Reach and Precision: Sniper and Marksman Rifles from the PTRD-41 to the M2010

The PTRD-41 is the oldest weapon on this path and not a sniper rifle at all: a single-shot anti-tank rifle designed by Vasily Degtyaryov that fired a 14.5x114mm round at close range against the thinner armor of early German tanks. Roughly 293,164 were made between 1941 and 1944, which shows how widely a long-reaching rifle could be issued in wartime.

Introduced in 1966, the M40 was built by Marine Corps armorers at Quantico on a Remington Model 700 action and chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO. It went through four variants, the M40, M40A1, M40A3 and M40A5, before the Marine Corps retired it in 2018, though foreign users such as the Afghan National Army have fielded the M40A5.

The PSG1, short for Prazisionsschutzengewehr, was designed by Heckler and Koch in 1968 and entered production in 1972. It is a semi-automatic rifle built for police and military marksmen who needed high first-shot accuracy at extended range, and it stayed in production until 2014.

The M24 was the United States Army adaptation of the Remington Model 700, adopted as the standard Army sniper rifle in 1988. It is called a weapon system because the designation covers the rifle together with its telescopic sight and accessories, and it stayed in Army sniper service into the mid 2010s.

Designed by Eugene Stoner and made by Knight's Armament Company, the SR-25 is a semi-automatic designated marksman rifle in 7.62x51mm NATO. It is loosely based on Stoner's earlier AR-10, and about 60 percent of its parts are interchangeable with the AR-15 and M16 family.

The Hecate II, designed by Gilles Payen and made by PGM Precision, is the French Army's heavy sniper and anti-materiel rifle. A bolt-action rifle firing the .50 BMG cartridge from a seven-round magazine, it has been in service since 1993 with an effective range of about 1,800 meters, and several other countries have bought it.

The Mk 12 was developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division for United States special operations forces and first issued in 2002. Chambered for the 5.56x45mm Mk 262 cartridge, it was conceived as a complete weapon bridging the gap between the M4 carbine and larger sniper rifles, and it was phased out in 2017.

The SV-98 is a Russian bolt-action sniper rifle designed by Vladimir Stronskiy and made by Izhmash. It was adopted in 2003 as part of the 6S11 sniper system with specialized 7N14 ammunition, and it is chambered mainly in 7.62x54mmR with variants in 7.62x51mm NATO and .338 Lapua Magnum.

Built by Remington Arms to replace the M24, the M2010 gave Army snipers more reach in the mountains of Afghanistan. It is chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum rather than 7.62x51mm NATO, which gives about fifty percent more effective range, and it was fielded beginning in 2011.

The XM109, first called the Objective Sniper Weapon, closes the path with a road not taken. Barrett built prototypes of this semi-automatic 25mm launcher to a set of United States requirements issued in 1994, meant to defeat light armor out to two kilometers, but no military force ever formally adopted it.