Barrett M99 sniper rifles
As you know, there is no limit to perfection, especially when a fanatical desire to create something impossible is supported by a good monetary incentive. This is evident in virtually all Barrett’s sniper rifles. Initially, Ronnie Barrett set out to create, as it is now fashionable to say, an “anti-material rifle,” and this, in principle, turned out to be what is visible in the family weapons М82 after М107. However, the result could be called a sniper rifle with a very big stretch, because, due to the fact that the automatic weapon works, paradoxically for a rifle, according to the scheme with a short barrel stroke, the accuracy of the weapon leaves much to be desired. Nevertheless, the idea itself developed, experiments were carried out with rifle cartridges, with the weapon itself, and already in the M95 model one can also consider the “anti-sniper shooter” and the CWS, since its accuracy is already significantly higher than the first versions of the weapon from Barrett. But the matter did not stop there either, although the M95 came out with very good weapons, it also had room to develop. It is about further development, and maybe someone will say that the degradation of this rifle, this article will be discussed, it will be a question of the M99.
First of all, I would like to note that all the M99 are single-shot. That is, the power is not made from the weapons shop, but the shutter opens, a new cartridge is inserted, the shutter closes. How to explain the decision to abandon the use of the store is not clear. It seems like more convenient and generally solid pluses. Perhaps they wanted to reduce the weight of the weapon, but to significantly reduce the weight of the rifle in this way is, in my opinion, silly. Perhaps guided by the fact that the shooter of such weapons can only make one shot, after which there is a high probability that it will be unmasked, and accordingly you need to take a rifle in the mouth and crawl away. Or maybe I wanted to make a new model more different from the previous one, so that the buyer wouldn’t have a desire to say that this is still the same M95 rifle. Roughly speaking, in the version for 50 caliber cartridge, hundredths of an inch, the M99 rifle does not differ from the M95 in performance.
So, М99 - single-shot sniper rifles, designed to destroy enemy manpower at long distances, damage to lightly armored vehicles, radar, destruction of unexploded ordnance, and so on. All rifles of the family are assembled in a bullpup layout, which makes it possible to reduce their overall length without shortening the barrel of the weapon. So with the barrel length in 737 millimeters, the rifle has a length of 1190 millimeters. But it should be understood that this is a standard barrel of weapons, in addition to it there are longer and shorter versions, but about possible modifications a bit lower. Back with the standard barrel, the M99 rifle weighs 10,4 a kilogram, that is, even more than the M95. To compensate for the recoil of the weapon, only a detachable muzzle brake-compensator of recoil and the butt plate on the gate is used, which is clearly not enough to ensure comfort when shooting, but this is the price for the accuracy and power of the weapon. The unofficial name of this weapon fully reflects its essence, so “behind the eyes” the weapon is called the Big Shot.
The main problem of this weapon is that in order to quickly reload if a second shot is necessary, you have to manually insert a new cartridge, of course, with a certain skill, this procedure can be done quite quickly, but even in comparison with the magazine non-self-loading rifle, the rate of fire was not even close. The manufacturer himself declares that the main task in designing this rifle was to create an accurate weapon that a sniper could, if necessary, be left in position to save his life. But it seems to me that the manufacturer was worried about the life of the sniper, trying to make a relatively cheap sample of weapons. Rather, it was assumed that the sniper will remain until the last, until it is covered with the same rifle. But let's not talk about sad things.
In general, the designers of the company Barrett managed to create really relatively cheap and accurate weapons. First of all, you should pay attention to the receiver box of the rifle, which is made by stamping. At the same time, the receiver itself does not consist of two parts, as it was in previous models, but is non-separable, integral. Only the block with the trigger mechanism is disconnected from it. The weapon really turned out very simple and as cheap as possible in production, the only expensive part is the barrel of a rifle. It is carried out by the method of cold forging, has longitudinal valleys (except for a heavy barrel with a length of 812 millimeters), and a modified DTC is dressed on the barrel. In order to extend the life of the trunk, its bore is chrome plated. The barrel itself is freely hung, due to the fact that the bolt enters the clutch by fifteen lugs with the breech breech, the receiver is unloaded and has minimal load when fired. Riflescopes are mounted on a long strip of type "picatinny", which is not integrated, but mounted on top of the receiver. Under the receiver are fixed two folding bipod, which, among other things, can be quite easily removed. Also under the butt itself can be established "third leg", which facilitates the task of the sniper, who needs a long time to control a certain territory.
Total at the moment to have 4 version of the rifle. The M99А1 has a heavy barrel with no dips of a length of 812 millimeters, which ensures really fantastic accuracy when firing with the .50BMG cartridge. So the most striking indicator of the accuracy of this weapon is five shots made in 2001 year at a distance to the target 911 meters (1000 yards), while all the bullets hit the circle with a diameter of 10 centimeters. But this is a record in accuracy, and not a guaranteed result for a weapon. The second version of the weapon, which can even be called the base one, has a millimeter 737 barrel, this rifle is designated as М99А1-1. Naturally, the accuracy of the weapon is a little bit worse here. There is also a more “short” version of the M99А1-25 rifle, its barrel length is equal to 635 millimeters or 25 inches. In this case, in fact, it is the same rifle with different barrels and if there are barrels, you can become the owner of all three weapon versions simply by changing barrels in one copy of the rifle. But this is far from everything, even though Ronnie Barrett managed to achieve excellent results in accuracy with the .50BMG cartridge, he understood that this ammunition was simply not adapted for accurate firing and it was necessary either to choose one of the already existing cartridges, or to develop one’s own unique sniper cartridge. At the same time, it was necessary to make some truly incredible ammunition, since it is no secret to anyone how they treat new MO patrons, regardless of which state. This is how the new .416 Barrett cartridge with a millimeter 10,5 caliber and a 83 cartridge case length of a millimeter appeared, and, accordingly, the weapon for it - М99-416.The rifle itself is virtually no different from all the other M99 families, the only difference is the barrel of a weapon whose length is equal to 812 millimeters. In other words, Barrett took the near-perfect foundation of his previous developments and re-fired it under the new cartridge with better performance. It is this rifle that needs to be thanked for the fact that it has become another lively advertisement for the company, since the new ammunition had excellent characteristics, which very few managed to achieve. As a result, the legend of the exact hit in the head of the enemy from Barrett’s sniper rifles at a distance of 1800-2000 meters was replaced by a new one, where 2500 figures already appear, it’s strange that the main target remained the head, not the eye. Since the cartridge is the basis for weapons, try to figure out what kind of ammunition and what its real characteristics, and not fictional.
First of all, I would like to note that despite the words “Barrett made it,” “Barrett took it as a basis,” and so on, we need to understand that not only Ronnie Barrett is developing, his already fairly extensive company has more than a dozen designers. remain behind the scenes. But we will try to correct this injustice in at least one of the questions. So despite the fact that the .416 munition has the name Barrett, this indicates only the developer company, in fact, Ronnie Barrett himself has only an indirect relation to this patron. In fact, the “father” of the munition was a completely different person - American designer Pete Foras, who developed this cartridge in the 2005 year. It should be noted that the ammunition was originally developed as an alternative to .50BMG, but not for military purposes, but as a sports cartridge for those states in which civilians are prohibited from purchasing weapons under the .50BMG. That is, initially this ammunition was only to expand the market for Barrett, and not to be used as a military cartridge. However, the truly impressive characteristics that the cartridge issued at the end of the development made it necessary to revise plans for it and the novelty was also proposed to the military. The new ammunition is based on the liner from the same .50BMG, however, it is shortened and pereobzhat to the new .416 caliber. Despite the overall decrease in powder charge, the kinetic energy of the bullet of a new ammunition did not lag far behind its larger progenitor. So due to the fact that the new bullet has become less weight, its speed has not decreased, but increased. So with a bullet weighing 25,9 grams, its speed when shooting from the M99-416 reaches 990 meters per second, that is, the kinetic energy of the bullet is close to the 12700 Joule, which is even greater than the speed of the bullets of individual cartridges .50BMG. Naturally, the lower weight of the ammunition leads to the fact that the bullet will lose its speed faster, but in this case it is possible to speak with a clear conscience about the effective range in 2000 meters, although you need to add a prefix that this is for firing not at the enemy’s manpower technology, including lightly armored. The effective range for this ammunition when shooting at live targets is the distance to 911 meters, it is at this distance that the characteristics of this ammunition are superior to those of the .50BMG cartridge. After getting over 1000 yards, everything starts to change in favor of .50BMG cartridges, including accuracy. Thus, this ammunition can be considered more suitable for firing at enemy snipers, but only at a distance of up to 1000 meters, that is, we are talking about snipers operating directly as part of a separate company, since they are usually armed with rifles with an effective range of up to one kilometer, but this does not mean that the bullets from these rifles abruptly stop at this distance and fall to the ground. In general, the maximum accuracy of shooting with the M99-416 at a distance of up to 1000 meters are within the guaranteed target damage radius of which is about 10 centimeters, and this time it is a rule, not a record. It is natural that not in any hands this rule will work, but nonetheless. 
Summing up the article about the Barrett M99 family of large-caliber sniper rifles, it should be noted that in the end, the goal of creating both anti-sniper and anti-material weapons by one model was nevertheless achieved. Naturally, a single-shot rifle is far from the limit of fantasy; nevertheless, the characteristics of the weapon are truly amazing. It was noted above that the entire family of M99 large-caliber sniper rifles was created, first of all, with a focus on the low price of weapons. Well, it would be swinish for me not to voice this very price. So, under the drum roll ... Retail price - 3,999 $.
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