The Austrian large-caliber sniper rifle Steyr HS.50 is not only a very famous model in the arms world, but also one of the most accurate rifles on the market today. The rifle is produced by the eponymous company Steyr Mannlicher Gmbh & Co KG. The world famous Austrian company Steyr Mannlicher has been developing and manufacturing small arms for over 150 years, but the Steyr HS.50 large-caliber rifle chambered for 12.7x99 mm was the first for the company in such a caliber.
The Steyr HS.50 rifle was preceded by the relatively unsuccessful Steyr IWS 2000 / AMR 5075 anti-material rifle, which was quite innovative at the same time. This rifle fired new, but non-standard sub-caliber ammunition - 15, 2x169 mm. The failure made the Austrian company from the city of Steyr think about revenge. And this revenge was a success. A simpler, but at the same time unusually accurate sniper rifle Steyr HS.50, designed by Heinrich Fortmeier, and its subsequent modifications went into production and for more than 10 years have been in demand on the market and are actively sold for export.
At the same time, the rifle was not created in Austria, it has German roots. In 1999, the German designer Heinrich Fortmeier from the small town of Delbrück, located in North Rhine-Westphalia, decided to start creating a large-caliber single-shot rifle of his own design and even founded the Heinrich Fortmeier company. Only then, Fortmeier managed to interest the specialists of the large Austrian company Steyr-Mannlicher with his product, and already in 2002, by their order, he assembled the Fortmeier M2002 rifle, which was shown at an exhibition in Las Vegas. It was she who would then turn into the Steyr HS.50. The first sniper rifles HS.50 Heinrich Fortmeier produced independently, but then the Austrian company established their mass production at an enterprise in the city of Steyr.
It seems curious that after the completion of development, the Steyr-Mannlicher company allowed Fortmeier to produce the HS.50 sniper rifle under his own name. But, in fairness, it is worth noting that the rifles produced in Austria and Germany have some differences: if the Steyr HS.50 uses a barrel of its own production, then the German rifles use the barrels of Lothar Walther. At the same time, the rifles have a number of other less significant differences.
For the first time, the Steyr HS.50 large-caliber sniper rifle was presented to the general public in February 2004 at the major arms exhibition ShotShow-2004, this exhibition is held annually in Las Vegas. The rifle is a traditional model of anti-material weapons, which is designed to defeat and disable unarmored and lightly armored enemy vehicles (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, armored vehicles), aircraft and combat helicopters in parking lots, rocket launchers and enemy radars. It can also be effectively used to defeat enemy personnel in personal protective equipment and behind shelters, as well as for anti-sniper combat.
The Steyr HS.50 sniper rifle fully meets all the basic requirements of modern warfare and, thanks to its excellent workmanship, maximum simplicity of design and high accuracy, is in high demand in the international small arms market. This rifle is in service with the army and police special units of 11 countries of the world and is one of the five most accurate large-caliber rifles on the planet.
Today, there are also variants of the Steyr HS.50 rifle chambered for a large-caliber cartridge of our own Austrian development.460 Steyr (11, 6x90 mm), which was created on the basis of the NATO cartridge 12, 7x99 mm. It is quite promising for long-range sniper weapons, since, while maintaining a large effective firing range, it has a lower recoil momentum than cartridges of 12.7 mm caliber. Moreover, his bullet is lighter and has a higher initial velocity, as well as better ballistic performance. Also on the market today is the Steyr HS.50 M1 large-caliber sniper rifle. The main feature of this model is the presence of a box magazine for five rounds, which is inserted into the receiver located horizontally on the left side of the rifle. Whereas the original version of the Steyr HS.50 rifle is single shot.
The design of the sniper rifle is modular, which allows you to quickly replace the barrel if necessary and provide a transition from the.50BMG cartridge to.460 Steyr. The rifle barrel is made by cold forging, which ensures high alignment of the internal diameters of the channel along the grooves and fields, which, in turn, is one of the reasons for ensuring high accuracy and accuracy of firing from this rifle. This same production method provides another advantage - high wear resistance of the barrel, since the steel is significantly compacted with this production method. The rifle barrel is equipped with longitudinal stiffeners for better cooling. It is screwed into a steel breech with a faceted body and fixed to the stock, the barrel of the Steyr HS.50 itself is made floating and freely hung out relative to the stock of the sniper rifle.
There are no mechanical sights on the rifle, but a standard 270 mm Picatinny rail is attached to the breech from above, which allows you to install various sights. To reduce recoil when firing, a rubber pad is installed on the rear of the butt - a shock absorber. Also, to reduce recoil on the barrel of a sniper rifle, there is a muzzle slot brake-compensator of a rather massive shape. For a stable position when shooting, height-adjustable bipods, which are folded forward under the barrel, are used, which are located at the beginning of the rifle bed.
The Steyr HS.50 is a single-shot sniper rifle with a double locking bolt bolt action. The opening angle of the shutter is 90 degrees. A sufficiently powerful bolt handle facilitates this process even with tight extraction and contamination of the weapon. The trigger is locked with a two-position safety catch. The stock of the rifle is aluminum, there is an adjustment of the cheek piece for the individual characteristics of the shooter. The front part of the rifle stock in the lower part is made flat, so that the sniper rifle can be comfortably resting on a sandbag when firing from a support.
Any trained shooter will quickly deal with the Steyr HS.50 large-caliber rifle, the control of the rifle is very simple, like all sniper rifles with a sliding bolt: after opening the bolt, the shooter sends a cartridge into the barrel and locks the barrel bore with the bolt - the rifle is ready to fire. The trigger of the rifle is locked with a safety catch. Trigger trigger - with a warning, after its light preliminary stroke of 7 mm, it stops fixedly and only after overcoming the effort at the level of 1.5 kg the trigger is triggered (trigger pull is not adjustable), a shot is fired.
Since the sniper rifle was originally developed for military use, the process of disassembling and assembling it was made as simple as possible, and the model itself consists of a relatively small number of parts and has a high structural strength. The main advantage of this large-caliber rifle is its high accuracy of fire (dispersion at 100 meters is no more than 0.5 MOA). This indicator makes this rifle one of the most accurate large-caliber rifles in the world.
The performance characteristics of the Steyr HS.50:
Caliber - 12.7 mm.
Cartridge - 12, 7x99 mm NATO (.50BMG).
Barrel length - 900 mm.
The total length is 1455 mm.
Weight - 12, 8 kg (without cartridges).
Effective firing range - up to 2100 m.
Magazine capacity - single shot.
