Battle for light precision supremacy: The Recce Rifle Vs. The SPR

[Warg]

@newyork

Not a concern of Trident’s or mine but…does the 18" barrelled SPR offer any advantage in terms of killing/wounding potential (lack of better words) at longer distances? Would that lead the military to choose the longer bbl for extended shots at range or is that where another caliber comes into play (.308)?

This is a good question, particularly in light of newer loadings, more portable rifles and improved optics.

Take a look at the ballistics table below using MK262 round in 16" vs 18" BBL. The MVs were obtained using chrono data from the Hide and entered into JB Ballistics. Rock’s barrels may differ from this, but probably not appreciably so.

At 500 yards the delta in energy is only 34 ft lbs, decreasing to 6 ft lbs at 1000y. The bullet goes subsonic right at 800y in the 16" and 830y in the 18" (not shown in the table). There’s obvioulsy more drop from the 16", but nothing a good optic and shooter couldn’t overcome. In effect, they’re very damn close.

Given the above, I’d easily go with the lighter 16" Reece, but FWIW, I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to take down a BG with < 500 ft lbs of energy at 500+ yds. Then again, I’m not a sniper

EDIT ABOVE- forgot to mention that the ballistics data were derived at sea level, 59 degrees, 29.92 pressure, yada yada. Speed of sound, trajectory, etc will vary with changes in pressure, temp and altitude.