The Science of Lethal Precision: When I Fired the US Army’s Best .50-Cal Sniper Rifle

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Kingman, Ariz.) My shoulder was pressed firmly against the end or “stock” of the rifle, my index finger extended horizontally just above the trigger as I lay flat on the ground and tried to align my right eye directly through the targeting sight — all as I for the very first time, tried to fire a US military M107A1 sniper rifle at a small target roughly 200 yards away.

Seems like yesterday, when I learned how to fire the Army’s Barrett M107A1 sniper rifle in the Arizona Desert at the Bushmaster User’s Conference in 2019. The M107A1 is considered a large sniper rifle which fires a .50-cal bullet. The larger bullet can, of course, destroy an individual enemy fighter, yet the .50-cal sniper bullet is primarily designed to destroy or disable thin-skinned enemy vehicles and small structures or fortifications. As one former Army weapons expert explained it to me, the M107A1 is the kind of weapon which could be used to hit, destroy or disable the engine of an enemy vehicle.

The rifle is nearly five-feet long at “57 inches, with a cylinder-like suppressor at the end and a weight of about 28-pounds. Barrett has in recent years been under contract to deliver M107A1 .50-Cal Long Range Sniper Rifle systems to the US Army in an $8 million deal which includes scopes, suppressors and square parts kits. Barrett information on the gun specifies having a “lightweight aluminum upper receiver with integral optics” Barrett data further describes the weapon as having a “barrel with fully chrome-lined chamber and bore, 10-round steel magazine with cartridge witness indicators and anti-corrosive coating.”

Information from Military.com says the rifle is a commercial weapon that incorporates a dual chamber detachable muzzle brake, dual barrel springs and long mainspring design to reduce the weapon’s recoil.

The M107 uses a variable power day sight and a 10-round detachable box magazine. The rifle weighs 35 pounds fully loaded and includes folding front and rear sights, a fluted match-grade barrel, detachable carrying handle, rubber recoil pad, rear grips and a Picatinny rail.

I fired the M107 Sniper Rifle