[CanRay]

I'm still trying to figure out how the Russians made a delicate weapon.  I mean, take a Kalashnikov design and just modify it slightly, done.  Battle Rifle.

Guess politics and capitalism has hit the Land of the Bear.

[savaze]

80 meters is short range for military squad or platoon engagement, because there usually is a lot of support fire at least available, if not already involved (HMG, marksman, mortar, infantry combat vehicle). Sniper comes in hand at much much longer range. On the other hand, 80 meters is in the same order of mangnitude than JFK assassination, the Beltway sniper and Yaponshik hit.

I'll pass on being that close to mortar fire...

Battle riffles have a 7P damage value (AP -1 or -2) ; the Barret 121 is 9P (AP -4). Seems significant enough as a difference to me.

Most RPG and video games has sniper rifles doing more damage because they don't handle properly the effect of an aimed round into the chest. IRL, a lot of sniper rifles use exactly the same ammo as battle riffles (though .338 Lapua Magnum have been getting more and more common). The differences are, a sniper rifle have optimum accuracy on the first shot and retain it, and the sniper himself usually take the time to properly aim. A rifleman hitting by luck would end with about the same amount of metal arriving at a similar speed.

In my (very) humble opinion, the problem with SR rules is the range table that make it way too easy for an average shooter to hit a target at long range. The rules makes it quite easy to hit two separate targets at 200 meters with a stock assault riffle, under 3 seconds. Past a certain distance, you should be forced to take some Aim actions. Sniper rifle aren't more deadly because they are more powerful. They are because they can hit in a few shots when other weapons would require you to empty several magazines spreading bullets in the same direction.

You inspired me to call the doc for some sleep assistance, all my 7 looked like 9's.  I still don't care for BR's even without insomnia induced hallucinating.  There's already a class of rifles that fire that damage code.  There's a lot of reasons that BR's don't fit.

BR's are more in reference to the Designated Marksman Rifles (DMR), which have been integrated to fill the gap between the standard soldier and the sniper.  In the US they're using, mostly, M14's that are being refitted with lighter components and Picatinny Rails, which are a far cry from being chambered in .338 Lapua (My bro carried one with an under barrel 203).

SR4 went the way of VG's with seriously decreased lethality.  I think that's the biggest gripe with how damage is dealt, but it shows very clearly with sniper rifles.  The only difference between sports and sniper rifles is the avoided caliber issue and the length of the barrel.  IRL snipers use whatever has a long barrel and a round that can carry the punch to the distance they're looking for.  I agree the speed of engaging several targets is a bit unrealistic.  Maybe if the shooter isn't using a bolt action rifle and has some serious help from augmented reality, I grasping at straws here.  I haven't engaged anything beyond 100m with a rifle, so I'm a far stretch from having sniper experience...

[Rockopolis]

I seem to recall finding Shadowrun to be fairly lethal.  GMing, at least "Whoa whoa crap, no, no turns out that Roomsweeper was loaded with flechettes, not slugs!"
I also thought the lack damage was supposed to include trying to get a clean hit?

I thought most of the sniper rifles were semi-automatic, and I can definitely see that being the major advantage of a smartlink, subsumed into its bonus for simplicity.  Man, I want a smartlink.  I think they're working on them now, aren't they?

[CanRay]

In the "Camera pointed where the rifle is aimed" mode, yes, they have Smartlinks in development.  Shoot around a corner without sticking your head out.

In the "I think you dead" firing mode, we're a long way from that.

IIRC, "Battle Rifles" range from WWI/WWII Bolt-Action Rifles (And the Semi-Auto M1 Garand, of course), which were in use before the MP-44 was developed, inventing the Assault Rifle.  When Assault Rifles were put onto the battlefield in full use, the ranges were set up based on experiences from WWII, where the fluid and fast combat needed a range less than a Battle Rifle, but more than a MP/SMG (Which was the same thing back in those days.).

Soldiers found that often enough ranges of combat would exceed their ARs ability to accurately fire, and so Battle Rifles came back at least in limited form, and a few updates were given to make them Semi-Auto.  I think it was the Russian Invasion of Afghanistan that this was most shown to the average person, with Afghan Soldiers using Battle Rifles beyond the accurate range of the Soviets AKs (Insert joke about "Accurate AK Fire" here.).

That's the armchair, civvie puke view of why things happened.  I could be totally wrong.

[Rockopolis]

What's always been strange for me is hearing about seeing and hitting a target at those ranges, hundred, two hundred, five hundred yards.  I can't even see that far!

[CanRay]

What's always been strange for me is hearing about seeing and hitting a target at those ranges, hundred, two hundred, five hundred yards.  I can't even see that far!

Some people can.  It's also easier in some instances than others.  Plains and Tundra are two prime examples of that.  (The old joke about Saskatchewan's game of "Hide And Seek" involving a twenty-minute car drive to get to a hiding spot...).

The Canadian Rangers still use SMLE No. 4 Rifles (WWII vintage rifles here) due to the fact that they're perfectly reliable in the Arctic conditions they operate in (The Rangers are mostly Inuit, so they live where they protect, always a good start for a unit), and were perfect for dealing with the issues that they were formed for:  Invasion of North American by the USSR from the Arctic Circle.  AKs will work in Arctic Conditions as well (Actually, is there a place where an AK won't work?), but, well...

IIRC, the maximum range the sights on an AK-47/AKM can be adjusted to is 300 metres (And this is apparently generous.).  The SMLE can accurately place shots as far as a person can physically see.  And that's the Mass Production models, too.  The Sniper Models are insane in accuracy (They were made by Holland And Holland.).

The only issue with them is that they don't use NATO-Standard ammunition (They're still chambered in .303 British Service), and the Canadian Armed Forces have talked about replacing them a few times, apparently.  Politics and a few other issues have prevented this.