U.S. Army Upgrades To .300 Winchester Magnum

The Strategy Page ^ | 10/7/2010 | The Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The U.S. Army has ordered 3,600 upgrade kits for its M24 bolt-action sniper rifles, which will convert them to the M24E1. This will turn the existing 7.62mm M24 rifles into ones capable of firing the .300 Winchester magnum (7.62x67) round. This is a more powerful round than the NATO 7.62x51 round currently used in the M24. The conversion kit includes a new receiver and barrel, a new scope, a new flash suppressor and a folding buttstock. The conversion will take five years and will cost about $7,800 per rifle. Last year, the army ordered 38.4 million rounds of .300 Winchester magnum ammunition for its newly modified M-24 sniper rifles, as well as similar SOCOMs Mk13 models. The new ammo costs about $1.30 per round. The .300 Winchester magnum ammo is ordered in minimum lots of 56,160 rounds (117 boxes of 480 rounds each). The entire 38.4 million rounds will last a while.

All this is in response to requests from snipers for a longer range weapon, but not one as bulky and heavy as the 13.6 kg (30 pound) .50 caliber/12.7mm rifle (which is good to about 2,000 meters). Thus the army is modifying existing M24 rifles to fire the more powerful .300 Winchester Magnum round. It was felt that this gave the snipers all the additional range they needed, without requiring a much heavier rifle. SOCOM has been using this approach since the early 1990s.

[Vendome]

Hmmmm....

Oh well. Already have match rifles and with the correct ammo could go 800+yrds maybe to a max of 1,100.

Haven’t shot to 800 since I was a kid but if I point the rifle at 45 degrees it should make it. LOL /s

[Eldon Tyrell]

$7800 ???

Without looking at a drawing - I’ll bid $7500. This is a production run - not custom.

What a joke. This government is so out of control - they are getting me to root against military spending now!

[Daaave]

Not certain , but think this is the new rifle

That's the one.

[Daaave]

Remington Wins M24E1 Upgrade Competition

Remington Defense has been awarded the contract to upgrade up to 3,600 of the Amry's M24 Sniper Weapon Systems (SWS) to what will be classified as the M24E1.

thefirearmblog.com

BTW, I saw a post on a forum that said the rifle retails for about $12K w/o scope.

[IDFbunny]

Wasn’t the 338 Lampua Magnum developed for this sort of job?

[snuffy smiff]

.338 Lapua

It’s what the Brits use. And yes, it’s what the Army should have gone with...

[riverrunner]

It is not a just a up grade it is a whole new gun. Just calling it a upgrade they get to spend the money with out going thru the bid process.

[The KG9 Kid]

I think that the military ought to start investing in the high velocity 20mm grenade that was the only good thing that came out of the ridiculous XM-29 OICW concept rifle.

With a conventional rifle round, you're obligated to make a hit by calculating ballistics for 1000+ meters to ensure that the target actually gets a hole poked in it by the projectile. No matter what power the round has, you can't make a hit against a target in defilade or against one that has great cover with a conventional rifle. The target has to reveal themselves before you can shoot.

With a high velocity 20mm grenade, a variance of a 3 or 5 foot margin of error even against a target hunkered down in a fighting hole will be enough to shred them.

Let the USMC investigate the worthiness of a dedicated 20mm non-crew served sniper rifle using the XM-29 OICW round, or some modification of it if the US Army has lost interest in the concept.

[MasterGunner01]

When the M24 was adopted for service, one of the Army's requirements was the ability to upgrade it to .300 Win Mag without a lot of fuss and this was bult-in to every M24 that was accepted for service use.

That said, for $7800 PER RIFLE, the Army could have bought new rifles and all sorts of goodies instead of the M24E1 (aka XM2010). I wonder what kind of dope the people who signed-off on this boondoggle are smoking?

[Dogbert41]

http://www.tcarms.com/articles/detail.php?a=25

For $3 grand probably the best shooting bolt action rifle I’ve ever seen. It’s criminal what the procurement people are getting away with.

[TigersEye]

300 Win Mag is an excellent choice for Moose hunting.

[Jeff Chandler]

My guess is that plenty of this money is actually going somewhere else. Perhaps laundering black ops money?

[zeestephen]

Daaave,

Thanks, great photos.

What kind of giant scope is that on the second rifle from the top?

Night vision?

And, do you have any photos of the semi-automatic sniper weapons that were discussed in the last few paragraphs of the article?

Thanks again...

[Eska]

I called forester a few months back and they were awful proud that they had a big order for dies going to Ft Bragg; 300 Win Mag.

We have a few AR's, hunt with them off snowmachine & 4 wheeler; great with team slings. Caribou came through a few weeks back and I shot a bull with 6.8 spc; 4X32 acog ghost ring/red dot. I had snuck in on them, but they winded me took off and didn't stop till they were 6-7 hundred yards away, started feeding again. I lit off 5 quick shots at a bull that didn't have his butt facing me. Hit him 2nd and 4th shot. If I can kill a bou at 600 yards with that little 6.8; why the need for 300's? I figure I'd prefer that 338 lapua or 50 for long range. And I know I could kill a moose with that 6.8 within 300 yards.

[TigersEye]

...why the need for 300's?

In case you run into a Bear. ;^)

[clee1]

$7800 per rifle???? For a “conversion”?????

Damn, but you can buy military-grade .300 Win rifles and scopes “off the shelf” all day long for $3000 a whack.

More ways to waste money, I see.

[HospiceNurse]

conversion will take five years and will cost about $7,800 per rifle

WAAAY too much money.

[Tallguy]

Probably because the “factory” components are brought into spec by Army armorers. They get “tweaked” before they are handed off to a sniper.

Like the saying, “Ain’t nothing ‘stock’ about a Stock Car.”

Does make you scratch your head, doesn’t it?

[SF_Redux]

is Winchester a Union shop?

[Sarajevo]

The original M24

The M24 Sniper Weapon System (SWS) is the military and police version of the Remington 700 rifle, M24 being the model name assigned by the United States Army after adoption as their standard sniper rifle in 1988. It is also used by the Israeli Defence Forces. The M24 is referred to as a "weapons system" because it consists of not only a rifle, but also a detachable telescopic sight and other accessories.

The M24 was designed to use the "long-action" version of the Remington M700 BDL. This was chosen because the designers originally wished to use the powerful but militarily obsolete .30-06 Springfield (7.62x63mm) cartridge, as it was still in procurement channels. This was later replaced with the shorter 7.62x51mm NATO-standard cartridge. The action in the original model reportedly caused feeding problems if the 7.62mm ammunition wasn't seated firmly towards the back of the internal magazine.

It originally came tapped for the Leupold Ultra M3 10x40mm fixed-power scope, which came with a circle-shaped etched-glass reticle. This was later replaced in 1998 by the cheaper Leupold Mk.4 LR/T M3 10x40mm front-focal fixed-power scope with a mil-dot reticle. N.B.: The first number is the scope's magnification (10) and the second number in millimeters (40mm) is the diameter of the objective lens. A fixed power scope has only one magnification (e.g., 10x) and a variable power scope can be adjusted to focus between a range of magnifications (e.g., 3-9x is adjustable from a minimum power of 3x to a maximum power of 9x).

It comes with a detachable Harris 6-9" BRM-S swivel bipod unit.

The M24 SWS is to be replaced with the M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System, a contract awarded to Knight's Armament Company. However, the Army still continued to acquire M24s from Remington until February 2010.

Specifications:

Weight 5.4 kg (11.88 lbs) empty, w/. sling, without scope (M24) 7.3 kg (16 lbs) max weight with day optical sight, sling swivels, carrying strap, fully loaded magazine5.6 kg (12.32 lbs) empty, w/. sling, without scope (M24A3).

Length 1,092 mm (43 in) (M24A1, M24A2); (46.5 in) (M24A3)

Barrel length 660.4 mm (24 in)(M24A1, M24A2) (29 in) (M24A3)

Cartridge 7.62x51mm NATO (M24A2); .300 Winchester Magnum (M24A1); .338 Lapua Magnum (M24A3)

Action - Bolt-action

Rate of fire @20 rpm

Muzzle velocity 2,580 ft/s (790 m/s) w/M118LR Sniper load (175 gr.)

Effective range up to 800 metres (875 yd)

Feed system 5-round internal magazine (M24A1),

10-round detachable box magazine (M24A2),

5-round detachable box magazine (M24A3)

Sights Telescopic; detachable backup iron sights.

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This "new" model looks like a gimmicked system. It has far too many moveable pieces which could easily break in the field.