Cadet Seaman said:
You could put a scope on a water pistol and call it a SWS.
What really dfineds what a SWS is? Its a weapon that can be sniped with. Lenardo Davinci almost invented a sniping rifle to "snipe at the enemy from the walls of Veince". Snipers where used in the Civil War, they used Springfield rifles with long copper tubes called "scopes: to snipe an enemy, they wore green coats to match the landscape.
So what is a SWS? You can snipe with any weapon, the KAR 89k was used as a sniper rifle. It was just a rifle with a scope. Same with the M16.
Sgt. Carlos Hathcock used a M2 Browning as a SWS, and had gotten the world furthest shot until recently.
:lol: M16 is not now, nor has it ever been a sniper rifle. A water pistol is not now, nor has it ever been a sniper rifle.
Hathcock did in fact use a
modified M2 to make his longest shot.
Even though the capability is there for mounting a scope & it is incredibly stable on a tripod, it is not a sniper rifle. You can mount a scope on an M240, M16, M4, M249, etc. that in and of itself does not make a sniper weapon. Is it capable of accurate long-range shots? Certainly. Is it capable of sub MOA shooting? I don't think so. Even the M82A1 SASR (Special Application Scoped Rifle) is not a true "sniper rifle."
I don't know why people want to turn things into something they aren't.
There are differences between a sniper rifle, DMR, and a lucky shot.
There are fellas that can take down targets all day long with an M16 and an ACOG. Doesn't make him a sniper, and it doesn't make an M16 a sniper rifle.
So to answer your question, no .. not just anything can be an SWS/sniper rifle.