For the first time in the U.S. Army International Sniper Competition’s history competitors will be provided weapons from the Army’s inventory instead of bringing their own. The Army will provided each team with a 7.62x51mm short-action Remington 700 for the primary sniper, a M110 semi-automatic rifle for the spotter and two M9 pistols. The teams can bring their own daytime optics, provided they are no greater than 12x in power, but night time optics will be provided.

10th Mountain Sniper team competing with the M24 and M110 combo at the 2008 competition.

These rules are supposedly to level the playing field. The overseas teams, which includes Canada, Australia, Ireland, Germany and possibly Thailand, might disagree that the playing field in level when they are required to use weapons they are unfamiliar with. Sniping is supposed to be a lot more than just shooting. If equipment plays such a great role in determining the winner, the competition course should be redesigned rather than penalizing the overseas teams.

[ Many thanks to Lance for emailing me the link. ]