1/60 of a degree. At 1,000 yards/914 meters, this means an error of less than 10 in./25.4 cm! With a little work, Colonel Nance's gun-smiths and armorers at Quantico usually get the error down to a third of that. Much of the technology that makes the M40A1 so accurate derives from the efforts of the USMC competition rifle team, which uses similar rifles and heavily modified M 14s in contests with the shooting teams of the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Secret Service, DEA, and FBI.
Sniping is an art of extremes, and just shooting well will not get you through the Scout/Sniper course. Land navigation, spotting, and concealment are just as important, but unfortunately beyond the scope of this book. I did get to fire the M40A1 to gain an appreciation of this arcane shooting science. As a rule, sniping is done from the prone position, with pairs of snipers working together. One sniper is 'on the scope' as a shooter, with the other using an M49 spotter scope to pick out targets and monitor the tactical situation. About every half hour, the two trade off, to avoid fatigue on the shooter.
The first trick to hitting a target with the M40A1 at long distance is holding the weapon properly. To do this, you jam the rifle butt (with its special buttpad) hard into your right armpit. You then wrap the sling tightly around your other arm, using your left hand to cradle the rifle along the forward part of the stock. When the sling is about to cut off the circulation to your left hand and the buttstock is hurting your armpit, you've got the M40A1 about rigid enough to start sighting. You then look through the 10-power Unertl sniperscope, and begin to work the crosshairs. At 600 yards/548.6 meters, a target with an 18-in./45.7-cm kill zone is just a dark dot which appears to dance around the scope. You quickly realize that this is caused by your own breathing and heartbeat; experienced snipers learn to regulate these when shooting. Once you have the dot of the target reasonably lined up, you gently pull the trigger, and then the world explodes in your face. The kick of the M40A1 is like a shotgun, and the sound is like a bullwhip cracking in your head. In less than a second, the round flies out to the target, and then the adjustment process begins. You look at the grass and dust clouds to evaluate the wind and heat shimmer to help adjust the scope to compensate for crosswinds and heat updrafts that 'loft' the round. This done, you pull back the bolt, eject the spent casing, and push the bolt forward to drive the new round home. The fascinating thing, though, was that with only a few rounds of practice and some skilled help from one of Colonel Nance's sniper instructors, I was putting rounds regularly through the target some 600 yards distant! This is over a quarter mile/half kilometer away, and the effect of hitting an object that far away with a hand-held weapon has to be felt to be believed.
Now before you get too impressed with my performance, consider that Marine Scout/Snipers are required to do the same thing at almost twice the distance, with only one shot (that is all a sniper will usually get!) and no chance to make adjustments. All this on a mission that may last days, in any weather, against an enemy trying to kill you like a pesky varmint. It is a bizarre way to make a living, and the men who do it are strange birds. But to an enemy, the M40A1 in the hands of a skilled Marine Scout/Sniper is a hellish weapon, more feared than even a bomber loaded with napalm! It is scary to know that
Barrett M82A1A .50-Caliber Special-Purpose Sniper Rifle
When you see it the first time, it just looks evil, like a preying mantis ready to strike an aphid. It could be the star of its own action/adventure movie with Stallone and Schwarzenegger as supporting players. It is the Barrett M82A1A .50-caliber special-purpose sniper rifle, the most unusual weapon in the Marine small-arms inventory. The M82A1A is designed to augment the M40A1 sniper rifle when longer ranges and greater hitting power are required. The Barrett fires the same ammunition as the M-2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun. If you have ever fired the M-2, you know that it kicks like a mule, and requires a very firm mount or a heavy tripod dug into the ground. The whole M-2 machine-gun/tripod combination weighs several hundred pounds, hardly convenient as a sniper weapon. Nevertheless, Marine snipers like the legendary Staff Sergeant Carlos Hathcock (ninety-three con- firmed kills in Vietnam) mounted special sniper scopes on standard M-2s and scored hits at ranges over a mile/ 1.6 km.
The M82A1A traces its roots to the rebel war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The United States, mostly through the CIA, aided the Mujhadeen rebels fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan. A well-publicized part of this aid included Stinger shoulder-launched SAMs to knock down attack helicopters and strike aircraft. The Mujhadeen also asked for a man-portable long-range armor-penetrating sniper weapon. (Sniping is a traditional art of the Afghan mountain tribesmen.) The answer was a weapon designed by Ronnie Barrett from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Barrett, a builder of homemade weapons for many years, designed a system of springs to buffer the recoil of a .50- caliber machine gun. By spreading the recoil energy over a longer duration, the springs reduce the peak load on the weapon and the gunner. Barrett built a weapon that could be broken down and carried as several man-sized loads. The CIA bought a number of these heavy sniper rifles for the Afghan Mujhadeen, who used them to terrorize Soviet troops. The Barrett performed so well in Afghanistan that the Marine Corps evaluated and eventually adopted it as the M82A1A sniper rifle. Today, the M82A1A (produced by Barrett Firearms Manufacturing) is deployed by Marine Force Reconnaissance units in three-man fire teams. Each team member carries one part of the weapon (upper receiver, lower receiver, or scope and ammunition). The team alternates the jobs of shooter and spotters.
The semi-automatic M82A1A is 57 in./128.25 cm long, and weighs 32.5 1b/14.8 kg unloaded. It fires a .50- caliber bullet (Raufoss Grade A, DoDIC A606) against targets defined as 'equipment-sized' (like a jeep or tent), at ranges of up to 1,800 meters/ 1,968.5 yards. A sniper team with a Barrett can reach out and hit useful targets at ranges of over a mile/ 1.6 km. During Operation Desert Storm, M82A1A teams were knocking out things like artillery-spotting radars and communications equipment, raising hell with Iraqi command and control. The M82A1A is basically a .50-caliber machine gun spring-mounted inside an aluminum housing. This gun-inside-a-box design allows a sniper to safely and comfortably fire the weapon with accuracy. A folding bipod and a special buttpad help to absorb the recoil. In fact, the peak recoil load is actually lower than the M40 because of the buffering system, the bipod, and a high-efficiency muzzle brake (which gives the Barrett its insect-like appearance). Mounted on top of the M82A1A is a 10-power Unertl sniperscope matched to the Raufoss .50-caliber ammunition. The M82A1A is chambered to accept any NATO-standard .50-caliber/ 12.7mm ammunition, though currently, only the Raufoss round is issued. The Barrett has a ten-round box magazine, which feeds through the lower receiver housing. Like the M40, it only fires single shots, after which the team rapidly breaks down the weapon, slides the various parts into specially designed backpacks, and exits the engagement area.
Firing the Barrett is almost as easy as the MP-5N. You load a magazine into the bottom of the weapon, pull back the cocking handle, sight the weapon (adjusting for windage and other factors), and pull the trigger. The weapon fires with a distinctive 'crack,' and then pushes back gently into your shoulder. It is surprisingly comfortable. Like the M40A1, the key to accurate firing is steadiness and patience. The Barrett M82A1A is a unique, specialized weapon. It enables Marine snipers to disrupt enemy units and make life miserable for them in their own rear areas. This degrades enemy morale and paralyzes their leadership. Unlike the dramatic gun camera video of laser-guided bombs hitting targets, you won't see this weapon on CNN, but the effect can be just as devastating.
Beretta M9/Model 92F Combat Pistol
No single piece of combat equipment is more personal to a combat soldier than a handgun. Not all personnel require one, but to those who do, the Marine Corps issues a combat side arm, the Beretta M9/Model 92F Combat Pistol. Selected to replace the classic M1911A1 Colt .45-caliber pistol which served for more than half a century, the Beretta has been a lightning rod for critics. These include advocates of the .45 and Congressional supporters of competing handgun manufacturers that lost out to the M9/92F. Nevertheless, the M9/92F is a fine
