July 2002

A Special Operations Sniper Rifle Prototype

by Marc Palmer

.........The events of the last two years have aroused a new interest in the rifle; soldiers, volunteers, civilians, all are alike keenly alive to its importance. At last we have begun to understand that the man, armed with a rifle, who is not expert in its use, is a mere military fraud,

Hon. T.F. Fremantle
Holton Park, Oxford
November 1901

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 Fort Bragg, North Carolina is home to the United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (USAJFKSWCS). The Center is more commonly referred to as SWC (pronounced SWIC) by members of the U. S. Special Operations Forces (USSOF).

SWC offers a broad range of courses for support troops as well as the "Operators". Of course, the largest course run is the Special Forces Qualification Course ("Q" Course). The "Q" Course provides the initial training for all U. S. Army Special Forces soldiers and the course of instruction may last more than a year depending on the soldier's specialty. Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) as well as language training are integral parts of Special Forces Qualification. Personnel from some friendly foreign nations are also allowed to attend the "Q" course.

Advanced courses for such specialties as Combat Diver, Military Free-Fall Parachuting, and Terrorist Awareness are also offered to Special Operations and non-Special Operations personnel from all the services. When I say "Special Operations", I am referring to selected U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force assets. Not to stir the pot but, the U. S. Marine Corps is not a part of the U. S. Special Operations Command, Headquartered at McDill Air Force Base in Florida. The Marine Corps does have some "Special Operations Capable" units but they are not a part of the "Big Picture" and are limited in their range of "capabilities."

Near the end of 1983, planning began for the creation of a Special Operations Sniper school at Fort Bragg. Early on, the name "Special Operations Target Interdictions Course" (SOTIC) was chosen to avoid conflict with the U. S. Army Infantry School at Ft. Benning, Georgia Ft Benning had proponency for Army sniping although the Army didn't have sniper school at the time. For a short time just prior to SOTIC (1983 to 1985), a course called Special Forces Sniper (SFS) was run at the Special Warfare Center. When SFS started, SWC was subordinate to Forces Command (FORSCOM) but just prior to the beginning of SOTIC planning, SWC became subordinate to Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) as was the Infantry School. While using the name sniper was not a problem when the Special Operations guys were under FORSCOM, it was not allowable under TRADOC with Benning closely guarding their turf and their right to the name. There was one other problem in using the word sniper; it was a little too aggressive for the kinder, gentler Army then developing.

The XM21 Sniper Rifle of Viet Nam became the Army standard issue sniper rifle in 1972 when it was type classified as the M21. Despite its successes in South East Asia and as research progressed for the development of SOTIC training plans and standards, the M21 was found to be unacceptable and a new weapon needed. Just over 150 miles to the north of Fort Bragg is Marine Corps Base Quantico, home to the Scout Sniper Instructor School (SSIS). The parent unit for SSIS is Weapons Training Battalion (WTBN) and both the Battalion and SSIS Headquarters are located directly behind the 600-yard lines of Ranges 2 and 3. During SOTIC course development, the Special Forces course developers were in frequent contact with the SSIS cadre. This contact allowed ample opportunity to evaluate the USMC M40A1 Sniper Rifle on the range and in the field and without a doubt, the Special Forces guys liked what they saw.

Because military field evaluation is often of little concern to designers creating new sniper rifles, we have designs like the Walther WA 2000, Heckler & Koch PSG 1, Mauser SR 86, etc. reaching production status. Police organizations often drive the train in new rifle development and frequently fail to consider weapon size and weight when adopting new guns. Mauser's M93 and M97 recently tested by the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) are good examples of overweight monstrosities. The most accurate information about these two rifles can be found in the book "Mauser Original Oberndorf Original Sporting Rifles " by Speed, Schmidt and Herrmann. At the conclusion of their tests, the Germans adopted a version of the Accuracy International (AI) rifle in 300 Winchester Magnum. This rifle features a removable muzzle brake, sound suppressor, and night vision mount on the stock in addition to the normal features found on AI guns. Several articles have appeared in the German press about the new G22 (Gewehr 22, English: Rifle 22) but none have provided a full list of tabulated data. Specifically, none listed the weapon's weight.

There is no argument that all of above-mentioned rifles shoot well but they are too big, too heavy, and very expensive. They are also awkward to use in the field because of the their target rifle type configurations. A tank is supported by its crew. A sniper is supported by his rifle. Crews adapt to tanks, rifles should be adapted to snipers. Unfortunately many designers do not understand this concept nor do they understand the sniper's operational environment.

The Marine M40A1 has a simple hunting rifle configuration and is considered to be one of the finest sniper rifles in service (the new M40A2 is something else). Course graduation requirements for SSIS bear this out but as great as the M40A1 is, SOTIC wanted a few additional features. For example; detachable iron sights, Night Vision Device (NVD) capability and a butt stock adjustable for length of pull.

An additional problem was the selection of a suitable optical sight. The Unertl 10X, officially called the: Unertl USMC, was not available. John Unertl refused to sell the USMC 10X to anyone except the Marines. United States Optical Technologies is now licensed to produce these scopes and has offered them to civilians but I have not heard of anyone actually receiving one and am very skeptical anyone ever will.

SOTIC also wanted a bolt action rifle. Unfortunately, the Army had not had a bolt action service rifle since the Springfield. Unexpectedly, the patron Saint of Paratroopers (St. Michael) smiled down on the unconventional warriors and the basis for development of a rifle was found. During the time SFS ran, the course cadre had made an important discovery. Seems the U. S. Air Force had purchased Remington M40 Sniper rifles during the Viet Nam War for use by their Security Police. The rifles were standard issue USMC M40s; a 40X repeater action, 308 caliber barrel (Varmint Special contour), oil finished walnut stock, and a Redfield Accu-Range scope mounted with a one piece Redfield Jr. mount and rings. Thirteen of these rifles were sitting in a DCM warehouse and slated for destruction when the SFS guys discovered them. All thirteen were new, unissued, and in the box with all of the original packing and literature. Best of all, they were available at no-cost. These rifles were acquired and used exclusively by the SFS instructors for training and exercises. Students trained with the M21 Sniper Rifle mounting either the ART-Tel or ART II scope.

When SFS was discontinued, all of the equipment, weapons, etc. became SOTIC property and once SOTIC had the rifles, they were immediately examined and taken to the ranges for testing. Although the M40s failed to meet their requirements, SOTIC now had a good basis to begin building a new rifle; the Remington 40X repeater action.

The original scopes, mounts, stocks, and barrels were removed from the actions and a plan developed for the construction of prototype Special Operations Sniper Rifles. The actions were sent to Gail McMillan in Phoenix, Arizona for new barrels and fiberglass stocks. Two McMillan stock designs were selected for testing; the USMC M40A1 stock and the "Big Bore Prone" which is a copy of the older Anschutz Super Match Free Rifle stock.

To each action, McMillan fitted very heavy 24inch stainless steel barrels with a contour similar to the Shilen #7 and having a 1:12 inch twist. The barreled actions were then given a phosphate matte black finish. The original triggers and trigger guards were retained on most of the guns with the exception of a few which were later fitted with modified Winchester Model 70 trigger guards. All USMC M40A1s are built using the modified Winchester steel trigger guard. This was done to overcome some problems experienced with the aluminum guard in Viet Nam. When a Winchester guard is fitted, a Remington ADL (blind magazine)type magazine box must be fitted. The BDL (hinged floorplate) box lacks the ADL retaining screw tab to secure the box in place. If the BDL box is used it will fall out when the Winchester floorplate is opened. I have been told by a big name sniper rifle maker that he welds the magazine box to the receiver "like the Marines". He claims it provides the support required for the "flimsy" Remington box. I believe the Marines do this to prevent the box from falling out, how much strength is needed in the magazine box? Incidentally, Remington strenuously objects to welding on their actions saying it compromises the heat treatment. Beware; most of the companies offering M14 magazine conversions perform welding operations on the actions during the conversion.

SOTIC's guns had the old riveted extractor which performed admirably. During the time I was working at SOTIC, we began to experience extractor failure with extractors in actions that had fired in excess of an estimated 20,000 rounds. Not too bad I would say but, if you question the reliability of the Remington extractor, ask a graduate of SOTIC or SSIS for their opinion. I'll spare you mine.

While McMillan installed the barrels and stocks, Leupold introduced the ULTRA series of military quality scopes and mounts. There are three base models of the ULTRA scope; M1, M2, and M3. Ultra M1s were available in 10X, 16X, and 20X, the M2 in 10X only and the M3 in 6X and 10X. All ULTRA scopes feature etched glass reticles and until recently, Leupold's Mark 4 series scopes used the more economical wire reticle. This has now changed and Mark 4 scopes also feature wire reticles.

Both the M1 and M3 models featured the Mil-Dot reticle while the M2 featured a range finding reticle similar to the reticle found in the LAW (light Anti-Tank weapon). The range finding reticle of the M2 was very difficult for Leupold to manufacture and eventually led to the discontinuance of the M2. At one time a version of the M2 was available in Germany from Heinz Henke GmbH. but, only with a 4-Plex reticle. In this form, the M2 is nothing more than a heavy duty, 10 X 40 rifle scope. Adjustments on the M2 features are friction type similar to those found in Leupold's Vari-X II series scopes.

In 1986, the Ultra series was updated with the introduction of the M1A, M2A, and M3A. The principal difference being the addition of sunshades to all scopes and a change in the windage click adjustment from 1 to 0.5 MOA for the M3A.

When the rifles where returned from McMillan with their new barrels and stocks, ULTRA M3A scopes using ULTRA mounts and rings were installed. Target quality iron sights were desired feature for SOTIC's rifles but, they were never fitted. The Redfield PALMA rear and OLYMPIC front sights were identified as having the desired characteristics and were included as a part of the M24 SWS.

During course development for SOTIC and the first few years it was ran, two gunsmiths were assigned to the course. Their mission: maintain the guns and conduct experimentation to improve the prototype rifle. These gunsmiths were also Sniper Instructors and taught various aspects of the course. Being snipers, the gunsmiths were able to look at further rifle development from a "user's" point of view. These two were quite creative and one was rumored to have designed an Anti-Tank Spear.

Back to the story Once assembled, the new/old rifles were taken out to the ranges and found to meet the accuracy requirements. Handling was another thing. Opinion varied concerning the two stocks, one group of instructors favored the USMC M40A1 stock while the other group favored the Big Bore Prone. From early on, all of the prototype rifles were referred to as "Bolt Guns" and those with the Big Bore Prone stock were often called "Space Guns" as opposed to the M21s, the "Gas Guns".

The M21 "Gas Gun" was used for the "Diagnostic Shoot" on the first day and the first week of position shooting. The M21 is not a very friendly rifle and proved to be an excellent medium to test students. Rack grade M14s were used for the stalking exercises to prevent unnecessary wear and tear on the Bolt Guns and the sensitive M21s. Without the Bolt Guns, SOTIC could not run a course and the M21s were needed for iron sight training. This caused the instructors to be very protective of the guns although accidents did happen; two Bolt Guns were lying on the ground in a brown Gun Guard rifle case behind a 2 ½ ton truck when the driver decided to move the truck. The driver first backed over the guns, when everyone shouted to stop, he drove forward over the guns again. While the Gun Guard case and of course the driver, were the "Öpfern des Tages" (victims of the day), the rifles survived unscathed.

SOTIC's Diagnostic Shoot was a course pre-requisite conducted on the first day of the course and was a screening process that eliminated marginal shooters from the course. Eliminating these candidates allowed the instructors to focus on soldiers with the capability to complete the course. The Diagnostic shoot consisted of firing the M21 rifle with iron sights from the prone position at ranges of 25 meters and then later from prone and sitting positions at 200 to 500 yards. Most candidates who failed did so at the 25 meter line. The test was conducted very fairly and candidates were given two opportunities to pass the test. If they failed at 25 meters, an instructor was given the rifle to shoot the test. If the instructor passed the test, the candidate returned to his unit. If the instructor failed to pass, the candidate was given a new weapon and two more chances. The Diagnostic Shoot was discontinued when the M24 was introduced and quality M21s were no longer available from the SWC Arms Pool. Shooting the Diagnostic Test with the M24 was no test at all, anyone could pass since the M24 is a very "friendly" rifle.

Once the prototype guns were found to meet SOTIC requirements, a Statement of Requirement (SOR) was drafted to effect an "Off the Shelf" (military jargon for: commercially available without development) purchase of similar rifles for the Army's Special Operations Forces. As the SOR made its way through the Army's Bureaucracy, the Infantry School at Fort Benning said that they too required a new sniper rifle. So, SOTIC's design went "on the shelf" as the Infantry School and SWC held several conferences to determine the requirements for a new "Army" sniper rifle. At the time of these conferences, the Army did not have a sniper course and the personnel representing the Infantry School were primarily target shooters from the Marksmanship Training Unit (MTU) at Fort Benning. Some of these personnel had sniper experience while others did not. The then NCOIC of SOTIC, insisted upon a long action as opposed to the short action of the SOTIC prototype. He wanted a long action for a possible change later to a larger caliber. Winchester's 300 Magnum was then the hot long range target cartridge and undoubtedly created the desire for an action long enough to accommodate it. At that time, the Army's MTU loaded Sierra's 240 grain VLD (very Low Drag} bullet in the 300's for their 1000 yard Match Rifles. One of the original SOTIC course developers suggested that the new sniper rifles be chambered in 30-06 since they were requiring a long action. This suggestion was overruled since the 30-06 as a military round was long out of use. In the end, the specifications called for a rifle chambered for 7.62 NATO and capable of being reworked for 300 Winchester Magnum.

When the requirements for the rifles were finally agreed upon by the Special Operations people and the Infantry school, rifle manufacturers were invited to submit rifles for testing. Surprisingly, only Remington and Steyr submitted test rifles. Gail McMillan stated later that he did not submit rifles for testing because he believed the Army would not pay more than $2000.00 for a complete rifle. For the M24, Remington received $4995.00 for each of the first 500 SWSs they delivered but a significant portion of that cost was to cover Army required testing i.e.; chemical and biological, drop tests, corrosion, etc.

Steyr's entry had problems with vertically strung shot groups in the hot Georgia weather. In all likelihood, the bedding of the action to the stock was at fault. Steyr's stocks are made of a synthetic material they call cycolac and in hot weather, they feel somewhat oily to me. I would also speculate that the testers were not careful to insure that they did not get cleaning solvents into the critical recoil area of the stock. The Steyr SSG has its recoil lug positioned at the rear end of the receiver where solvent could easily drain into the recess and have an adverse impact on the bedding. Remington's M24 has an aluminum bedding block in a fiberglass stock that is not affected by hot weather and it is near impossible to get solvent into the forward positioned recoil lug area.

At the conclusion of testing, the Remington M24 was accepted and brought into service in October of 1988. I have heard foreigners say that the Steyr was a victim of "NIH" (Not Inverted Here). I say "What about the M9 Pistol (Beretta), M10 Pistol (SIG P228), M240, M240G, & M249 MGs (FN) or the M22 Binoculars (Steiner)"?

The M24 and its long action encompass nearly all of the requirements determined by SOTIC in 1985. These requirements have resulted in a user friendly rifle that almost shoots itself and is easy for the soldier to maintain in the field. Never the less, some feel the original SOTIC rifles were better field rifles.

What about the original guns? SOTIC's guns were used from the first course in 1985 until the last course taught in 1988. These rifles were used constantly with students firing up to 300 rounds through them in a day. Needless to say, barrels wore out and as the barrels wore out, they were replaced with barrels from various makers. Of these, the "old" McMillan barrels were the best. Some had more than 12,000 rounds fired when they were changed. They were not changed because they were shooting badly but, because the instructors were afraid the barrels might go bad during the middle of a course. I do recall one that would shoot 10 rounds into 1-moa from a clean barrel and then go south. After cleaning, it would put another 10 into the first group. Seems like the barrel throat/lead was nearly 6 inches long when we cut the barrel open to examine it.

When SOTIC began receiving M24s from Remington's first delivery, the old rifles were placed in storage since they needed new barrels and were no longer needed and by that time each rifle had fired more than 25,000 rounds.

The original SOTIC prototypes may now have been destroyed since weapons storage space is often at a premium and, the Army does not hang onto non-standard weapons that are not needed. Special Operations Arms Rooms are full of old junk they must retain for training purposes, truly bizarre stuff. SF Weapons Sergeants are required to know the operation, employment, and maintenance of a broad range of foreign and domestic, current and obsolete weapons. I've seen T48 rifles (US prototype FN FAL) and M3 SMGs with Bell Laboratories suppressors in SF Arms rooms, everything from 22 pistols to 82mm mortars. Other than historical reference, there is no need to retain the old SOTIC guns and few within the bureaucracy look far enough ahead to worry about preserving history. A good example is the destruction of nearly all of the Pederson devices for the Springfield rifle.

Anyway, I do have an original pattern SOTIC rifle available for examination and test firing. I put this rifle together as my personal rifle following my experiences rebuilding and shooting the originals. The rifle is based on a Remington 40X repeater as were the original. The most obvious difference between a 40X repeater and a Model 700 short action is the two cuts in the rear receiver ring to facilitate the rifle to being loaded with a US 30 caliber stripper clip in NRA competition. During NRA High Power Rifle National Match Competition, shooters are required to fire ten round strings of "rapid fire". After the command "load" is given, the shooter loads his rifle using the stripper clip with five rounds. At the command "Now Targets" the shooter has 70 seconds to fire the first five rounds, reload, and fire the remaining five. Recently I read something to the effect that; these cuts are made by the Marines in their M40s to make the scope mounting more rigid, BULLSHIT!

When my rifle was put together, an action was ordered from Remington with a M24 barrel. The Remington produced M24 Sniper Rifle barrel is made to the specifications developed by Boots Obermeyer. It's known as the 5R and has a 11.29 inch twist rate. Boots designed this barrel specifically for the US Military 7.62 NATO, M118 Special Ball cartridge. The M118 cartridge features a 175 grain FMJ boat tail bullet which is often erroneously referred to as a 173 grain bullet. The original M24 barrel was cut-rifled by Mike Rock to Obermeyer's design. As delivery problems arose with Rock barrels, Remington developed the mandrels and processes to hammer forge 5R barrels. When Remington made the change from cut rifled to hammer-forged barrels for M24 production, the Army required a complete new round of testing to the same standards. The new hammer-forged barrels met or surpassed all Army performance standards and equaled the performance of the cut barrels. As a testament of the Remington barrel, Stoner SR 25 sniper rifles in service with USSOCOM units were originally equipped with Remington 5R barrels although they were made of chrome-moly rather than stainless-steel.

McMillan calls the USMC M40A1 stock, the HTG or General Purpose stock and the cast-in camouflage colors are of quite unusual shades of green. This color pattern is called "Forest Camouflage" and obviously, the Marines are happy with the stock colors or they would have changed them in the 21 years the rifle has been in service. Wichita Engineering makes the non-detachable sling swivels used by the Marines. The swivels are made with larger diameter screws and are screwed into aluminum inserts molded into the stock.

USMC M40A1 rifles do not have a bipod or a means to mount one. The Marines train their snipers to make and shoot from improvised tripods and rucksacks as does SOTIC. Heavy emphasis is also made on use of the sling. Although the tripod can be very stable, it is not as handy or fast into action as a bipod. SOTIC's rifles were never fitted with swivels or studs although, detachable swivels were a requirement for the new rifle. For obvious reasons, I chose to mount a sling on my rifle and decided to use the Wichita swivels, ala USMC.

SOTIC 40Xs were originally bedded into one of the two stock designs using either BISONITE or ACRA-GLAS Gel. The test rifle is Pillar Bedded as were some of the originals later.

This is a comparison view of the aluminum Remington trigger guard above with the steel M24 guard in the middle, and modified Winchester parts below. The Winchester set-up also requires use of a third guard screw.

Unlike the USMC M40A1, which used a modified steel Winchester M70 trigger guard and floor plate, most SOTIC rifles used the original aluminum Remington guard. Fitting the Winchester parts requires that; the floor plate be shortened, a new hole for the middle guard screw made in the shortened extension of the trigger guard bow, the trigger opening in the guard enlarged, a relief for the trigger housing cut into the bottom of the trigger guard, and finally, the bolt release lever narrowed to fit through the trigger opening in the guard not to mention now requiring a third action/guard screw.

Of course when the rifles were assembled by SOTIC's gunsmiths, a torque wrench was used to tighten the guard screws and for mounting the scope rings to the bases. Students did not disassemble SOTIC "bolt guns", they didn't dare even look at a rifle and wrench at the same time.

Regardless of the scope fitted (M3 or M3A), all SOTIC rifles used Leupold ULTRA bases and rings. ULTRA bases were originally available for the Remington M700/40X action in three models: 2-piece, 1-piece short action, and 1-piece 1/48 (15moa) slope short action. All of the guns used the 1-piece short action base with the ULTRA 30mm steel rings. Scopes were mounted in the rings without glue on the scope, rings, or screws. A hammer was used on the screwdriver to "set" the screws as they were tightened with the resulting friction between the scope and rings providing enough "grip" to prevent scope slippage. I have compared original ULTRA rings, M24 rings, and Mark 4 rings and the only difference I can see is that the original ULTRA rings appear to be 100% machined and the two later versions being investment cast and finish machined.

I asked a few of my friends to shoot the rifle and give me their impressions as well as to record their performance with a "foreign" rifle. I provided match ammunition from RWS and Federal for the shooting evaluation. A small quantity of US M118 Match, and M118 Special Ball was also used.

For many years the M118 cartridge was loaded only as a match round. That means that the ammunition was produced to a high quality standard but, not waterproofed. Experiences in Viet Nam led to the introduction of M118 Special Ball which was waterproofed for sniper use. Although it is better than Standard NATO M80 7.62 X 51mm, it is not as good as the old match cartridge. Because of the superiority of the 168 grain match bullet at ranges to 600 yards, M118 Match was discontinued during the 1980's and replaced by M852 loaded with the Sierra 168 HPBT. Recently the M118 LR (Long Range) cartridge was introduced with a 175 gr. Match HPBT and since the 1990 legal opinion regarding sniper use of open tip ammo, a sniper may now choose between M80 Ball (147gr FMJBT), M118 Special Ball, M852 Match, or M118 LR.

The military ammunition shoots well but not great, groups with both variations of M118 are usually smaller than 1 MOA but, they do not inspire great confidence. Federal 168 grain Match groups were smaller than 1/2 MOA but the best results were made with RWS 168 grain match. Several shooters had 5 round groups of 0.3 to 0.5 MOA. This type of accuracy in a true field rifle had been SOTIC's intent when the original rifles were conceived and built. The accuracy of my rifle as experienced by several shooters certainly bears out the validity of design and components.

The SOTIC Prototypes demonstrate what many have said for years; a Mauser type action fitted with good barrel, stock, adjustable trigger, scope, and in a manageable caliber, will do everything a sniper will ask of it. Nothing extraordinary with these guns, just good quality work and top drawer components. Very interesting pieces of sniping history, true collectables, unfortunately the original SOTIC rifles are not likely to be released...EVER!

SOTIC Protoype/M24 Comparison

SOTIC 40X M24

• Caliber : 7.62 X 51 NATO 7.62 X 51 NATO
• Capacity: 5 Rounds 5 Rounds
• Action: 40X Short Action 40X Long Action
• Weight: 14 lbs 9 oz.
• Length: 44 inches
• Barrel: Remington Stainless, Rock or Remington Stainless,
• Length: 24 inches 24 inches
• Twist: 1:11.29 inches 1:11.29 inches
• Stock: McMillan; M40A1 H&S Precision; M24
• Optic: Leupold Mk4-M3 Leupold Ultra M3A
• Sights: None Redfield; Olympic Front Palma Rear

Short Biography:

Master Sergeant Marc Palmer S. Army Special Forces, Retired

MSG Palmer is a former SOTIC instructor, gunsmith, and NCOIC. He has more than 26 years of Special Forces Service and is a German Linguist. He served 1 tour in the U. S. Navy as a Corpsman and was assigned to Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico. MSG Palmer also attended the Gunsmith program at Utah Technical College at Orem, Utah.