Future Scope for Sniper Rifles Industry

A sniper rifle is a long-range, high-precision rifle. Requirements include accuracy, reliability, mobility, stealth, and optics for the military sniper's anti-personnel, anti-materiel, and surveillance purposes. The modern sniper rifle is a man-portable shoulder-launched weapon system with a choice of bolt-action or semi-automatic action, equipped with a telescopic sight for extreme accuracy and chambered for a highly ballistic centerfire cartridge.

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Some of the key players of Sniper Rifles Industry:

Accuracy International, Beretta Defense Technologies, Heckler & Koch GmbH, Knights Armament Co, PGW Defence Technology Inc., Remington Arms Company, LLC, S&T Motiv Co. Ltd, Savage Arms, STRATEGIC ARMORY CORPS, Zastava arms

The Whitworth rifle was arguably the world's first long-range sniper rifle. Designed by Sir Joseph Whitworth, a prominent British engineer, it used barrels with hexagonal polygonal rifling, meaning the projectile didn't have to bite into the rifling grooves as with conventional rifling. His rifle was much more accurate than the Pattern 1853 Enfield, which had shown some weaknesses during the recent Crimean War. In trials in 1857 testing the accuracy and range of both weapons, Whitworth's design outperformed the Enfield by a rate of about three to one. Also, the Whitworth rifle could hit the target at 2,000 yards, while the Enfield could only hit the target at 1,400 yards. During the American Civil War, Confederate sharpshooters armed with Whitworth rifles were tasked with killing Union field artillery crews and were responsible for the killing of Major General John Sedgwick - one of the most senior officers killed during the Civil War - at the Battle of Spotsylvania courthouse.

During the Crimean War, the first optical sights to be attached to the rifles were developed. Much of this pioneering work was the brainchild of Colonel D. Davidson, who used optical sights manufactured by Chance Brothers of Birmingham. This allowed a gunner to observe and aim at objects at a greater distance more accurately than ever before. The telescopic sight or telescopic sight was originally fixed and could not be adjusted, therefore limiting its range. In the 1870s, the perfection of breech-loading magazine rifles resulted in sniper rifles with "effectively accurate" ranges of up to a mile from their target.