SPR stands for “Special Purpose Rifle;” that is, a rifle designed for one special purpose. This is just the opposite of a multi-purpose rifle, which would be designed for many different purposes.
The GPS Defense Sniper School describes their course as follows:
Designed for using the popular accurized & scoped .223 rifles from long-range engagements at 900 yards to fighting through our shoot house engaging 5 yard threats.
This course is not a fancy name for a standard carbine course and these are not standard carbines. Our students consistently shoot these rifles accurately well past 900 yards.
Then they can easily transition to up-close targets, engaging multiple targets from 5 yards or clearing corners and doorways with the same rifle!
Does this sound like a special-purpose rifle to you? Or is it a multi-purpose rifle?
Frankly, an accurized AR-15 is not worth a damn for either 900-yard shots or for clearing corners and doorways. It is too weak and inaccurate for 900 yards and it is too long and heavy for use inside a building.
This is not to say that an accurized AR-15 is a bad weapon. At 200 to 300 yards you can shoot the shit out of people who have to work the bolts of conventional sniper rifles. In fact, for my customers who are operating at the squad level (as opposed to the lone-wolf types) I would recommend that one member of the squad be equipped with an accurized AR-15 with a duplex reticule zeroed for 200 yards. Then, if their sniper mission goes horribly wrong and they have large numbers of enemy closing in on them, their AR guy can lay some accurate and rapid fire on the enemy while his comrades withdraw a couple of hundred yards. Then they can cover his withdrawal and in this way conduct an organized retreat, as opposed to just running like rabbits.
But an accurized AR-15 is too long and heavy for clearing corners and doorways. A CAR-15 (M4) would work, but it is three times as expensive as a Mini-14, which also works just fine. In fact, without vast amounts of training, the Mini-14 is better than the CAR-15 because, while it allows rapid fire, it prohibits burning up an entire magazine in one burst, which people tend to do in panicky situations like home invasions. All that is really needed for home defense is a semi-auto that is short, light and well-balanced, which the Mini-14 is, provided that you do not add any after-market goo-gads that you found being hawked at a gun show. You certainly do NOT want to put a scope on the weapon.
An accurized AR-15 is pathetic at 900 yards, as the following charts demonstrate. Only a fool would attempt to fire their AR this far. 600-yard shots are accomplished in bullseye competitions, but only with bullets that are too long to feed and must be inserted by hand. 900-yard shots cannot be accomplished with any technique. Note
This chart demonstrates that the .223 has only 18% as much residual energy at 900 yards as the .30-06; little more than the .32 Auto, a pistol that fits in one’s shirt pocket. This weakness is confirmed by Charlie Cutshaw (2009, p. 53), who writes:
As long as the velocity is 2,400 fps or above, when the bullet strikes flesh, the spin degrades almost instantly and the bullet tries to turn 180° to go base forward, literally exploding at the cannelure due to centrifugal forces, and it typically causes a fist-sized permanent wound cavity… Once the 2400 fps threshold is crossed, the 5.56mm bullet no longer has the potential for “explosive” results and the wounds are more akin to those of a .22WMR. With the M16 having a full 20-inch length barrel, this threshold is crossed at about 200 meters [219 yards], give or take a few meters.
Clearly, I am right in advising people to zero their AR-15 for 200 yards with a hunting-style duplex reticule. The GPS Defense Sniper School is peddling snake oil if they are trying to convince prospective students that thousands of dollars in tuition will teach them to use this weapon beyond 300 yards, much less at 900 yards.
This chart demonstrates that the .223 has almost twice as much wind drift as the .30-06 at 900 yards. Since only a master-level shooter can make a 900-yard shot with a .30-06, it is clear that nobody can make such a shot with a .223.
Charts are courtesy of Federal’s free downloadable ballistics software.
Incidentally, on the subject of stupid pictures, these two take the cake:
Why is this stupid? Because these guys are the Las Vegas Metro SWAT Team. Now, I’ve been to the Las Vegas Strip and, even in my best duds, I’ve felt under-dressed. I don’t think a gillie suit would work. And, if you cannot be camouflaged, then why not wear your uniform so people will know who you are?
Here is another dumb one:
Jeez! Talk about painting a bullseye on your ass! I’ve said this more than twice, but I’ll say it again: Never, NEVER get on top of a building. And don’t fire down the long axis of a street. See my tactics page for instruction on realistic tactics for urban combat.
REFERENCES
Cutshaw, Charlie. 2009. "Desert Warfare Manstoppers." Special Weapons for Military and Police. December 2009: 52-54
