M 24 long or short action ?

[SHOOTALL]

I have read more places where it is a long action . It was a concession to Speical Forces to use a long action as they had wanted a 300 Win Mag as the round used. To do so would have stalled the program 2-4 years some thought. I read not long ago that many M 24's have been converted to 300 WM now . I also talk to some who are sure that was never the case . Since I don't really ever remember having seen one up close and personal can some one point out the truth ? Also it seems some M 24's were later aquired in 300 WM as new some time later ?

[LanceR]

The Army's M24 sniper weapon system is a long action M700 and an HS Precision stock and it went out of production only two years ago.  The barrel is whatever Remington has on hand that will meet the accuracy standard.  Some are Remington made but 7 years ago at least all seemed to be from other makers since Remington didn't make that exact profile or rifling (1-11.25" RH twist and 5 grooves) for anything else and they didn't think the small number of M24 barrels being fitted was worth setting up to make them.

The M24 is a perfect example of a committee designed item that doesn't really make anybody happy.  The long action was specified since the originally intended cartridge was the 30-06 M72 Match round (not the 300 WM).  I never did hear truly anything authoritative about why they kept the long action but the choice of the 7.62 round may have to do with the fact that the big last production batches of the M72 ammo were made in the mid '60s and it was only produced in limited quantities later.  Another issue seems to have been that the later lots of ammo were intended for specific competitive needs and were simply far too small in quantity for a lot of combat ammo.

The magazine box is 30-06 length so you need to use an abnormal amount of care in loading and in stroking the bolt.  No bolt stop was provided to reduce bolt travel.  The overly long magazine box and bolt throw mean that it is quite easy to stroke the bolt until the fired case ejects and yet not be rearward far enough to pick up the next round from the magazine.  If you stroke the bolt slowly there is a good chance the cartridge being fed will pop right out of the ejection port or become misaligned with the chamber and get it's nose dinged.  Another issue is that when firing prone many shooters have to pick their head up off the stock as they cycle the bolt since the throw is so long.

The 30-06 hinged floor plate magazine was retained as both a cost saving concern and since there was some concern about losing detachable magazines and not having enough spares since there are relatively very few M24s around so extras were expected to be scare.  This means that you need to single load cartridges which is damned silly in a modern combat firearm.  It is worth noting that the later models Marine Corp M40 sniper rifle (also based on the M700/40x) have a detachable magazine as to the newest product improvement of the M24. 

The follow on to the M24 is in 300 WM.  I don't know what specific round it uses but the Navy has been using 300 MW match ammo for various purposes for years (what I've seen was straight commercial Federal Match.  I know of no M24s in 300 WM but we are in a brave new world in terms of equipment procurement and some may have been converted.

I also cannot speak to the effect of cartridge choice on the timing of fielding them but since there were more M21 (M14 based) sniper rifles around than authorized sniper positions due to the draw down in ground forces after the early '80s there wasn't any big rush.  While the M21 sniper rifle certainly needed more maintenance and shop work to keep it shooting accurately the M21 was as accurate as the M24 and the 20 round magazine in a semi-automatic rifle made it a better battle implement (in my opinion).  I spent 29 years as an infantryman and if I had my choice today I'd reach for an M21 or the newer variants of the AR-10 that some units are carrying before I got stuck with an M24.

Lance

[roper]

Here is little history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M24_Sniper_Weapon_System



http://tech.military.com/equipment/view/89050/m24-sniper-rifle.html

[SHOOTALL]

Thanks