Sniper Rifle

A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a centerfire cartridge. The single most important characteristic is the mounting of a telescopic sight. A telescopic sight allows a person to see targets more precisely by virtue of the magnified image it offers, and therefore aim the rifle more accurately.

Sniper rifles fire high-caliber bullets to great distances with supreme accuracy. Often, they are bolt-action rifles because of the system allows all of the power of the gas expansion of the gun powder to go towards propelling the round, not operating the internal mechanisms found in semi-auto rifles. However, semi-automatic sniper rifles are becoming more commonplace now, and are seen in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and usually fire rounds (NATO for the M14, M21, and WA2000 and Russian/Soviet for the Dragunov).

Sniper rifles can have an ACOG Scope in Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, effectively making them battle rifles, excluding the Intervention, which could be classed as a bolt action rifle with an ACOG.

Some sniper rifles have very high recoil (Barrett .50 Cal, Intervention), but also higher damage multipliers meaning that one-shot kills are more common. These are very loud which make them rather revealing against players who are experienced in weapon sounds. Others have low recoil but lower damage multipliers (M14 EBR), meaning kills usually require two shots, or stopping power/headshots for a one-shot kill. Players on Multiplayer usually fire two shots with the M21, even if it would normally require only one bullet.

Sniper rifles in Call of Duty: World at War are usually Bolt-action rifles with an attached scope, for example the Springfield, or a semi-automatic rifle such as the PTRS-41. Sniper rifles in World at War are very loud and echo across the maps (excluding the scoped M1 Garand).

(Throughout the Call of Duty series, sniper rifles used by the enemy shoot you below the head, weakening you, not killing you. In those single-player levels, you are commonly given a sniper rifle of your own to kill those enemies with before they can do the same to you. The only exception to this being the campaign mission Vendetta from Call of Duty: World at War in which during the sniper duel on the hardened and veteran difficulty settings, a single shot from the enemy sniper can kill you.

When a silencer is equipped on a sniper rifle (in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2), it decreases the power of the rifle from 70 damage to 50 damage, causing players to have to hit targets twice or sometimes in one in the neck/head area unless using Stopping Power.

List of Sniper Rifles

 * Call of Duty: Springfield, Mosin-Nagant, Kar98k, FG-42
 * Call of Duty: Finest Hour: Springfield, Mosin-Nagant, G43
 * Call of Duty 2: Springfield, Mosin-Nagant, Kar98k, Lee-Enfield, G43
 * Call of Duty 2: Big Red One: Springfield, Kar98k
 * Call of Duty 3: Springfield, Kar98k, Lee-Enfield
 * Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: M40A3, M21, Dragunov, R700, M82A1 Barrett .50 Cal
 * Call of Duty: World at War: Arisaka, Kar98k, Mosin-Nagant, Springfield, PTRS-41, M1 Garand
 * Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Barrett .50cal, Intervention, WA2000, M14 EBR, Dragunov