SVT 40 sniper

Eaglelord17 said:
All early sniper rifles were not what we would consider 'serious' sniper rifles today. What we consider 'designated marksmen' are what in the past was considered snipers. They were not the several KM shooting rifles we now have, and accuracy wise many modern hunting rifles out of the box shoot better or equal to some of the early snipers.
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Based on what I've read about the subject, I'm pretty sure that actual trained "snipers" in WW1, WW2, and Korea operated on the same principles as modern "snipers". And Mosins, No. 4 T's, etc are actually capable of adequate accuracy to function as "serious" sniper rifles today (when was the L42A1 actually withdrawn from service?). A military sniper rifle has to be built to standards of toughness as opposed to just being a target rifle. While the SVT 40 sniper rifle was not the best of WW2 it also wasn't the worst and it did meet one real world requirement- it was designed to be easily manufactured in large enough quantities to meet any demand (as was the PU). I've noticed that in most of the bio's of snipers I've read, the hardware is hardly mentioned- I guess you simply used what was provided and had no alternative. Interestingly, Zaitsev actually specifically mentions the SVT 40 in his autobiography as being particularly useful in an engagement where he and a small band of snipers had to tackle a much larger attacking force of Germans- the semi-auto design allowed them to prevail.

milsurpo
 
Its not how snipers were trained rather what they would do. Historically snipers operated within 600m or less. Today that is what we would use a designated marksmen for is what snipers were used for back in the day. Most nations modern service rifles also use scopes of similar power or even greater than what early snipers used.

Yes some of these rifles stayed in service for a long time, that being said the doctrine was to use those rifles more in a designated marksmen role than to be what people now consider to be a sniper weapon (the L42A1 had a max effective range of about 800m). Those weapons were also horribly outdated for there role by time they left service, the civilian target shooting world having moved well beyond what the military was at.

Many people think sniper and think of the 2km range shots that are now happening, back in the day this was not the case. People also seem to expect there early sniper rifles to preform at a 2km level isn't reasonable considering what they were designed for. Most early snipers had what we would consider very low accuracy expectations in comparison to what we consider standard now. For example the minimum standard for a No. 4 Lee Enfield sniper was 2.5 MOA at 400 yards (think about how many firearms you can buy now guaranteed to be MOA). Doesn't mean it didn't do the job, they just aren't the placing a hole in a hole type rifle people seem to think they are.

My comment is more about people expecting too much from these firearms than anything else.
 
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