#.338NormaMagnum

You’re watching and reading TFB’s Photo Of The Day, and we have a belt-fed monster on display. It’s made by Ohio Ordnance Works and REAPR stands for Recoil Enhanced Automatic Precision Rifle. They call it a revolution for modern military general purpose machine guns (GPMG), designed to surpass SOCOM military specifications. The caliber is .338 Norma Magnum, but it can be swapped to 7.62 NATO if needed.

In this writer’s opinion, one of the coolest firearms of SHOT Show 2023 was the XR338 rotary machine gun which was displayed at the Radical Firearms booth. This machine gun is designed by Kris Paulson and Matthew Steinhauser of DTV Tactical Innovations (Radical Firearms is their manufacturing partner). It is chambered in .338 Norma Magnum and at a minimal weight increase over the M134 Minigun, it is a huge force multiplier with about twice the effective range and much higher energy of the projectiles at any given distance.

In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves visits the Radical Firearms booth to see the new caliber convertible XR338 minigun manufactured by DTV Arms. James speaks with Matt, one of DTV’s engineers, about this amazing and powerful system.

The U.S. Army has awarded SIG Sauer a contract to manufacture .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum ammunition. The order is a follow-on purchase for the Advanced Sniper Rifle (ASR) program, and has a $157MM maximum value contract and includes 4.5MM rounds for the first delivery. Specifically, the U.S. Army ASR ammunition contract consists of two cartridges: the M1163, which is a .300NM, 215 grain round, and the M1162, an armor-piercing 338NM, 300 grain round.

In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves interviews SIG about their ultimate belt-fed machine gun – the MG 338. The gun weighs under 20 lbs and is chambered in .338 Norma Magnum giving the gun an effective range out to 2000 metres. This machine gun uses a short-stroke gas piston system and SIG Sauer’s proprietary recoil mitigation system, it can also be re-chambered to 7.62x51mm. The gun has been purchased by US Special Operations Command (US SOCOM).

Back in March 2019, US SOCOM selected the Barrett MRAD to fulfill their requirement for an Advanced Sniper Rifle (ASR). At the end of last year, Nighforce’s MIL-SPEC ATACR 5-25×56 Dayscope and their MIL-SPEC ATACR 7-35×56 Long Range Dayscope l were selected as the go-to optics for the new SOCOM ASR. Now Berger have announced that they have been sub-contracted to produce .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum for SOCOM’s ASRs.

The current sniper rifles in the Swedish Army are the PSG90 and the AG90. The AG90 is the Barret M82 in .50 BMG and the PSG90 is made by Accuracy International in .308 Win. The M82 is more of an anti-material rifle than a sniper rifle.

The United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has published a solicitation for development of lightweight machine gun ammunition. The solicitation was published on the website of a US government program called SBIR ( Small Business Innovation Research). SOCOM wants cartridge cases made from materials lighter than brass which at the same time would have higher case capacity, higher pressure ratings, increased corrosion resistance and would be capable of working with standard cartridge belts and machine guns.

The golden age of polymer cased ammunition has probably already begun. Certainly, Norwegian-Finnish ammunition manufacturer Nammo seems to believe that, as they recently took a significant stake in American company MAC, LLC, makers of polymer-cased composite ammunition, some of which has already been type-classified by the United States Navy. MAC, LLC will continue as an independent company.  Nammo announced the acquisition via a press release, which is embedded below:

Lapua from Finland begin the year with expanding their range of quality brass for hunters and long range competition shooters.

In the coming decades, it is likely that one of the biggest challenges facing small arms ammunition designers will be solving the problem of how to deal with advanced body armors. The problem is already percolating to the surface, as Level IV body armor – which is immune to virtually all general issue rounds below .50 caliber – becomes more available and less expensive. Already, an individual can equip themselves with a full set of Level IV plates and a carrier for less than $1,000. As armor improves, it will only get lighter, cheaper, and more resistant to fire.

Last month the United States Special Operations Command along with the United States Marine Corps posted a Sources Sought Solicitation to  FedBizOpps (FBO) for 5,000, belt-fed, medium, machineguns in .338 Norma Magnum (NM).