Somerset firm touts new rifle's accuracy ,it is accurate for up to 1.6 miles,

[Bravo Zulu]

Paul Leonard, president of P&R Sales demonstrates the .338 Xtreme Tactical Rifle on a range in Somerset County.

Tucked away in Clearfield County, Grassflat may be a tiny town (pop. 750), but if Xtreme Machining has its way, it will become the center of the universe for precision tactical rifles used by military and law enforcement snipers, civilian target shooters and big-game hunters.

To that end, the company today will roll out its latest product, the .338 Xtreme Tactical rifle. It is touted as being accurate for up to 1.6 miles, with low recoil and light weight. About two dozen representatives of the military, federal agencies, southwestern Pennsylvania police SWAT teams and gun dealers are expected to attend the company's shooting event at a range in Somerset County.

"We want them to get their hands on it, to see the accuracy, to feel the recoil and say, 'Wow!'" said Xtreme marketing director Paul Leonard. "So far, everybody has said, 'Wow.'

"We can make any gun out there already, but our objective was to make the best. The serious shooter is always looking for something better."

And, he said, the .338 Xtreme tactical rifle is that "something better." Using an automobile analogy, he said the .338 Xtreme is to other weapons what a Mustang GT is to the family sedan.

"It's a custom-built rifle but it's not an assembly-line rifle. Everything is machined and tested. We make one at a time, but quite a few a day."

The company won't list all of its targeted customers, but two likely are the Army and the Marine Corps.

According to an article in May in the Army Times newspaper, both branches of the service are looking for a long-range "anti-personnel'' sniper weapon to complement the standard sniper rifle, which is effective out to 800 meters.

The Xtreme could fit the bill. The selling points of the rifle are fourfold, beginning with accuracy at a target 2,500 yards away and beyond, said Mr. Leonard, who acknowledged that company representatives have taken a prototoype to the Marine base in Quantico, Va.

"There are two other firearms out there that they say can shoot that far, but they weigh more and are less accurate," Mr. Leonard said, noting the Xtreme rifle weighs 16 pounds as compared to the 30 or so pounds a .50-caliber rifle used by snipers can weigh.

According to the Army Times, both the Army and the Marines use versions of the .50-caliber sniper weapon, which has a range out to 2,000 meters. But it is mainly intended to destroy targets larger than a man, such as light-skinned vehicles, the newspaper said.

The Xtreme is a light-kicking anti-personnel or game-killing weapon.

The recoil is like that of a much less powerful .22-250 rifle.

"It's almost unreal,'' Mr. Leonard said. "With other in this class, after a couple of shots, your shoulder is done, but not with this. You can shoot all day long."

Additionally, the rifle can be fired 10 times consecutively without overheating. All parts are 100 percent machined; there are no forgings or castings.

Mr. Leonard said the rifle's high performance is enhanced by the .338 Xtreme cartridge. The Army and Marines haven't given details on the caliber they would want in a new sniper gun, according to the Army Times.

"This bullet was made for this gun,'' Mr. Leonard said. "A lot of guns are made for bullets, but we did it the right way."

Depending upon the model, the rifle will retail between $4,700 and $6,200. American Tactical Imports in Rochester, N.Y., is the distributor for the rifle, which has been in research and development since Xtreme Machining began business in April 2005.

The company, whose president, Robert A. Zelenky, has been in the machining business for 25 years, employs about a dozen people. But Mr. Leonard said more hiring will be necessary to keep up with expected demand.

While the rifle is initially being shown locally, it will have a wide-ranging impact, he predicted.

"We want to get it started from the grass roots. We'll start in our own area and spread out further and further," he said.

"This firearm not going to stay in Western Pennsylvania. It's going to go everywhere, trust me. This is a major breakthrough, one of best things to happen in the shooting industry in about five years."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08237/906641-454.stm

[villager]

1. Perfect for defending yourselves against intruders!

Uh, if they're a couple of neighborhoods away....

[2KS2KHonda]

2. Where's the sport in that? I always say let them break down the door before taking defensive

measures!

[villager]

7. your door's 1.6 miles away!? That's a mighty big house!

;-)

[Mojorabbit]

3. I know what to ask hubby for for Christmas

This looks like it would be great fun at the range.

[Owl]

4. 1.6 miles? You have to have some pretty damn good eyesite even with a scope...

maybe you use a telescope?

[depakid]

5. Experimental rifle- experimental ammunition. Sounds like Quigly Down Under!

[wtmusic]

6. We can even be less aware of who we're killing! nt

[PsN2Wind]

8. No mention in the article as to their definition of

"accurate to 2,500 yards". Are they referring to putting one in someones ten ring at that range. Bullet drop and wind drift over that distance means holding over the target a great amount while trying to guess the wind near the target. Also is it that accurate when fired from the shoulder with a tripod as the photo would suggest or fired from a machine rest?

[2KS2KHonda]

9. Maybe the bullet goes infinitely fast and so doesn't drop at all.

:silly:

[Bravo Zulu]

10. Range

The longest range recorded for a sniper kill currently stands at 2,430 meters (2,657 yd, or 1.51 miles), accomplished by Corporal Rob Furlong, a sniper from Newfoundland, Canada, in March 2002 during the war in Afghanistan. Corporal Rob Furlong made this record-breaking kill while he was participating in Operation Anaconda. He was serving with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) at the time. To make the kill, he used a .50 caliber BMG (12.7 mm) McMillan TAC-50 bolt-action rifle.

If one takes the time-in-flight of the bullet with air resistance to be conservative Trajectory of a projectile Trajectory of a projectile with air resistance about 1.5× the flight time without air resistance, that would be about 4.5 seconds (2,430m ÷ 823m/s = 2.95s). Over that time, neglecting any aerodynamic lift on the bullet in flight, it would drop almost 100m on its way to the target.

The previous record was held by U.S. Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock in February 1967 during the Vietnam War, at a distance of more than 2,500 yards using a scope-mounted Browning M2 .50 machine gun.

By contrast, much of the US/Coalition urban sniping in support of operations in Iraq is at much shorter ranges, although in one notable incident on April 3, 2003, Corporals Matt and Sam Hughes, a two-man sniper team of the Royal Marines, armed with L96 sniper rifles each killed targets at a range of about 860 metres (941 yd) with shots that, due to strong wind, had to be “fire exactly 17 meters (56 ft) to the left of the target for the bullet to bend in the wind.”

During Operation Enduring Freedom, Spanish Navy Marine snipers shot cables hanging from the mast to the bridge of the North-Korean freighter So San, smuggling Scud missiles through the waters of Socotra Island. These cables were preventing it from being boarded by fast rope for an arms inspection. The shots were made at a range of 400 yards,with rough sea, from the deck of a Santa Maria class frigate, and the Marines were armed with Barrett M95 rifles.

[benEzra]

15. They're speaking of the point at which the bullet slows to transonic velocities...

which makes its flight path unpredictable and blows accuracy all to pieces.

Here is the ballistics table from the website:



http://www.xtrememachining.biz/338tactical.html

MV is muzzle velocity, ME is muzzle energy (kinetic energy of the bullet as it exits the muzzle). Some other common long-range shooting calibers are shown for comparison (.300 Winchester Magnum, .338 Lapua, .408 Cheytac, .50 BMG). Note that the .338 XT is still comfortably supersonic at 2000 yards.

Basically, they appear to be using a medium-caliber bullet (.338) with a very high ballistic coefficient (i.e., high sectional density and very low drag), and driving it as fast as a bullet from a varmint rifle, close to 3400 ft/sec.

They're claiming that the rifle will hold 0.5 arcminute (1/120th of a degree) out to 2000 yards. That works out to shooting 21-inch groups at 2000 yards from a machine rest, with zero wind. Which is pretty darn good.

[yellowcanine]

11. Great! I always wanted to shoot groundhogs from 1.6 miles.

:hide:

[benEzra]

16. Have to be pretty big groundhogs. You're looking at 20 to 40 inch groups at that distance

assuming no wind dispersion and you dope the wind right.

That's still pretty darn good, though (21" @ 2000 yards = 0.5 arcminute).

I'll bet you see a lot of this caliber in long-range target competition, IF it lives up to its billing. I'm a bit curious how they supposedly get the recoil down to .22-250 levels if it's firing a heavier bullet at a higher velocity than .338 Lapua Magnum, which is itself a hard-kicking caliber. The rifle is 15.5 pounds, which is heavy but not THAT heavy. I'm assuming they must have a pretty efficient muzzle brake.

[tomreedtoon]

12. C'mon. This is the Hummer of rifles.

Meaning it costs too much for what it does. Better to arm a hundred men with a conventionally made rifle, with easily available and interchangeable parts, than to arm one guy with one of these expensive and hard-to-repair rich men's toys. Although the military buyers will probably get their own "freebies" to polish all night long, if they spend the taxpayer's money on these boondoggles.

[Bravo Zulu]

13. A Sniper Team

could have taken out Saddam for a few thousand dollars instead of costing a trillion dollars, 4.500 GI lives and 35.000 wounded GI’s and we’re worse off than when we started!

[tomreedtoon]

14. Saddam wasn't the objective. Owning all the oil was.

And a few snipers with foofy guns can't seize an entire nation's oil assets. Only an army with a lot of expendable, hopeless, unemployed Americans can seize that much of a nation. So again, those fancy guns aren't useful.

[Paladin]

17. Well, It Has "Tactical" In Its Name

That alone will guarantee brisk sales among the gun obsessives....

[AdHocSolver]

18. Am I correct in assuming they plan to sell these to hunters who can't tell a deer from a cow...

at 200 yards? How long before these things wind up in the hands of terrorists?

How can marketing a gun with such fire power that is so easy for just anyone to use be in the interest of public safety?

Mass-marketing such a gun has got to be the craziest idea ever.

[Recursion]

19. A couple of problems with your post

1. A $5000-$6000 rifle is hardly "mass-marketed"; for that price you could get a gunsmith to make you a rifle.

2. Michael Phelps wore some new high-tech Speedo swimsuit at the Olympics and it helped him swim faster, right? But if you or I wore that swimsuit we wouldn't swim any faster than we do already. Similarly, you or I could not accurately hit a target a mile and a half away with this rifle.

[benEzra]

20. This isn't a hunting rifle, it's a 15+ pound precision rifle...

being marketed to people who understand what a ballistic coefficient is, and what the significance of the supersonic-transonic transition zone is.

Hunting rifles are generally made light enough to carry without wearing yourself out; they can shoot plenty far (U.S. snipers in Vietnam made 1000+ yard kills with commercial deer rifles, after all), but lack the weight and precision for the 1000- to 2000-yard zone.

The primary market for this rifle will be to long-range target shooters, but I'm sure police and military will also pick up a few.

FWIW, heavy, long-range rifles like this are one of the very few types of guns that are still legal in England:


7mm WSM - 2.67" at 1000 yards - new UK record

And no, most of us could NOT hit a target at 1000 yards with one. If you don't know how to shoot well, you wouldn't be able to hit at 300 yards, much less 1000 or 2000. Beyond 400 yards or so, you have to have an in-depth knowledge of ballistics, and be able to read wind like you're psychic (wind being the primary variable at long range).