Ive got severe hearing loss in both ears from a variety of different reasons, and not wearing proper hearing protection is one of the main contributing factors...
Enough said, every rifle shooter must take a good account of that
Interesting austrian design orinted towards serious anti-armor role.
Steyr 15.2 mm IWS 2000 Anti-Materiel Rifle
Development
In order to fill a perceived gap in the number of support weapon types available to the infantry, Steyr-Mannlicher began the development of what they termed an Anti-Matériel Rifle (AMR) during the mid-1980s. At that time they envisaged a two-man single shot rifle capable of accurate fire up to 1,000m, the intended targets being armoured personnel carriers, soft-skin vehicles, electronics equipment and helicopters.
The ammunition was to be APDS or APFSDS with early development concentrating on APDS.Early trials with ammunition based on 12.7mm cartridges demonstrated that an APFSDS approach would be more beneficial, resulting in the construction of a small number of 14.5mm AMR 5075 semi-automatic rifles with smooth-bore barrels. Trials with these weapons resulted in a change of calibre to 15.2mm and a change of programme name to Infantry Weapon System 2000 (IWS 2000).Development work is still in being with a view to perfecting the ammunition and increasing the muzzle velocity to 1,500m/s. The most recent development work on the weapon concentrated on reducing the overall weight and dimensions with a view to producing a prototype of a five-shot semi-automatic rifle. Other possible future options could include a low-rate automatic fire version and the use of a rifled barrel so as to explore other ammunition design possibilities.
Description
The 15.2mm IWS 2000 is a heavyweight precision rifle designed as a relatively inexpensive system for the long-range attack of matériel such as light armoured vehicles, aircraft on the ground, fuel and supply dumps, radar installations and similar targets. It can be dismantled into two units for pack carriage.The rifle is a semi-automatic bullpup, using plastics and light metal to reduce the weight as far as is consistent with the strength demanded by its role. The mechanism employs the long recoil principle of operation, the barrel and bolt recoiling for about 200mm, after which the bolt is unlocked and held while the barrel is returned to battery.
The bolt is then released, collects a cartridge from the magazine and chambers it, locking into the barrel by a rotary motion.
Recoil of the barrel is reduced by a cylindrical multi-port muzzle brake of considerable efficiency and is controlled by a hydropneumatic annular system carried in a ring cradle forming the front portion of the tubular receiver. The weapon is supported by a bipod, attached above the recoil cradle and by an adjustable firing pedestal beneath the butt. A ×10 optical sight is fitted as standard.The five-round box magazine is inserted from the right side, at an angle of about 45º below the horizontal.The complete 15.2mm APFSDS round weighs 150g and is 207mm long. The cartridge case (maximum diameter at the base is 26mm) is of part-synthetic construction, conventional bottle-necked in form and carries a 20g fin-stabilised tungsten dart projectile which has a claimed penetration of 57mm Rolled Homoneneous armor @ 450 meters range.
http://www.janes.com/articles/Janes...IWS-2000-Anti-Materiel-Rifle-AMR-Austria.html
Pictures:
-Prototype in Austria army firing range 1989
- Production model