What is a WWII sniper rifle capable of...

[amadeus76]

Below is a photo I took of a range target this weekend of 2 back to back 100yd 3 round groups out of a faux-1903a4 I had built. I took off my Hi Lux/Malcolm 2.5x repro M82 scope and mounted a vintage Weaver K6 to really see how accurate it could be and this is what I got after zeroing the scope...



The first 3 shots are the tight group in the middle of the spot. The next 3 opened up slightly, as to be expected from such a thin barrel. There is nothing special done to the rifle other than fitting the stock properly. Not bad for a 100+ year old design. It really reinforces that the limiting factor of this rifle as a sniper's weapon in WWII and Korea was the anemic scope. I recon, modern range finder scopes aside, this gun could compete with modern rifles far more expensive.

And because I know someone is gonna ask...

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[Gil Boyd]

Go on then...............I'll ask, where's the photo??

[amadeus76]

Uh... Evidently I don't know how to post pics.

[Mike Haas]

Uh... Evidently I don't know how to post pics.

I "reckon" you don't.

[CINDERS]

Because we as civies we are not put in any life threatening situations where we have to make the shot count we can relax a bit because we're not going to have any retaliatory fire come in on us thus bringing about our demise.
Here's a story from a group of marines that were trapped on a beach by a well sited bunker by the Japanese, "They could not advance due to the ground they had already lost a few marines trying to attack the emplacement it was at least a good 700 yards of ground to cover so they called up for snipers."
"Shortly thereafter 2 marines rolled up and settled in (They called them Bears!) one marine spotted whilst the other shot at the slit the shooter had the slit dialed in after the 3rd shot and proceeded to kill every Japanese soldier that manned that gun trying to kill the marines." the marines took that emplacement without further loss. I wish I could remember the book I read that in

There were some phenomenal snipers that used their sniper rifles to telling effect on the enemy in WWI - WWII - Korea in fact I think a Russian women sniper has the greatest kill rate of them all its in the 300's from memory, Billy Sing certainly accounted for a fair few Turks and remember just how hilly Galipolli is that alters the geometry of the shot going up hill & down dale.
But this will show just how a well trained sniper can shoot given a modern weapons system sadly Ted Gundy passed away in Nov '16 he survived the Ardennes - Bastone offensive's R.I.P

[#1oilman]

Check out one of Canada's best snipers in the Great War, Joseph Pegamagabow (Peggy), a Cree Indian from Parry Sound Ontario with I believe 78 kills

[cplstevennorton]

As far as I know there was never a Army Sniper school in WWII. But the Marines actually had a full sniper coarse in 1943 until early 1944. I have the training schedule and I think it was 6 weeks if I remember right. It's been a while since I looked at it. But they did train on ranges up to a 1000 yards with their rifles.

And I have seen after action reports, especially on Okinawa that they were making kills at over a 1000 yards with the Unertl rifles.