I just remembered an interesting clip from way back the last seige of the MNLF camps in 2000(?) I recalled the Armed forces displayed some of its special hardware. Of note was the M82a1 Barret .50 cal sniper rifle. What I find so interesting is that it belonged to an Army unit. It wouldn't really matter much, but(!) isn't it that the Philippine Marines are the only branch with an active Sniper Training program???

Good thing about Pinoy ingenuity, becoz of the lack of sniper rifles the Marines DEVELOPED their own indeginous sniper rifle, the MSSR
http://www.snipercentral.com/mssr.htm
Truly a unique weapon!

Ahhh yes... this was on the discussion a looong time ago. The gun I called M16 Sniper. What we only need now is sniper training to maximize the use of it.

Aside from the Phil. Marines, the Phil. Army, through the First Scout Ranger Regiment has a Scout Sniper Program in its training school. They too employ that Barrett. But some of my friends in the Regiment still swear by the old reliable M-14/M-21 which for them is better than the more sophisticated types used by foreign forces (eg. PSG-1, M40, etc.)

Well, experience is the best teacher. We could not blame them if they love it. I personally like the PSG-1. OMG! It costs $9000! Daym!

$ 9000 !!! I thought it was $10000. (Damn expensive gun! ...........but it is a good gun in my opinion)

The of the reasons the MSSR is well adapted for our Marines is the nature of the Philippine battle fields. The field of combat and the kill zones for the infantry are usually less than a 600 yards.

The M14's are all around the best sniper rifle the AFP has in its arsenal (IMO). Problem is there are no gunsmiths in the AFP (possibly the Phils.) who are skilled enough to convert the guns into truly Sniper Class rifles kaya naghahanap ng replacements. And I mean na uniform ang quality ng pag-gawa.

Add ko lang story ng Uncle ko who joined the Scout Rangers in the height of the NPA rebellion in the mid-80's. They were on patrol somewhere in Marag Valley when he was hit 3 times. The bullets tore off a good chunk of his left shoulder muscles. One slug was later taken out and it was ID'd as a slug from a 14. Most ironic about the story was that the sniper was a woman. This just shows that even such a big gun could be effectively used even by the diminutive pinay. My Uncle ,the lucky SOB, lived to tell about it and is still in the Armed Forces.