War reality. Teddy bear in an unusual role
9:03 AM EDT, October 24, 2023
The war in Ukraine, despite its cruelty, is full of unusual incidents and events. This category includes a Ukrainian sniper using a plush toy as a prop.
In the photo below, we see a Ukrainian sniper in his hideout using a stuffed bear most likely found in this very room as a rest for his rifle. The fact that a toy is used is not surprising, since a soft surface for elbow support is always more comfortable than say, a hard board or concrete.
Furthermore, support is useful if the shooter has to observe a specific area for hours, which eliminates fatigue. Moreover, even the slightest movement during the shot negatively affects accuracy and therefore a comfortable shooting position is very important.
For this very reason, precision rifles or sniper rifles have a wide range of adjustments such as stock length, cheek pad height, and bi-pods besides adjustable leg length sometimes even have the ability to tilt them. Moreover, in recent years, so-called monopods (vertical stand with adjustable length) mounted from the bottom of the stock have become popular. On the other hand, some shooters use so-called shooting bags filled with sand to provide themselves with the most comfortable position.
Ukrainian sniper - this is what he hunts Russians with
The Ukrainian sniper here uses one of the Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Magnum (Accuracy International AWM) rifles donated by the Netherlands. On the rifle, we see a Schmidt & Bender 5-25x56 PM II (top shelf) scope mounted on a mount from Swedish Spuhr.
The Accuracy International AWM rifles are a version from the '90s of the Arctic Warfare rifle adapted to use Magnum rounds that allow for hitting targets at distances exceeding 0.6 miles. We are talking here about ammo cal. 7.62x67 mm (.300 Winchester Magnum) or 8.6x70 mm (.338 Lapua Magnum), with the first allowing to fight targets at a distance of over 0.6 miles, and the second over 0.9 miles.
Moreover, due to the enormous kinetic energy of the projectiles, even the best ballistic plates in the world used in bulletproof vests won't provide protection against them. In practice, this means that every hit is fatal, which is also reflected in the popular CS: GO, where the police variant of AWP means the death of a player.
The Accuracy International AWM rifles are highly accurate, repeating designs that require reloading after each shot, but the 60-degree angle reloading lever significantly speeds up the process compared to competitors with a 90-degree angle lever.
In terms of accuracy, we are talking even below 0.5 MOA. MOA is used to evaluate the accuracy of rifles, where the maximum distances between bullet holes are measured. For example, at a distance of 330 yards, 0.5 MOA is approximately 1.7 inches, so this rifle is capable of consistently hitting a target the size of a pack of tissues at that distance.
The only drawback of these constructions is their very high price and dimensions in the form of a length of 3.937 feet combined with a weight exceeding 13.2277 pounds, significantly deviating from the typical firearm.
