It's no secret that the most common designs give rise to a lot of "clones", as well as samples of weapons, which are made in their image and likeness with minor changes. It often happens that a sample of a weapon that is made on the basis of a different sample generally belongs to a different class. It is this development scenario that we will try to analyze in this article. It's about the M16 sniper, originally from the Philippines, known as the MSSR.
This rifle is a conventional M16A1, devoid of the possibility of automatic fire, endowed with a better barrel of longer length. Almost everything else in the weapon was left unchanged, except that the carrying handle, it was the telescopic sight mounting bar, was removed later, although it was present on the first samples. In this regard, the rifle, in its final version, does not have open sights, which, in my opinion, is not the most reasonable solution, given that the weapon is used at medium distances. Filipino designers as a whole brought the weapon to the required characteristics, so the accuracy of the rifle is equal to 1 arc minute, which is quite consistent with the requirements of the military.
The sniper M16 weighs 4, 55 kilograms, its length is 1073 millimeters with a barrel length of 610 millimeters. It feeds from magazines with a capacity of 20 or 30 rounds. At distances over 600 meters, it becomes practically useless, since it uses the same ammunition 5, 56x45.
The weapon's automation is also completely analogous to the M16, that is, it is built on the basis of the removal of powder gases from the barrel bore directly into the receiver. The location of the main controls is inversely similar to the "antipode" of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. The modified forend of the weapon has a mount in its lower part for the installation of folding unregulated bipods. For transportation, there are swivels for which the belt clings.
It is difficult to assess such a weapon, it seems like the MSSR is also a sniper rifle, but on the other hand, it is still the same M16 with a new barrel and minor modifications. After all, if, for example, you put an optical sight on a Kalashnikov assault rifle, then it would never occur to anyone to call it a sniper rifle. However, a sniper does not always need to shoot at long distances, very often targets are at distances accessible to such weapons, so in general, the creation of such a sample is quite justified. Given that the Filipinos rely on the use of weapons exclusively on their territory, it is not surprising that they do not need a large number of sniper rifles with an effective range of more than a thousand meters. Naturally, large-caliber sniper rifles are also in service, but since most tasks can be performed by the MSSR, it is the main sniper rifle.
On the basis of this weapon, a silent version in the same caliber was subsequently developed. This weapon differs only in the integrated high-volume silent firing device and the included night sight. What ammunition is used in weapons, unfortunately, is unknown, but the fastest is full-fledged 5, 56x45.
Based on everything written above, we can make a simple conclusion that the MSSR sniper rifle has the right to life, even though it is a slightly modified M16. Well, those problems that were inherent in the M16A1 are absent in this weapon due to the fact that the rifle is deprived of the ability to conduct automatic fire, which significantly increases its reliability.
