Interesting news slipped through from the US Air Force sappers, who finally realized that a 5, 56 mm sniper rifle was clearly not enough for them to destroy unexploded shells and they needed something more long-range and powerful. Oddly enough, not a large-caliber sniper rifle was chosen to replace not the best weapon for the tasks of the sapper, although such a weapon would not be superfluous, but a rifle with a caliber of 7.62 mm M14, or rather, its version of EBR (Enhanced Battle Rifle). I think it will not be superfluous to go over all the M14s in order to know at least in general terms what kind of weapon they are.
It all started in the 50-60s, when it was decided to create a more accurate weapon based on the M14 rifle, that is, a sniper rifle. We will not touch on the history of the appearance of the M14 itself, despite the fact that it is quite interesting, today we are talking about a slightly different weapon, although the widespread distribution of this weapon outside the United States, when the army of the "three-letter" country abandoned rather bulky weapons in favor of a more compact model and distributed this weapon to everyone in need. Not free, of course, not the Soviet Union after all. In fact, the M14 strongly influenced the further development of firearms in many countries, and it will be quite problematic to list all the samples in which this weapon was taken as a basis. For this reason, we will limit ourselves to, albeit a fairly extensive, but far from complete list of the most famous sniper rifles based on the M14.
M14 DMR sniper rifle (Designated Marksman Rifle)
The first of them can be safely called the M14 DMR, which appeared as a result of the Designated Marksman Rifle program. From the name of the weapon, the tasks that were posed for this sniper rifle immediately become clear. So, it was required that the weapon could be guaranteed to hit a stationary target standing at full height at a distance of 600 meters, but effective fire was planned to be conducted at a distance of 1000 meters. All this was realized by the cartridge 7, 62x51 NATO standard. In general, the weapon turned out to be quite simple and reliable, it was tested in hostilities in Afghanistan, and although the appearance of the rifle is not as modern as that of the latest fashionable weapons, the characteristics of the M14 DMR are in no way inferior to most good self-loading sniper rifles chambered for 7, 62x51.
The weapon's automatics are inherited from the progenitor, that is, the M14 rifle. An automation system has been built around the removal of powder gases from the barrel with a short stroke of the gas piston, and the piston itself is located under the barrel of the weapon. A notable feature is that the propellant gases pass not only through the hole in the barrel to enter the gas chamber, but also through the hole in the piston itself. Such a slight complication of the design made it possible to make the supply of powder gases cut off, that is, at a certain point, the supply of powder gases into the chamber is stopped by the piston itself, which made the weapon's automation quite smooth and only had a positive effect on the accuracy of the weapon.
The rifle received a barrel with five grooves of sufficiently high quality; the barrel length of the weapon is 559 millimeters. In addition, a silent firing device for a rifle was developed separately, as well as a muzzle brake-recoil compensator. The butt of the weapon and the stock are made of fiberglass, the bipod can not only be folded, but also removed during transportation. The buttstock is adjustable in length with a set of plates that fit under the butt pad, but the cheek rest is more thoughtful and is adjusted with two screws with relatively large heads. The weapon is fed from detachable box magazines with a capacity of 10 rounds. The weight of the weapon without cartridges and an optical sight is 5 kilograms. The total length of the rifle is 1112 millimeters, but here you need to take into account the length of the muzzle brake-recoil compensator and the butt adjustable in length.
Sniper rifle М14 SOPMOD and SOPMOD II
A much more modern version of the weapon is the M14 SOPMOD sniper rifle developed by TROY, and although the book is not judged by the cover, in this case the weapon has something to brag about. First of all, it should be noted that the company's designers have set themselves (or have been given) an almost impossible task. So it was required to create a sniper rifle chambered for 7, 62x51, which would be similar in size and weight to weapons chambered for 5, 56x45, but at the same time had the characteristics of larger models of weapons. With such a task, I would not even think about turning to the bullpup layout, even in spite of its individual negative qualities, since if they require compactness, then do not eat it, but there will be some nuances. The designers of the TROY company found another solution, namely, they completely reworked the weapon in order to reduce the size of each detail, within reasonable limits, of course.
In general, there was nothing special to cut there, but some results were still achieved. So a weapon with a barrel of maximum length (457 millimeters) began to have a length of 889 millimeters with a weight of 3.75 kilograms. It seems to be not impressive, but the result is definitely there. In addition, barrels with a length of 305, 356 and 406 millimeters can be installed on the weapon, which will further reduce the weight and dimensions of the weapon, but will naturally affect its characteristics. In general, the designers managed to at least partially fulfill the assigned task, while retaining the classic layout of the weapon.
In the best traditions of our time, the rifle received a bunch of picatinny rails, which should help increase the weight of the weapon with the help of many additional devices. It is worth noting positively the butt, which is adjustable in length, albeit stepwise and with a fairly large step, and also has a height adjustment for the cheek rest. An interesting detail is the muzzle device with a flame arrester, the main function of which, apparently, is the afterburning of the powder charge with a short barrel length, since it is installed only on the shortest versions of the barrels, although the small volume of this cylinder is somewhat embarrassing.
Much better with the task of reducing the length of the weapon while maintaining the normal length of the barrel was coped with another company, namely Springfield Armory. Honestly, I personally believe in the company's achievements with great difficulty, or rather not believe at all. The fact is that the numbers say the following: barrel length 730 millimeters, rifle length 946 millimeters. Looking at the image of the weapon, the location of the magazine and, in general, the proportions of the rifle, such results could be achieved only if the bolt, moving back, not only removed the spent cartridge case, but also took out a new cartridge from the magazine, dragging it back in order to pick it up when moving forward … Similar to how it happened in the Webley Mars pistol, but I find it hard to believe in such interesting solutions in modern weapons, since very few designers are ready to spend at least their working time on creating not a weapon, but a masterpiece, and everyone is dancing around the worked out schemes, finally stopping any development. Most quickly, the dimensions are indicated without the length of the butt, then, more or less, they become believable, in general, we will leave these figures on the conscience of the manufacturer.
Sniper rifle M14 EBR
And finally, we came to the weapon that was the reason for writing this article. Albeit with a slight delay, it should be noted that the name of the M14 EBR is not entirely correct for this rifle, its full name is Mark 14 Mod 0 Enhanced Battle Rifle or M1A EBR, but in order to emphasize its relationship with the M14, it is very often denoted not quite correctly …
This weapon is a rather beautiful jumble of light alloys, plastic and steel. As for me, the rifle looks too festive in any of its performances, maybe this is nothing for exhibitions, but I am personally an adherent of minimalism in weapons, reasonable, of course. Back, the forend bristled with fastening strips on all sides, the butt came from the previous model, that is, it is adjustable in length stepwise and with adjustable cheek rest. In general, the beauty and the ability to install anything and everything on the weapon is good, but a lot of changes have been made inside the rifle. Almost everything inside the weapon was recalculated, and although the principle of operation remained the same, not a single detail remained from the M14 in the original. The supply of cartridges, the gas reducer, the bolt carrier and so on have all been modernized. The result of all this, I think, will greatly shock those who believe that the main parameters of the weapon depend only on the cartridge and barrel. The increase in bullet speed from 855 meters per second to 975 is not bad at all, in my opinion, but nothing has fundamentally changed. Initially, the weapon was planned to be produced with barrel lengths of 16 and 18 inches, but settled on a longer version of the barrel, but the butt guides were slightly shortened, so that especially long-armed weapons would be uncomfortable.
This weapon was liked by the special forces of the US Air Force, as well as by the SEALs, albeit in small numbers, and now the sappers.
