Sniper Rifles

Dear ladies and gents,

I am in the process of writing a story that requires knowledge of a Sniper Rifle, and would like to make the story as realistic as possible. I have not been in the military, and have never used a weapon before.

I live in England where I am unable to gain access to these without getting arrested.

I want to know:

-How a Sniper Rifle works
-How one is put together
-What would be a typical standard issue for the American Military
-Would a Sniper operate without a spotter?

Many thanks in advance.

Blurred

Pretty sure the vast majority of your questions can be answered here and in related articles, along with Google.

One part of your question that will make googling difficult: the US Military is not a singular branch that has a singular standard issue sniper riffle. There are four branches (Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps), with some branches having specialized units (such as the SEALS for the Navy), and in turn these specialized units can have different weapons issued. Some branches might not have snipers at all. Googling "US military sniper riffles" pulls up quite a few lists, one of which breaks standard issued weapons down to:

M40A1 (USMC)
M40A3 (USMC)
M24SWS (Army & USAF)
M110 SASS (Army)

That's only one source, and I would most certainly cross reference, but it's probably safe to assume you'll have multiple to choose from depending on a bunch of factors. What those factors are can be revealed with more research, seeing as each gun has manufacturer's specs available online and probably hundreds of reviews on it for best situations to use the gun in.

Other search terms you might want to use are "snipers without spotters", "snipers with spotters", "snipers", and "sniper rifles". You can toss in "US military" to basically any search and get specific results for that organization.

One position that could fit the bill is Marine Corps Scout Sniper, but that's me doing a very light amount of research. There's the see also section of the same article which gives related military roles.

Brilliant.
I wasn't expecting such a quick reply, many thanks, it's given me a lot of information to look over.