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United States Marine Corps M40A3 7.6mm sniper rifle, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) prioritized reconnaissance and sniper sniper earlier than the Army, and

M40A3 sniper rifle

M40A3 7.62mm sniper rifle, using NATO 7.62-51 bullets, plus 10 times fixed scope, 1/1000 inch cross scale, effective range 1000 yards.

Introduction to M40A3 sniper rifle

United States Marine Corps M40A3 7.6mm sniper rifle, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) prioritized reconnaissance and sniper sniper earlier than the Army, and

M40A3 sniper rifle

His own theory put forward the concept of a reconnaissance and sniper force. In the 1950s, a reconnaissance and sniper force was formed to strengthen tactical training and enrich weapons and equipment. In terms of sniper rifles, several existing high-precision sniper rifles are suitable for snipers with different distances and targets. Medium range (about 300m) use class advanced marksman rifle (SAM-R), such as M16A4 SAM-R; traditional long-range (about 1000m) use M40A3 rifle; ultra-long distance to deal with living targets, explosives and heavy armor , Using special-purpose long-range rifles (SASR), such as the Barrett M82A3 SASR. Among them, the M40A3 rifle is the latest version of the Marine Corps Precision Weapons Department (PWD) based on the Remington M700 civilian rifle. The Marines' most proud weapon is this self-made high-precision rifle.

M40A3 sniper rifle history

During the American War of Independence, the Marine Corps was established to deal with the offensive of British warships. This unit has always attached great importance to sniping

M40A3 sniper rifle

The use of tactics, but after all initially relied on the soldiers' skills and their own equipment.

From the beginning of World War I, the US military began to customize "standard sniper rifles" to equip soldiers. As the earliest standard sniper rifle of the U.S. military, the M1903A4 was selected from the standard rifle Springfield M1903A3 at that time, and was equipped with a high-magnification Vnertl 8x scope at the time.

A semi-automatic sniper rifle based on the US Garland M1 rifle was also developed during World War II, including a high-precision M1B sniper rifle selected from the M1 rifle and equipped with a Wiener 8x scope. And in 1944, the M1C sniper rifle mounted with a 2.5x Lyman sight. M1B and M1C were used until the end of World War II. During the Korean War, the Garland M1 rifle was also replaced with a special barrel, and a Libby Owens Ford 2.2x scope was installed to make an M1D sniper rifle. These semi-automatic sniper rifles based on the Garland M1 rifle were used as medium-range sniper rifles to assist the main sniper using the M1903A4 sniper rifle.

By the 1950s, the US Army and the Marine Corps had divergent views and applications on "sniper". The Army followed the steps of developing the M1B-M1D based on the M1 rifle. In 1967, the U.S. Army selected a high-precision M14 rifle, mounted an adjustable rangefinder, and renamed the M21 sniper rifle. The gun was not replaced by the M24 sniper rifle produced by Remington until the early 1990s. In addition, the M14 rifle, which has achieved good results in the Middle East war recently, has been readjusted except for a few that have been converted to M21 sniper rifles. It is called a M14DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle) precision shooter rifle.

The Marine Corps put forward the idea of a reconnaissance and sniper force according to its own theory, and began to form a reconnaissance and sniper force. The Marine Corps' firearms deployment department conducted comparative tests on various hunting rifles, shooting competition rifles, ammunition, and scopes to find the best sniper rifle solution. As a result, the combination of the Remington M700 civilian rifle and Redfield's 3.9x scope was the best in various tests. It was designated as a standard sniper rifle on April 7, 1966, known as the VSMC M40 7.62mm sniper rifle. And immediately put into the Vietnam front to replace the Winchester M70 sniper rifle used by the Marines at the beginning of the war.

The hot and rainy tropical climate of Vietnam has caused the wooden stock of the M40 to expand and deform, and metal parts such as the gun and barrel have rusted. As a result, the Marine Corps Precision Weapons Department immediately embarked on the improvement of the M40, and in the mid 1970s, made the M40A1 sniper rifle. The gun is equipped with a weather-resistant glass fiber reinforced plastic McMillan stock. The surface of the metal parts is phosphated, and the sight is changed to a Venator 10x sight.

The M40A1 was used quite a lot in the Vietnam War and created a model of "one shot sniper" for US snipers. Later, the Army also learned sniper technology at the Marine Corps Sniper School. In 1988, it also equipped the Remington M700 with the stock of HS Precision Equipment Company, Liu Polder MK3 10x scope and Harris bipod. Made of M24 SWS sniper rifle.

The Marine Corps continued to improve the M40A1 and experienced the M40A2 (equipped with McMillan A1 buttstock, Liu Polder MK4 / M1PR 3.5-10 times scope and Harris bipod), and in 1996 successfully developed the M40A3 sniper rifle.

Structural Features of M40A3 Sniper Rifle

The M40A3 sniper rifle is a non-automatic rifle developed based on the Remington M700 high-precision civilian rifle. It is mainly used to kill important live targets at medium distances.

Buttstock The gun adopts a rotary rear pull-type gun machine, and the rear pull and push operations of the gun machine are lighter.

The barrel gun is equipped with a heavy-duty stainless steel barrel for precision shooting made by Schneider, with 6 rifles, right-handed rotation, and a lead of 290mm.

Buttstock The gun uses a McMillan A4 tactical buttstock with an adjustable cheek pad. The cheek pad is an aluminum core structure, and the surface is covered with a layer of soft polyurethane rubber, which makes the cheek feel comfortable.

The rail gun is equipped with an M1913 Picatinny rail for mounting optical sights. The guide rail adopts a bridge design, which does not affect the loading of bombs from the window.

Aiming device The gun has no mechanical sight and can only use optical sights. In addition to the Wiener 10x scope, the gun can also be equipped with AN / PVS-10 type 8.5x night vision scope. This article's M40A3 is equipped with Schmidt-Bend 3-12 times magnification sight, which has been awarded the system number M8541 by the US military. It is said that the Marine Corps will use the M8541 scope to replace the Venator 10x scope for the M40A3 sniper rifle.

The gun is equipped with a S-type freely reversible Harris bipod.

The magazine is a monolithic, integrated with the gun body, with a capacity of 5 rounds. The ammunition was loaded into the magazine from the window.

Use of bullets This gun uses 7.62 × 51mm NATO rifle bullets, but also US M118 LR7.62mm rifle bullets.

M40A3 sniper rifle live ammunition

The shooting operation feels that when the gun strap is hung on the shoulder to shoot in a standing position, the gun feels too heavy. The total weight of the gun is 7.5kg, which is heavier than the M249 Minimi machine gun and MK43 (M60 final type) machine gun. However, setting up a bipod shooting on the shooting pad, it feels very stable. The adjustable cheek stick is easy to use and comfortable for cheek sticking, and can be easily thrown and filled even when cheek sticking. The trigger is more sensitive, but the trigger force is not as small as imagined. After all, it is not a match but a real trigger.

The projectile scattered M40A3 sniper rifle fired the American M118 LR 7.62mm bullet, and the diameter of the circle at the impact point at 914m (1000 yards) was 254mm.

Now the U.S. Army, the Navy introduces the MK11-0 7.62mm sniper rifle, and the Army introduces the XM110 7.62mm sniper rifle. Both of these rifles are semi-automatic sniper rifles (part of the Stoner SR25 rifle series) from Knight Military Equipment Company, replacing the mine Minton M700 series of non-automatic sniper rifles, only the Marine Corps still insist on using M40 series of non-automatic sniper rifles. ^[1]