In military and law enforcement terminology, a sniper rifle is a precision-rifle used to ensure more accurate placement of bullets at longer ranges than other small arms. A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a military centerfirecartridge. The term is often used in the media to describe any type of accurized firearm fitted with a telescopic sight that is employed against human targets, although "sniping rifle" or "sniper's rifle" is the technically correct term for such a rifle.
The military role of a sniper (a term derived from the snipe, a bird which was difficult to hunt and shoot) dates back to the turn of the 18th century, but the true sniper rifle is a much more recent development. Advances in technology, specifically that of telescopic sights and more accurate manufacturing, allowed armies to equip specially trained soldiers with rifles that enable them to deliver precise shots over greater distances than regular infantry weapons. The rifle itself could be based on a standard rifle (at first, a bolt-action rifle); however, when fitted with a telescopic sight, it becomes a sniper rifle.
The sniper rifle was an adaptation to a typical rifle involving the addition of a long-range scope. The Whitworth rifle reportedly appeared as a British innovation during the late 18th or early 19th century. Confederate soldiers utilized it during the American Civil War in order to pick off Union soldiers from up to 2,000 ft (610 m), a little less than a half a mile. The key addition, which made this rifle into a sniper rifle, was the telescopic sight placed on the gun. These telescopic sights allowed a marksman to more accurately observe and target objects at a greater distance than ever before. The telescopic sight, or scope, was originally fixed and could not be adjusted, which therefore limited its range.
During the 1870s the perfection of breech loading magazine rifles led to sniper rifles having “effective accurate” ranges of up to a mile away from its target. However, it was not until World War I that sniper rifles began to be used more regularly in battle and certain soldiers given specialized training to use such a rifle. In Germany these trained snipers were given rifles with telescopic sights, which illuminated at night in order to improve their accuracy. German gunsmiths figured out that for optimal accuracy the scope should be fit into place above the barrel. During World War I the accuracy of the sniper rifle was so greatly improved that it “allied to the high velocity of the bullets. By the end of World War II snipers were reported to provide “reasonable accuracy” over 600 m (656 yd) with anything over this range being unpredictable. It was during World War I and II that the word ‘sniper’ began to be used commonly, whereas previously those who were armed with sniper rifles were referred to as sharpshooters, or marksmen.
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