"Dav1936531" wrote in message
...
From: "Kevin Brooks"


How many snipers do you know who use tracers? Smart money would instead
be on
him being engaged by an overwatching element (when contact is expected,
bounding overwatch being the preferred maneuver scheme).

Yeah, I missed the tracers and watched the clip without sound the first
time.
It's a SAW.

Most Army snipers use a Remington bolt action (M-24 IIRC) these days;
your
"tricked up" M-14 (actually known as the M-21) has been in the decline (if
it
is not completely replaced already) for years now.
Brooks

Which doesn't explain the pics of Army snipers toting the M-14 variants I
mentioned coming across the Associated Press wire feed on Iraq that is
available here on AOL. There was one of a guy covering a field after a
convoy
ambush just recently with just such a rifle.

There was talk of providing the old M-21's down to the unit level for use by
"designated marksmen", IIRC, as they were replaced in the sniper role by the
M-24; I can remember a time when the standard weapons package for our
MSCA-CD (Military Support to Civil Authorities--Civil Disturbance) mission
included a couple of M-21's (along with a few 12 ga pump shotguns) in a
similar role. That may explain where you saw them--then again, are you sure
you were not seeing a SEAL or two (ISTR they sometimes carry the M-14 in
desert operations), and not Army folks?

Brooks

Dave