Rifles

The tradition of producing civilian, originally military weapons is already very long. The first swallow in this plowed field was probably a civilian sports version of the AR-15 rifle, the AR-15 Sporter from 1963. And then followed a number of other models from various manufacturers. The reason is quite obvious: the armed forces will take a number of military versions from the manufacturer, while the semi-automatic civilian version may address a virtually unlimited segment of the civilian market, which of course leads to a substantial recovery in weapon production.

Desert Tactical Arms snipers, founded to use the SRS system, are, according to the company's materials, "the most versatile sniper system in the world".

The rifleman Petr Soukup (* 1976) from Podlesí pod Landštejnem 1 trained - due to the fears of his parents from such a career, even though he wanted to be a rifleman from childhood - a mechanic of machine tools. He then completed post-secondary studies in the field of artistic blacksmith and locksmith in Brno and worked for five years in Náměšť nad Oslavou with the artistic blacksmith Mr. Pavel Tasovský. He wanted to approach his dream of riflemanship by studying the field of small arms at the Military Academy in Brno, but then he left his bachelor's degree and in 2000–2001 completed a retraining course in the field of rifleman at SŠ-COPT in Uherský Brod. He has been doing business independently in artistic blacksmithing since about 2000, and a year later he finally got his weapons. He had his first business in his hometown of Strmilov, then he bought a homestead in Podlesí and settled there. He gradually learned, tested, and then began making Damascus steel knives. In 2010, he completed his interesting double Bohemia Express in the equally interesting caliber 45-70 Government.

At the IDET 2009 exhibition, I had the opportunity to see the new Hungarian sniper Gepard GM6 Lynx for the first time in nature. It is so far the last, youngest ( but also the smallest and lightest ) member of the Gepard sniper family, which is listed in its range by one of the divisions of the Hungarian company SERO - SERO Special Division.

" No compromises for perfect hunting- Perfect for every situation - Fast sequence of shots - Hunting weapon with new standards - Modular construction - Uncompromising reliability "
These are the slogans with which the manufacturer characterizes his new weapon INNOGUN HYBRID, which appeared as a hot new product at the two largest world exhibitions of weapons this year. It is also described as " Double Rifle & a Pump Action"

“ Increased combat capability for special forces or the most necessary accessories for IPSC shooters? “ asks László Tolvaj at the beginning of his article in SWM No. 9/2009. And we answer: Probably both.

Those interested in this type of technology certainly still have in their fresh memory the futuristic sniper rifle DSR No. 1 in rifle calibers 308 Win, 300 WinMag and 338 LapuaMag, developed in 1999 by a small company DSR-precision GmbH from Alspirsbach, attributed mainly to the designer Ingolf Renter and launched on the market in 2000. Sale of a weapon that preceded its time with its concept and construction for many years, left the sniper world in amazement, provided until 2004 by the company AMP Technical Services GmbH from Puchheim, Germany. Since 2004, the DSR company itself has been selling its weapon.

Detailed views of sniper rifles.

A rifle that the Czechs fought with in the trenches of the First World War.

As usual, this year I am also interested, among other things, in the news in sniper rifles, or more generally and less pejoratively, precision rifles. Here is a brief list of just some of these innovations, sorted alphabetically by the name of the manufacturing company.

Army rifle ČZ 37, Accumulation rifle ČZ 148 ...