Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
You suggest:I disagree, it's not much if any better as a sniper round than the .300 and 7 to 8mm Magnums plus it carries a weight penalty and thus concomitant weapon weight impact. It also is 'overkill' for many tactical sniping applications. ...The .338 cartridge may with further development improve to the point that it is a good -- as opposed to adequate -- sniper round but it's not quite there yet IMO -- and weapons that use it will need to be lightened which will require some sort of recoil attenuation. It's IMO a niche weapon which has achieved the success it has simply due to adequacy (as opposed to goodness or excellence), availability and being non-American (not that there's anything wrong with that...).True I suppose -- the issue is whether one wants a usually man stopping cartridge or a usually lightly wounding, rarely man stopping cartridge. What a difference a mere millimeter (and about double the amount of gunpowder / propellant and another gram of bullet weight) can wreak...
I have disagreed with Ken White before, and every time I have done so my argument has been artfully and articulately shoot down in flames, so I stand by with pop-corn in the microwave in anticipation of pending fireworks!

As a general infantry officer involved in the early stages of a sniper rifle replacement project I have been researching the sniper rifle capability requirements and have arrived at a very different conclusion to you.

The .338 Lapua (and now Norma) Magnum provide greater flexibility to a sniper team - they can use it from further away and can target a wider variety of targets than a 7.62mm weapon could. Whereas the 7.62mm match-grade round is showing it's limitations at the 1,000m the .338 is capable of remaining a powerful, fast round out substantially further. Retaining velocity is important in a weapon as it allows increased lethality and increased precision (it won't drop so much at range and won't be pushed around so much by wind or atmospherics, making it all the easier to deliver a first-round hit from over 600m over compared to a smaller calibre). The wider variety of targets a sniper can effect, including personnel or crew-served weapons behind cover, light vehicles, aircraft and radio equipment, increases the utility of these larger calibres. Being able to do so from further away, retaining stand off for the sniper team and thus increasing their own security can't be overlooked, either.

The big drawback is cost, both per round and barrel life.

In my opinion the .338 machine gun is exciting, as it is the first MG we have seen designed around a modern rather than a legacy round. This exact design might not be a commercial success but I would suggest that it has huge potential in the naval and air machine gun roles where we currently see GPMG/M60 weapons used, as well as being a potentially potent GPMG replacement for light and motorised infantry formations.