Guns Of Fiction / Sniper Rifles

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"The Z93 is the perfect weapon for when you really want to kill someone. This Yugoslavian bolt-action rifle is chambered in .50BMG, which is a bullet large enough to kill a T-Rex or to make watermelons explode with a Russian accent on the Internet."

—Survival Guide, Far Cry 3

These are dedicated sniper rifles, meaning designed from the ground up to arm cold or friendly snipers to shoot someone or something from far, far away. Many rifles can also be fitted with a scope to do the same task.

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Accuracy International Arctic Warfare series

High risk and high reward, the infamous AWP is recognizable by its signature report and one-shot, one-kill policy.

—Description, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

A series of British bolt-action sniper rifles used by armies and police forces across the globe; variants are chambered in .243 Winchester and .308 Winchester / 7.62x51mm NATO (the standard Arctic Warfare (AW) and Arctic Warfare Police (AWP) models), .300 Winchester Magnum and .338 Lapua Magnum (the Arctic Warfare Magnum or AWM, with the .338 variant also known as the AWSM), and .50 BMG (the AW50 series, though not the AS50 which is a different weapon entirely). The most notable users are the British, German and Australian armies; the British use the designations L96A1 (the original Precision Marksman), L118A1 (for the AW) and L115A3 LRR (for the AWM), the Germans use G22 (for the AWM) and G24 (for the AW50), and the Australians use folding stock variants of the AW50 and AW called the AW50F (which is distinguishable from the standard AW50 by its Madco barrel) and SR-98 respectively (with the AW50F the Australians go the extra mile by using Raufoss Mk 211 bullets, which are armour piercing, explosive and incendiary). The AWC, a suppressed "covert" version of the AW with a folding stock, is used by both the British SAS and American Delta Force.

The "Arctic Warfare" name comes from the fact that the original model, updated from the earlier Precision Marksman made for the British Army to replace the Lee-Enfield-derived L42A1, was designed for the Swedish Army, incorporating de-icing features allowing it to be used in temperatures down to -40 degrees without risk of freezing the action and enlarged parts to be usable while wearing heavy mittens. Given that the vast majority of users of the Arctic Warfare series are nowhere near the arctic and its combat use has to date been exclusively in Iraq and Afghanistan (both significantly closer to the tropics than the arctic), it's very much an Artifact Title.

One of its variants, the L115A3 (chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum), holds the second longest confirmed sniper kill, at 2475 m (2707 yd), surpassed only by 3540 m (3871 yd) kill accomplished by a TAC-50 chambered in .50 BMG.

• Counter-Strike features the AWSM (infamously mislabeled as the AWP) as the most powerful weapon in the game (one hit nigh anywhere on the body kills, regardless of armor). Despite endless nerfing, you will get called a noob just for using it - or worse if you can get any kills with it.
  • Cross-promotion with Team Fortress 2 resulted in this gun appearing in the game as the AWPer Hand. The controversy of its power and accuracy is mocked in its description (being described as "banned in thousands of countries") while actually not happening at all in TF2 itself—the AWP is merely a reskin of the stock sniper rifle and thus no more effective than anything already available to all players.
  • The AWSM is also available in the German censored version of Left 4 Dead 2, later added to all versions with the Last Stand update. It has the smallest magazine capacity of all the sniper rifles and a low rate of fire, but deals much more damage per shot.
• Sniper from Dota 2 fires a Counter Strike-like AWP shot as his ultimate attack.
• The AWC is available in Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and the Playstation Portable version of Rainbow Six Vegas. Vegas 2 also features the standard AW as the final unlocked sniper rifle.
• A cowboy hat-wearing STARS officer in Resident Evil: Apocalypse uses one.
• Used by the Response team snipers in The Negotiator.
• The AWM (mislabeled L96A1) is available in Call of Duty: Black Ops. Modern Warfare 3 features the AWM as well (again mislabeled: L118A1 instead of L115A1); the same gun returns for Call of Duty: Ghosts with the mostly-proper L115 designation, though this time combining a right-handed bolt with a left-handed ejection port for some reason. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) features the new AX50, while Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has a hybrid of the PM and AW called the LW3 - Tundra. The Season 1 update of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II adds the AW50 as the "Victus XMR".
• The generically-named Sniper Rifle in Far Cry is an Australian AW50F, identifiable by the fluted Madco barrel.
• The sniper rifle often assigned to Unit 00 in Neon Genesis Evangelion is a scaled up AW.
• Appears in 7.62 High Caliber in both the PM and Arctic Warfare variants in 7.62x51mm NATO. It's exceptionally accurate and expensive.
• Appears in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain as the "Brennan LRS-46".
• Available several times in NightFire, both with a suppressor and white winter furniture and with standard green furniture and the ability to take armor-piercing ammunition. One level is mostly built around James Bond fighting various Phoenix snipers, all armed with the Arctic Warfare.
• The standard AW is featured in Grand Theft Auto V as the regular sniper rifle.
• A custom L115A3, modified with an intergrally suppressed barrel akin to the AWS, is featured as Sterben's rifle of choice in the Phantom Bullet arc of Sword Art Online.
• Shuichi Akai (an FBI agent that infiltrated the Black Organization) from Case Closed used this rifle in the 425th episode.
• The "RAAB KM50" from FEAR 2: Project Origin is a slightly modified AW50 with a different stock and the barrel/gas tube of the semi-automatic AS50.
• The AWS variant appears in Kamen Rider Amazons, used by Kota Fukuda as his weapon of choice. As with all Nozama Peston Service firearms, it is outfitted with electroshock rounds for use against Amazon monsters.
• The AW Police variant appears in Goldeneye 2010 as the Gambit CP-208. In Reloaded, it is the Arctic Warfare variant instead, but it still keeps its fictional name.
• The AWM appears in Saints Row as the "McManus". It's depicted as a semi-auto rifle, though the long refire delay would suggest that it's supposed to be a bolt action.
  • Its successor's successor, the McManus 2015, appears to be an amalgamation of the AWM and the Barrett M82, with some characteristics from its ancestor and the Mk. 12 SPR.
• Red Eye uses the AWM when attempting to kill Koro-Sensei in Assassination Classroom.
• Present as one of the bolt-action rifles in Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades. The model Anton got was of a smaller variant and thus he had to do "model surgery" in order to lengthen the magazine, magwell and bolt in order for it to chamber .338 Lapua.
• In Surviv.io the AWM-S (the "S" means "Suppressed") is quite possibly the most powerful weapon in the game, being a One-Hit Kill unless your target has good armor (and even then, they'll be on the brink of death afterwards). However, it's also one of the rarest guns in the game.
• Battlefield 2 has the AW as the sniper rifle for the European Union faction. Battlefield 3 adds the AWF in the Back to Karkand DLC, unlocked with the "Creeping Death" assignment (complete the earlier "Specops" assignment, then get 50 headshots, 50 spot assists and 5 knife takedowns), while Battlefield 4 adds the L115A3 variant instead in the China Rising DLC, unlocked with the "Need Only One" assignment (get three sniper rifle ribbons as well as one kill each in a single round with a shotgun, a DMR and C4). Battlefield Hardline features both the AWM and AWS variants, the former being exclusive to the Criminal Professional while the latter is available to all classes with the Getaway DLC.

Barrett M82 and derivatives

A large anti-materiel rifle. Fires large caliber 12.7mm x 99 machine gun rounds, giving it the greatest power and longest range of any sniper rifle. Equipped with a high-efficiency muzzle brake, which reduces recoil enough for fairly simple control and relatively easy repeat fire. Its oversized box magazine holds 10 rounds. Virtually invincible against any enemy anywhere from close range to long range.

—Description, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

If you're checking to see if you've been shot by a .50-cal... you haven't been.

Developed in the 1980s on what was essentially a dare to create a .50-cal sniper rifle - Ronnie Barrett, formerly a photographer, was inspired to make a sniper rifle in that caliber after taking an award-winning photo of a PBR equipped with M2 Browning machine guns. Although he and the few friends he could convince to help him had issues getting the design produced at first (most machine shops he showed a sketch of what the weapon would look like to told him that if the idea were in any way workable, someone smarter would have already designed it^note  For what it's worth, Winchester and a man named David Marshal Williams made an anti-tank rifle that was similar in concept to the M82 during WWII. The U.S. Army rejected the design, as they had ordered some Boys rifles from John Inglis and Company in Canada and weren't in the market for another AT rifle), the U.S. military found that the performance of the .50 BMG round was enough to warrant use in anti-materiel rifles and selected one of Barrett's weapons to enter service as the XM107. Initially, the bolt-action M95 was adopted, but the military then changed its mind on the XM107 requirements and adopted the earlier, semi-auto M82.

The weapon relies on its high penetration, although this makes it rare in other roles due to potential for collateral damage. It also has an effective range of over one mile, though the bullet can reach much farther distances: when you hear about a sniper making a shot from more than a mile away, chances are they were using a Barrett, or at least another .50 BMG sniper rifle inspired by it. The original M82 and its upgrades are semi-auto rifles, while the M90, M95, and M99 are bolt-action (the first two magazine-fed, the latter single-shot). Current production military M82 rifles are designated M107, but the actual changes are just some minor refinements (such as various parts being made of titanium instead of steel) to trim 5 pounds off the rifle's weight...and it still weighs almost 30 pounds, or over 13.5 kilograms, when empty. Other M82 variants include the XM500 bullpup and the XM109, a 25mm high-velocity grenade launcher version of the M107 which is probably the longest-range grenade launcher ever made. On account of some US states and European nations banning .50 caliber (or sometimes just .50 BMG specifically) weapons for civilian ownership, Barrett also makes versions that fire the proprietary .416 Barrett round that actually has even better long-range accuracy.

Barrett sniper rifles are frequently portrayed as Game-Breakers in video games, which often neglect the fact they are primarily intended for anti-materiel duties such as disabling light vehicles and detonating land mines from safe distances, and their weight and size make them difficult to use in anything but a prone or supported position.

Anime & Manga

• Roberta is seen wielding the A1 variant one handed during her eponymous (Roberta's) Blood Trail arc of Black Lagoon.
• The M82A1 appears in Gunslinger Girl. Where it were being used in great numbers by Padania operatives during their occupation of Turin Nuclear Power Plant who are utilizing its large .50 BMG caliber bullets to penetrate the hard skins of the assaulting SWA's Cyborgs with great effects.

Films

• Carried on the film poster of Captain America: The Winter Soldier by The Winter Soldier himself, and he's hinted to have used it a few times.
• Used for the sniper duel in The Hurt Locker.
• Bob Lee Swagger wields an M82 in the opening scene of Shooter, to bring down a moving helicopter. Granted, he was aiming for the vulnerable rotor shaft, and having a very hard time doing it. It is ambiguous if he even managed to shoot it down.
• The "Cobra Assault Cannon" from RoboCop was a slightly-dressed up early-model Barrett; the primary modification was a larger, boxy scope.
• Sharice Watters in Smokin' Aces utilizes a Barrett M82A1 as her weapon of choice.

Literature

• The Barrett M82 features in A Certain Magical Index in the form of the "Metal Eater" series, of which there is a prototype variant called "Metal Eater MX" that adds a full automatic fire mode. While undoubtedly cool, this feature is stated to have been removed for the mass-production version in-universe due to the excessive recoil... which can be counteracted by the Misaka Sisters using their electrokinetic powers (with some help from a supercomputer to solve a lot of complex mathematical equations, admittedly).
• Team PM4 has an M107A1 rifle during Squad Jam 2 that sees shared use between Pitohui and M. It is capable of blowing up heads and cutting entire bodies in half.
• In Sword Art Online: Alicization, Subtilizer Incarnates a Barrett XM500 in Underworld, which gives him the decisive edge over Sinon in their Sniper Duel due to it being a semi-automatic rifle as opposed to her bolt-action Hécate II.
• Hive's favorite weapon in the Whateley Universe. She owns one, and has even sighted it in for the windows in her apartment atop Kane Hall in the middle of campus. Eldritch is also fond of it and uses a modified version when her preferred M16A4 doesn't pack sufficient punch. Both of them are strong enough and tireless enough that the weight is not a significant issue for them.
  • Counterpoint seems fond of it, too, which is hardly surprising given who he is. Range Instructor Eric Mahren gave the teenaged war god a dislocated elbow for pointing one at Mule's face at point blank range - not because of the risk to Mule (his PK field could soak a 105mm AP round, so it was more of a danger to Counterpoint that to Mule), but for violating range safety rules.

Tabletop

• The Barrett series has been a staple in several editions of Shadowrun, usually boasting incredible damage potential (in line with dedicated anti-armor weapons), a massive pricetag and a very, very high purchase difficulty. A Barrett also features prominently in the Nigel Findley novel Shadowplay, along with detailed descriptions of the effect it has on its targets.

Video Games

• America's Army has this as the advanced sniper rifle.
• Appears in the Battlefield series as the most powerful sniper rifle available in-game and is typically the last unlockable sniper rifle.
  • Battlefield 2 and the two Battlefield: Bad Company spinoffs are notable for using the bullpup, bolt-action M95 rather than the more typical M82.
  • Featured in exactly one mission in Battlefield 3; due to concerns that the gun would either be a Game-Breaker or nerfed into oblivion in multiplayer, it appears only the one time in the whole game.
  • The M82 appeared as pickup weapon in Battlefield 4 multiplayer (thus it does not break the game due to limited availability and non-replenishable ammo).
• The M82 is seen in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at one point. In this case, it wasn't for damage purposes, but for range purposes: the target was more than a mile distant, and a conventional rifle wouldn't be able to shoot half that accurately. It also shows up in the multiplayer as the last sniper rifle to be unlocked. Surprisingly, it didn't turn out to be a game-breaking supergun, thanks to the massive recoil and major damage nerfing (only deals the same damage as the other 7.62mm sniper rifles), though owing to its cartridge it still had the longest range.
  • In Modern Warfare 2, it's the first sniper rifle to be unlocked. Yes, that's right. First. Also the case for MW3, where it is easily the most powerful sniper rifle in the game (tied with the AS50), and is also the most accurate among them.
  • The prototype XM109 appears as part of Season 4 in the Reboot Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). The base weapon is initially chambered for .50 BMG, with the game's Gunsmith feature offering the 25mm grenade rounds in both explosive and incendiary flavors.
• Delta Force has the M82A1 as one of the usable weapons. True to life, it's great at destroying vehicles and has incredible long-range accuracy, but also has the lowest ammo capacity of any primary weapon in a game where nearly everyone on foot dies in a single shot, meaning you have to make every shot count.
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, in homage to the above, also uses essentially the same weapon as the "Kobracon". Starts out as a somewhat short-ranged weapon that has to be rechambered manually after ever shot, with upgrades increasing the range of the scope and making it semi-auto.
• M82A1 is a 5-star RF in Girls' Frontline, assigned to protect the Commander from the encroaching White Faction's forces during Operation Continuum Turbulence. She is a calm and quiet girl who frequently philosophizes on the nature of dolls and their human masters.
• Added (along with other .50 BMG rifles) in the Blue Sun mod for 7.62 High Caliber. Considering that all combat in the game takes place at ranges that real life sniper rifles can easily handle, it's a bit overkill.
• Featured in Grand Theft Auto V as the "Heavy Sniper".
• Half-Life mod Firearms had this as the most powerful weapon, but you needed to deploy the bipod in order to remain accurate.
• The SRS99 series Sniper Rifles from the Halo series appear to be a hybrid of the Barrett M107 and the Denel NTW-14.5.
• Insurgency: Sandstorm features the M82A1CQ as Security's anti-material rifle alongside the Insurgent's Zijiang M99 and used by the Marksman class. It can blow up vehicles in three shots and send characters flying when hit.
• Appears in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action (under the German designation G82) as one of the sniper rifles. It is incorrectly designated as a bullpup design, where the action is located behind the trigger group. The picture for the weapon clearly depicts the action and magazine in front of the trigger group (depicting an M82A1 rather than the bullpup M82A2 as was featured in Jagged Alliance 2), due to the developers simply copying the description from the earlier game's M82A2.
• Killing Floor added the M99 in the second Twisted Christmas update. Gigantic, incredibly powerful weapon which will kill nearly anything in one bullet and has greater range than anything else owing to the scope, but you normally can't carry any other non-default weapons alongside it due to its weight, you only get one shot at a time, it's slow to reload if you're not a max-level Sharpshooter, and after a patch, the ammo costs a fortune (£250 for one bullet; a full reload of all 30 would set you back £7,500). An update for Killing Floor 2 had it return, with slightly reduced weight (you now have three blocks of free space to work with instead of just one, enough to at least carry dual 9mms) and much cheaper ammo (only 50 dosh for one bullet), but in return you can hold only 20 rounds rather than the 30 from before, though fortunately it still tears through enemies just as effectively as before.
• The M82A2 (a bullpup version distinct from later models like the M95 by still being semi-auto and having the butt-pad directly behind the magwell, so the actual stock goes above the shoulder) makes an appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots as Johnny's sniper rifle of choice in the final act. Also "recommended by Hideo Kojima".
• Margaret Moonlight's Le Croissant du Ange (The Crescent of Angels) in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is a pair of M82s with stocks that are scythes.
• The Barrett M95 appears in PAYDAY 2 with the "Gage Sniper Pack" DLC, as the Thanatos .50 cal. One of the biggest, loudest, and most expensive weapons in the game, but is also the strongest bullet-firing weapon in the game and the third-strongest weapon overall (beaten only by a bow/crossbow and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher).
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear and Raven Shield have this weapon as the most powerful sniper rifle.
• The "McManus 2010" from Saints Row 2 is the similar XM109, a prototype weapon chambered for high-velocity 25x59mm grenades.
  • Its successor, the McManus 2015, appears to be an amalgamation of the Arctic Warfare Magnum and the M82, with some characteristics of its ancestor and the Mk. 12 SPR.
• The M99 appears in Chapter 13 of Spec Ops: The Line.
• Mr. Wong uses one in the final battle of Stranglehold, in addition to a good number of sniper mooks. They'd probably have a better time tagging Tequila without the easily visible laser sights though.
• The M107 is featured in the third and twelfth chapters of Max Payne 3, the former in which Max gets shot with one and is left limping in pain for a good portion of the chapter.
• Shows up in Watch_Dogs. Completing ten Criminal Convoy missions unlocks a custom variant, the Destroyer, that has massively increased damage-to the point of being able to kill an Enforcer with a single headshot^note Even the standard M107 requires two headshots to down an Enforcer-at the cost of a magazine capacity of just two rounds.

Blaser R93

The Blaser R93 is a German-made bolt-action sniper rifle. Unlike other bolt-action rifles, the R93 uses a straight-pull design, which allows the bolt lever to be cycled without having to be rotated, allowing a shooter to keep a higher rate of fire, as well as allowing them to take faster follow-up shots, useful in a tactical situation. The gun also possesses a quick-change barrel design, allowing an experienced person to switch barrels, and therefore, calibers, in less than a minute, without having to re-zero the scope. The weapon has found use with various police and military forces worldwide, including the German and Dutch police.

• One is used by Agent Hobbs during the confrontation scene in ''Furious 7', fitted with a laser sight.
• Appears a couple times in Firefly, most notably in the first episode.
• An R93 is used by Dominic Cobb during the winter fortress scene in Inception.
• Isabelle's main weapon in Predators is a Blaser R93.
• Hitman: The R93 appears as Agent 47's primary sniper weapon in Hitman: Codename 47, and can also be collected and used in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Hitman: Contracts. It also appears in both film adaptations.
• Used by GCPD SWAT officers in The Dark Knight.
• Appears as a usable weapon in Counter-Strike Online.
• The Blaser is usable in Alliance of Valiant Arms.
• Appears as simply the "R93" in PAYDAY 2, one of the first sniper rifles added to the game with the Gage Sniper Pack DLC. It serves as the middle ground between the weaker Remington MSR and the ridiculously-powerful Barrett M95. Its normal form is based on the regular R93, with a "Wooden Body" available that resembles that of the Semi Weight Sporting Rifle version.
• In Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Shirley uses a Blaser R93 Tactical 2 when she gets angry enough at Pitohui after she betrays her team and is able to overcome her disgust of shooting other humans in-game.
• The Old War variant of the Widowmaker in Conker: Live & Reloaded appears to have been designed after the R93. It is the primary weapon of the Long Ranger, and can be charged up for a more powerful shot, in exchange for giving his position away with a Laser Sight. It has two ammo types: 7.62mm, for use against infantry, and DU Tip, for use against vehicles, sentry guns, and objectives.

CheyTac Intervention

Cheyenne Tactical M-200 Intervention

The CheyTac M200 Intervention is a bolt-action dedicated sniper’s rifle designed by CheyTac LLC. It’s relatively recent, but made big waves when it was introduced in 2001. It fires either the .408 or .375 CheyTac, rounds designed to be the middle ground between the standard rifle calibers like the 7.62mm and the massive anti-armor .50 BMG. The Intervention also has a long-range laser rangefinder designed to aid in the rifle’s primary function of long-range shooting. While not many military forces use it (currently Jordan, Turkey, Britain, Italy, Czech and Poland’s Special Forces units), it holds the record for the longest distance grouping of three rounds (16 and a half inches at 2,321 yards).

Its most notable accessory is its strangely-positioned carrying handle.

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Anime

• In Angel Beats!, Yuri attempts to snipe her nemesis Angel with one. A stunned Otonashi asks “Is that a real gun?”
• Appears in Monster Musume as the main weapon of Manako, the Cyclops Sniper of the MON.

Films — Live-Action

• Mark Wahlberg's character Bob Lee Swagger owns one in Shooter, which is used to frame him for the assassination of a foreign delegate.
• Used in the Chinese blockbuster movie Wolf Warrior 2 by the female mercenary Athena.
• The Korean action movie The Killer: A Girl Who Deserved to Die, Bang Ui-gang's weapons supplier procures him an M200 rifle, which comes from an American soldier stationed in South Korea before returning home to the U.S. He uses the weapon to great effect in the finale during his assault on the Russian mafiya's stronghold.

Live-Action TV

• Richard Machowitz demonstrates one in Future Weapons. He manages to break the record for a long distance grouping, hitting three out of six shots on a human-sized target at 2,530 yards.
• Used in The Unit by Bob Brown and Hector Williams in the episode “Dark of the Moon.”

Video Games

• Default sniper rifle in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer. Soap uses one in single player when he and Price attempt to infiltrate the Big Bad's base in Afghanistan.
  • As a nod to this, it shows up in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's multiplayer mode under the moniker "TF-141" (or "Task Force 141", the anti-terrorist team Soap belonged to).
  • The Intervention later returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II's Season 3 update as the "FJX Imperium". Unique to this gun has this empty weapon inspect animation involving the operator looking at empty casings, possibly highlighting how expensive .408 casings are.
• The Rolins LRSS in MAG is an Intervention.
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 has the CheyTac as the “C-TAC”.
• U.S Army and Resistance units use the CheyTac in Homefront against KPA soldiers. Comes with a nifty thermal sight.
• In Battlefield 4 it is called the SRR-61 in reference to a special forces unit that fields this rifle, the Jordanian 61st Special Reconnaissance Regiment.
• Added in the Blue Sun mod for 7.62 High Caliber, along with its unique ballistic computer: have a soldier with the computer near the sniper, and his/her chance of a hit goes way up.
• The "M320 Long Range Rifle" used by NATO snipers in ARMA III is the M200 Intervention. It fires .408 anti-material rounds, and shoots farther than CSAT's counterpart, the .50 BMG GM6 Lynx, which in turn has more stopping power and a faster semi-auto rate of fire in-game.
• The Version-Exclusive Content for the English version^note though she was added at a later date for other servers of Girls' Frontline, here depicted as a girl who is only slightly taller than the weapon itself. She's so small that she actually has a difficult time moving the rifle around, despite having enough strength to carry it one-handed. As of this writing, M200 is the T-Doll with the highest accuracy stat in the game, a nod to the real-life weapon's capabilities.
• Appears in SYNTHETIK as a laser-firing rifle called 420 SniperDragon. As a homage to MLG trickshots popularized by Modern Warfare 2, its perk, 360-Noscope Damage Bonus, gives the weapon a massive damage multiplier should you spin a full circle before firing.
• Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades saw the rifle added in the waning days of Meatmas 2018, referred to simply as the M200.

Web Video

• Ian from Forgotten Weapons takes a look at it.

Denel NTW-20

For when you need to .

A South African monster of a bolt action sniper rifle, the Denel NTW-20 was developed in 1995 by Tony Neophytou, who was also the co-designer of the Neostead 2000, was adopted by the South African National Defence Force in 1998, and is, simply put, one of the most powerful rifles currently in use with any country. It comes in three variants: the standard NTW 20 chambered in 20x82mm MG151, the NTW 14.5 chambered in 14.5x114mm, and the NTW 20x110mm chambered in 20x110mm Hispano-Suiza, with the former two being able to be switched between each other by changing the bolt, barrel, sighting gear and magazine, and the weapon features a side-mounted magazine which holds 3 rounds for the former two, and is single shot for the latter. The weapon also features a muzzle brake that absorbs an estimated 50%-60% of recoil, a buffered slide in the receiver, and a distinct top-mounted carry handle that goes over the scope. The Denel NTW-20 is intended for use against things like parked aircraft, telecommunication masts, power lines, missile sites, radar installations, refineries, satellite dishes, gun emplacements and bunkers, and the rounds it is chambered in have explosive and armor-piercing varieties for this purpose. It can also perform ordnance disposal or anti-personnel roles, even if it is usually overkill against human targets.

Aside from South Africa, India also wanted to adopt the NTW-20, but following allegations that it had paid kickbacks to secure a deal for anti-materiel rifles, Denel was blacklisted by the Indian government. As a result, India then developed their own indigenous sniper rifle heavily based on the weapon called the Vidhwansak. The embargo against Denel was eventually lifted in 2018 after investigations found the allegations to have been false.

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Films — Live-Action

• The NTW-20 is used by a mercenary in District 9 against the alien mech.

Video Games

• The SRS99C S2AM Sniper Rifle in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 is based on the NTW-14.5, and features the weapon's distinctive carry handle and 14.5x114mm chambering, though it's a semi-auto that loads magazines from the bottom.
• Piers' Anti-Materiel Rifle in Resident Evil 6 is a hybrid of the NTW-20 and AW50, and uses the carry handle as a charging handle. It is straight-pull bolt action, holds 10 rounds of 12.7mm, and the scope can be toggled between standard and thermal. The weapon is also available in the Raid Mode of Resident Evil: Revelations 2.
• A hybrid of the NTW-20 and Gepard GM6 Lynx appears in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain as the Serval AMR-7, a semi-automatic branch off of the Brennan LRS-46 development line. It only comes in Grade 5 and Grade 7, with the former having 5-round magazines by default with 10-round ones only being available if the final Brennan sniper rifle has been researched, but the latter having the 10-rounds by default.
• The NTW-20 was anachronistically added into Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War as the ZRG 20mm with the Season 2 Reloaded update, fitted with a PSO-1 scope with incorrect reticle, and the magazine and bolt handle are on the opposite sides that they should be, with the former being on the right and the latter on the left.
• The NTW-20 is used by the HACs in Time Crisis 5.
• The NTW-20 can be bought for $8500 in Söldner: Secret Wars, and is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, being able of inflicting more than twice the damage of the M82A1 and even more than some rocket launchers.
• The NTW-20 was added on Day 24 of Meatmas 2020, in Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades. It is currently the largest gun, and largest caliber in the game. The rifle can only be gripped by the pistol grip and the carry handle on top of the scope.
• The NTW-50 appearing in Battlefield 2042 is an apparent .50 caliber version of the weapon made in the near future. Though the most powerful infantry rifle round in the game, .50 caliber (12.7mm) is a step down from the 14.5mm and 20mm offerings of the real present-day weapon.
• In Girls' Frontline, NTW-20 is a T-Doll who takes her role as a sniper seriously to the point that she hates working with others. True to her gun's capabilities, she is one of the highest damage-dealing dolls, but sacrifices a lot of her ROF. The gun is so long that part of the barrel is cropped off in her CG, even after her artist drawed it with a reduced size.

Web Video

• Ian McCollum fires the NTW-20 and takes a look at it here.

Desert Tech sniper rifles

From top to bottom: the Stealth Recon Scout Covert, the Stealth Recon Scout, and the HTI.

Desert Tech (formerly Desert Tactical Arms) is a firearms manufacturer based in Utah. They are most well-known for their line of sniper rifles.

Their current production sniper rifle models are the full-size Stealth Recon Scout (SRS), the compact Stealth Recon Scout Covert, and the anti-materiel Hard Target Interdiction (HTI). All models are bolt-action weapons, with a bullpup layout, and are fed by 5-round magazines.

The SRS and SRS Covert are available in .338 Lapua Magnum, .243 Winchester, 7.62x51mm NATO, and .300 Winchester Magnum, while the HTI is available in .50 BMG, .416 Barrett, and .408 and .375 Cheyenne Tactical. All weapons can easily be converted to other calibers as needed.

• Both the SRS and HTI appear in Ghost Recon Wildlands, the former as a standard sniper rifle, and the latter as an anti-materiel rifle.
• Michael and Sam use SRSs in S6E12 of Burn Notice.
• The SRS and SRS Covert are usable weapons in The Division.
• Ezra's weapon of choice in The Blacklist is an SRS.
• The SRS appears in the S3E8 in Person of Interest, where it is used by Carter.
• SRS is a 5-star RF in Girls' Frontline.
• After killing its user, John Wick uses one in John Wick.
• The SRS was added to PAYDAY 2 as part of the John Wick Character Pack, where it is known as the Desertfox. Its accuracy isn't notable, but has high concealment. Mods can be used to turn it into an SRS Covert.
• The SRS appears in Battlefield 4 as the "338 Recon".
• Frank Castle uses one in S2E2 of Daredevil.
• The HTI appears as a usable weapon in Far Cry 5 as the "MBP .50".

DSR-1

A German bolt-action bullpup sniper rifle that began production in 2001, manufactured by DSR-Precision GmbH, the DSR-1 was adopted by several European special forces groups, including the German GSG-9, Spanish Grupo Especial de Operaciones, and the Danish navy. The DSR-1 comes in 7.62x51mm NATO, .300 Winchester Magnum and .338 Lapua Magnum calibers, featuring an ambidextrous safety, a match-grade fluted free-floating barrel with a muzzle brake that is quickly interchangeable and fixed into the receiver by 3 screws, six radial lugs on the bolt which lock directly onto the barrel, a spare magazine holder in the front of the rifle that is sometimes mistaken as a extra magazine port, a fully adjustable stock and cheekpiece, and a ventilated aluminum handguard. The rifle also comes in an integrally-suppressed Subsonic variant, in which is the silencer is attached to the receiver instead of the barrel which allows the barrel to remain free-floating and still have consistent shot-to-shot accuracy, and a .50 BMG DSR-50 variant, which has a hydraulic recoil buffer in the stock and a special blast compensator barrel attachment which serves as both a muzzle brake and a suppressor.

• The "DSG-1" in the Crysis series is a hybrid of the DSR-1 (the name, the shape of the barrel, and its manual operation in the first game) and the H&K PSG1 (the non-bullpup layout, shape of the receiver and stock, and its switch to semi-auto starting from Crysis 2).
• The .300 Winchester Magnum variant of the DSR-1 appears as the standard sniper rifle of the FROGs in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots; Snake is given one for the cutscene to end Act 2, also unlocking it for free if the player doesn't go out of their way to steal a locked one from a FROG at the end of the act. It's powerful and tends to knock enemies down when it hits, but ammo is hard to find for it and it can't be modified.
• Appears in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony as the Advanced Sniper Rifle, where it fires standard round in single-player, and explosive rounds in multiplayer.
• Appears as the Kinmark SRS in MAG, Raven's DLC sniper rifle.
• Appears in Brink! as the Drognav Sniper Rifle, one of the only two sniper rifles in game.
• The DSR 50 appears as one of the sniper rifles in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, where it is generally considered a Game-Breaker due to always killing in one hit regardless of where it hits (except when suppressed, though it's still a one-shot kill to the chest), high accuracy, low recoil and a fast bolt cycle, the only downside being that it has the smallest magazine of its class.
• Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 adds the DSR-1 to the 360 and PS3 versions as a singleplayer-only sniper rifle. It returned in the free-to-play Phantoms as the "Sentinel SR-1".
• Available in the Siberia, Bangkok and Burma levels of Blood Stone. It's presented incredibly unrealistically - fitting 30 rounds in its magazines, and somehow not only being an automatic rather than bolt-action, but firing in three-round bursts at that. Because of this, it's also surprisingly weak given the kind of bullets the real thing fires - it takes two or even all three shots from a burst to kill most enemies.
• The DSR 50 appears as a usable weapon in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2.
• Appears as a usable weapon in Alliance of Valiant Arms.
• The DSR-50 appears as a 5-star RF in Girls' Frontline, first appearing as a side-character during Operation Deep Dive.
• The DSR-1 is a usable weapon in Army of Two.
• The DSR-1 appears in The Division 2 as the SR-1, where it is used by elite Rikers squad leaders.
• The DSR-1 is seen briefly being used by a RAID officer in The Lookout.
• A marksman uses the DSR-1 during the firefight at the country estate in Barcelona in The Gunman, with there being a view of the weapon's scope.
• Appears in Battlefield 2042 as the DXR-1, where it uses 8-round magazines by default, but can also use 5-round ones with high-power, armor-piercing ammo, or 12-round extended magazines. In a rare sight for a video game, the reload animation actually has the player use the reserve magazine to replenish ammo.

Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

This .50 cal semi-auto rifle has solid stopping power. If it does that for more than 4 hours, call a doctor.

—Description, Far Cry 5

Hungary's answer to the Barrett .50 Cal. It is a series of Hungarian anti-materiel rifles designed in 1987, manufactured by SERO Kft. and designed by Major Ferenc Földi. The Gepárd (cheetah in Hungary) was meant for the Hungarian People's Army who sought of a powerful yet compact rifle that can disable light-armored targets. Production began in the The '90s following the end of the communist rule and Hungary's transition to a market economy.

The original M1 rifle is a single-shot rifle. However starting with the M2, the Gepárd's was rebuilt into a 5-round semi-automatic rifle. Its latest variant the Gepárd M6, dubbed the "GM6 Lynx" features stronger components, shorter length, improved scope, and is lighter than its predecessors.

While the Gepárd is originally chambered with a 12.7x108mm, the later also accept NATO .50 BMG.

• It's featured in ARMA III as CSAT's choice of anti-materiel rifle.
• Revy is seen wielding the M3 variant in the first two episodes of Black Lagoon.
• Call of Duty featured GM6 Lynx in its games:
  • Call of Duty: Ghosts is seen during the "Clockwork" mission, as well as "End of the Line" with Logan wielding this as his starting weapon. In multiplayer, it is among the best sniper rifles when it comes to its high damage.
  • The Lynx makes a return in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, as seen in the hands of protagonist Jack Mitchell in the mission "Throttle". Fitting an ACOG scope or iron sights and you can turn this sniper into a run-and-gun battle rifle.
  • It later appears in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II as the Signal 50.
• Appears in Far Cry 4 and its sequels as the SA-50 (presumably "semi-automatic 50"). By no doubt it is arguably the most powerful sniper in the game, capable of one-shot kills and the advantage of being semi-automatic.
• PAYDAY 3 features the GM 6 Lynx as an Overkill Weapon called the HET-5 Red Fox, equipped with a thermal scope and capable of shooting through walls and Shields.
• The GM6 Lynx appears in Player Unknowns Battlegrounds as the Lynx AMR. Being the first BFG, it takes this title as the strongest rifle in the game.

Heckler & Koch PSG1

The PSG-1(sic) is arguably the most accurate, semi-automatic sniper rifle off-the-shelf. A favorite of police forces around the world, the PSG-1 comes standard with a 6x sight and fires the NATO 7.62mm round.

Description, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

Allegedly developed in response to the botched hostage rescue of the Munich Massacre in 1972 (where West German police-snipers, poorly trained and armed with only normal G3s, couldn't stop the hostages being killed), the PSG1 is a West German semi-automatic sniper rifle that, like most other Heckler & Koch long arms developed before The '90s, was mechanically based on the G3 rifle, with a roller-delayed blowback action chambered for 7.62x51mm NATO, and features a low-noise bolt closing device (similar to the forward assist on many M16 rifles).

It has a heavy free-floating barrel with polygonal rifling and an adjustable stock, and in its original form was designed for use with a fixed-power 6x Hensoldt scope. Another notable, if less favorable, characteristic of the PSG1 is that after firing, the cartridge casing is ejected with substantial force, reportedly enough to throw it up to 10 meters away (something inherited from the G3 it was based on), greatly compromising the military use of the rifle, because it would easily give away the sniper's position and makes it difficult to sweep up the area after firing. Police forces over the world have adopted it, including the Spanish Grupo Especial de Operaciones, the Netherlands Dienst Speciale Interventies (DSI), and the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), though in rather limited numbers as they sell for over $15,000 USD. Its futuristic appearance has not hurt its position in media, especially in video games, where while less accurate and less damaging than bolt-action sniper rifles, its semi-automatic rate of fire make it a good trade-off - this mirrors some of its advantages in reality, where its accuracy is average for sniper rifles as a whole, but exceptional for semi-automatic ones.

The original PSG1 is no longer produced, H&K switching to the more modern PSG1A1 with a longer-ranged, variable-power scope among other upgrades. Similar rifles based on the same G3 platform include the more militarized and cheaper MSG90 and the civilian version, the SR9. The MSG90 is more popular with military groups, such as the New Iraqi Army, the Mexican Army, France's 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment and South Korea's Naval Special Warfare Brigade.

• Cool Action: Like other H&K weapons based on the G3's action, this one can also utilize the "H&K slap" to charge the weapon. That said, the initial versions received complaints that the handle's location could interfere with the scope when it was locked to the rear, so one of the A1's upgrades was rotating it a few degrees counterclockwise to keep it away from the scope.

• Arguably, this gun's first appearance in popular media was in Metal Gear Solid. Most famously used in the battle with Sniper Wolf, it later appears in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in both a normal and a fictional "PSG1-T" tranquilizer variant, the latter of which was backported to The Twin Snakes. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain features the PSG1 as the "AM MRS-71", which can be rechambered for 5.56mm rounds for more accuracy at the expense of damage.
• Another famous appearance is in the animated portion of Kill Bill Vol. 1, where O-Ren Ishii uses it to shoot a Yakuza boss.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto IV have respectively the similar SR9T and an actual PSG1 as an upgrade to the bolt-action sniper rifle available earlier.
• Available in Jagged Alliance 2's v1.13 mod and Back in Action.
• The weapon you use exclusively in Silent Scope. It also has almost a full second refire rate, which is completely ridiculous.
• In Lethal Weapon, Riggs uses one with a 20 round magazine during the scene in the desert where they try to get back Murtaugh's daughter.
• Also used in Cube Zero, be it rather unrealistically as tranquilizer dart rifles causing Instant Sedation. Later also used as a very expensive club.
• A Swiss Guard sniper team covers St. Peter's Square with these guns in Angels & Demons.
• Shows up plenty in Rainbow Six, since just about the beginning of the series.
• Gage/Trak from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict carries one on his shoulder, which is a dead give away to his indirect specialty.
• The PSG1 is the third and final sniper rifle available in Resident Evil 5. It fills the middle ground between the Sako S75 and the Dragunov SVD by being a semi-auto rifle that significantly reduces Sniper Scope Sway (which is the SVD's problem) but not dealing as much damage as the bolt-action S75.
• Obviously, it appears in 7.62 High Caliber as an extremely accurate rifle. It doesn't hurt that it's semi-automatic.
• Used briefly against "them" in Highschool of the Dead.
• Left 4 Dead 2 features the MSG90A1 as an alternative to the Ruger Mini-14 Hunting Rifle, with double the magazine capacity and 30 shots more in reserve but a slower reload and a greater accuracy penalty when on the move.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops features this a few years before it was actually designed. Clarke has a few of them stashed around his various safehouses in Kowloon in singleplayer, and in multiplayer it serves as the "classified" weapon of its class, requiring every other sniper rifle to be purchased to unlock it. The SR9(TC) returns for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II as the "LM-S", the marksman rifle of the "Lachmann Meer" weapon platform. Oddly by default, it holds 10 rounds in a 5 round magazine.
• This rifle was featured in Case Closed in the hands of the Black Organization's female sniper, Chianti. It's basically her rifle of choice.
• A PSG1 can be found in the Chrysler Building in Parasite Eve.
• An integrally-suppressed variation appears in Delta Force: Land Warrior, as a silenced alternative to the M40 or Barrett, but with a much shorter-ranged 4x scope and a shorter bullet-drop distance. It's also available in Delta Force: Black Hawk Down with the "Team Sabre" Expansion Pack, where it compares to the base game's M21 as a shorter-ranged but fast and high-capacity sniper rifle.
• A 4-star RF in Girls' Frontline.

Knight's Armament SR-25/M110 SASS

The SR-25 was developed in the early 90's by Reed Knight and Eugene Stoner, the creator of the AR-10 and AR-15. Essentially, it was created by updating the AR-10 design to use the AR-15's direct impingement gas system,^* the number in its name came from adding 10 and 15 together because of this and as a result it has more than half of its parts able to interchange with the AR-15 or M16. It was very popular among civilian shooters, and was adopted by the US Marine Corps and Navy SEALs as the Mark 11 Model 0 with several accessories including a sound suppressor and Harris bipod. In 2005, a modified variant of the SR-25 known as the M110 was adopted by the US Army to replace some M24s in service, as the semi-automatic action was found to be more useful in urban environments. In SOCOM usage it is currently being replaced by the Mk. 20 Mod 0, a sniper rifle variant of the SCAR, but still remains in service.

• Both Chris Kyle and Dauber in American Sniper are armed with SR-25s.
• Appears in Better Call Saul as one of the rifles Lawson offers for sale to Mike Ehrmantraut.
• The SR-25 appears in Ghost Recon series starting with the Desert Siege expansion pack, available both in its regular form and with a suppressor. In Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, the weapon is Sgt. Pepper's usual weapon, though for some reason the suppressor can only fit to the standard-size barrel, and the fixed stock can't be modified (presumably because as an AR-15 derivative, it couldn't take a "folded" stock, and the only other options the game has are either removing the stock from the buffer tube, which would go against the purpose of a sniper rifle, or a solid fixed stock, which it already has). The Enhanced Combat Carbine version appears in Wildlands, as a highly-accurate but rather weak semi-auto option for sniping, and Santa Blanca snipers make use of it in the "Fallen Ghosts" DLC campaign.
• Appears as the Flash Thought in Clive Barker's Jericho, Abigail Black's weapon, with a bunch of modifications, a 5-round magazine and a GL-1 grenade launcher. Black can also fire telekinetically-controllable "Ghost Bullets" from the weapon.
• As usual, the SR-25 appears in 7.62 High Caliber. In a bit of a twist, you can get it very early, by completing the mission line that leads to getting your home base. It's a guaranteed pick up, along with the suppressor and a Ghillie suit, when most of your enemies are normally packing handguns and shotguns, making it a very welcome Disc-One Nuke, if you have a sniper able to make use of it.
• Appears in Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, and returns in Vegas 2 as the default sniper rifle and one of the two sniper rifles unlocked by default, the other being the Steyr Scout Tactical, and also one of the only two semi-automatic sniper rifles in the game, the other being the PSG1. It is the only silenced sniper rifle in Vegas 2, but is also the weakest sniper rifle in the game; a regular assault rifle with a suppressor and 6x scope attached can outperform it in most situations. It returns in Siege as one of the only 2 sniper rifles in the game (the other being the SVU used by Spetsnaz operator Glaz) in the Operation Dust Line expansion used by Navy SEAL operator Blackbeard; it's fitted with mounts to attach Blackbeard's rifle shields, and is presented as having noticeably higher power than his short-barreled SCAR-H, though with a slower rate of fire and much less reserve ammo.
• The M110 appears in Arma II in the Operation Arrowhead expansion, with only Night Vision or Thermal scopes. It seems to be based on an airsoft variant, as it lacks the ambidextrous bolt release catch the M110 has.
• The M110 appears in the 2010 reboot of Medal of Honor used by Dusty and Deuce in the Wolfpack missions. The M110 is anachronistic for the time the game takes place in, as it takes place in 2002.
• Appears in Homefront as the M110 Sniper. It is the only semi-automatic sniper rifle in the game, and one of the only two sniper rifles in the game, the other being the Cheytac Intervention.
• Modern Battlefield games:
  • Appears in Battlefield 3 as the Mk 11 Mod 0, the default sniper rifle for the US faction in multiplayer and, as such, the last unlockable sniper rifle for the Russian faction. It is used by Blackburn in "Operation Swordbreaker", and by Campo in "Night Shift".
  • It's also available in Battlefield 4, reclassified as an all-class Designated Marksman Rifle, where it is one of the first weapons available in the campaign and the first DMR unlockable after the opening RFB.
  • Battlefield Hardline features the Advanced Combat Carbine, misidentified as the Enhanced Combat Carbine, as an exclusive weapon to the Law Enforcement's Professional. The later free Blackout DLC also added the integrally-suppressed M110K5 as an all-class battle rifle, unlocked after getting 25 kills each with battle rifles on the DLC's night-time versions of the Bank Job and Backwoods maps.
• The SR-25 appears in Splinter Cell: Blacklist as the default sniper rifle. It is used by Briggs in Safehouse, Abandoned Mill and Transit Yards, is also used by Sam in Transit Yards, and is used by US Military Snipers in Detention Facility.
• The SR-25 is one of the available sniper rifles in Watch_Dogs.
• The M110 is unlocked at Rank 17 in multiplayer mode in Spec Ops: The Line.
• Armalite's Super SASS, a failed competitor in the XM110 program, appears as a 3-star RF in Girls' Frontline, obtainable from monthly log-in, but later available from event map drops. Fans tend to pair SASS with Denel NTW-20, because her Nice Girl personality contrasts with the latter's cold and standoffish attitude, which was eventually given a nod by the game itself and supplementary materials.
• The M110 is the US Army's marksman rifle in Squad.
• The M110 SASS was added to Insurgency: Sandstorm in the Cold Blood update, usable by the Security Marksman as a counterpart to the Insurgent's SVD. It also comes with a unique 6x-3x scope.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II features one, oddly fitted with original AR-10 waffle-pattern magazines, as one of the weapons added in Season Two.

Mark 12 Special Purpose Rifle

The Mk 12 Special Purpose Rifle, or SPR, is a variant of the M16/AR-15, designed to be used as a designated marksman rifle. It was created at the request of both the United States Army and Navy Special Warfare units, who wanted a rifle with better range than the M4 carbine, but shorter than the full-length M16.

Per the nature of AR-15-based rifles, the Mk 12 is highly customizable, with different groups and military branches using different variants with different accessories. The few consistent features, though, are 18-inch long free-floating heavy barrels with muzzle brakes (capable of accepting suppressors), and free-floating handguards (the exact model varies). It is also designed for use with heavier-grain 5.56x45mm NATO rounds, for better long-range accuracy.

In service, the Mk 12 is currently being replaced by the 7.62x51mm FN SCAR/Mk 17, though it remains in service for the time being.

• One is used by a Delta sniper in 28 Weeks Later.
• One of Gabriel's mooks uses one, converted to full-auto, in Live Free or Die Hard.
• One with a tan paint scheme is used by Chris Kyle in American Sniper, along with a few other SEALs.
• Marcus Luttrell and Matthew Axelson are both armed with SPRs in Lone Survivor.
• The Mk 12 appears in a few James Bond video games.
  • It is usable in GoldenEye Reloaded, referred to as the "AS15 Mk12". It serves the same role the modified SL8 did in the Wii version, though with significantly more reserve ammo than the SL8 ever got. It also replaces the Arctic Warfare Trevelyan uses during part of the final confrontation.
  • It returns in 007 Legends, unmodified from its Reloaded appearance except with the addition of 20-round mags which still only hold 10 rounds. Bond starts with one for the second part of the On Her Majesty's Secret Service level.
• Appears as the first sniper rifle used in Sniper: Ghost Warrior, misidentified as the larger-caliber SR-25.
• The Mk 12 is a usable weapon in Battlefield Play4Free, where it is mislabeled as its larger-caliber counterpart, the M110. It also appears in Battlefield Hardline, where it is called the "RO933 M1", available with the Getaway DLC.
• Memphis and Isaac use Mk 12s in Shooter.
• The Mk 12 is available to US snipers in America's Army.
• It appears in ARMA: Armed Assault as simply the "SPR", used by US Army designated marksmen as the middle ground between regular infantry's assault rifles and the actual snipers' M24. It returns for ARMA II, this time properly identified as the Mk12 SPR, again used by USMC designated marksmen as a lighter but shorter-ranged and weaker alternative to the M14 DMR.
• Appears in Project Reality as the standard weapon of the USMC Marksman class.
• In Girls' Frontline, Mk 12 is a 4-star RF T-Doll who appears as part of AK-74U's squad during Operation Continuum Turbulence, and can be acquired as a random drop from some of the maps in the event.
• The MK12 SPR is a somewhat uncommon weapon in Surviv.io. It has a fast semi-automatic rate of fire, and is most effective in mid-to-long-range engagements.

McMillan Tactical "TAC" series

From top to bottom: TAC-300, TAC-308, TAC-50

A series of sniper rifles made by Phoenix-based McMillan Firearms Manufacturing. There are five rifles in this series: the TAC-300 , the TAC-308, the TAC-338, the TAC-416 and finally, the most famous of the five, the TAC-50. All chambered respectively in .300 Winchester Magnum, .308 Winchester, .338 Lapua Magnum, .416 Barrett and .50 BMG.

Users of the TAC-series, most notably the TAC-50, include special forces units in Georgia, Jordan, the US Navy Seals and, most famously, the Canadian Army (under the name "C15 LSRW") as explained below.

The .TAC-50 is legendary for being (as of July 2017) the rifle that holds 3 out of the top 5 longest sniper kills in history, all made by Canadian snipers, the longest happening in Iraq in May 2017 where a JTF2 (Canadian Special Forces) soldier killed an ISIS insurgent 3540 meters (3871 yards) away with one of those. For the record, that's twice the effective range of the rifle.

• The TAC-50 variant is available in Medal of Honor: Warfighter as the TAC-50 Sniper. The .300 Winchester Magnum variant also appears.
• Delta Force: Black Hawk Down has the TAC-308 variant appear.
• The TAC-338 is Chris Kyle's weapon of choice in American Sniper.
• A TAC-338 is used by Bobby Lee Swagger in Shooter.
• The TAC-338 is a usable weapon in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3.
• A TAC-50 appears in a flashback in the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where it is used to shoot a deer.
• The TAC-50 appears as a usable weapon in State of Decay, as the "Mk. 15".
• The TAC-50 is used by Jebus in the beginning of Madness Inundation, notably when he is sniping while narrating the introduction. Afterwards, he field strips it, before partially reasassembling it and using it to take out the second Mag Agent: V2, depleting its ammo. It reappeares in Incident: 111A, used by Jesus to snipe faraway agents.
• Rainbow Six Team One sniper Fred Franklin uses a "MacMillan" sniper rifle chambered in .50 caliber when the Provisional IRA attack the hospital, most notably to destroy an enemy van's engine and to blow up PIRA terrorist Roddy Sands' head above the jaw. Interestingly enough, this novel was published 2 years before the McMillan TAC-50 rifle was released (although Clancy may have been aware it was in development).
• The TAC-50 in Girls' Frontline identifies herself more as a Canadian, presumably as a tribute to the longest sniper shot mentioned above. She wears a maple leaf-shaped eyepatch, has an unreasonable obsession of putting maple syrup on everything she eats, and her spotter drone is named Maple Moon. She also wears a modified JTF2 emblem on her left jacket sleeve.
• A TAC-50 customized with Cadex chassis is available in The Division 2 as the signature weapon of Sharpshooter class.

PGM Hécate II and Ultima Ratio series

An anti-materiel rifle which uses 7 rounds of .50 caliber bullets. The highly efficient muzzle break decreases recoil drastically after each shot.

—Description of the Hécate II, Counter-Strike Online

A series of French bolt-action sniper rifles made by PGM Precision, the first rifle in the series introduced was the 7.62x51mm Ultima Ratio, which is unique in being a purpose-designed sniper rifle, rather than an accurized version of an existing hunting rifle, and was adopted by the French military. The PGM Ultima Ratio comes in a variety of different barrel configurations, including the Intervention barrel which has heat dispersion ribs along its length and an integrated glued on muzzle brake to reduce recoil, jump and flash, the Commando I and Commando II barrels which are fluted and can have integrated or detachable muzzle brakes, and Integral Silencieux barrel with an integral silencer.

The next and most popular rifle in the series was introduced in 1995 by PGM Précision, the .50 BMG Hécate II (full name: Fusil de Précision PGM calibre 12,7mm modèle F1/Precision Rifle PGM caliber 12,7mm model F1, shortened to FR 12,7) pictured above, which became the official anti-materiel rifle of the French Army and law enforcement agencies, replacing the Barrett M82 and McMillan M87 used before. An upscaled variant of the Ultima Ratio rifle built to fire .50 BMG rounds in 7 round magazines, it's trademark features include a wooden grip and stock instead of the polymer of the other rifles in the series (though a variant with polymer parts exist) and a very efficient (PGM claims the recoil felt is similar to a standard 7.62x51mm bullet) and very boxy muzzle break. Those additions make the Hécate II a heavy (30.4 pounds / 13.8 kilograms unloaded and without scope) rifle.

The most recent sniper rifle of the series is the .338 Lapua PGM 338/Mini-Hecate, which was designed by Chris L. Movigliatti of the Swiss AMSD company and is exported worldwide by Drake Associates, Inc. in the US, FN Herstal in Belgium and Liemke Defence in Germany. All three rifles in series have a central rigid metal girder chassis, giving them a unique skeletal "barebones" appearance, minimizing weight and simplifying maintenance.

In addition to the French forces (who only use the Hécate II and not the Ultima Ratio series, using instead the FR-F2 ^note An upgraded version of the FR-F1, itself a sniper-oriented upgraded variant of the French MAS-36 battle rifle as their official sniper rifle), the PGM series are also used by the COPESP (Brazilian special forces), GROM (Polish counterterrorism unit), Armenian and Israeli special forces, Lithuanian police, and the Moroccan, Slovenian, Chilean and Singaporean armies. Swiss Brugger & Thomet also make an upgraded clone of the PGM known as the APR, which comes in 7.62x51 APR308 and .338 Lapua APR338 variants, with the APR308 also having addition short barreled \APR308P and integrally silenced APR308S variants.

• Meaningful Name: Hécate was one of the Moon goddesses in Greek mythology, whose name can be translated to "she that operates from afar". Fitting for a rifle that can hit targets a mile away.
  • Ultima Ratio, the name of the Hécate's little brothers, is Latin for Last Resort or Final Argument and is the short form of Ultima Ratio Regum (The Final Argument of Kings), the motto engraved on Louis XIV's cannons.

• Sinon's weapon of choice during the GGO arc of Sword Art Online is a Hécate II. Appropriately (considering its use in France), she upgraded to it from the FR F2.
• The Anti-materiel rifle in Fallout: New Vegas is a perfect copy of the Hécate II save for a slightly different muzzle brake.
• The Hécate II is available in Counter-Strike Online as an event-only weapon.
• The Mini-Hécate appears in Hitman: Contracts as the PGM Sniper Rifle, used by French GIGN snipers in the final level of the game, "Hunter and Hunted". A silenced version of it can be unlocked by beating the level with a Silent Assassin ranking.
• The Mini-Hécate appears in Alliance of Valiant Arms as the PGM.338.
• Raven's second sniper rifle in MAG is the Mini-Hécate, known in-game as the Janas SWS.
• The Hecate II is used by Mana Tatsumiya in Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Among her many guns, the Hecate is notable for being the only one that is confirmed to not be an airsoft copy… And she first uses it to snipe people with tranquilizer rounds and prevent them from confessing in a place that would turn it into an instant brainwashing.
• Gunslinger Girl. The sniper rifle used by cyborg girl Elsa de Sica.
• Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades got this rifle as part of a 2019 April Fools update, this was the most normal Anti-Material rifle compared to the Triple Regret .50 BMG revolver and the Whizzbanger, which simply holds a .50 BMG cartridge and is manually fired via a handheld hammer.
• Vincent uses the PGM Ultima Ratio Commando II during the opening bank robbery shootout in The Lookout to wound officers.
• The Ultima Ratio is used by Lynn and Sue in So Close to assassinate targets.
• Kirill uses a suppressed Ultima Ratio in XXX to attempt to kill Xander when he's having lunch with Yelena, and later to hold Czech police at bay during the raid on Yorgi's fortress.
• Mr. Jones uses the Ultima Ratio in Next to attempt to take out Cris.

Remington Model 700/M24/M40

Americans have been using the M-700 bolt-action rifle since it first hit the scene in 1962. Since then it’s gone all around the globe, seeing action in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

—Survival Guide, Far Cry 3

The Remington Model 700 rifle was introduced in 1962, being the successor of the first modern sporting rifle, the Model 721. The rifle comes in varying cartridges ranging from .17 Remington to .458 Winchester Magnum which can fit three to five rounds internally, or with a 10-round detachable magazine for police models in .308 Winchester. The rifle is not only sold to civilian markets, but also to the military and police as well. The standard rifle is currently used by the RCMP, while the US Army and Marine Corps use respectively the M24 Sniper Weapon System and M40 series, both based on the Remington 700; the former has since upgraded to the M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle, taking the original M24 barrel and action and installing them into a modernized body with rails and an adjustable folding stock.

• Cool Action: The Remington 700 comes in both a "short action" and a "long action" variation. Short action is designed for smaller rounds like .223 Remington, and is used in the Marines' M40. Long action is designed to be converted for larger rounds like .300 Winchester Magnum; the Army, originally intending to chamber the M24 in .300 Winchester and recognizing the potential need to use the larger rounds in the future, designed the M24 for long action and have in turn chambered later variants in .300 Winchester (A2, M2010) and .338 Lapua (A3).
  • It also seems that when featuring the M40 series, designers would give it a detachable magazine on any variant. Despite that detachable magazines were only introduced on the M40A5, which was introduced in 2009.

Anime & Manga

• Revy is seen wielding the 700 when infiltrating the Philippines in the penultimate Season 1 episode of Black Lagoon.
• Black Organization's other sniper Korn from Case Closed uses the M24 variant.
• Mana Tatsumiya from Negima! Magister Negi Magi has a soft air M24 that she uses in pentathlon events… And, with special ammunition, for her magical mercenary work (she may also own an actual one, but she can’t exactly carry that one while she’s masquerading as a middle schooler).

Comic Books

• From his early appearances to the present, The Punisher has been frequently depicted using a Remington 700 as his sniper rifle of choice.

Films

• American Sniper features all three variants. First, Chris Kyle and his dad used Remington 700's while out hunting. Later on a US Delta Force Sniper can be seen using a M24A1 Sniper Rifle. And lastly a Marine Recon Scout Sniper that accompanies Kyle on a mission in Iraq uses a M40A3 Sniper Rifle in the film's climactic battle.

Literature

• M24 variants see some pretty common use in Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online as a bog-standard sniper rifle, and multiple players in-game use it, most notably the sniper/spotter duo from Team Narrows and a few members of Team KKHC. LLENN herself tried out an M24 during the GGO tutorial and found out, to her chagrin, that sniper rifles just aren't for her.

Live-Action TV

• In season 2 of Better Call Saul, Mike buys the M40A1 variant from Lawson, the illegal gun dealer when he's about to go to war with the Salamancas. The two even banter back and forth about how the rifle was issued to snipers in Vietnam with wooden stocks, with Mike lamenting that the US Government apparently forgot that wood swells in the humid jungle heat.

Video Games

• The M24A3 appears in Battlefield 2, rather incorrectly as the M24 is the Army version and, as typical for the series, the American faction is the Marine Corps; at the very least they're not forcing detachable box mags into a variant that doesn't use them. Battlefield: Bad Company continues using it, while the second one's Vietnam expansion and Battlefield 3 correctly switch to period-appropriate versions of the M40 (A1 in the former, A5 in the latter).
• Both the original Remington 700 and the USMC's M40A3 are available in the multiplayer of Call of Duty 4, the latter infamously wide-spread among the playerbase due to a bug with the ACOG that increases its damage slightly, making it effectively that game's equivalent of the AWP from Counter-Strike above; the former meanwhile is sadly ignored, despite sharing the best damage multipliers of its class with the SVD, due to greater sway than the other sniper rifles, one less round than the M40 (the lowest of its class with four rounds), and no beneficial bugs related to an attachment - in fact, it occasionally misses what should have been a clear hit. The game is also notable for being one of the few depictions of a pre-A5 variant of the M40 to actually have it load one round at a time rather than pretending it always used detachable magazines. The Urban Sniper Rifle variant appears in Call of Duty: Ghosts.
• Available in Fallout 4, simply called 'Hunting Rifle' or 'Sniper Rifle' if it is modded with long barrel and scope. It has a detachable magazine in all forms, probably justified both for the sake of game balance (because the magazine is moddable) and the fact they are probably modified replicas. Modding it with the marksman's stock turns it into the proper VTR version. Can also be modified to fire .50 BMG.
• The "Tranquilizer Rifle" of Far Cry 2 is essentially an M40 with features from the Pneu-Dart Model 389, a tranquilizer rifle vaguely resembling the Model 700 that launches its darts by way of what are essentially .22-caliber blanks. It has to reload after every shot and is one of the least durable weapons in the entire game, breaking after putting less than thirty rounds through it, but as its upsides it is also a guaranteed one-shot kill against any enemy (making one wonder exactly what it's actually meant to tranquilize, if a single dose is instantly fatal to humans) and is the only sniper rifle in the game to both be silent and occupy the special weapon slot rather than the primary one, allowing use of a more versatile assault rifle alongside it rather than having to force a weaker machine pistol or heavier machine gun into the role of one.
• Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, meanwhile, both feature a Model 700 Export, a civilian variant that nevertheless uses the detachable box magazines of the military and police versions. It can take two attachments, with options of a suppressor, an extended magazine, an illuminated reticule or an enhanced zoom; both games also feature a unique version called the "Predator" (pre-order bonus in the former, more readily available after completing four Armed Escort missions as a Signature weapon in the latter) which mounts all four^note at least in theory; the enhanced zoom is visibly present on the model but doesn't actually work in 3 and features a unique camo pattern (generic jungle-style in 3, tiger-stripe in 4).
• Ghost Recon featured the M24 with ghillie camouflage as the Ghosts' standard sniper weapon system, presumably using an incorrect detachable magazine given that the reload only takes as long as an assault rifle's, probably due to engine limitations. Future Soldier featured the M40A5 as a bonus for pre-ordering or buying the Deluxe edition, as the Ghosts' counterpart to Bodark's modernized Mosin-Nagant in the same bonus. Its free-to-play counterpart Phantoms once again featured the M24, incorrectly using detachable box magazines, while the M40A5 returns for Wildlands.
• Adrian Shepherd uses the M40A1 variant in Half-Life: Opposing Force, first during the advanced training course, and later obtains one after killing a Black Ops sniper. The rifle was inaccurately depicted with a detachable magazine, which was not developed until a decade after the game came out. The weapon also appears as an unusable weapon in Half-Life, in the hands of HECU snipers.
• A Remington 700 fitted with a low-magnification scope appears as the ILYON R700 in Hitman: Absolution, one of the only two sniper rifles in the game (The other being the SAKO/KAZO TRG). It can be found in the second floor of the doughnut shop in "Shaving Lenny", the trunk of the car in "End of the Road", and the weapons locker in "Fight Night". It is notable in being one of the only three weapons that cannot be unlocked for use in Contracts mode (The other two being the Taurus/ARES 24/7 and the Smith & Wesson Model 64/Z&M Model 60), and the only non-pistol weapon that is unusable in Contracts mode.
• Featured in Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades with its fixed scope.
• The Security team in Insurgency uses the M40A1 as a counterpart to the Insurgent's Mosin-Nagant. In Insurgency: Sandstorm, they upgrade to the M24.
• Can be developed in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Three variants are available; the standard version, one with a bull barrel for greater accuracy and reduced recoil, and a variant that fires rounds that heal a co-op buddy. Shows up again in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain as the "Broughton M-2000D".
• The sniper rifle in Postal 2 is based on the M24.
• The M40A1 is available in Rainbow Six: Vegas 1 and 2, again incorrectly shown as reloading via detachable magazines.
• The M40 is available for US Marines in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam.
• In Team Fortress 2, the Sniper's stock primary weapon is a heavily customized Remington 700, with a huge hunting scope and a special rail for mounting a Laser Sight.

Sako TRG series

A series of Finnish bolt-action sniper rifles, the TRG was first produced in 1989 as a result of a thorough study of sniper requirements and the success of the TR-6 target rifle. It uses an action with an symmetrical three-lug bolt, and comes in a variety of different calibers, the TRG-21 and 22 chambered in the .308 Winchester/7.62x51mm rounds with the 22 also being available in .260 Remington, and the TRG-41 and 42 chambered in the .300 Winchester Magnum and .338 Lapua Magnum (SAKO, by the way, were the ones who developed the cartridge along with Accuracy International and fellow Finnish ammunition manufacturer Lapua). The TRG-21 was the first model of the TRG to be produced, followed by the 41 with a longer, scaled-up magnum action, and both rifles got hunting variants with open-top receivers under the names of the TRG-S M995 and TRG-S M995 Mag respectively. The SAKO 75 and 85 hunting rifles also use the same bolt action. The improved TRG-22 and 42 variants were then produced in the late 90's to make the rifle more suitable for military use, and in 2011, a derivative of the weapon with a different receiver and technical features known as the M10 was unveiled, which can switch between .308 Winchester/7.62x51mm, .338 Lapua Magnum and .300 Winchester rounds by changing the bolts, magazines, forends and barrels, and was a competitor in the US military's Precision Sniper Rifle program, though it lost out to the Remington MSR. More upgrades were issued to the rifles in 2013, including improved recoil pads, a newly constructed bolt release, a new fully adjustable two-stage trigger mechanism that features a new more ergonomic ambidextrous safety lever, a trigger guard milled from aluminium for more positive magazine attachment, and a ruggedized bolt handle and attachment. The TRG-42 also got a new bolt featuring double plunger ejectors to improve the ejection reliability of .338 Lapua Magnum rifle cases. In 2018, the TRG-22 A1 and 42 A1 models were introduced, with a new M10-style side-folding stock, aluminum middle chassis, a railed fore-end for attaching accessories, and the improved bolt of the 2013 model of the TRG-42, with the 22 A1 also being chambered in the 6.5 Creedmor round.

The TRG was adopted by the Finnish military under the 8.6 TKIV 2000 designation, and has been adopted by many other militaries, special forces and police forces across Europe and Asia, as well as Senegalese commandos. It's also a very popular rifle for shooting competitions, being able to be equipped with grade peep sights, target aperture sights and a mirage strap for that purpose, and is sometimes used for hunting.

• The TRG-42 appears as the KAZO TRG in Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman: Absolution. In the former, it appears in "Murder of the Crows", used by Raymond Kulinsky to attempt to assassinate the Interior Secretary, and can be collected from his hideout, though it's impossible to sneak out undetected without a glitch. It has only one zoom mode, but is the most stable when scoped out of the sniper rifles and has a red dot for easy aiming. In Absolution, it becomes Agent 47's preferred sniper rifle, replacing the WA2000 from previous games, and can be customized with a variety of accessories in Contracts mode, with the weapon most notable being used in the pre-order Sniper Challenge.
• The TRG-42 is a usable weapon in Counter-Strike Online, with a platinum finish available for it. It functions very similar to the AWP, but has a different sight reticule.
• The TRG-42 appears in MAG with a red finish as the Rubakho SVR, the new sniper rifle for SVER.
• The SAKO 75 appears in Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D as the S75. In the former, it is the first sniper rifle available, found in Chapter 2-1, and is the most powerful of the sniper rifles when fully upgraded, but has the lowest rate of fire due to being bolt-action.
• The SAKO 85 appears in No More Room In Hell, in both scoped and scopeless variants, with scripted spawns in Broadway and Night of the Living Dead. It's chambered in .308 Winchester and is very powerful, but is one of the heaviest weapons in the game.
• The SAKO 85 was added to Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades in Update #13, chambered in .308 Winchester, with a sawn-off variant being added in Update #46 as a bolt-action pistol.
• The M995 TRG-S is used by Evelyn in the episode "False Flag" of Burn Notice to attempt to eliminate a witness, and the TRG-42 is used by Oscar Markov in "Depth Perception" to try and kill Beatriz.
• A silenced M995 TRG-S is used by Malena in the episode "Chuck Versus the Tango" in Chuck.
• A silenced M995 TRG-S in used by various characters in Most Wanted, where it fires fictional ice ammunition.
• An M995 TRG-S is seen used by an agent in the range in Absolute Power (1997).
• A SAKO 75 is used by Mr. Campbell in the episode "Who, What, Where, Wendigo?" of Haven.
• The SAKO 85 Bavarian is used by Suō Pavlichenko in Darker than Black during a flashback to a deer hunt with her father in Siberia.
• V1.6 of Project Reality adds the TRG-22 as a usable sniper rifle.

Steyr Scout/Elite

An Austrian bolt-action sniper rifle manufactured by Steyr. The idea for the rifle came from the well-known US shooter and firearms expert Jeff Cooper, who wanted a versatile, all-around rifle with a light weight that is suitable for effective engagement of targets at medium distances. Steyr developed the Scout around that idea, based on their patented Safe Bolt System action. The Scout comes in 5.56x45mm NATO, 7.62x51mm NATO, .243 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington, and .376 Steyr, featuring a high-strength polymer stock adjustable for length of pull and which contains a special bay for a spare magazine, an integrated folding bipod that also functions as part of the forend, a front-mounted scope to allow for greater peripheral vision while aiming, long eye relief and a special three-point sling. The Scout Tactical was developed soon after the regular Scout as more of a designated sniper rifle than the regular Scout. The Scout Tactical variant of the rifle has a matte black bolt finish and a oversized bolt handle as opposed to the basic polished steel bolt finish and hunting style bolt handle of the regular Scout, and usually comes with a 10-round magazine adapter pre-installed, which is an accessory for the regular Scout. An upgraded variant of the Scout known as the Elite was more recently released, featuring a integrated bipod, full-length picatinny rail, slightly longer and heavier barrel and an adjustable cheek and stock rest, though it is only primarily available in 5.56mm and 7.62mm, with 7mm-08 Remington only available as a special-order.

• Appears as the Schmidt Scout in Counter-Strike. It's the cheapest sniper rifle in the game and has the fastest movement speed, allowing you to run as fast as if you were to have the knife equipped, but requires two or three shots to kill a target unless it's a headshot and has a slow rate of fire. Global Offensive replaced it with the SSG 08.
• It's available in Left 4 Dead 2 as one of the Counter-Strike: Source weapons added to the censored German version, which with the Last Stand update was added officially to all versions. It's the most accurate of all the sniper rifles, but fires much slower due to its bolt action^note making its DPS even lower than the dual pistols' and the report is exceptionally loud.
• The Scout Tactical appears in the Rainbow Six: Vegas series as the default sniper rifle in the first game and one of the two sniper rifles unlocked by default in Vegas 2, the other being the SR-25. It also occasionally appears in the hands of terrorist snipers.
• The Elite appears in Spec Ops: The Line as Lugo's weapon of choice besides his TAR-21, and is also used by enemy snipers. It is one of the only two sniper rifles in single-player, the other being the M99.
• The Elite appears in Battlefield 4 as the Scout Elite, having weaker damage than some of the other sniper rifles, but a faster rate of fire, aim speed, and bullet velocity.
• Madec wields one in Beyond The Reach. In universe, it's considered a rare gun, as Ben points out most hunters who hire him as a guide favour Remingtons or Winchesters and, as such, is a sign of Madec's wealth.
• The Steyr Scout appears as a 3-star RF in Girls' Frontline. Much like her name suggests, she is an excellent observer, though to the point of ignoring everything else around her.

SVD

The primary sniper rifle of the modern-day Soviet military. Since it was originally developed for the purpose of infantry squad support at medium range, its accuracy is nothing special compared to other sniper rifles. That said, its light weight and ease of use, three-level zoom scope, armor-piercing ammunition, and repeat fire capability make the SVD a force to be reckoned with in battle.

Description, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

From top to bottom: Original SVD; Romanian FPK/PSL; bullpup SVU

Another Soviet classic, the Snayperskaya Vintovka sistem'y Dragunova (Dragunov's Sniper Rifle System), or SVD, is a semi-automatic sniper rifle, first introduced in 1963, designed by Yevgeny Dragunov.

The Dragunov was designed to increase the attacking range of a squad past that offered by issued assault rifles, essentially making it the first true designed marksman rifle. It's also one of the few sniper rifles which are not modified assault rifles but can mount a bayonet^note Doing this is Awesome, but Impractical, as the SVD isn't very good for close quarters, along with being the first sniper/designated marksman rifle designed from the ground up instead of adapted from an infantry or hunting rifle. It externally looks like an oversized, stretched AK, and mirrors the control arrangement of the AK quite closely (which made it quite easy for any Soviet soldier who showed particularly good marksmanship skills with the AK to switch over to the SVD and become the squad's designated marksman), though the internal mechanics are quite different, primarily in use of a short-stroke gas piston rather than the AK's long piston and an internal bolt hold-open to lock the bolt when the magazine is emptied. While all SVDs are chambered in the standard Russian military 7.62x54R caliber, there is also a civilian version, aptly named the 'Tiger', which can use many calibers up to the 9.3x64mm and for export purposes the common 7.62x51 NATO/.308 Winchester. A modern bullpup version known as the OTs-03 or SVU is also a very common sight in video games.

In movies and even some videogames, the SVD will sometimes be played by the visually similar but no less accurate Romanian FPK / PSL rifle, which is actually based on the RPK action,^note the primary physical differences between an SVD and PSL are a different, more AK-like handguard (with two differently-sized top and bottom halves rather than the SVD's symmetrical left and right halves), a cheek rest as part of the stock rather than being detachable from it, and magazines with distinctive X-shaped stamping on the side loaded into a magwell moved slightly backwards so the release lever's housing is attached to the front of the trigger guard like the AK; most video game versions will at least use the PSL's magazines, even if the weapon is otherwise based entirely on the SVD, presumably because X-shaped stampings are cool the Chinese Norinco NDM-86 clone (which, similarly to the Tiger, is available in both the 7.62x54mmR cartridge and .308 Winchester; the latter version can be told apart by its straight magazines), or by a modified AK or Valmet rifle, on account of original SVD rifles being very rare and expensive outside of the former Soviet Union (and mostly still in military service inside the former Soviet Union).

• Cool Scope: The SVD is issued with the distinctive PSO-1 scope, which has a graph-like stadiametric rangefinder and chevrons for ranging. It, alongside the Mauser 98's German Post reticule, is one of the most recognizable scope reticules in media.

• The SVD makes an appearance in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Guns of the Patriots features the folding-stock SVD-S as the second scoped rifle you can find in the field.
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain features the PSL as the "Bambetov SV".
• In John Woo's The Killer (1989), the title assassin uses an SVD to pull off the Tony Weng hit at the dragon boat festival.
• A Romanian PSL is the sniper weapon of choice for Mona Sax in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
• Added to Team Rainbow's arsenal as of Raven Shield, making its debut to the series before that as an enemy-only weapon in Rogue Spear. Siege features the shortened bullpup SVU as the Spetsnaz operator Glaz's primary weapon (going by its OTs-03 designation), with his unique gadget being a flip-up magnifier that also acts as a thermal-vision scope.
• Operation Flashpoint allows picking the SVD up from corpses of Soviet snipers (or starting missions with them in the expansion packs). It's a matter of preference if you want to use this rifle over the M21, but at least you can pull headshots at 1000 feet. It returns for the Arma series, available in its normal form in the first two games and as the VS-121 (renamed the "Rahim 7.62"), a modernized bullpup variant with a full-length barrel and a top rail (as opposed to the SVU's slightly shorter barrel and continued use of side-mounted optics), in the third.
• Y: The Last Man. Russian agent Natalya carries one everywhere she goes.
• Middle-of-the-road Sniper Rifle in Resident Evil 5.
• The Hurt Locker. An insurgent takes out several Private Military Contractors with a Romanian PSL, leading to a sniper duel between him and the protagonists, who are armed with a .50-caliber Barrett.
• Balalaika can be seen wielding one in an Afghanistan flashback in Black Lagoon.
• Appears in Jagged Alliance 2 and Back in Action as one of the sniper rifles.
• Rico in Gunslinger Girl has this as her trademark weapon.
• Available later in 7.62 High Caliber, providing a good use for all that cheap surplus 7.62x54mm ammo you probably have lying around for your sniper's old Mosin.
• Common in the Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops games, popular in Call of Duty 4 in particular for sharing the best damage multipliers with the Remington 700 while being semi-auto, as a trade-off for stronger and more random recoil than the earlier M21. Always with the distinctive wooden furniture except for MW3and Black Ops II's flashback missions, which give it synthetic furniture (black in MW3, green in BOII). The latter game also features the similar SVU, a bullpup sniper rifle based on the Dragunov, as its futuristic equivalent and the first sniper rifle unlocked in both single and multiplayer.
• The SVD appears in all 3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games as the big sniper du jour. Ammo is at a premium and the gun itself is quite cumbersome, so your turning/aiming speed is reduced and you can't sprint with it in your hands, but it has the most zoom and bullet drop is hardly a matter. The bullpup SVU also appears in the three games as well, serving as a lighter alternative to the SVD.
• Ghost Recon features the SVD as a semi-auto alternative to the standard M24, used by the Lithuanian Army specialist character Astra Galinsky. It returned for the console version of 2 as a usable weapon in multiplayer. Future Soldier features the PSL-54C with an SVDS folding stock and a railed handguard for the purposes of the game's insane amount of weapon customization; notable for being one of the few uses of the PSL to come clean about it being one rather than trying to pass it off as the original Dragunov. Wildlands features an actual SVD, also able to take the folding stock and shorter barrel of the SVDS and a unique "Lanza Sagrada" ("Holy Spear") version available after defeating La Santera.
• Conversely, Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, Battlefield 3 and the 2010 Medal of Honor reboot all use the .308 version of the Chinese NDM-86 to stand in for the SVD as used by the North Vietnamese Army, Russian Ground Forces (where it serves as their counterpart to the USMC's SR-25), and Totally-Not-The-Taliban.
• Far Cry 2 features it as the first semi-automatic sniper rifle, outperformed by the bolt-action Springfield in durability and damage (though not to the extent that it isn't still a one-shot kill on most enemies anyway), but with twice the capacity and, as mentioned, being semi-automatic. The in-game model bears some resemblance to the PSL, using its distinctive magazines and having holes in the handguard reminiscent of the PSL's. Far Cry 3 and 4 both also feature the weapon, now fully based on the original SVD (though with synthetic furniture, but there's a paint option to give it the original wooden parts), with a slightly shorter barrel, halved mag capacity, rope wrapped around it for some reason in 4, and no attachments in singleplayer, as well as being one of the few weapons in those games to keep up the second's trend of Right-Handed Left-Handed Guns. Far Cry 5 also features it with the Hours of Darkness DLC, used by VC snipers in that DLC and added to the player's armory in the main game; it has a full-length barrel now, higher power per-shot, and can take attachments (an illuminated scope, a suppressor, or extended magazines), but is otherwise identical in form and function to the previous two games, including a left-handed ejection port.
• Contract Wars not only has the modernized SVD-S, it also has the bullpup SVU-AS, and the TKPD series of rifles (TKPD Storm and TKPD Sniper), which are modified versions of the 9.3x64mm SVDK.
• PAYDAY 2 added it with the Gage Russian Weapons Pack, as the "Grom". Among the semi-automatic sniper rifles it stands out for having higher damage (on par with the Blaser R93) and being capable of removing the scope to use its regular ironsights (an ability thus far exclusive to some bolt-action snipers in the game). It's also, strangely, extremely concealable with the addition of a lightweight foregrip and stock (based on those of the SVD-M), though this comes at the cost of sub-par base accuracy with little way to improve it (the only saving grace being that those concealment-boosting mods don't reduce it, either).
• GoldenEye (2010) features the SVD as the Pavlov ASR. In the campaign, it is used by Russian snipers; particularly, its first appearance in the game is one tricked-out with a thermal-vision scope and a suppressor to act as a replacement for the generic silenced sniper rifle used in that point of the 1997 original.
  • The PSL with the original SVD's stock also appears in the earlier Quantum of Solace adaptation. As with most of the other guns in the game, it's renamed in reference to an earlier Bond film, in its case being the "V-TAK 31". Interestingly, that only applies in singleplayer - in multiplayer it's misidentified as the much rarer WA2000.
• Two members of Team SHINC in Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online use SVDs as their primary weapons. Toma uses the classic wood-stocked version, while Anna uses the more modern version with a black synthetic stock.
• XCOM 2: The Vektor rifle used by the Reapers in War of the Chosen looks a lot like the SVD. Unlike the Sharpshooter's rifle, it can be fired after moving and doesn't have an aim penalty at close range (in fact, it gets a bonus, like non-sniper weapons), but like the Sharpshooter's rifle, the Reaper can snipe with it if they have Squadsight. The downside is its low base damage, lower than even an assault rifle of comparable tech level.
• The SVD is available as a sniper rifle for the NVA and Viet Cong in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. In campaign mode, the NVA get the rifle starting with the mid-war period (circa 1968-72), while the VC don't get it until the late-war period (1973-75).
• In Girls' Frontline, she is a 4-star RF with one of the highest fire rates, as befitting a semi-automatic rifle, with her skill boosting it even further. SVD considers herself as an "elite" soldier, something that she can back up with sheer skill.
• The SVD is the Insurgent and Irregular Militia's marksman rifle in Squad. The Russian Ground Forces use the modernised "SVDM" in the same role, which for a while was just an SVD painted black. An update eventually remodelled it to make it more accurate to the actual SVDM.

VSS Vintorez

A sniper rifle developed for special operations requiring a quiet weapon with the power to penetrate bulletproof armor. Uses a newly developed type of subsonic ammo, necked up from 7.62mm x 39 rounds and combined with 9mm steel penetrators. The pairing of an integrated suppressor and subsonic ammo makes the VSS extremely quiet, but limits its utility at long distances.

—Description, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Introduced in 1987, the Vintovka Snayperskaya Spetsialnaya (Special Sniper Rifle), or VSS, often called the "Vintorez", is a specialized sniper rifle developed for use by Soviet special forces. It is one of the most compact sniper rifles in the world with a conventional layout: it can be disassembled to fit inside a small briefcase, and like the MP5SD it has an integrated suppressor. It uses 9x39mm ammunition, an armour-piercing subsonic cartridge that gives the weapon a lot of stopping power (more than an AK bullet) despite being silenced (one round can easily go through body armour and still have enough power to drop the guy wearing it, from three city blocks away). While the subsonic ammunition means its effective range is significantly lower than most sniper rifles (about 400 meters), that's not considered a big problem because it's designed primarily for counter-insurgency/counter-terrorist operations in urban areas where the average shot range very rarely exceeds 300 meters, so much so that it's the only widely-known sniper rifle with a fully automatic mode.

The AS Val is an extremely similar weapon designed more for use as a full-auto assault rifle rather than a marksman's one.

• One of the most versatile⁺ low weight, little bullet dispersion, plentiful ammo in the later leg of the games, near-guaranteed one-shot kills with a headshot, and can be turned to automatic weapons available in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, though it takes some time to master due to the bullet drop. In Clear Sky, it was the preferred weapon of the protagonist, Scar, until he was forced to abandon it during an emission. If you know where to find it (and get together the money to repair it in Clear Sky) and where the ammo is sold or stashed, it's a Disc-One Nuke in all three games. A unique named variant, the Tide, has even higher bullet damage — outdamaging the much bigger Dragunov SVD — at the cost of fire rate, which is a good tradeoff for a Sniper Rifle.
• Can be found in the second chapter of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and is one of the better long ranged weapons, firing a powerful round and being one of the few automatic weapons with an integrated suppressor that never wears out (the only such weapon with a scope, on top of that), though falling short of the M14 EBR as the best of its class due to much rarer ammo.
• Appears as a usable weapon in the Battlefield: Bad Company games.
• Used by Balalaika's troops among many other Soviet weapons to take out Yakuza members in Black Lagoon.
• In Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, the must-have weapon for night operations. However, it (very inaccurately) uses the same 9mm ammunition as the "Baretta" and Glock 18, which would be 9x19mm rather than the 9x39m; as such it does not penetrate armor, so headshots are de rigeur.
• Available as a late game weapon in 7.62 High Caliber. Not as accurate or powerful at long range as the bigger and badder rifles and ammo is uncommon, but the silencer makes it very stealthy (especially for night firing, where it can be fitted with a night vision sight) and the large magazine and full auto capability makes it more useful in close quarters.
• In Team Fortress 2, the Sniper's Hitman's Heatmaker is a mixture of this weapon and the Walther WA2000. As a bonus, its report is silenced like the Vintorez.
• A Val standing in for the VSS is available in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, in one of the few video-game appearances to acknowledge that the weapon can go full-auto - ones found from weapon boxes in a mission will have a full-auto trigger attached, and you can put one on it yourself after completing a rather tedious (and bugged) challenge in the penultimate level to unlock the weapon. Strangely, there's no option for the VSS' wooden stock as a "Fixed" model. It was also available during the open beta for Ghost Recon Online, and was available as a special weapon in the Phantoms version from an "Antique Edition" series of weapons.
• The fictional ASP-1 Kir used by CSAT in ARMA III's "Marksmen" DLC seems heavily influenced by the Vintorez design, sharing the signature integral suppressor, although the Kir fires 12.7 cartridges, which in turn relates it to the also Russian VKS. The subsonic ammo ties the utility of the weapon close to the real life counterparts: powerful and silent shot, without the sonic "crack", but unusable beyond the 300 meters mark, because of the high parabolic trajectory of the bullet.
• Available as a weapon to be found in Player Unknowns Battlegrounds. Though it does significantly less damage and has much greater bullet drop compared to other rifles in the game, it is nearly completely silent and can be fired fully automatically.
• A usable weapon in Contract Wars.
• Used with great effect by Kurz Weber in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu to take down Sousuke's traps all over the hot springs they visited.
• Boss's primary weapon in Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a Vintorez, it even takes care to show off the select-fire capability between semi and full-auto.
• Shows up as the Matamorez in Unturned. It's silenced by default, very durable, deals a lot of damage to players and animals and comes with a generous 17-round magazine with the option of a larger 36-round box mag, but at the same time it doesn't come with a scope, it's rare enough to be considered Legendary, the box mag is even rarer, it uses the also very rare Ranger high-caliber ammo, and it's no better against zombies than any low-caliber Ranger weapon, only dealing 99 damage by default.

Walther WA2000

A new model of sniper rifle developed to withstand the rigors of Special Forces operations in a world where unconventional warfare is becoming the norm. The WA2000 is heavy and extremely unwieldy, but compensates for this with low recoil, which gives it exceptional accuracy. Its scope has three levels of zoom to allow targeting at multiple distances, and armor-piercing ammunition makes it an effective weapon against heavily armored enemy troops even at long range. If long-range sniping battles are your thing, you can't go wrong with this gun.

—Description, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Designed from the ground up as a target rifle in response to the 1972 Munich massacre, this bullpup semi-auto is exceptionally rare. Estimates vary on how many were produced, but the number was only 170-250 in two versions with minor differences; this was largely due to extremely high costs killing demand. A WA 2000 in good condition is now easily worth $75,000 on the open market. Unfortunately, there aren't any even if you have this kind of money to spare; there are exactly fifteen WA2000 rifles in the entire United States, with 11 owned by the President of Walther's American branch and the rest owned by another collector. That being said, by all accounts, the WA2000 is an exceedingly accurate rifle, hampered by weight, but stated to be superior to just about any other similar caliber rifle. Combined with the inherent speed and accuracy of the .300 Winchester Magnum round, it is considered an exception precision weapon. Whether that's because so few people have been able to fire one, or because of the excessive costs in development led to extreme quality standards, is up for debate.

Very, very popular in movies and videogames, since it has a nice mix of the unconventional (bullpup layout) and the traditional (wood furniture). Due to its obscene rarity, many WA2000 rifles seen in movies are actually Ironwood Designs SG2000 .22 rifles◊ acting as stand-ins for the WA2000. If a work of fiction wants to get even more ridiculous about rarity, it'll specify that the WA2000 in question is chambered in 7.62 NATO or even 7.5 Swiss instead of the standard .300 Winchester Magnum.

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Anime & Manga

• Henrietta uses one in the anime of Gunslinger Girl.
• Also used by the stylish hitwoman of Geobreeders: Breakthrough.
• Kurz Weber uses one against a Humongous Mecha in Full Metal Panic!.
• Rally Vincent from Gunsmith Cats uses one in one of the few scenes she uses something other than a pistol.
• Emiya Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero uses one equipped with a dual-scope setup: night-vision, and thermal imaging. Presumably he was able to acquire it via his connections with the ludicrously wealthy Einzbern family.
• Major Motoko Kusanagi uses a very similar rifle in a WWIV flashback in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd gig. Since the series is set 20 Minutes into the Future and the rifle has some design changes and updates, it's likely that this is supposed to be a new model based on the vintage WA2000.
  • The same rifle is later seen in Solid State Society, the made for TV movie of Stand Alone Complex, being used by the same guy the Major had previously shot with it. Allegedly.

Films — Live-Action

• Used as a shotgun to kill dogs in Equilibrium.
• Used by Timothy Dalton as James Bond in The Living Daylights, equipped with a large night vision scope.
  • Notably, they had an actual WA2000 on hand for the close-ups, as the Walther logo is prominent in the close-ups of Bond's finger on the trigger. Probably part of the deal, considering the fact that James Bond is one of Walther's biggest film endorsers.

Literature

• Able Team. Carl Lyons finds a mercenary sniper team practising with this weapon to assassinate the President of Guatemala.
• Dieter Weber, the Rainbow Team 2 Sniper, uses this in Rainbow Six. Memorable usages include shooting the submachine gun out of a terrorist's hands, allowing his partner to painfully send a bullet into said terrorist's liver for killing a child.

Video Games

• Agent 47 uses this weapon as his primary sniper rifle in the Hitman series. In Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, there is a custom version of this gun, used by ninja. In Hitman: Blood Money, it's customisable with a variety of Gun Accessories, such as scopes, suppressors, an optional bolt action for greater accuracy, and three types of ammo.
  • Notably, it is the single most expensive weapon in the game. And you can carry it in a briefcase. It's also not available until you reach Rotterdam, which is 3/4 of the way through the game (he uses a Blaser 93 until then).
• Appears in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in the hands of an entire force of Russian snipers. How they afford it is anyone's guess.
  • It's also an early-tier sniper rifle in multiplayer, superior to the Intervention because it's semi-auto and has a slightly larger magazine.
  • Returns in Treyarch's game Call of Duty: Black Ops. Which is set in the sixties, before the weapon's invention.
  • A hybrid of the first and second generation WA2000 later returns in the Season 5 update of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II as the "Carrack .300".
• Team sniper Dieter Weber uses this rifle in the sniping sections of the console versions of Rainbow Six: Lockdown and as far back in the games as Rogue Spear.
• Used in Black, shown as a straight-pull bolt-action rifle, and therefore presumably broken.
• Used in the Quantum of Solace video game.
  • Also appears in both versions of the GoldenEye remake; being a Walther gun, it is one of the few to keep its real name. During the Severnaya Bunker mission in the Wii version, it is given a winter white finish.
• Now available from Bobby Ray's Guns and Things at the low, low price of $7940!!! Cash, major credit cards and conflict diamonds accepted!
• Again, found in Combat Arms as the WA2000 and the WA2000 Classic (which has a wooden handguard and stock).
• Anachronistically (as the game is set in 1974) appears in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The description falsely claims that it was "developed to withstand the rigors of Special Forces operations". The WA2000 was too expensive and not sturdy enough for any sort of military use.
• The Weyland-Yutani WY-102 sniper rifle in Aliens vs. Predator 2 is basically a dressed-up WA2000 with a strange rotating cylinder replacing the action.
• In Team Fortress 2, the Hitman's Heatmaker is a mix-and-match of this rifle and the VSS Vintorez. It can decapitate targets on headshots.
• The WA2000 appears as the "Lebensauger .308" in the PAYDAY 2 Gage Ninja Pack DLC.
• A silenced variant with some sci-fi embellishments shows up as the standard sniper rifle in Perfect Dark.
• Girls' Frontline's premiere Tsundere character, a 5-star RF. She regards herself more as a killing machine than anything, which results in her being too socially awkward to properly interact with others. Her appearance intentionally evokes Agent 47 mentioned above, complete with her wearing the same tie as him.
• The WA2000 was added on Day 16 of Meatmass 2018 in Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades. The rifle has a rail on the top for either its bespoke scope or for any other attachment.

Western Animation

• Used by Archer to take out some guards in "Placebo Effect", then never seen again (possibly because ISIS uses the H&K PSG-1).

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