is used in the firearms literature to describe weapons that are made for a specific narrow purpose, in this case for sniping—highly accurate firing on a target from a significant distance. Jane’s Defence Weekly, for example, draws this distinction very clearly, explaining, “sniper rifles fall into two broad categories: modified versions of standard military or sporting rifles and purpose-designed weapons.”
    No single feature marks this special class of purpose-designed and purposebuilt sniper rifles. Rather, the true sniper rifle is an amalgam of specific design features that make it “a bit better in many ways than its off-the-rack cousins to be an overall significantly more accurate weapon,” according to Maj. John L. Plaster (USAR), who is perhaps the preeminent sniper authority writing in the gun press today. “To build a sniper rifle,” observes Adrian Gilbert, another expert writer on the subject, “the manufacturer must use only the finest materials, ensure that tolerances are fined down to a minimum, and impose a draconian level of quality control.”
    Such “purpose-designed” and “purpose-built” sniper rifles are designed and manufactured for the purpose of killing human beings at more than five times the range hunters shoot deer, and to destroy “materiel” targets such as light armored vehicles and aircraft at distances of more than a mile.
    The VPC, in other words, wants to ban rifles that are too accurate for private citizens, because they are capable of hitting small targets at ranges that the VPC has arbitrarily determined to be beyond the needs of hunters.
    Back to Mr. Woodward and TCLEOSE--he had a bit of a (very polite) discussion with them (via email), suggesting that rather than trying to gloss over the purposes of their "patrol" and "precision" rifles, out of an overabundance of political correctness, they simply acknowledge that they're talking about exactly the same kinds of firearms that are given "scary" names, when owned by private citizens. His suggestions . . . didn't appeal to them:
    The definitions in 211.1 for patrol rifle and precision rifle are the recommendations of firearms instructors and tactical team personnel from throughout the state. Those experts in the field of police firearms training recommended the use of the terms patrol rifle and precision rifle. The rule was the result of their recommendations. Again thank you for your review of the rule drafts and your comments.
    Frankly, I don't really care if the police want to refer to their semi-automatic, detachable magazine fed rifles as "patrol rifles," and their accurized, scoped rifles as "precision rifles"--whatever makes them happy. My objection is to the widespread (thanks in no small part to Big Media) assumption that the very same rifles take on an entirely different nature in the hands of private citizens.

    "If you want to keep someone away from your house, Just fire the shotgun through the door."

    Vice President [and former lawyer] Joe Biden Field& Stream Magazine interview Feb 2013 "



Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 653 ✭✭✭kakashka


    IMO
    A Sniper's rifle is just that--a Sniper rifle
    A Hunter's rifle is--a Hunting rifle
    Regardless of look or form!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,244 ✭✭✭rrpc


    This is a bit like the difference between a 'weapon' and a 'firearm'. The only difference is in the purpose for which it is used.

    This particular piece of guff could just as well be applied to the manufacture of target rifles: “To build a sniper rifle,” observes Adrian Gilbert, another expert writer on the subject, “the manufacturer must use only the finest materials, ensure that tolerances are fined down to a minimum, and impose a draconian level of quality control.”

    When you consider that one of the foremost developers of precision military firearms in the UK was Malcolm Cooper; two times Olympic three positional rifle champion then you must accept that the criteria and technologies are by and large the same.

    Shooting is shooting after all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭bitemybanger


    I was watching a programme on the Discovery a few weeks back about the S.W.A.T team and different branches of elite units within the US police and they had a small section on snipers, The Weapon they choose to use alot is the Tikka T3 Tactical espically for urban situations.
    My point is, they use the Tikka as a Sniper rifle and it probably has a harris bi-pod and a Schmit and Bender or Zeiss or similar scope, exatly what we would for hunting only we refere to our Firearms as just that, a firearm not a weapon or a sniper rifle even tho sniping started out as a sport but is just commonly associated now with hunting people instead of game.


  • Registered Users Posts: 38,923 ✭✭✭✭Mellor


    I don't really like the above derfinitions of a sniper rifle. A certain member (probably a few) of this board, uses a purpose built sniper rifle for hunting (by the above definitions)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,612 ✭✭✭jwshooter


    carlos hancock used a model 700 winchester in 30,06 for most of his as a sniper.

    A standard hunting rifle


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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,934 ✭✭✭✭Grizzly 45


    Indeed he did.Except it was pressed into service by the USMC,and tarted up somwhat with a very expensive sope and glass bedding I belive and given a military number.

    Exactly right Mellor,
    In civillian hands they are suddenly "sniper" rifles.In LEO Army hands they are "precision marksmen rifles".All a word play to confuse the sheeple and to make us look bad,and another "evil" gun that must be removed from society.

    "If you want to keep someone away from your house, Just fire the shotgun through the door."

    Vice President [and former lawyer] Joe Biden Field& Stream Magazine interview Feb 2013 "



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,021 ✭✭✭Hivemind187


    Grizzly 45 wrote: »
    Indeed he did.Except it was pressed into service by the USMC,and tarted up somwhat with a very expensive sope and glass bedding I belive and given a military number.

    Exactly right Mellor,
    In civillian hands they are suddenly "sniper" rifles.In LEO Army hands they are "precision marksmen rifles".All a word play to confuse the sheeple and to make us look bad,and another "evil" gun that must be removed from society.

    M40A1 (US Marines) in 7.62 NATO and M24 (US Army) in .300 winchester (short and long action versions of the Remington 700 respectively).

    M24A3 is also used, chambered in .338 Lapua.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 801 ✭✭✭jaycee


    Guys ,Gals and everyone in the cheap seats ..

    Simple concepts are best .


    A Sniper rifle is ...... a rifle used by a trained sniper.
    A Hunting rifle is .... a rifle used by a hunter
    A Target rifle is ..... a rifle used for the sport of target shooting.

    Their use defines what they are.
    Such “purpose-designed” and “purpose-built” sniper rifles are designed and manufactured for the purpose of killing human beings at more than five times the range hunters shoot deer,

    Assuming 100 yard shots at deer , x5= 500 ..and that size target ....
    That would define a piss poor target rifle.

    Please .. can we stop throwing rocks inside the glasshouse


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭newby.204


    jwshooter wrote: »
    carlos hancock used a model 700 winchester in 30,06 for most of his as a sniper.

    A standard hunting rifle

    i know im knitpicking, but it was a winchester model 70, the remmy model 700 was brought in after the winchester


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,461 ✭✭✭foxshooter243


    newby.204 wrote: »
    i know im knitpicking, but it was a winchester model 70, the remmy model 700 was brought in after the winchester

    and here she is

    http://www.texasbrigadearmory.com/m70.htm


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