Howdy!
For some context, I have been abroad for a long time now, as a sniper in a local military force. I shot before I left, but I never got into "marksmanship" or especially sniping. Now that I am back stateside, I'm looking at picking up a nice rifle to scratch the itch, so to say, based on the weapons I've been using.
SVD: With decent ammo the SVD was awesome, despite low power optics was nice to shoot in all but the worst winds up to 800m reliably. Incredibly lightweight and semi auto were two factors that made it really amazing to carry. This makes me lean toward something like an AR-10. I'm not concerned with crazy precision, but light weight and semi auto are very appealing to me.
Homemade 12.7mm rifles: While incredibly heavy and not necessarily "precise", the 12.7 made shooting at up to 800 trivial, and up to 1300-1500 fairly simple, which combined with a loud bang is very satisfying. The problem was its weight, and we simply had no other lighter "fancy" rifles available. I wont be buying a .50 due to both cost and impracticality, but I'm interested in a rifle that can reach out farther than 800, which makes me lean towards 6.5 or 300 wm.
Since I'm newly returning and dont want to break the bank, my focus is on affordability, finding a nice balance and getting one nice rifle, and I'm open to hearing yalls experience with rifles in these categories. I'm not an expert by any means on our American rifle market, and all the dozens of different options are a bit dense to sort through.
I'm looking forward to hearing your suggestions, and I'll attach a pic of our gear for a mission as an opener.
For some context, I have been abroad for a long time now, as a sniper in a local military force. I shot before I left, but I never got into "marksmanship" or especially sniping. Now that I am back stateside, I'm looking at picking up a nice rifle to scratch the itch, so to say, based on the weapons I've been using.
SVD: With decent ammo the SVD was awesome, despite low power optics was nice to shoot in all but the worst winds up to 800m reliably. Incredibly lightweight and semi auto were two factors that made it really amazing to carry. This makes me lean toward something like an AR-10. I'm not concerned with crazy precision, but light weight and semi auto are very appealing to me.
Homemade 12.7mm rifles: While incredibly heavy and not necessarily "precise", the 12.7 made shooting at up to 800 trivial, and up to 1300-1500 fairly simple, which combined with a loud bang is very satisfying. The problem was its weight, and we simply had no other lighter "fancy" rifles available. I wont be buying a .50 due to both cost and impracticality, but I'm interested in a rifle that can reach out farther than 800, which makes me lean towards 6.5 or 300 wm.
Since I'm newly returning and dont want to break the bank, my focus is on affordability, finding a nice balance and getting one nice rifle, and I'm open to hearing yalls experience with rifles in these categories. I'm not an expert by any means on our American rifle market, and all the dozens of different options are a bit dense to sort through.
I'm looking forward to hearing your suggestions, and I'll attach a pic of our gear for a mission as an opener.
