Growing Popularity of 8.6mm Sniper Round

[404SqnAVSTeach]

The British Army is replacing most of its 3,000 7.62mm L96A1 sniper rifles with one modified to use the .338 (8.6mm) Lapua Magnum caliber round. The Accuracy International "Super Magnum" rifle is basically a L96A1 "Arctic Warfare" rifle modified to handle the larger, 8.6mm Lapua Magnum round. The new rifle (the L118A1) weighs 15 pounds (without a scope), is fifty inches long and has a 27 inch barrel and a five round magazine.



Snipers in Iraq, and especially Afghanistan, have been calling for a longer range round, but find the 12.7mm (.50 caliber) weapons too heavy. The .338 (8.6mm) Lapua Magnum round has an effective range (about 1,500 meters) about 50 percent greater than the 7.62mm standard NATO round.  The 8.6mm round entered use in the early 1990s, and became increasingly popular with police and military snipers. Dutch snipers have used this round in Afghanistan with much success, and have a decade of experience with these larger caliber rifles. British snipers in Afghanistan are also using the new round.



Recognizing the popularity of the 8.6mm round, Barrett, the pioneer in 12.7mm sniper rifles, came out with a 15.5 pound version of its rifle, chambered for the 8.6mm.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/articles/20071009.aspx

 

[KevinB]

Your aware the CF C14 Timberwolf is in .338 Lapua Magnum?

  We dont call it 8.6 (no-one does.) Due a search rather than spamming with trivial crap.

Brit rifle was annoucned two weeks ago.

 

[404SqnAVSTeach]

Due a search rather than spamming with trivial crap.

I am only reporting the news the way it is written.  I only deal with airplanes;  I fixed planes for 10 years and now I teach how to fix them.  I know what a C-7 looks like and the last time I used one was about 7 to 10 years ago.  As far as caliber goes, I know that the C-7 is 5.56mm... and that just ended my knowledge in guns. 

 

[KevinB]

Roger,

I re-read the link you posted and saw that.

There has been a bunch of .338LM discussion here - as well as the Accuracy Unintentional rifles.

Cheers

Kev

 

[MG34]

This announcement was expected, the British Army has issued  the AI .338 system to their Designated Marksman for quite some time, the snipers of course bitched about this (rightly so) now the badged snipers will be getting a system on par with the rest of the Army marksmen. Nothing new, just an adjustment.

 

[FullMetalParka]

The .338 Lapua sure does look interesting. I've never had the chance to fire one, but from what I hear, it is an incredibly powerful round.

 

[Bearpaw]

After reading many interesting accounts of actions in Afghanistan on this and other boards, I have been wondering if it would
be a reasonable idea to consider a machine-gun using this round?  It could be very useful in desert, arctic,  and mountain engagements.

Any thoughts on this?

Bearpaw

 

[MG34]

No it wouldn't make a good round for an MG the size of the gun/ammo weight needed to fire the round would make the MG too heavy for an GPMG but too light for a HMG.  The .338 Lapua is about the smallest round capabile of carrying a payload, which limits it's use as an anti-material calibre, the .50cal BMG is much better suited for shooting up vehicles and what not. The combination of the 7.62mm GPMG and the .50cal HMG is good enough

 

[Bearpaw]

MG34-thanks for the quick reply---it confirms my own doubts about the ammunition weight. 

Bearpaw

 

[MG34]

It's not so much the weight of the round as much as lack of performance for it's weight and the size of MG that is needed to fire it.