Fresh off Gear Scout:
The Army today awarded a contract valued at up to $28.2m for Remington to upgrade up to 3600 fielded M24 sniper rifles from 7.62mm NATO to .300 Winchester Magnum.
http://militarytimes.com/blogs/gearscout/2010/09/20/army-upgrades-m24-sniper-system-to-300-winmag-army-snipers-smile-wince/
:happy:
sounds like that’ll be going to the SOF side… one less bullet I’ll have to worry about stocking for the BCT’s
The M24 .300 Win Mag upgrade is Leg Army’s bridge between 7.62mm and 33-Magnum to be determined by SOCOM.
Here is the full press release
September 20, 2010 5:02 PM
US Army Awards Contract to Reconfigure M24 Sniper Weapon Systems to Remington Arms
Madison, NC – Remington Arms Company, Inc. (“Remington”), a member of the Freedom Group of Companies, is pleased to announce that the United States Army’s Joint Munitions and Lethality Contracting Center has awarded Remington a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Indefinite Delivery/ Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract (W15QKN-10-R-0403) for the upgrade of up to 3,600 M24 Sniper Weapon Systems (SWS) currently fielded to the Army pending type classification as the “M24E1”. The major configuration change for this system is the caliber conversion from 7.62mm NATO (.308 Winchester) to .300 Winchester Magnum to provide soldier’s with additional precision engagement capability and range. The contract is for a 5-year period and has a potential value of up to $28.2 million. This award follows a full and open competitive evaluation lasting 9 months, which began with the release of the Army’s Request for Proposal (RFP) on 13 January 2010. The program will be executed under the authority of Project Manager Soldier Weapons, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, and managed by its subordinate unit, Product Manager Individual Weapons.
Remington has a 22-year tradition of manufacturing long-range precision sniper rifles for the U.S. military and this award demonstrates Remington’s continued leadership in the art of producing sniper rifles for military applications. The M24 SWS was competitively selected by the Army as its first purpose-built sniper rifle on 27 July 1988, and the first 100 production systems were fielded on 25 October 1988. Thus far, Remington has produced nearly 15,000 M24 Sniper Weapon Systems, and the M24 is still produced today. Each rifle is tested to meet (and typically exceeds) the requirement to fire 1 minute-of-angle (less than 2-inch group at 200 yards) before being released for fielding. Remington is the military depot-level maintenance facility for the M24 for repairs and overhauls of hundreds of fielded systems each year for the Army, other military services, agencies, and nations.
“We are honored to be providing US soldiers with the M24E1 solution - an evolutionary leap in precision engagement capability and survivability,” noted Jason Schauble, Vice President of Remington’s Defense Division, “Remington has made significant investments in manufacturing modernization, end-user driven research and development, and complementary technologies to provide a wide range of reliable, durable, and maintainable small arms solutions, and the M24E1 award is a significant achievement for our company and its proud US workforce. ”
This long tradition of production and repair makes Remington the natural choice to upgrade this venerable system for the Government. Current operations in Southwest Asia exposed the need for a more powerful and longer-range sniper round. The baseline M24 was designed from inception to chamber a longer and more powerful round than the 7.62mm NATO, so an obvious solution to the capability gap was to finally exploit the M24’s long bolt action and chamber it for .300 Winchester Magnum.
The M24E1’s capabilities meet the initial requirement spelled out in the Operational Needs Statement (ONS) submitted by the 10th Mountain Division on 14 March 2006 while conducting operations in Afghanistan. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Representative Michael Arcuri (D-NY) supported this operational need and led the effort in the Congress to ensure funding of the Army’s M24 upgrade program in both FY09 and FY10. Senator Schumer and Representative Arcuri were also instrumental in supporting a revision of the New York State law on suppressors to allow the Remington facility in Ilion N.Y. to possess and test military weapons.
Remington’s winning sniper rifle features the following enhancements above and beyond caliber conversion from 7.62mm NATO to 300 Winchester Magnum:
A completely new chassis (stock) assembly, which maximizes the amount of physical
adjustments for the sniper to provide a true customized fit. The chassis has a folding buttstock that radically shortens the system for easier transport and greater concealment during movement and accommodates the mounting of accessories via removable Mil Std 1913 Picatinny Rails.An improved 6.5-20x50 variable power Leupold® riflescope with an enhanced reticle within the first focal plane and a .300 Winchester Magnum bullet-drop compensator (BDC)
A quick-attach/detach Advanced Armament Corp.® suppressor with muzzle brake
A 5-round detachable box magazine
Advanced corrosion resistant coatings throughout the system
While virtually every aspect of the M24E1 has been updated and improved, the U.S. Army specifically required that the M24E1 continue to be built around the same 700 series long action and that the fire control requirement continue to be met by the combat proven M24 SWS fire control. The M24E1’s fire control is set to a pull weight requirement of 3 to 5 lbs pull +/- 8oz, and has been found to survive near constant use, in and out of theater, for well over 10 years of service without adjustment or replacement.
Remington Defense looks forward to working with PM Soldier Weapons to rapidly field this system to the Army and other American military services, agencies, and allies to improve the capability of our nation’s highly trained and capable snipers.
The Remington point of contact for the M24E1 program is Trevor Shaw, Director of Defense Programs, (336) 548 8577, trevor.shaw@remington.com. Remington’s complete military product line can be viewed at www.remingtondefense.com.
About Remington Arms Company, Inc.
Remington Arms Company, Inc., founded in 1816 and headquartered in Madison, N.C., designs, produces and sells sporting goods products for the hunting and shooting sports markets, as well as solutions to the military government and law enforcement markets. With plants and facilities in Ilion, NY, Lonoke, AR, Elizabethtown and Mayfield, KY, Remington is the only United States manufacturer of both firearms and ammunition products and one of the largest domestic producers of shotguns and rifles. The Company distributes its products throughout the U.S., and in more than 55 foreign countries
Aren’t current M24s 700 Short Actions? How will a .300 Winchester Magnum word through one of those?
They are long actions…
I believe they are long action because when they first fielded the M24s they wanted the ability to turn their rifles into .300 Win Mags. All they have to do is rebarrel them and change out the bolts because of the magnum belts on the casing. Now what they will do I guess is put them in a different (metal-aluminum) chassis so you don’t have to bed them and give them the added benefit of using a removable magazine to hold the rounds. The trigger mechanism can be easily “modularized” and hence accessed for adjustment and repair as well.
In fact you can use a short action like the 40XB for 300 Win Mag. They did that for competition at the rifle matches. But it is single loading - one at a time. Your reloading had to be precise so that you were just off the rifling of the barrel. That way there is very little jump for the bullet to engage the rifling when you chambered a round and fired. When I did my own reloads, I would ignore the magnum ring (when initially sizing the new casings) and sized them on the shoulder!).
I intend to convert my 5R SS Remington 700 in 300 Win Mag as a kind of poor man’s long range rifle.
OK, cool they are going to use a detachable box magazine and they are using the best.
They will probably use a Sierra Match King bullet 190 grainers which have been used just about forever. In my own reloading I used in hot weather, 79.5 grns of H1000 or 80grns in cooler weather. Match large rifle primers (Fed 210 match were very good) and any company’s casings as long as the thickness and internal (powder) capacity is consistent and the boxer primer pocket is uniform.
Many long range shooters also used the 220 grn Sierra Match King bullets.
Well now.
And yes, the M24 SWS is/was long action for precisely the reason that they could be converted to .300WM.
Somebody finally gets to say: “I told you so”
So this is for the chassis system that takes the Rem700 actions, not the purpose built rifle?
I wonder if this means that the chassis will be released anytime soon to the public, since it looks like they will be busy building 3600 chassis.
I’d say that the decision to go with 300WM over 338LM was a big mistake and an example of the army’s caliber confusion. From a performance perspective, the 300WM is a marginal improvement over the 308 with significant decrease in barrel life. On the other hand, the 338LM almost doubles the 308 performance and has a longer barrel life than 300WM. While its true that 338LM ammunition would be more expensive (at first), the extra barrel life would help offset this expense.
While I can see the logistical/financial difficulty in changing to a more modern carbine caliber (i.e. 6.8 SPC), the army had a chance to get this sniper project right from the start with minimal upfront expense. Its not like there are 3 million of these in circulation that would need to be retro-fitted. I would not hold my breath thinking that the Army will suddenly switch to 338LM down the road. Let that negative GovCo inertia set in and it will be nearly impossible to change. The best chance to get 338WM is to start from the beginning.
Hopefully, they will be using the new SOF .300WM round which loads 220 grain SMK’s. It is considered a 1500m round in some circles.
I also caught this on soldiersystems:
http://kitup.military.com/2010/09/remington-reveals-armys-updated-sniper-rifle.html
Our good friends at Tactical-Life.com have some inside gouge on why the Army made its shift.
The need for the M24E1 was first identified by in 2006 by 10th Mountain Division soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz10LgBY8rK
I wonder who that was 
I’d really like to see how yall feel about this new abortion of a Big Army weapons system vs the MK13’s yall got.
Big Army does so well with taking SOF weapons and really screwing them up, AKA how they ruined the whole SR25 system, now this, oh and how is everyone liking their 240L? Woops, has not been fielded yet, is there even a prototype? Any use of the MK48 by non SOF has to be hidden overseas. Lord knows SOF knows nothing about weapons design, and we just cant wholesale adopt a wepon that is already proven, has an established log chain for repair parts, already written manuals. NO Lets Re-invent the wheel!
Sorry, Im in a ranting mood
Luke,
No problem I have a few crosses to bear on this one, but at the end of the day vendors submitted and the Remington version carried the day. Not that I expected a differant out come, and not knowing what the other submissions were, I believe the solution choosen is “state of the art”. The debate of what that means is a differant story. Also note that the requirement was ID’ed in 2006.
As for the MK-13’s they no longer have them:(
I believe that when we see the outcome of the SOF PSR competion we will see a rifle that looks very much like this one, be it an AI, Savage, Remington, Steyr or one of the smaller companies that are at least listed as having submitted.
I wish that as a condition of submitting, the full test report would be made public. Then we can all learn from every submission. It may help citizens, who pay the taxes for this testing, decide what to select for their personal rifles.
Little army who’s been sporting the 300M?. Seems to me that the step up for the big army is substantial, the ability to shoot 1500/2000y VS 1000/1200y is a step in the right direction.
Im not understanding if the concern is to many tools or the wrong new tool.
If I were a young shooter and given a 300wm, didn’t have to build it, or load the ammo, or pay for the barrel life issue’s I’d be like a pig in shit and shoot all day long.
If I were a young shooter and the army gave me a 338lm with the same concerns addressed Id be a very very very happy shooter.
Just thinking out loud.
Dirk
Would that stock take a Rem Long action in 338Lapua?
Man, that scope is high over the bore.
Agreed. Logistically, the 300WM is unsupportable. By the time you work up a rifle and team, you are looking to replace a barrel, and since maintenance is done at the factory…
Just look at the post above. .300 WM is not the answer. .338 LM is the answer.
Should have just bought AI 338L’s, and be done it.
The AI action was built from the ground up to work in a military field environment, and is a much stronger action than the 700.