Shower Thoughts MK2

Bob_McMillan

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If semiauto sniper rifles exist, what's the point of bolt action ones? Other than to have balanced gameplay in our FPS games of course.
 

Gordon_4

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If semiauto sniper rifles exist, what's the point of bolt action ones? Other than to have balanced gameplay in our FPS games of course.
Most semi auto rifles are used as Designated Marksman Rifles, which as the name implies are used by the best shot in a rifle company but are used at much shorter distances. Sniper rifles, especially bolt action ones like the L96A1 (or AWP to us Counter Strike tragics) shoot much further, with higher caliber rounds and because the action of ejecting the case doesn’t shake the gun about, it’s easier to put another round in the same spot.

There’s a video on either Forgotten Weapons or Royal Armouries’ YouTube channels that gives a very good explanation but I’m buggered if I can remember it or the video itself.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Most semi auto rifles are used as Designated Marksman Rifles, which as the name implies are used by the best shot in a rifle company but are used at much shorter distances. Sniper rifles, especially bolt action ones like the L96A1 (or AWP to us Counter Strike tragics) shoot much further, with higher caliber rounds and because the action of ejecting the case doesn’t shake the gun about, it’s easier to put another round in the same spot.

There’s a video on either Forgotten Weapons or Royal Armouries’ YouTube channels that gives a very good explanation but I’m buggered if I can remember it or the video itself.
The point about ejecting the casing and recoil does make sense. I wasn't really thinking about DMRs, more of things like the Barett 50 Cal. Or whatever its official name is. But yeah, I can imagine that with decent training, a bolt action rifle would be able to outperform a gun that kicks like a mule with every shot. I do still have to wonder though, surely with all the technological advancements, someone would have tried or is trying to make a semiauto sniper rifle to bridge the gap between bolt action and the Barett.
 

Gordon_4

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The point about ejecting the casing and recoil does make sense. I wasn't really thinking about DMRs, more of things like the Barett 50 Cal. Or whatever its official name is. But yeah, I can imagine that with decent training, a bolt action rifle would be able to outperform a gun that kicks like a mule with every shot. I do still have to wonder though, surely with all the technological advancements, someone would have tried or is trying to make a semiauto sniper rifle to bridge the gap between bolt action and the Barett.
Despite what video games would have you believe, the Barrett M82 is NOT a sniper rifle. It is an anti material rifle; you use it against cars and lightly armoured vehicles. It’s also used to detonate things like unexploded IEDs or artillery shells where manual disarming is impossible or too dangerous.

This is not to say of course you can’t shoot a person with it, but it’s likely to be a product of trying to do something else - see shooting cars - or because there’s an enemy who needs to be dead and it’s what you had in arms reach.
 

Thaluikhain

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Despite what video games would have you believe, the Barrett M82 is NOT a sniper rifle. It is an anti material rifle; you use it against cars and lightly armoured vehicles. It’s also used to detonate things like unexploded IEDs or artillery shells where manual disarming is impossible or too dangerous.

This is not to say of course you can’t shoot a person with it, but it’s likely to be a product of trying to do something else - see shooting cars - or because there’s an enemy who needs to be dead and it’s what you had in arms reach.
Apparently the Barrett was first introduced for the purpose of disabling helicopters and planes by damaging propellers and tail rotors while staying well clear of the airbase.

Anyhoo, the'res a debate over smei-auto vs bolt action for sniper rifles, like there is over everything. Semi-auto sniper rifles absolutely exist, though they have parts moving in the gun before the bullet has left the barrel (which can affect things), and spit out empty cartridges somewhere that you might not be ale to find them but the enemy might later on. In some minds this is a good reason to use bolt actions instead.
 

Specter Von Baren

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Why the fuck are so many people obsessed with JFK? There's three things people can and do associate him with, the space race, the missile crises, and his assassination, and all three of those things were largely (Or entirely in the case of the last one) the result of the actions of other people. Like, with the former 2, he certainly had a hand in them, but not to a remarkable degree, and from what I've found, most of his presidency was either average or poor. So why the hell do so many people obsess over this guy? Is it really just that the assassination has built up a huge mystic about him?
 

davidmc1158

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Why the fuck are so many people obsessed with JFK? There's three things people can and do associate him with, the space race, the missile crises, and his assassination, and all three of those things were largely (Or entirely in the case of the last one) the result of the actions of other people. Like, with the former 2, he certainly had a hand in them, but not to a remarkable degree, and from what I've found, most of his presidency was either average or poor. So why the hell do so many people obsess over this guy? Is it really just that the assassination has built up a huge mystic about him?
It's the assassination mystique. If they went to all of the trouble to kill him (whoever your personal conspiracy goblin defines as "they"), then he MUST have been really interesting and important! Same goes for musicians who die relatively young: their songs/albums/works/etc. all sell like mad after they pass.

Welcome to humanity. We may be morbid, but at least we don't make a whole lot of sense!
 

Thaluikhain

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Why the fuck are so many people obsessed with JFK? There's three things people can and do associate him with, the space race, the missile crises, and his assassination, and all three of those things were largely (Or entirely in the case of the last one) the result of the actions of other people. Like, with the former 2, he certainly had a hand in them, but not to a remarkable degree, and from what I've found, most of his presidency was either average or poor. So why the hell do so many people obsess over this guy? Is it really just that the assassination has built up a huge mystic about him?
Well, and the early Vietnam War, but yeah, mostly cause he got shot.

EDIT: Er, early from the US point of view, not from the Vietnamese point of view.
 

Drathnoxis

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Why the fuck are so many people obsessed with JFK? There's three things people can and do associate him with, the space race, the missile crises, and his assassination, and all three of those things were largely (Or entirely in the case of the last one) the result of the actions of other people. Like, with the former 2, he certainly had a hand in them, but not to a remarkable degree, and from what I've found, most of his presidency was either average or poor. So why the hell do so many people obsess over this guy? Is it really just that the assassination has built up a huge mystic about him?
 

Drathnoxis

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I wish there was, like, an anti-reddit. Somewhere where people would go to discuss specific games where you don't immediately get dog piled and down-voted into oblivion for posting a critical opinion instead of sucking the game off.
 
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Thaluikhain

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Ok, lots of people are interested in Victorian England, there's some interest in Victorian Scotland, the mismanagement of Victorian Ireland gets interest, few people seem to care about Victorian Wales.
 

Gordon_4

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Why do Brits admire the French for striking but shit the bed when we do?
Because a French strike will (mainly) inconvenience the French and not the British. A continuation of the longest running and possibly dumbest schoolyard spat to ever exist.
 

RhombusHatesYou

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Why do Brits admire the French for striking but shit the bed when we do?
Yeah but you've also got to ask when was the last time British farmers dumped tens of thousands of litres of milk into the drains of a major city or drove manure spreaders past the town hall and let them rip on full spread?

Okay, those were protests not strikes but still... the moral of this story is you never want French farmers pissed at you.
 

Gordon_4

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Yeah but you've also got to ask when was the last time British farmers dumped tens of thousands of litres of milk into the drains of a major city or drove manure spreaders past the town hall and let them rip on full spread?

Okay, those were protests not strikes but still... the moral of this story is you never want French farmers pissed at you.
Well, never let it be said they weren’t direct.
 

Baffle

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Yeah but you've also got to ask when was the last time British farmers dumped tens of thousands of litres of milk into the drains of a major city or drove manure spreaders past the town hall and let them rip on full spread?

Okay, those were protests not strikes but still... the moral of this story is you never want French farmers pissed at you.
The closest I remember are the fuel protests around 1999/2000 about the (in retrospect incredibly low) price of diesel, when truckers and farmers did go-slows around the country. Everyone was hugely supportive on the first one, but just pissed off by the second one because it was too inconvenient.