With the release of Clint Eastwood’s movie, American Sniper, this weekend, I thought it might be fitting to look at the favorite rifles of the American hero, Chris Kyle. In his autobiography, Kyle said people ask a lot about the weapons he used as a sniper, so he talked some in the book about the specific rifles he used. Kyle described the wide range of weapons and rifle systems he used in different situations, but I wanted to focus on the few he said were his favorite sniper rifles.
So, I went back and re-read his book, and scoured the internet for the best photos I could find of his actual rifles. I even contacted manufacturers like Accuracy International, GA Precision, Leupold, and Nightforce to get more specs on Chris Kyle’s rifle setups. I expected this all to be well documented, but it took a lot of detective work to put together clues from different places. Some of it is hard facts from the man himself, other specs are what he most likely used based on what was issued at the time of his active duty, and some specs are based on my own research and identifying products based on photos of his rifles.
His .300 Win Mag
In his autobiography, Chris Kyle starts by describing the AR-style, semi-auto, black guns that he used, like the US Navy Mk-12 5.56 Rifle, and the SR-25 7.62 Rifle (aka Mk-11). Although those rifles served a purpose, Kyle wasn’t a huge fan of either. In fact, he talked about how the SR-25 had a bad reputation of jamming up in the field. He finished the section on the SR-25 by saying “There were other issues with the weapon, however, and personally it was never one of my favorites.” That was immediately followed by his words, “The .300 is in another class entirely.”
Kyle was a huge fan of the .300 Win Mag, and for good reason. It has vastly superior stopping power over the common 5.56 NATO (aka 223 Rem), and vastly improved ballistics over the common 7.62x51mm (aka 308 Win).
In his book, Kyle said, “I used the .300 Win Mag for most of my kills. It’s an excellent all-around cartridge, whose performance allows for superb accuracy as well as stopping power. The .300 is a little heavier gun by design. It shoots like a laser. Anything from 1,000 yards and out, you’re just plain nailing it. And on closer targets, you don’t have to worry about too much correction for your come-ups. You can dial in your 500 yard dope and still hit a target from 100-700 yards without worrying too much about making minute adjustments.”
While the Mk-12 and Mk-11 were both semi-automatic rifles, Kyle’s .300 Win Mag was a manual bolt-action. Kyle said “Other services fire the round from different (or slightly different) guns; arguably, the most famous is the Army’s M-24 Sniper Weapon System, which is based on the Remington 700 rifle. (Yes, that is the same rifle civilians can purchase for hunting.) In our case, we started out with McMillan stocks, customized the barrels, and used 700 action. These were nice rifles.”
Although Kyle doesn’t specify that this was a SOCOM Mk-13 in his book, industry experts tell me that is likely what he was using. Here are the most likely components for the rifle Kyle is shown using in the photos above:
Remington 700 Long Action
Lilja Precision 26.5” 1:10 Barrel
McMillan A-2 Tactical Stock with saddle-type adjustable cheek-piece
McCann Industries Integrated Rail System (MIRS) Rifle Mount
Remington Factory Trigger
M16 Extractor Bolt Modification
Nightforce 20 MOA Picatinny Rail
Nightforce High Rings (allows proper alignment with nightvision optics)
Nightforce NXS 8-32×56 Scope
Knights Armament Mk-11 Suppressor (aka SR-25 Suppressor)
Harris 6-9” Swivel Bipod
Kyle mentioned in the book that he ran his .300 Win Mag suppressed. The .300 Win Mag Mk-13 was designed to use the same suppressor as his Mk-11 (aka SR-25 7.62 NATO), which was the Knights Armament Mk-11 Suppressor.
“Scopes are an important part of the weapon system. Overseas, I used a 32-power scope. As a SEAL, I used Nightforce scopes. They have very clear glass, and they’re extremely durable under terrible conditions. They always held their zero for me,” said Kyle. If you take that info to consideration, the scope in the photos must be a Nightforce NXS 8-32×56. However, a Nightforce rep told me that at the time of Kyle’s service, the Nightforce NXS 5.5-22×56 was a popular choice on magnum rifles. He added that at the time, they were configured with 0.25 MOA click adjustments, and either the Nightforce Mil-dot or MLR reticles. Towards the end of Kyle’s career, scopes with Nightforce’s ZeroStop feature were getting phased into use.
You can see in the photos the McMillan stock he was using on his .300 Win Mag had their lightweight saddle-style adjustable cheek-piece, instead of the integral cheek-piece like the one on his .338 Lapua. That makes it easy to tell those rifles apart in photos, in addition to the suppressor (he never had a suppressor for his .338).
The factory Remington trigger was tuned to 2 pounds. Kyle said “I used a 2 pound trigger on my rifles. That’s a fairly light pull. I want the trigger to surprise me every time; I don’t want to jerk the gun as I fire. I was no resistance: Get set, get ready, put my finger and gently start squeezing, and it goes off.”
But, Kyle tells us he received an upgraded .300 Win Mag during one of his tours (likely the Mk-13 Mod 5): “In my third platoon – the one that went to Ramadi – we got all new .300s. These used Accuracy International stocks, with a brand-new barrel and action. The AI version had a shorter barrel and a folding stock. They were bad-ass.”
In 2013, sculptor Greg Marra wanted to pay tribute to Chris Kyle by making a life-size sculpture of the hero as a gift to his family. It was important to Marra that the statue was holding an exact replica of Kyle’s rifle, down to the smallest detail. Kyle’s wife allowed Marra to use his rifle for the project, and he contracted a company named NVision to scan a high-resolution 3D model of the rifle.
The rifle pictured below is Kyle’s sniper rifle they scanned for the sculpture. It’s the rifle he used the most, and is likely what he would have called “his sniper rifle,” if he had to pick just one.
Watch the news report about scanning the rifle for the sculpture:
His .338 Lapua Mag
In his book, Kyle mentioned they didn’t have .338 Lapua rifles in training, but started getting them later during the war. Unlike his other weapons, it wasn’t type classified rifle or caliber, meaning there wasn’t a detailed specification for the rifle. Kyle said “there are a number of different manufacturers, including McMillan and Accuracy International.”
Kyle recounts “I used a .338 on my last deployment. I would have used it more if I’d had it.” He goes on to say, “The bullet shoots farther and flatter than a .50 caliber, weighs less, costs less, and will do just about as much damage. They are awesome weapons.” He was obviously a big fan of the .338 Lapua, and the only drawback he mentioned was “my model’s lack of a suppressor. When you’re shooting inside a building, the concussion is strong enough that it’s a pain – literally. My ears would hurt after a few shots.”
This was the rifle that he made his longest confirmed kill with, which was a 2,100 yard shot. That is 1.2 miles (or 1.92 km for you metric guys)! Kyle includes the photo below in his book, and adds this caption: “A close-up of my Lapua .338, the gun I made my longest kill with. You can see my ‘dope’ card – the placard on the side contains my come-ups (adjustments) needed for long-range targets. My 2,100 yard shot exceeded the card’s range, and I had to eyeball it.” Wow.
His .338 was the rifle featured on the cover of his autobiography, American Sniper. The rifle image was likely extracted from the photo below of Chris Kyle with the rifle.
This photo of his .338 Lapua rifle was also included in his autobiography, on the inside cover.
The scope on that rifle resembled a Leupold design, so I contacted Leupold Tactical to see if they could identify the model. They said it looked to be a Leupold Mark 4 3.5-10x40mm LR/T Illuminated model. Based on Kyle’s time of service, they said the scope likely featured their TMR reticle, but they couldn’t be sure. So at 10x magnification, that makes the 2,100 yard shot even more impressive!
I’ve heard people say it was a McMillan TAC-338 rifle, although Kyle didn’t specify in his book. But as I was researching this, I noticed McMillan has a rifle package for the TAC-338 that looks virtually identical to the photos of Kyle’s rifle from his autobiography. From the scope, to the rings, to the stock, to the MIRS rail, to the muzzle brake, to the bipod, to the bottom metal and magazine, and even the leather sling! I’m going to go out on a limb and say he had the McMillan TAC-338 Rifle Package.
Here are the specs that are on the McMillan TAC-338 Rifle Package, and likely what was on the Kyle’s .338 Lapua rifle as well:
McMillan G30 Long Action
McMillan A5 Stock with integral adjustable cheek-piece, spacer system for adjustable length of pull, flush cups, and one stud
Schneider 26.5” Medium-Heavy Contour Barrel with 1:10” twist
McMillan tactical muzzle brake
Leupold Mark 4 3.5-10×40 LR/T scope with M1 turret and illuminated mil-dot reticle
20 MOA scope base made by McMillan
McCann Industries Integrated Rail System (MIRS) Rifle Mount
Turner Saddlery Synthetic Leather Sling
Harris 6-9” Swivel Bipod
In the movie, American Sniper, they tried to stay true to the rifles and techniques Kyle actually used. Bradley Cooper went to multiple training sessions with Scott Reitz of International Training Seminars to learn basic techniques on breathing and marksmanship before they started filming the movie. You can see Cooper is holding a McMillan TAC-338 Rifle Package in the photo at the range with his trainer. So obviously, the movie producers thought that was the rifle Kyle used as well.
The List Of Sniper Rifles Continues At Precision Rifle Blog
The post American Sniper Rifles: 5 of Chris Kyle’s Favorite Sniper Rifles appeared first on Weapons Media.