Sniper Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Scrome J8 Commercial Production Update (For the FR-F2)

August 21, 2022 Ian McCollum 4

Scrome, the original maker of the J8 scope used by the French Army on the FR-F2 sniper rifle, is making a commercial run of J8 scopes for collectors who have the recently-released surplus FR-F2 rifles. […]

Spanish M43: The Worst Sniper Rifle Ever Made

August 3, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

The standard Spanish infantry rifle from 1943 until the adoption of the CETME was the M43, an 8mm Mauser short rifle made at the La Coruña arsenal. As is fairly common, a sniper rifle variant […]

Scrome J8: A Proper Scope for the FR-F2 Sniper

May 21, 2022 Ian McCollum 6

The French Army used a single pattern of rifle scope from 1949 all the way until 1995 – the APX L806, which was essentially a German ZF-4. It was finally replaced officially in 1995, with […]

Christian Prouteau on the FR-F1 Rifle

January 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 20

My interview with Christian Prouteau focused on the MR-73 revolver and how his men in GIGN trained with it. However, I did also ask him about the FR-F1 rifles, and figured I would separate that […]

Finland’s M/39 PH Sniper from the Continuation War

December 15, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

The basic equipment of the Finnish Army came from what was left in Finland by departing Russian soldiers when Finland declared independence. As the Russians had no scoped rifles at that time, Finland didn’t have […]

L8(T) Enfield: The British Army Fails to Make a Sniper

December 14, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

We looked at the 7.62mm conversion of the No4 Enfield into Rifle L8 yesterday. Part of that program was an attempt to develop a new sniper rifle on the L8 platform. To this end, six […]

FR-F2 French Sniper Rifle at the Range

November 27, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

Today I’ve taken the FR-F2 to the range to try it out. I’m using the early French Army scope, an APX L806-04. This is a 3.85x optic basically modeled on the German WW2 ZF-4. It […]

The French FR-F2: Best of the Cold War Sniper Rifles

November 26, 2021 Ian McCollum 24

In 1986, the French Army adopted the FR-F2 (Fusil à Répétition F2) as its standard sniper rifle. The F2 was never manufactured new; it was an improvement made on existing FR-F1 rifle by giving them […]

Ross WWI Sniper Rifle w/ Winchester A5 Scope

August 23, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

The standard Canadian sniper’s rifle of World War One was the MkIII Ross fitted with a Warner & Swasey “musket sight” purchased from the United States. However, armorers in the field did create sniping rifles […]

L96A1 Behind the Scenes: Manufacturing Catastrophes and Exploding Rifles

July 1, 2021 Ian McCollum 58

Accuracy International’s L96A1 was a stunning success in British military trials, and became the basis for one of the most respected line of precision rifles in the world. However, it very nearly was abandoned almost […]