The Case for Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifles – Part II

Add to favorites

The LWRCI REPRS, in the three barrel lengths I could obtain. The shortest would be an SBR, and that requires an NFA Tax Stamp.

The top rail of the receiver and forearm are co-planar and continuous to the end of the forearm. You can mount lots of gear there, perhaps more than you really should. The REPR comes with folding sights, front and rear, marked with LWRCI and their logo.

To test the performance of the 20-inch REPR on drills, I mounted an EOTech EXP on top, zeroed it, and proceeded to thrash some close-range targets with some drills. What I found out pretty quickly is that I couldn’t choke the REPR, and doing fast drills through a lot of big-bore ammo is something you should be in very good shape to do well. It got tiring, even with the big rifle to soak up recoil. So keep that in mind, the next time you feel that a 5.56 is just too “wimpy” and that life would be better with a .308. It will cost you, in ammo, recoil and weapon weight.

A brief aside, to those looking at the REPR spec chart on their web page, who will no-doubt snort something to the effect “An M14 weighs two pounds less.” Yes it does. And it has no provision for mounting lights, lasers or scopes in a rational manner. And, it is longer, less accurate, and hardly user-customizable at all.

As for accuracy, I grabbed a LaRue 30mm mount and decided to test out a relatively new scope here at Gun Abuse Central, a Famous Maker 4-14X44 with a 30mm tube tactical scope. With a large-diameter tube and mil-dot reticle, it works just fine in daylight. (I haven’t yet had a chance to test it at night, but that will be coming soon.) If my job description included riding in helicopters to places where I’d be kicking down doors, I’m not so sure I’d be depending on a scope that retails for $150. But, as a scope to get started on learning and using mil-dots and for getting a hang for precision or long-range shooting, it will teach you a lot. And I haven’t broken this one yet.

Also, to see how it would hold up (as if I had any doubts) I mounted an Insight ATPIAL, a laser targeting designator that is half the size of the older mil-spec laser, the PEQ-2/A. It had no problems with recoil, and I’m not sure I could harm it short of attacking it with a ball-peen hammer.

I had a pretty decent selection of .308 ammo to run through the REPR, and I managed to get some impressive accuracy results for my efforts. As with any rifle, I’m sure this one will show preferences for one load over another, but that will take someone with a little more trigger time on precision rifles than I have. As it was, the rifle shoots well enough to make me look like a brilliant rifleman, and as I said earlier, that makes it very attractive.

For class use, I hauled the 16-inch barreled one off to one of our patrol rifle classes. It worked as expected, flawlessly, and I continued my passing/perfect qual scores string. It also was easy to dump the 300-meter pop-ups, even with iron sights.

You want a semi-auto sniper rifle, this one will do the job, easy.

This article is an excerpt from the Gun Digest Book of the Tactical Rifle. Click here to order your copy.

Related Posts:

• The Legendary M-14 Still Soldiers On
• Long Range Shooting: Rifles That Shoot Far
• You Won’t Find This Selection at Your Local Gun Store!
• The Leatherwood ART M1000 Automatic Ranging and Trajectory Scope, Part 3
• The Leatherwood ART M1000 Automatic Ranging and Trajectory Scope, Part 2