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Iraq-Jordan
Long Range Surveillance/Sniper Detachment
2005-01-19
... In Iraq, the US army has deployed for the first time a 42nd Infantry Division unit known as "Intel Snipers", i.e. sniper-trained soldiers of the division's 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment. They are armed with newly-issued M-14 rifles which have never been surpassed as a marksman's weapon... Capt. Michael Manning, commander of the US unit, describes the M-14 as a tremendous force multiplier. It is an integral part of the unit's equipment for LRS-Long Range Surveillance and targeting. In Iraq, the unit will operate 80-100 km inside enemy terrain, observe and report on improvised explosive devices and indirect fire and, if ordered, eliminate insurgents with their sniper rifles which are capable of neutralizing targets at a distance of 800 meters.
The American Intel Snipers will also be charged with sterilizing the vicinity of US bases, command posts and convoys of hostile threats...

The deployment in Iraq of the 42nd Infantry Division's 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment with their M-14 marksman's rifles likewise indicates that the assertions coming from President George Bush and outgoing secretary of state Colin Powell regarding the beginning of US troop withdrawals from Iraq are premature. The Iraq war is far from over. Deploying the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment may be an effective ad hoc device for widening the distance between terrorists and their would-be victims at the local level... But it cannot promise to extinguish the terrorist threat for good.
Posted by:Anonymoose

#22  Chuck "Chiseled Chin" Connors and little Johnny Crawford?

I liked the big loop on the lever... I had the toy version - and I'm pretty sure I was faster, heh.
Posted by: .com   2005-01-19 11:04:12 PM  

#21  Which of course brings to mind the old TV show "The Rifleman" ....

Boy does THAT date me!
Posted by: rkb   2005-01-19 10:39:52 PM  

#20  Thanks, Silent, it's been a while for me. I don't recall this from the late '60's early 70's. In fact, the sniper training was almost discontinued. Waaaaay back in the Great Unpleasantness, good marksmen were called Riflemen and a bit later in the war, Sharpshooters.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-01-19 7:28:28 PM  

#19  Guys, I hate to say it, but you're not quite reading what it says. These are issued as "Marksman's weapon". There's a vast difference between designated marksmen and the traditional snipers. Snipers can and do prefer bolt action rifles over semi-automatics of any type. But what a sniper does isn't the same. DM's are usually imbedded with troops and work in a supporting role directly with troops. Sniper teams can and do operate the same way, but DM's are intended to provide an accurate aimed fire capability beyond that of normal troops and intelligence gathering via their better optics and training. Example below

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/marines/a/marmarksmen.htm
Posted by: Silentbrick   2005-01-19 5:12:49 PM  

#18  Cool Half .....
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2005-01-19 4:39:04 PM  

#17  The Confederate Army bought 1000 of them in 1863 and all 1000 made it through the blockade. They came complete with bullet mold, bullet sizer, wad cutter, and cleaning kit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-01-19 4:24:31 PM  

#16  half ta wait, ive photos of cross dressing yankee calvary. :)
Posted by: half   2005-01-19 4:23:41 PM  

#15  What is southron half pint ?
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2005-01-19 4:12:40 PM  

#14  is that your yankee rifle or your southron rifle? jeez..... i'm so temped. LOL!
Posted by: half   2005-01-19 4:11:15 PM  

#13  RKB, true. I have an 1859 Whitworth rifle. It fires a 471 grain, .451 calibre lead slug. I consistantly hit targets at 1000 yards over open sights.. Yes, it is a Civil War muzzle loading sniper rifle. I use 60 grains of Fg powder. The barrel is not round on the inside with traditional rifling grooves but is hexagonal with a 1 in 28 twist. The barrel length is the same as an 1853 Enfield, a long rifle. The bullet is machined to match. It has a 4" drop at 500 yards with 1 degree of elevation. The British Army was hitting targets at 1500 yards. A lot does depend on caliber, bullet weight, and rifling.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-01-19 3:15:31 PM  

#12  I fired a matched condition M-1 with half-minute clicks trying out for the Marine Rifle team in '64 with peep sights.Excellant weapon.
At 600 yards,the 20" target bullseye looked smaller than the width of the front sight blade.Heh
Posted by: crazyhorse   2005-01-19 2:22:00 PM  

#11  I'm no sniper. But from what I learned when I considered buying a particular rifle recently (including advice from people who are / have been snipers in operational settings) it's a mistake to evaluate rifles for long range precision shooting based on the model alone. Apart from the military standardized rifles, there are a lot of choices to be made that affect precision: caliber, barrel length, twist and the ammo used. The Remington 700 offers a wide range of these and the higher calibers are popular with many serious competitors for both bench and free shooting. Of course, lots of those guys load their own ammo to get it just right, too. Scope, bipod or sling etc. also have an important effect .....
Posted by: rkb   2005-01-19 2:04:07 PM  

#10  Every Army division has a LRSD. Some are trained as snipers. I somehow doubt that this was the first LRSD to deploy to Iraq. Debka is exagerating as usual.
Posted by: 11A5S   2005-01-19 1:46:08 PM  

#9  Marines adopted the Model 700 Remington in 1966 (M-40).The Army tried various weapons.But the M-14 (M21)offered advantages in their opinion.
1.In case of target movement,or error on sniper,another round could be fired immediately.
2.Engaging multiple targets
3.Both semi and full-automatic fire capability enabled the sniper to defend himself or engage the enemy as warranted.
These attributes seem to fit the articles description of 173RD's current mission.

Posted by: crazyhorse   2005-01-19 1:34:31 PM  

#8  I used the M-14 and it is an excellant weapon. Zhang Fei, snipers do prefer bolt action rifles because of the noise of ejecting a spent round and chambering a new round. The spent round can be rather noisy when it is ejected. too much noise and you could give away your position, however, if you are far enough away the noise may not be a problem.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-01-19 1:04:42 PM  

#7  the Corps uses the Remington modified bolt action scout rifle. I've shot it before, very nice.
Posted by: Jarhead   2005-01-19 12:45:06 PM  

#6  Modified Winchester Model 70 and Remington Model 700 as well as Barrett .50-cal have been used as sniper rifles. A good website for sniper rifles is:

http://www.snipercentral.com/rifles.htm
Posted by: John Q. Citizen   2005-01-19 12:34:58 PM  

#5  Article: They are armed with newly-issued M-14 rifles which have never been surpassed as a marksman’s weapon...

That's weird. My impression was that snipers generally prefer bolt-action to clip-fed rifles.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2005-01-19 12:23:48 PM  

#4  Statements about the M-14 are a little over the top.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen   2005-01-19 12:21:28 PM  

#3  pop goes the jihadi!
Posted by: meeps   2005-01-19 11:56:36 AM  

#2  "M-14 rifles which have never been surpassed as a marksman’s weapon"

I know this is Debka and I duly took my grains of salt, but cheeze, this seems a little over the top. What about Russian and Euro equivalents ? Any Rantexperts care to comment on this claim ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H.   2005-01-19 11:55:26 AM  

#1  Wonderful! How disconcerting and demoralizing for the bad guys when, in the midst of quietly (vewy, vewy quietly) enjoying their nefarious doings, their heads suddenly go pop, one after another. I do like the American style of making war.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-19 11:39:01 AM  

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