Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon. Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can be considered acts of shooting. When using a firearm, the act of shooting is often called firing as it involves initiating a combustion (deflagration) of chemical propellants.
A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged design provides good stability against gravitational loads as well as horizontal shear forces, and better leverage for resisting tipping over due to lateral forces can be achieved by spreading the legs away from the vertical centre. Variations with one, two, and four legs are termed monopod, bipod, and quadripod.
A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, and mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel, anti-materiel and surveillance uses by military snipers. The modern sniper rifle is a portable shoulder-fired rifle with either a bolt action or semi-automatic action, fitted with a telescopic sight for extreme accuracy and chambered for a high-ballistic performance centerfire cartridge.
The Accuracy International Arctic Warfare rifle is a bolt-action sniper rifle designed and manufactured by the British company Accuracy International. It has proved popular as a civilian, police, and military rifle since its introduction in the 1980s. The rifles have features that improve performance in extremely cold conditions without impairing operation in less extreme conditions.
A monopod, also called a unipod, is a single staff or pole used to help support cameras, binoculars, rifles or other precision instruments in the field.
A bipod is a V-shaped portable attachment that helps support and steady a device, usually a weapon such as a long gun or a mortar. The term comes from the Latin prefix bi- and Greek root pod, meaning "two" and "foot" respectively.
The Barrett M82 is a recoil-operated, semi-automatic anti-materiel rifle developed by the Australian-owned company Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and produced in the United States.
A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable and require mounting onto a weapons platform to be operably stable or tactically mobile, have more formidable firepower, and generally require a team of personnel for operation and maintenance.
Benchrest shooting is a shooting sport discipline in which high-precision rifles are rested on a table or bench – rather than being carried in the shooter's hands – while shooting at paper or steel targets, hence the name "benchrest". Both the forearm and buttstock of such a rifle are usually fully supported by bean bags, a bipod/monopod (front/rear) combination, and/or a specially designed fixture device called shooting rest, so that the gun can remain stably pointing at the target without needing to be held by someone. When shooting, the shooter simply sits/stands comfortably behind the table/bench, operates the action and pulls the trigger, without needing to worry about carrying any weight of the gun. This is in contrast to other shooting disciplines, where the shooter has to bear at least part of the gun's weight while holding it steady to aim, even when using support devices such as bipods, tripods or shooting sticks.
A medium machine gun (MMG), in modern terms, usually refers to a belt-fed machine gun firing a full-powered rifle cartridge, and is considered "medium" in weight. Medium machine guns are light enough to be infantry-portable, but still cumbersome enough to require a crew for optimal operational efficiency.
The SV-98 is a Russian bolt-action sniper rifle designed by Vladimir Stronskiy. In 2003 special operations troops were armed with the 7.62 mm 6S11 sniper system comprising the SV-98 sniper rifle and 7N14 sniper enhanced penetration round. The rifle has been used in combat during operations in Chechnya and Ukraine.
The McMillan TAC-50 is a long-range anti-materiel rifle. The TAC-50 is based on previous designs from McMillan, which first appeared during the late 1980s. From May 2017 until November 2023, it held the record for the longest confirmed sniper kill. McMillan produces several .50 caliber rifles, based on the same proprietary action, for military, law enforcement and civilian use. It is produced in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States by McMillan Firearms.
The major components of sniper equipment are the precision sniper rifle, various optical scopes and field glasses, specialized ammunition and camouflage materials for the sniper’s body and equipment. A sniper’s spotter typically also wears camouflage. In the 2010s, a spotter uses various optical gear and in some cases a laser rangefinder. Snipers may also use monopods, bipods or tripods to steady their aim.
The AMR-2 is a 12.7mm sniper rifle which was developed in China as an anti-materiel sniper weapon, it was introduced in the early 2000s. Designed and developed by Sichuan Huaqing Machinery Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of China South Industries Group, the rifle uses a conventional bolt-action design. The AMR-2 fires a 12.7×108mm cartridge from a 5-round detachable box magazine fitted directly ahead of the trigger group. The barrel is free-floating and has a large double baffle muzzle brake to mitigate recoil.
The WKW Tor (Thorium) or Wilk (Wolf) is a modern anti-materiel and/or sniper rifle produced in Poland by the Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów factory. The nickname "WKW Tor" stands for Wielkokalibrowy Karabin Wyborowy or Large Caliber Sniper Rifle. Its military designation in the Polish army is known as the Tor. This rifle was developed between 2000 and 2004 and the first selected units in the Polish army apparently received Wilk/Tor rifles in around 2005 onwards.
A weapon mount is an assembly or mechanism used to hold a weapon onto a platform in order for it to function at maximum capacity. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories: static mounts and non-static mounts.
A tripod head is the part of a tripod system that attaches the supported device to the tripod legs, and allows the orientation of the device to be manipulated or locked down. Modular or stand-alone tripod heads can be used on a wide range of tripods, allowing the user to choose which type of head best suits their needs. Integrated heads are built directly onto the tripod legs, reducing the cost of the tripod system.
The Pindad SPR is a family of sniper rifles made by Pindad. The gun allows the shooter to adjust the height of the position and stability by regulating the bipod of the rifle located on the bottom front of the handguard.
The SatevariMSWP is a proposed multi-caliber modular sniper rifle platform developed by STC Delta intended primarily for military but also limited civilian use. It was designed as convertible precision sniper rifle able to maintain high accuracy over long ranges and maximum effective ranges accordingly to cartridge and corresponding conversion.
The MK 13 rifle is made using the Accuracy International Chassis System (AICS) version 2.0 mated to a long action Remington 700 receiver. The AICS 2.0 folding stock reduces the rifle's overall length by 210 mm (8.3 in) when folded and adds 0.2 kg (0.44 lb) to the rifle's total weight. The rifle has a cheekpiece design that adjusts sideways and for height for optimal cheek position when using night vision equipment or telescopic sights with large objective lenses. There is also a quick-adjust cheek-piece option that has a spring-loaded cheek-piece in conjunction with a quick-adjust butt plate. The side panels are made from a high-strength polymer and are available in the colors olive drab, dark earth or black. Sling attachment points are mounted on each side of the rifle, so it can be carried flat against the back and used comfortably by left- and right-handed users. A front attachment point is situated below the fore-end and can be used to anchor a target-style sling or replaced by an adapter for a Harris bipod.
