repr combat arms lr

8/7/2019 REPR Combat Arms Lr

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W H y W e n e e d t H e R e P R s H o Rt -

baRReled semiauto sn iPeR Rifle .

By T BkTd

24 WWW.GUNSANDAMMO.



precision 7.62 semiauto

rife can reuce multi-gun

urban sniping to a single

rife aair.

BT ARMS2010 25



to our nal ring points.

An operation o this

type orced us to choose

between which guns we

would take. Sniper rifes too long or

eective urban movement? Short-bar-

reled M4s with inappropriate optics

and anemic terminal ballistics past

100 yards? Both?

Working our way through the city

with traditional bolt-action “sniperrifes” seemed ludicrous. So did the

thought o providing sniper support

with our 10-inch-barreled M4s. That

let us the choice o taking two guns

or taking our issued 20-inch-barreled

semiauto 7.62mm rifes.

Aew years back I ound

mysel in sunny Talaar,

Iraq, gearing up or a big

push to retake the city’s

center, which had allen under insur-

gent control. Talaar is a large city in

northern Iraq, not ar rom the Syrian

border. I was serving as a sniper team

leader o a joint six-man U.S. Special

Forces (SF)/Iraqi Counter Terrorist

Force (ICTF) element that would be

providing sniper support to another

Special Forces A-team and its 700 in-

digenous soldiers. Our mission was

to retake the city center and clear it o

insurgents.

SNIPING IN URBAN TERRAIN

The operation was a simple one. U.S.conventional orces had surrounded

the city center and evacuated the ci-

vilian populace. The Special Forces

teams and their indigenous orces

were then released to attack and

secure the city center.

This created an interesting dichot-

omy or us snipers. We were our own

maneuver element and responsible or

providing our own security during

the attack. The SF team leader o the

large indigenous orce was a long-timeriend o mine, and we agreed that the

snipers should just move to wherever

enemy concentrations were highest

and we elt we could provide the best

support. This required us to deend

ourselves en route and clear our way

Our issued semiauto

7.62mm riles experi-

enced signicant point-

o-impact shit when the

suppressor was taken on and o, so

i we wanted to take the rife, it had

to be with suppressor attached 24/7.

Suppressors are critical or ring at

night, as they leave too little o a sig-

nature or the enemy to detect. Our

semiauto 7.62mm rifes, with suppres-sors attached, measured 52 inches in

length. We weren’t about to attempt

any urban movement or room clear-

ing with a 52-inch rife, so we opted

to take two guns. We would use one

gun to clear rooms and hallways as

short barrel greatl

simplie mounting an

ismounting vehicles

an aircrat.

26 WWW.GUNSANDAMMO.



cial moment when it’s time to pull the

trigger and give someone the good

news. While this certainly qualies

as sniping, it’s not the only denition

o the art.

I recently visited an old riend o

mine at Fort Bragg. We were students

together in the Special Forces Quali-

cation Course and also served as team

leaders in the same SF Company. My

riend is now the commander o the

Special Forces Sniper School, so I

asked him how the sniper school had

changed over the past couple o years

to refect what our guys are seeing out

there on the battleeld. He said the big-

gest misconception he was working

to correct was that sn iping was about

shooting rom the prone at variousyard lines. “Sniping isn’t just about

lying on your belly,” he said. Snipers

in an urban environment have to run

and gun just like everybody else.

The LWRCI REPR is a prime example

o the utility ound in a short-barreled

(16 inches or less) semiauto sniper rife.

While the REPR is oered with a 20-

inch barrel, I ocused my evaluation

around the 12- and 16-inch models, as

I eel they oer the most operational

fexibility to today’s snipers. In thescenario described above, I would

have been sorely tempted to run ex-

clusively with the 12-inch REPR and

a 1-8X Leupold or Schmidt & Bender

(i they were available back then). I

I were eeling less progressive and

wanted additional muzzle velocity

and higher-powered optics, I would

have carried a 20-inch REPR upper in

my pack with a 4-16X variable scope at-

tached. Either way, I would have been

carrying only one lower and one type

o ammo and magazine, which would

have cut down considerably on bulk

and weight.

DETAILS, DETAILSWith the 16-inch model

tipping the scales at 9

pounds empty, it makes or a handy

rife that lends itsel well to positional

and ohand shooting, required in

urban environments. The round,narrow contour o the ore-end makes

it one o the most comortable rifes

to shoot ohand that I’ve had the op-

portunity to re or some time. The

12-inch version is the ha ndiest o the

three models, with the short barrel

making it a dream to move down

hallways and into rooms without

getting hung up in every doorway

one encounters.

LWRCI has ocused all o its energy

on turning out an incredibly durable

and user-riendly semiauto sniper rife.

In the design process, it was willing

to take a hard look at new materials,

manuacturing techniques and coat-

ings in order to capitalize on the most

recent technological advances o re-

arms manuacture. This willingness to

question the supremacy o conventionaldesigns and materials has resulted in a

superior product, one available to civil-

ians and the military alike.

LWRCI chose 7075 aluminum billet

as the material or its upper receiver,

lower receiver and ore-end. The 7075 is

a dicult material to machine, but one

that oers a superior strength/weight

There’s a lot o railspace

on the P an a 20-

inch barrel wrings just

about all the potential ina 7.62 T.

we worked our way to the Final Firing

Point (FFP), the other rife to provide

sniper support once in the FFP.

I can hear the argument now that

the spotter should take the smaller,

lighter carbine to provide security

or the sniper who carries the longer,

heavier gun. The only problem with

that theory is that it takes at least two

appropriately trained and equipped

men to enter and clear a room. The

man carrying the long sniper rife is

not equipped or that task, leaving

both him and his spotter vulnerable

should they attempt any room clear-

ing or urban movement.

The operation kicked o, and we

attacked with most members o the

team carrying two guns. It sucked.Not only did we have to carry two

guns, but that also meant carrying

two types o ammo and magazines.

It was a hot, miserable experience

that lasted several days and let me

wondering i it would be possible to

execute missions like this in the uture

with just one rife. I I’d had the rife

you see eatured here, the attack on

Talaar would have been a much more

palatable one-rife mission.

DON’T FEAR THE REPRSometimes I think we get married to

our doctrine that i s generated rom

past wars or engagements, oten with

disastrous results. Like what hap-

pened to the French and their vaunted

Maginot Line. When we hear the term

“sniper rife,” most o us envision a

long-barreled bolt-action r ife com-

plete with mongoso scope, square

ore-end and adjustable everything.

The goal is to lie behind said rife

or hours at a time until the cru-

SpecificAtiONS

CALIBER: 7.62 NATOBARREL LENGTH: 12 & 16” (Med-Light), 18”(Med), 20”(Heavy)BARREL CONSTRUCTION: ColdRotary Hammer Forged

WEIGHT (UNLOADED): 16” barrel:9.5 lbs; 18” barrel: 10.5 lbs; 20”barrel: 11.25 lbsOvERALL LENGTH: 37.5-40.8” (16”barrel), 40.5-41.5” (20” barrel)RATE OF FIRE: 55 RPM (Sustained)RIFLING: 1/10” RH 1/11.25” RH(Optional)

STOCk: 12” & 16”: 6 Position Col-lapsible VLTOR Emod, 18”: MagPulUBR, 20”: MagPul PRSPISTOL GRIP: MagPul MIADSIGHTS: Folding BUISMAGAzINE: 5, 10, 20 Round MagsAvailable - One 20 round magshipped with each gun whereallowed by lawTRIGGER: 12” & 16” EnhancedMil-Spec; 18” Non-adjustableGeissele; 20” Adjustable GeisseleMUzzLE DEvICE: A2 Flash Hider:7.62 NATO 5/8 X 24 TPI

BT ARMS2010 27



barrel is called a erritic

salt bath nitro-carbur-

ized interior and exterior

nish. It is a process that

case-hardens the barrel

to a depth o .005 inch and also creates

a surace that has a lower coecient o

riction and higher resistance to corro-sion than just chrome lining the bore.

The additional hardness oers a longer

barrel lie, while the extra lubricity can

yield higher velocities and make or a

barrel that’s easier to clean.

The bolt carrier is a one-piece design,

eliminating the headaches associated

with having to stake a carrier key to

the top o traditional bolt carriers

used by other manuacturers. It

is also coated with a proprietary

nickel coating that possesses a

low coecient o riction and

protects against corrosion. Few

manuacturers are willing to go

to these extremes to ensure maxi-

mum durability o the rife.

SHOOTING WITH THE REPRThe rst thing I did with the

REPR was chronograph the mili-

tary’s Lake City load that res

a 175-grain Sierra MatchKing

bullet. The 12-inch barrel came

in at an average o 2,257 eet per

second (ps). The 16-inch barrel

was aster at 2,441 ps, and the20-inch barrel was a hair aster

still at 2,497 ps. The 200 ps jump

rom 12 to 16 inches didn’t really

surprise me, but the diminutive

50 ps jump rom 16 to 20 inches did.

There’s not a lot o explanation or that,

other than almost all o the powder in

the case has burned by the time the

bullet is 16 inches down the barrel. It’s

a act worth noting.

Accuracy testing with the REPR con-

sisted o ring or groups at an indoor100-yard range located just north o

Atlanta, GA. I red the 20-inch REPR

to test or accuracy, with each group

consisting o ve shots. The REPR

grouped the heavier 175-grain loads

consistently at just over one MOA at

100 yards. With the adjustable gas

system turned o, the groups shrank

ratio over any other orm

o aluminum commonly

used in AR-pattern

rifes. The barrel o the

REPR is cold hammer

orged, a process that creates a more

dense and thereore stronger steel that

will resist the eects o throat erosion(rom high round counts) better than

either button- or cut-rifed barrels.

LWRCI has also made signicant

advancements in extending barrel lie

through a surace conversion process

instead o the conventional chrome

lining that’s been around since the

1960s. The nish LWRCI uses on the

ptics can be swappe

out to t the mission.

The rife is available with

variable-length hammer-

orge barrels.

short-stroe piston

eeps the action cool an

clean an reciprocating

masses at a minimum.

28 WWW.GUNSANDAMMO.



to just under one MOA.

However, this mandated

manually charging the

rife ater each shot.

I experienced no issues

with the SR-25-pattern

magazine that shipped

with the rife. The REPR

will accept and re the

SR-25-pattern magazines

made by LaRue Tactical,

Magpul, Knight’s Arma-

ment and C-Products.

LWRCI is presently

working on a wafe-sided

aluminum magazine

designed or the REPR.

It will be available in

spring/summer 2010.

PLAYING WITH12-INCHESI spent some additional

time shooting the 12-inch

REPR to see i it could

eectively unction as

the one rife that I could

have employed on the

operation detailed at the

beginning o the article.

My biggest concern wasthat the 12-inch barrel

would generate too much

muzzle blast or employment in a close-

quarters-battle (CQB) role.

Any semiauto 7.62mm rife will

see dual use. One use would be as a

sniper rife, and the other use or CQB

to enable the sniper to clear his way

to his FFP. The 12-inch barrel o the

REPR is certainly ideal or portability

in close quarters, but I wanted to see i

the blast and recoil would preclude its

use in CQB.

Firing the 12-inch REPR indoors, I

was pleasantly surprised at the lack

o muzzle fash. I you’ve ever red

a seven- or eight-inch AR-15, you’ve

seen how outrageous muzzle fash can

become. I expected similar results with

a 12-inch 7.62mm REPR, but I was sur-

prised when the muzzle fash wasn’t

anything that would prove too much o

a distraction during CQB. The blast wasalso much less ormidable than I antici-

pated. I expected the 12-inch REPR to

be suciently rude that no one would

want to re in close proximity to me.

Such was not the case.

While I would never put a muzzle-

brake on the 12-inch REPR (and ocus

all o the fash and blast perpendicular

to my line o re), the 12-inch REPR

would be my barrel length o choice

or this rife. The piston system enables

the REPR to unction reliably, even

with the short dwell time associated

with a 12-inch barrel (dwell time is

the amount o time the bullet is in the

barrel ater it passes the gas port, but

beore it exits the barrel). Short barrels

were the whole reason we started put-

ting pistons on the AR in the rst place,

as direct-impingement guns became

increasingly problematic as barrel

lengths and dwell times decreased.The 12-inch REPR is one o the handi-

est, most ergonomic rifes

I’ve had the pleasure o

ring. The short barrel

makes it a joy to drive rom

target to target, while the

ambidextrous controls

and side-charging handle

make the REPR ecient

and simple to operate. I

you’ve ever had a malunc-

tion on a conventional AR

that requires you to lock

the bolt to the rear and

drop the magazine (which

is most o them), you know

that this eat requires you

to remove the rife rom

the ring shoulder and

reposition both hands toclear the malunction.

With the REPR, all you

have to do is grab the side-

charging handle with the

non-ring hand, pull it

to the rear, lock back the

bolt with the trigger nger

and then also depress the

magazine release with the

trigger nger. The REPR

never has to leave your

shoulder, and there’s noneed to switch your hands

around either.

THE FUTURE OF SNIPINGSemiauto 7.62mm rifes will continue

to gain acceptance as sniper rifes. As

the world’s population continues to

urbanize, we can expect our military

orces to train and equip themselves

accordingly. The shit toward training

our snipers or the urban ght and not

exclusively or the traditional rural

stalk has already begun.

LWRCI’s REPR is an example o what

happens when an industry member

ocuses its might on developing and

producing an exceptionally rugged,

yet ergonomic precision rife. The re-

sulting rife, available in 12-, 16- and

20-inch lengths, takes advantage o

the latest design and manuacturing

techniques and is a rife that I would

willingly use or either sniping orCQB. Or both.

n ajustable chee piece on the

optional agpul P stoc allows the

shooter to ajust to t his optic’s height,

The P is a view o the uture o

urban sniping.

30 WWW.GUNSANDAMMO.

repr combat arms lr

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