Again an old post...and again, what the hell. :p

I'd say, in the game, assuming it was available? A modified SR-25 in .300 Winchester Magnum. It's lighter than the Barrett M-82(which don't get me wrong, it's long ranged and powerful as hell, but it weighs like a beast), it's accurate, semi-automatic and feeds from a 10 or 20 round magazine that allows quick follow up shots, handling characteristics are similar to the AR-15/M-16/M-4 platform, and the .300 Winchester Magnum does have pretty decent range and packs a punch. If reports out of Iraq were accurate, some SOF members were using this sort of configuration for vehicle interdiction (if someone out there knows more or if this is inaccurate, please let me know).

In real life? Mind you, I have no training as a sniper, but I'd probably pick the same thing assuming I can get it (SR-25 in .300 Winchester Magnum has to be special ordered, if I'm not mistaken). It would just take some time to get used to the recoil, among other things.


However, it seems I voted on the Accuracy International .338 Lapua Magnum for some reason....oops. :o

It would have to be a WSM winchester short magnum. The .300 WM is too long to fit in the 308 magazine. The Mag well would have to be lengthened and the upper redone, basically a whole new weapon.

You may be right, though I believe the .300 WSM ballistics-wise has about the same performance as the .300 Winchester Magnum, only difference is the cartridge casing itself is shorter but wider (from what I can tell). That said, perhaps they meant to say .300 Winchester Short Magnum but got it confused with .300 Winchester Magnum.

In no particular order:

L115A1/A3 Accuracy International AWSM in 338 Lapua
CheyTac Intervention M200 in 408 CheyTac, when you really want to reach out and touch someone... (surprised no one's brought this one up as of yet..)
Stoner M25/M110 series

Is there anyone in regards to military, security, PMC or police forces that are using the CheyTac Intervention? It appears to be an interesting weapon.

Accordint to Wikipedia, the know users are:

Jordan: Used by Jordanian SRR-61 Regiment.
Poland: Used by GROM operatives.
Turkey: Used by Maroon Berets operatives.

I'm sure there are probably some elite units that haven't officially reported that they use them. The M200 did show up on an episode of The Unit, so it wouldn't surprise me if Delta/CAG was employing them in some fashion.

Depending on the nationality of the character, it could be quite a lot of things. However, a Finnish character would have, depending on his outfit and whether he was actually fully classified as a sniper or a support sniper either sniper rifle m/2000 (Sako TRG-42 in .338 Lapua Magnum), the heavy sniper rifle m/2000 (Barrett .50 cal in either the M82A1 or M107) or, if assigned to further down in the reserves, the sniper rifle m/85 (practically a 7.62x53mmR Mosin-Nagant action mounted on a plywood stock with a heavy free-floating bull-barrel).Of those three I've actually fired the last one (and trained other reservists in its operation) and love the old lady sincerily.

For other nationalities, I'd probably go for a bolt-action rifle like AWM or M24/M40 series. SVD could come to question as well (I have also trained with it as a reservist, though I consider it to be more of a support snipers weapon rather than a full-fledged sniper rifle). The funny thing about SVD is that is was built for use with a heavy protective vest, which makes the stock about 5cm/2" too short - a painful thing to shoot unless you have already learned about that. And the rubber 'suction cup' at the end of the original scope is also a funny one - it feels as if your eye would be just about to be sucked out of its socket when you fire the rifle. :p

I went with the M21 as it and the M82/M107 are the only ones I have first hand experience with. I do not considered the M82 a sniper rifle, at least the one that I used was not accurate enough. Disclaimer I was not a sniper, but EOD.

Idk if DMRs are included, but an SKS with a low power optic.

Well technically, the SVD is a DMR (because that was the doctrine it was specifically designed for) but it's been put into the role of "sniper" so I reckon the category is wide enough to allow you a DMR rather than a pure sniping rifle.
pfloyd mentioned the Chey Tac Intervention and exhibited surprise that nobody had mentioned it earlier - I think that's probably because it wasn't available until well after the Twilight War had started. From memory it was produced in 2001, so it's far too late for 1st or 2nd ed. timelines, I do actually like it so that's a bit of a disappointment.

If I was going to go the DMR path, I think I'd give my PC the L1A1/C1A1 rifle (with the dustcover designed for mounting scopes) and use that. Couple of reasons - it's robust and a decent hitter, ammo would be relatively easy to find compared to some true sniper rifles in more exotic calibres, take the scope off and it looks like any other combat rifle rather than an obvious sniping weapon, larger magazine capacity than most true sniping rifles.

+1 for the SLR Fan Club.

It's Alive!
 

Based on the new responses on the Favorite APC/IFV thread, I thought a bit of thread necromancy might be in order.