It is described by its man­u­fac­turer as a mid­dle option between the range and power of a .50cal Barrett and a 308 Remington. And for­get the SR-​​25/​Mk11/​XM-​​110 (but well get to that in later posts).

Say hello to the Sako TRG-​​42, a new sniper rifle offered by the folks at Beretta.

It seems that with the insur­gency in Iraq and Afghanistan still at a sim­mer, theres been a lot of atten­tion paid to sniper rifles and some rethink­ing of how the mil­i­tary should equip them.

The Marine Corps built on the tra­di­tions of bolt-​​action afi­cionado Gunny Carlos Hathcock reluc­tantly dipped its toe into the semi-​​auto world with an exper­i­men­tal intro­duc­tion of the Knights Armament SR-​​25 to sniper teams in Iraq. Many loved it, but some­times a bolt-​​action rifle is what you want for long shots.

The cur­rent M40 bar­reled for the .308 round is depend­able and can reach out and touch some­one at about 1,000 meters. But the TRG-​​42 is designed for the sniper who wants a lit­tle more range like 2,300 meters, says Beretta firearms instruc­tor, Corey Gumbert with­out hav­ing to carry the heavy .50 Barrett rifle.

Gumbert said his com­pany has handed over a few of the .338 Lapua-​​chambered TRG-​​42s to the Marine Corps and so far they like them.

The rifle holds a five-​​round mag­a­zine, has a col­lapsi­ble and adjustable com­pos­ite stock and has been con­fig­ured for the Marines with a 20 bar­rel. That short bar­rel, com­bined with the col­lapsi­ble stock, allows the TRG-​​42 to be eas­ily packed on a snipers back with­out announc­ing to the enemy his spe­cial­ized mission.

– Christian