Walther WA 2000

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Walther WA 2000
Walther WA 2000 in the showcase of the Defense Technical Study Collection in Koblenz
general information
Civil name: WA 2000
Developer / Manufacturer: Carl Walter GmbH
Weapon Category: Sniper rifle
Furnishing
Overall length: 905 mm
Weight: (unloaded) 6.95 kg
Barrel length : 650 mm
Technical specifications
Caliber : .300 Winchester Magnum
7.62 × 51 mm NATO
7.5 × 55 mm Swiss
Possible magazine fillings : 5/6 cartridges
Ammunition supply : Box magazine
Fire types: Single fire
Closure : Turret lock
Charging principle: Gas pressure charger
Lists on the subject

The Walther WA 2000 is a semi-automatic precision rifle for high-performance cartridges designed by Carl Walther GmbH in the early 1970s . The rifle combines some interesting concepts, but never became a commercial success due to the high unit price. For this reason, only a limited number was built until 1989. There is no reliable information about the number of rifles produced , the President of the US-American Walther offshoot, Earl J. Sheehan, Jr., puts the number of copies produced at 176.

The construction is a frame design. This means that the barrel lies between an upper and a lower arm of the frame. At the front the arms are connected by a bridge, and at the back there are side plates. This makes the entire construction very torsion-resistant. At the same time, the breech and barrel are not in the upper part of the construction, as in other rifles, but in the middle. In this way, the forces during the shot are transmitted in a straight line through the frame into the shooter's shoulder. At the same time, the rifle was built in the so-called bullpup design. The bolt and magazine are located behind the trigger in the piston. This shortens the weapon.

The weapon is a gas pressure loader with a 60 ° rotating bolt head that locks in the cartridge chamber with seven lugs distributed in three rows. The impulse gas system lies under the barrel and is connected to the bolt carrier via two rails. The return spring is located between the gas piston and the cartridge chamber.

The magazine holds a .300 Win caliber. Like five and Win at .308. six shots. The safety catch is attached on both sides, although the weapon is not suitable for left-handers. For weight saving and cooling, the barrel of the weapons of the first series is fluted , i. H. provided with longitudinal grooves, which increase the surface by 3.4 times. Fluting was abandoned in the second series.

At the muzzle (outside the frame) there is a relatively inconspicuous muzzle brake that halves the recoil. A bipod is mounted at the top of the frame at the front, which can be folded up over the frame and thus extends under the telescopic sight. Since the weapon hangs in the bipod, it is very stable when firing. Caliber changes are possible by exchanging the barrel and fewer other parts.

All visible metal parts are coated in black. The parts of the shaft touched by the shooter are made of wood. The pistol grip has a thumb hole and is hallmarked . The weapons were delivered as standard with a 2.5–10 × 42 telescopic sight with a No. 6 reticle from Schmidt & Bender .

The idea behind the design was to build a semi-automatic weapon for special forces that is more compact than previous sniper rifles, but offers a fast rate of fire with comparable precision and range.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ian McCollum: Walther WA2000: The Ultimate German Sniper Rifle. www.youtube.com, accessed on July 22, 2018 (English, at 5:55 min).
  2. ↑ Mel Ewing: Walther WA2000. www.snipercentral.com, October 23, 2014, accessed July 22, 2018 .

Web links

Commons : Walther WA 2000  - Collection of images, videos and audio files