Famous large-caliber sniper rifles include the Hungarian Gepard M1 rifle. It was developed in the late 1980s and was a single-shot model of a sniper weapon chambered for the Soviet cartridge 12, 7x108 mm. By its design, it rather strongly resembled anti-tank guns of the Second World War period. At the same time, the rifle weighed almost 19 kilograms and had a strong recoil. It was quite difficult to attribute it to unconditionally successful samples, but it was the Gepard M1 rifle that became the first large-caliber sniper rifle created in the countries of the socialist camp, in particular, in the Warsaw Pact countries.
Hungarian large-caliber ("anti-material") sniper rifle Gepard was created in the late 80s of the last century by the famous military engineer and small arms developer Ferenc Foldy. In 2006, he was awarded the Hungarian Order of Merit (Knight's Cross) for services to the Republic of Hungary, he is currently a retired colonel. The rifle he created became the first in the countries of the then socialist camp. At the same time, in the development of this weapon, Ferenc Foldy used the backlog of the Second World War, when Hungarian engineers worked on the creation of anti-tank rifles that could effectively deal with the armored vehicles of the Allies. He also studied Soviet-made anti-tank rifles, the famous anti-tank guns and anti-tank guns.
The Second World War was the last conflict when anti-tank guns were used really massively. Later, due to a significant increase in the thickness of the armor, which even the most powerful guns could not cope with, they became useless and left the stage, giving way to anti-tank rocket launchers. Despite this, the idea of combating lightly armored and unarmored enemy military equipment with the help of large-caliber small arms found a second life at the end of the 20th century. In 1987, the Hungarian military wanted a sufficiently mobile weapon that would allow soldiers to effectively engage lightly armored targets. Work in this direction led to the emergence of the Gepard sniper rifle.
The main purpose of this rifle is anti-material. The Gepard M1 large-caliber sniper rifle was created to defeat and disable unarmored and lightly armored enemy vehicles: armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, armored vehicles, trucks; aircraft and helicopters located at airfields outside hangars and protective caponiers; Radar and other major technical purposes. At the same time, with its help, it was possible to eliminate dangerous criminals and terrorists, including those hiding behind various shelters, which would not be penetrated by bullets of sniper rifles of ordinary caliber.
As in the case with the American large-caliber rifle "Barrett M82", the Hungarian developers turned to the cartridge for the large-caliber machine gun, taking the standard Soviet ammunition 12, 7x108 mm. The first created rifle of the "Cheetah" series received the M1 index, it was put into service in 1991 and featured a long barrel (more than a meter), a tubular butt, the use of the Soviet large-caliber cartridge 12, 7x108 mm. Another feature of this rifle was that it was single-shot. Along with the high recoil when fired, this was a rather significant drawback, although this design provided greater accuracy when firing at maximum distance. With almost the same initial bullet speed (860 m / s versus 854 m / s), the accuracy of the Hungarian rifle was almost three times better than that of the Barrett M82. Later, in Hungary, they tried to create the M1A1 model, this rifle received an even longer barrel, but the mass that had increased to almost 21 kilograms was recognized as clearly overestimated.
At the same time, it was not the military who planned to use the rifle, but representatives of the police and special units during counter-terrorist operations. For them, the accuracy of each shot fired was especially important. The small number of moving parts in the design of the weapon allowed the Hungarian gunsmiths to achieve high shooting accuracy. At a distance of 1300 meters, a series of five shots lay in a circle with a radius of 25 centimeters. At the same time, other qualities of the rifle were also good, which, from a distance of 300 meters, with an armor-piercing bullet pierced through a sheet of steel 15 mm thick. Ultimately, a small batch of rifles (several dozen) was first acquired by the Hungarian army for combat use in field operations.
The Hungarian large-caliber sniper rifle Gepard M1 is a single-shot sniper rifle with an unusual breech design: on the front of the handle with a non-automatic flag safety lock and a locking trigger there is a bolt with lugs, behind them is the trigger itself with a drummer. The pistol grip of the rifle is part of a separate device, the front of which contains a bolt with several lugs.
The recoil force when firing with cartridges of 12.7 mm caliber is very significant, for this reason the sniper rifle was installed in a special case-like frame, inside which it can move in the longitudinal direction. The force of recoil from the shot is also extinguished by a special spring. This device, along with an impressive muzzle brake, allows you to reduce recoil when firing from a large-caliber rifle to a level comparable to shooting from large-caliber hunting rifles. At the same time, on the butt of the rifle there is a special pad under the cheek, and on the rear one-legged bipod there is a convenient stop for the sniper's free hand. The main weight of a large-caliber sniper rifle falls on a two-legged bipod, which is located in the front of the frame.
On the Gepard M1 rifle, an open sight was provided, which is intended for use only in emergency situations. The standard sighting device is a 12x optical sight, which is mounted on the mount on the frame. Since the frame and barrel of the rifle can move relative to each other, maintaining normal combat for the rifle can be difficult.
The process of loading a rifle involves the following steps. First, the pistol grip turns to the right side, this allows the breech of the rifle to open. Then the shooter pulls the handle back until the bolt frame is completely out, after which the cartridge is placed in the chamber. The bolt frame is inserted into place, the handle is rotated, and the bolt is locked, after which the sniper rifle trigger is manually cocked. After that, the shooter can only aim and shoot. The manufacturer guarantees that at a distance of up to 2000 meters, you can easily hit any technical means of a potential enemy. At the same time, the practical rate of fire is up to 4 rounds per minute.
Despite the demand for such weapons in the first half of the 1990s, the Hungarian anti-material rifle never became a mass weapon. This was largely due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent termination of the existence of the Warsaw Pact Organization. Already on February 25, 1991, the countries participating in the ATS abolished the military structures of the organization, and on July 1 of the same year, a Protocol on the complete termination of the Treaty was signed in Prague. The era of detente and reduction of the armed forces of all European states began. In the new world, there was simply no place for the novelty of the Hungarian defense industry, even despite the even more increased tactical and technical characteristics of the later versions of this large-caliber rifle. Nowhere in the world, except Hungary, the Gepard M1 rifle was not adopted by the army and special police forces. At the same time, in Hungary itself, a little more than 120 rifles of all modifications were produced. The only export success of the distant relative of the Gepard M1 rifle was the M6 Lynx rifle with a new bullpup layout, which is in service with the special forces of the army and police of India.
The performance characteristics of the Gepard M1:
Caliber - 12.7 mm.
Cartridge - 12, 7 × 108 mm.
Barrel length - 1100 mm
The total length is 1570 mm.
Weight - 19 kg (without cartridges and sight).
Effective firing range - 2000 m.
Magazine capacity - single shot.
