Tag Archives: marine sniper rifles

A brief look at the ratchets of Marine snipers through the years

Posted on by Leave a comment

Over at Guns.com I did a quick geardo rundown of several of the Corp’s modern sniper rigs from the early WWI Rifle, “USMC Telescopic Rifle, Model of 1917” which is basically just a good shooting early M1903 with a fixed Winchester A5 scope through WWII’s updated M1903A-1 model Springfield with a Unertl 8x scope– immediately distinguishable by its long shade on the objective lens– which they designated the M1941 Sniper Rifle, and then the Korean War’s M1C and the various guns of Vietnam.

U.S. Marine firing the “USMC Telescopic Rifle, Model of 1917” which is an M1903 with a Winchester A5 scope. (Photo: National Archives)

“A U.S. Marine Marksman using a telescopic sight and with his Springfield cocked and ready, waits for a troublesome North Korean sniper to pop up so he can pick him off in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea on Sept. 28, 1950. Note the Unertl. (Photo/caption: Max Desfor/AP)

“Pvt. Randall E. Josey, a Marine sniper attached to Co. H, 2nd Bn., 5th Marines, has a bead on a Viet Cong at over 1,000 meters. Using a 3 x 9 power scope, a Remington 700 rifle has accuracy up to 1,100 meters and has been used effectively up to 2,000 meters or more.” June 19, 1967 (Photo/caption: U.S. Marine Corps History Division)

More here.

20 years of U.S. sniper rifles up close and personal (VIDEOS)

Posted on by Leave a comment

Ian from Forgotten Weapons wraps his scholarly hands around a Marine Corps MC-1952 Sniper Garand, an Army M1C Sniper, and a series of Springfield 1903 sniper rifles for an in-depth look.

In the above video, he chronicles a Marine 1903A1 Springfield with an 8x Unertl scope, a Springfield 1903-A4 with a standard WWII-era M73B1 scope (which was just the commercial Weaver 330C), and a second 1903-A4 with a post World War II M84 rifle scope of the type used through the Korean Conflict into the early stages of the Vietnam War.

If bolt guns aren’t your thing, Ian picks up in the two videos below with the MC-1952, a Marine variation on the M1C Garand sniper rifle with a 4x Stith Kollmorgen Bear Cub scope; an authentic M1C itself with the M84; and of course an M1D.

Enjoy your lunch hour today!