For most people who are interested in weapons, the mention of Barrett sniper rifles gives rise to the image of large bore sniper rifles. However, not only with a caliber of more than 9 millimeters, this company makes its own bread and butter. So, the company produces machine guns, an automatic grenade launcher, machine guns and sniper rifles with a caliber of 8, 6 millimeters, which will be discussed in this article.
The reasons for the creation of this weapon lie in the fact that after the release of the M95, as it turned out, the.50BMG ammunition behaves not at all as the manufacturer would like, and even the best of the best cartridges are inferior to.338 ammunition at distances of up to one and a half kilometers. Not to mention the weight and dimensions of the weapon itself, from which the shot is fired. Thus, such a weapon was ideal for firing at lightly armored enemy vehicles, but it was not suitable for firing at live targets. Pursuing the goal of creating an accurate weapon that would be effective at a distance of up to 1500 meters, it was when firing at enemy personnel that the development of a new M98 rifle was started.
Having relied on the presence of automation in the weapon, the manufacturer immediately sacrificed the effective range of use, the fastest plan was to replace some specific model of the weapon that was in service with the US Army, but looking ahead, let's say that this did not happen. The rifle itself turned out to be quite charismatic, its appearance really attracts it, however, it is immediately striking that the barrel of the weapon is rigidly fastened to the forearm on which the bipod is installed, and not freely hung, and this is again a minus of the effective range. In general, instead of the desired 1,500 meters, it turned out to be 1,200, all thanks to the weapon's automation, built according to a scheme with the removal of powder gases from the barrel bore, and the fastening of the rifle barrel itself. A lot of attention was paid to the ease of handling the weapon, first of all, it affected the reduction in the weight of the rifle, which is only 7 kilograms, while the length is 1175 millimeters with a barrel length of 610 millimeters. Weight reduction was achieved by introducing a lightweight polyamide stock into the design, the stock of the weapon is made of a light aluminum alloy. Compensation of recoil when firing is due to the muzzle brake-recoil compensator, and of course, partly due to automation. The rifle is equipped with two folding bipods in front of the forearm, and an additional third bipod can be installed under the butt. The trigger mechanism of the weapon can be adjusted according to the pressing force and the length of the trigger stroke. The weapon does not have open sights; instead, a picatinny rail is installed. The weapon is fed from detachable box magazines with a capacity of 5 or 10 rounds. The stock is not adjustable; there is also no adjustable cheek rest for the shooter.
The weapon as a whole turned out to be really good for its class, but no one was interested in them, everyone was satisfied with what was already in service, only a small batch of rifles for the police was purchased, after which the weapon was discontinued. In principle, this is not surprising, since the M98 sniper rifle turned out to be, although good, but quite ordinary and did not stand out from dozens of similar models. It was also discontinued due to the fact that a little later another M98 appeared, with a prefix in the form of the letter B, and despite the similarity of names, it was fundamentally different from its almost namesake, and it became much more widespread. as it still managed to realize the very effective range of 1500 meters.
Officially, all work on the creation of the М98В or М98 Bravo was completed in 2000, but at the same time they became interested in it only in 2008. But the weapon did not gather dust in the form of a prototype, but was actively sold on the US civilian market and supplied to the armies of other countries. It took 8 years for US military officials to notice this weapon, which won the competition for a new Marine Corps sniper rifle out of competition, meaning the competition was announced, the rifle was submitted, and the competition was over. Since 2009, the mass production of these weapons has already begun, which continues to this day.
The main task that the developers of this rifle set themselves was to create a long-range high-precision weapon capable of confidently hitting enemy manpower at distances of up to one and a half kilometers, while the rifle was supposed to be compact and light. The basis for the new weapon was a sliding bolt, which engages precisely with the breech of the barrel, which makes it possible to reduce the load on the receiver and make it almost from foil, which, naturally, they did not do, but made a light but durable version of aluminum alloy. If you look at the weapon more closely, you get the feeling that somewhere something like this has already been seen, and this feeling is not deceiving, since the rifle really contains quite a lot of ideas that were used in other versions of the weapon. So, for example, the receiver is divided into two parts, which are fastened with just one pin, located in front of the weapons store, which refers us to the notorious M16, but we will not look for plagiarism where it basically does not exist. The weapon is standardly equipped with three bipods, one of which is installed under the butt. The butt itself has a fairly convenient length adjustment, in addition, the stop for the shooter's cheek is also adjustable in height. Just above the handle is a small fuse switch, duplicated on both sides of the rifle.
The length of the weapon is 1267 millimeters, while the barrel itself has a length of 686 millimeters. Weapons can be transported both assembled and disassembled into two parts, which will shorten the length and facilitate transportation. The weight of the rifle is generally equal to the ridiculous value of 6, 1 kilogram, which is really a little for such a weapon. The rifle is fed from a detachable magazine with a capacity of 10 rounds. In addition to a long mounting strip for almost the entire length of the receiver, the weapon also has two short picatinny-type strips on the left and right sides, but this is more a tribute to fashion than a real necessity. The weapon does not have open sights, but they can be installed on the upper mounting bar in case the telescopic sight fails. True, here you need to take into account very little distance between the same whole and the front sight, but it's better this way than nothing at all.
The rifle barrel is made by cold forging, freely hung, has longitudinal valleys, the barrel bore is chrome-plated. As such, the rifle does not have a muzzle brake-recoil compensator; instead, a flame arrester is installed. The choice in favor of a flame arrester was made so that the vehicle does not affect the accuracy of the fire, and it is natural that at least minimally mask the position of the sniper. The trigger mechanism of the М98В rifle is modular; it can be easily removed if the weapon is not completely disassembled for maintenance and adjustment. It is possible to adjust the trigger mechanism according to the force of pressing the trigger and the length of its stroke.
If, in general, to characterize this rifle, then it is quite difficult to single out something special. Simply put, this is an elementary weapon, in which there is absolutely nothing new and remarkable, at the same time, this rifle has rather high characteristics due to the fact that it is made really of high quality and is convenient for operation. Naturally, the weapon is not for mass armament, if only because it is expensive and "bolt". It should be noted right away that М98В was never positioned as "antimaterial", as indicated in many Russian-language sources. Naturally, it can blow the engine of the car, but nevertheless, its main task is accurate shooting at live targets of the enemy.
If we go back to the beginning of the article to the M98, then we cannot say that it was a blunder of the Barrett company, rather it was a "test of the pen" to find out whether such a weapon is needed at all on the market, well, but that money was spent on the development of weapons and the creation of it of the final version, then all these costs were more than paid off by the next non-self-loading model. In general, if we talk about the company's self-loading sniper rifles, then for some reason they are always unlucky with them and the result is lower than expected. This happened with the M82 family, later the M107, but at least they became widespread, the same happened with the M82. Perhaps the main reason for this bad luck is that the production is adjusted to the minimum tolerances, which only positively affect the simplest designs with a sliding gate. In the case when everything is grinding to each other, the automation becomes unreliable and the likelihood of failure increases even with minimal pollution, which forces the manufacturer to blur everything that is possible. Naturally, everyone is striving to find a balance, but this is a very difficult and ungrateful business, which was shown by the M98 self-loading rifle, which, in fact, did not interest anyone, despite its quite good characteristics. It is hoped that the M98 did not discourage Ronnie Barrett and his employees from experimenting with smaller calibers and self-loading sniper rifles and, in the end, they will be able to release a weapon that simply cannot be found fault with with all the desire and diligence. Although, of course, I would like the ideal sample to be born in domestic design bureaus and in the shortest possible time fell into the hands of domestic military personnel.
