The Steyr HS .50 rifle was preceded by a relatively unsuccessful Steyr IWS 2000 / AMR 5075 anti-material rifle, which was quite innovative at the same time. This rifle fired new, but non-standard sub-caliber ammunition - 15,2x169 mm. Failure made the Austrian company from the city of Steyr think about revenge. And this revenge was a success. A simpler, yet extraordinarily accurate Steyr HS .50 sniper rifle, designed by Heinrich Fortmeier, and its subsequent modifications went into production and have been in demand in the market for more than 10 for years and are actively being exported.
In this case, the rifle was not created in Austria, it has German roots. In 1999, the German designer Heinrich Fortmeier from the small town of Delbrück, located in North Rhine-Westphalia, decided to create a large-caliber single-shot rifle of his own design and even founded Heinrich Fortmeier. Later, Fortmayer was able to interest specialists of a large Austrian company Steyr-Mannlicher with his product, and already in 2002, by their order, he assembled a Fortmeier M2002 rifle, which was shown at an exhibition in Las Vegas. That she then turned into Steyr HS .50. The first HS .50 sniper rifles, Heinrich Fortmeier, were produced independently, but then the Austrian company set up their mass production at an enterprise in Steyr.
It is curious that after the completion of the development, Steyr-Mannlicher allowed Fortmayer to produce the HS .50 sniper rifle under his own name. But, in fairness, it is worth noting that rifles produced in Austria and Germany have some differences: if the Steyr HS .50 uses a barrel of its own production, the German rifles use the trunks of the company Lothar Walther. In this case, the rifles there are a number of other less significant differences.
For the first time, the Steyr HS .50 large-caliber sniper rifle was introduced to the general public in February 2004 at the ShotShow-2004 major weapon exhibition, this exhibition is held annually in Las Vegas. The rifle is a traditional model of antimaterial weapons, which is designed to destroy and disable the unarmored and lightly armored vehicles of the enemy (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, armored vehicles), airplanes and helicopter gunships at parking lots, rocket launchers and radar systems of the enemy. It can also be effectively used to defeat enemy personnel in individual means of protection and behind cover, as well as for anti-sniper fighting.
The Steyr HS .50 sniper rifle fully meets all the basic requirements of modern warfare and, due to its excellent workmanship, maximum simplicity of construction and high accuracy, is in high demand in the international market for small arms. This rifle is in service with the army and police special units 11 countries of the world and is among the five most accurate large-caliber rifles on the planet.
Today, there are also variants of the Steyr HS .50 rifle for a large-caliber cartridge of its own Austrian design .460 Steyr (11,6х90 mm), which was created on the basis of the NATO cartridge 12,799 mm. It is quite promising for long-range sniper weapons, since, while maintaining a large effective firing range, it has less recoil momentum than 12,7-mm cartridges. At the same time, his bullet is lighter and has a greater initial speed, as well as better ballistic indicators. Also on the market today is a large-caliber sniper rifle Steyr HS .50 M1. The main feature of this model is the presence of a five-round box magazine, which is inserted into the receiver located horizontally on the left side of the rifle. Whereas the original version of the Steyr HS .50 rifle is single-shot.
The design of the sniper rifle is modular, which allows you to quickly replace the barrel if necessary and ensure the transition from the .50BMG cartridge to the .460 Steyr. The barrel of a rifle is made by cold forging, which ensures high coaxiality of the internal diameters of the channel along grooves and fields, which, in turn, is one of the reasons for ensuring high accuracy and accuracy of firing from this rifle. The same production method provides another advantage - high wear resistance of the barrel, since the steel with this method of production is significantly compacted. The barrel for better cooling is equipped with longitudinal ribs. It is screwed into a steel breech with a faceted body and fixed to the bed, the Steyr HS .50 barrel itself is made floating and freely hung relative to the sniper rifle bed.
There are no mechanical sights on the rifle, but a standard Picatinny rail with a length of 270 mm is attached to the breech on top, which allows you to install various sights. To reduce recoil when shot on the back of the butt is installed rubber pad - shock absorber. Also to reduce recoil on the barrel of a sniper rifle there is a muzzle slit brake-compensator of a rather massive form. For a stable position when shooting, folding bipods that are folded forward under the barrel are used, which are located at the beginning of the rifle bed.
The Steyr HS .50 is a single-shot sniper rifle with a sliding bolt that can be locked to two lugs. The angle of rotation of the shutter when unlocked is 90 degrees. A sufficiently powerful shutter handle facilitates this process even with tight extraction and contamination of the weapon. The trigger is blocked with a two-way fuse. The rifle is aluminum, there is an adjustment of the cheeks for the individual characteristics of the shooter. The front part of the rifle box in the lower part is made flat, so that the sniper rifle can be conveniently supported on a sandbag when shooting from a support.
Any prepared shooter will quickly deal with the Steyr HS .50 large-bore rifle, rifle control is very simple, like all sniper rifles with a longitudinal slide: after opening the bolt, the shooter will send the cartridge to the barrel and lock the barrel bore - the rifle is ready to fire. The rifle trigger is blocked by a fuse. Trigger triggering - with a warning, after its easy preliminary stroke on 7 mm it stops fixedly and only after overcoming the force at the level of 1,5 kg the triggering occurs (the triggering force is not adjustable), a shot occurs.
Since the sniper rifle was originally developed for military use, the process of disassembling and assembling it was made as simple as possible, and the model itself consists of a relatively small number of parts and is characterized by high structural strength. The main advantage of this large-caliber rifle is the high accuracy of shooting (dispersion on 100 meters is no more than 0,5 MOA). This indicator makes this rifle one of the most accurate large-caliber rifles in the world.
Performance characteristics of the Steyr HS .50:
Caliber - 12,7 mm.
Patron - NATO NATO 12,7X99 (.50BMG).
Barrel length - 900 mm.
Overall length - 1455 mm.
Weight - 12,8 kg (without cartridges).
Effective range of shooting - to 2100 m.
Magazine capacity - single charge.
Information sources:
http://sniper-weapon.ru/avstriya/113-krupnokalibernaya-snajperskaya-vintovka-steyr-hs-50
http://weaponland.ru/load/snajperskaja_vintovka_steyr_hs_50/73-1-0-323
http://army-news.ru/2016/07/krupnokalibernaya-snajperskaya-vintovka-steyr-hs-50
https://www.steyr-mannlicher.com
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