For a long time in hand-held firearms, and not only in them, they strive for modularity of design. It is impossible to talk about this only in a positive or only negative way, since, like any trend in the development of weapons, the modularity of the design has its negative and positive aspects. But no one will deny that with the modular design of weapons, significant savings can be achieved in the production of weapons that are different in their purpose and characteristics. True, this can never be achieved, since it is required that only those samples that are combined together are in service, so that you can not dream of a submachine gun, an assault rifle, a light machine gun and a self-loading sniper rifle on one base, although you can do it all, moreover, it has already been done for a long time. Nevertheless, the modularity of the weapon design has the right to life, albeit with very limited potential, as, for example, in the Fortmeier Mod 2002 sniper complex considered below.
Immediately it should be noted that this complex is very often considered as just a large-caliber sniper rifle, but in this case it is wrong. The thing is that the weapon is relatively young, it was first shown in 2010, and it was shown exactly as a SWR, and the fact that for some reason everyone missed the plans to make the weapon multicaliber. However, this is not surprising, since many manufacturers, demonstrating new weapons, declare that they are multi-caliber in the future, but this does not go further than statements. Manufaktur Heinrich Fortmeier went to the end and did not stop at creating one sample of weapons, but made a really sniper complex out of it, which can use ammunition of 7, 62 to 12, 7 mm caliber. Let's try to figure out what kind of weapon it is and how much it is in demand.
First of all, attention is drawn to the appearance of the weapon, which is quite unusual even by modern standards. Separately, there are fastening strips under the barrel and on top of the weapon, which are made as separate parts of the rifle itself, in addition, the lower fastening strip also serves as a handle for carrying weapons over short distances. The long seat on top of the rifle allows you to install a wide variety of sights, including open ones, which are always welcome on the weapon in case the telescopic sight fails. The purpose of the lower picatinny rail is personally incomprehensible to me, since the bipod of the weapon is not attached to it. The rifle butt is fixed, does not have the ability to adjust in length, as well as the height of the cheek rest, which can be attributed to the negative qualities of the weapon.
The Fortmeier Mod 2002 sniper complex, regardless of its design, is single-shot. The basis of the weapon was a sliding bolt that locks the barrel bore when turning. Manual reloading, using the bolt handle on the right side of the weapon with a fairly large knob. The barrel of the weapon is free-hanging, it is fixed only in the receiver and does not touch anything else. In order to ensure comfortable shooting, the stock is equipped with a rubber recoil pad, as well as a muzzle brake-recoil compensator, starting with.408 Chey Tac cartridges. It is noteworthy that when using less powerful ammunition, simply a slotted flash suppressor is used, although with.338 LM ammunition the same DTK would not be superfluous. The trigger mechanism of the weapon does not have the ability to adjust and has a fixed trigger force of 1, 3 kgf, which can hardly be attributed to the positive features of this weapon.
In the version chambered for.50BMG, the weapon weighs 13.5 kilograms with a barrel length of 915 millimeters and a total length of 1450 millimeters. In other cases, the weight and dimensions are different. At the moment it is known that the weapon can be adapted to use cartridges:
-.300 Win Mag for which there are 815 mm barrels;
-.308 Win with a barrel of 800 mm;
-.338 Norma Magnuv with a barrel length of 700 millimeters;
-.338 Lapua Magnum with 815mm barrel;
-.375 SNYPE TAC with a barrel of 700 mm;
-.408 Chey Tac with a barrel length of 750 millimeters;
-.416 TYR with a barrel of 915 mm;
-.460Steyr with a barrel of 915 mm;
-.50BMG with a barrel length of 915 mm.
Separately, it is noted that, despite the fairly wide variety of possible ammunition used, their list will expand further, but only after the options for weapons with silent firing devices in the main calibers have been worked out. The transition from one caliber to another is carried out in a rather expensive way, rather than simply replacing the barrel and bolt, but the replacement takes place really quickly without loss in the accuracy of fire and the durability of the structure. The weapon itself is divided into two parts. The front part changes completely in the remaining part, only the shutter is replaced. However, no one bothers to change only the barrel of the weapon, but this lesson is quite long with the use of tools and is impossible in the field.
What exactly is the advantage of this sniper complex over other similar developments is difficult to say right off the bat, especially considering that having several calibers at hand is not only expensive, but also difficult to carry. The positive qualities include the very high quality of production and, as a consequence, the high accuracy of the weapon. A fairly impressive list of ammunition is also clearly not a negative quality, although if you take real needs, then you could do with three options that would completely cover all the needs of any shooter. The disadvantages of weapons can immediately include the cost of both the weapon itself and additional modules for changing the ammunition used. The inability to adjust the butt to the anatomical features of the shooter, as well as the inability to adjust the trigger mechanism are also obvious disadvantages. Well, on top of everything else, single-charge.
In general, this sniper complex, in my opinion, is clearly damp and ill-conceived, since, despite all its characteristics, it does not have a “target audience”. For the military, weapons are expensive and have many cheaper and more flexible competitors with almost the same performance, if not higher. For athletes, there is not enough opportunity to adapt the complex to the shooter. Only the civilian market remains, but even here the complex is clearly intended for hunting, rather entertaining shooting. In general, weapons still need to be sawed and sawed, but this is just my opinion.
