In the disappointingly almost empty* armoury for the guards on Jewell Island, our characters found, among other things, some boxes that used to hold anti-materiel rifles. The GM stated that these were
'like the rifle in Kingsman used to shoot through the umbrella'.
He refers to the
Blaser Tactical 2 in .338 Lapua Magnum that appears in the movie
Kingsman: The Secret Service.
The GM stated that the specific model and brand-name was whatever was logical for the guards to have obtained, leaving such details to me, as the Assistant GM for Research (and other things). So I'm looking for sensible anti-materiel rifles that Deputy Warden Tyrrell could have obtained recently. These rifles would be intended for use from observation towers and/or other prepared positions that support the crew-served weapons in the observation towers.
From a sane point of view, the longest shot that could occur on Jewell Island is around 1,500 yds, because the island simply isn't longer than that. The longest shot that is
practically likely is around 800 yds, with 1,300 yds or so remaining possible, if someone really wants to. The vast majority of conceivable tactical situations would feature shots between 100 yds and 400 yds from either one of the towers, because anything of importance on the island is no further away from the towers than that.
If anyone wanted to engage boats or cutters, of course, there is no range limit. The further out that the rifles can engage accurately and effectively, the better. The mere fact that Warden Tyrrell obtained
anti-materiel rifles, instead of ordinary sharpshooter rifles in .308, 7mm or .300 Win Mag, certainly suggests that he intends them for a role other than shooting escapees on the small island itself.
My initial reaction was that rifles chambered in .50 BMG made more sense than ones in .338 Lapua Magnum, as the guards had access to vast stores of .50 BMG M2 machine-gun ammunition, including AP rounds. On the other hand, I don't know if any of the .50 BMG ammunition they have for their M2HB could actually be used for rifles.
I know that the black-tipped AP round "Cartridge, Caliber .50, Ball, Armor Piercing, M2" is not supposed to be used for any other weapon than the M2 machine gun, but I don't know what that means in practical terms. Will using it in a rifle not work or will it simply degrade the rifle over time, thus making the military forbid it? Would it give a massive penalty to Malf., Acc, Dmg and Range in GURPS terms or would it work more or less fine in the short term, only causing issues over years? Does it matter if it is a bolt-action or semi-automatic rifle?
In any event, Warden Tyrrell may well have obtained the rifles after he started falling into the rabbit hole, sanity wise, and he may have intended them for defence against US law enforcement, if and when it came to that. So there is a possibility that the guns were explicitly bought with performance against Coast Guard reponse boats and small cutters in mind. So any way he had of getting APHC or other amour-piercing ammunition would be a positive for him.
If being Coast Guard Reserve or Auxiliary would help him obtain such weapons more cheaply or get him access to military AP ammo, he'd probably have made use of any contacts he still has as a former Chief Warrant Officer. Some of his men are also Maine Army National Guard, Army Reserve or otherwise former military. Some eight or nine of his men have part-time federal law enforcement credentials, albeit sharply limited ones, related to responding to an emergency at the isolated mental institution where they work. This is variously from the Coast Guard and from the Federal Protective Service.
There was no way to get Uncle Sam to pay for the rifles, as there was certainly no pressing need for them, considering the complete absence of any outside security threat to the Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane, ever since it was founded. As a result, the company that he and his fellow guards founded when their security function was privatised, Manhanock Security, has to pay for the rifles. This more-or-less amounts to them paying for them personally.
As a result, I'd want the best value for money that could give them the tactical capabilities they are looking for. Light and handy rifles would be better than unwieldy ones, but they need enough heft to handle the recoil from whichever caliber I end up picking. The scopes need night-time capability and need to be high enough quality for the weapon system to work as a whole. Nothing more useless than a high-end rifle with a long-range round, but a cheap scope.
Semi-automatic and large magazine size is better than single-shot or bolt-action, but considerations of price or other practical matters would outweigh the limited added value of (relatively) quick follow-up shots, especially as the typical user won't be able to make any such shot anyway. Rapid semi-automatic fire might be called for when trying to disable the engines of a response boat or a Coast Guard cutter, but it's probably more important to be able to place one shot in the right place than hit the boat
somewhere several times.
We already know that the guards are trying to stretch their available resources when it comes to equipment they have to buy for themselves. They had been stockpiling non-perishable food, medical supplies, tools, cold-weather gear and various other survivalist paraphernalia and the feeling we got was that whoever bought it had been looking for good value. Not bargains, necessarily, nothing low-quality, just sensible purchases of stuff that wasn't brand-name, high-fashion or unecessarily expensive. Gen II+ NVGs instead of the newest, astronomically expensive models. Well-maintained power tools bought used. Military surplus where that was a good value, good-quality commercial products matching brand-name models for a lower price, etc.
Everything seemed bought by someone with professional level skill in using these things, Merchant 12+ and a budget he had to think about, not just justify to superiors.
I) With these things in mind, what rifles, scopes and other accessories would forumites suggests?
As a benchmark, the Blaser Tactical 2 is $5,000+ without scope or any accessories. The rifle shown in
Kingsman: The Secret Service probably came to $10,000+ all told.
I'd want each rifle, complete with scope and acessories, to come to about half that final price, so around $5,000 each. If you can get good quality
under that price, even better.
That's not a hard limit. If going slightly over budget would give much better value, I'll consider that. And if anything under $10,000 for the whole set-up would be so subpar as to be inferior to a regular hunting rifle, I'll ask the GM is .338 Lapua Magnum is necessarily the lowest caliber or if they'd consider obtaining a better value in a more sensible caliber.
II) Would it be possible to use the .50 BMG machine gun black-tip AP ammo in .50 BMG rifles?
III) Could you get fairly affordable Barrett M82/M107 rifles or should the first step be forgetting all about that well-known model and brand to focus on better value for money?
IV) Which caliber would be more practical, the .338 Lapua Magnum or the .50 BMG?
*Because the guards have already trooped through there, taking everything of any use, because not only are they gearing up themselves, but they are arming some of the orderlies.