Re: Why a SASS?
Hobbyists will not immediately understand because they are choosing with their wallets, balanced against play and practice time and obligations.
For military snipers there are several planning formulae we habitually fall back on.
METT-T(P) and Risk Assessment are two.
The Mission always dictates. Equipment available; Time; Troops, Terrain; and any Political or civilian factors affect planning and execution.
Risk = Probability X Consequences. What are the enemy's most likely and most dangerous courses of action?
What is your definition of success and what is a tolerable risk? What is desired end-state and how do you want the battlefield to look?
The answer isn't always a bolt gun, nor is it always an auto or a magnum.
Look at how the guys from the SOTIC School Cadre planned for the Benning International Sniper Competition. Once they figured out the general courses of fire; target distances; precision and accuracy requirements; and general weight, movement, and fatigue demands for a four-day gut check the equation came back with Larue OBRs as the right tool for that mission set. Somewhere out in West Texas or the Rockies might have called for .338 Magnums.
If your only tool is a hammer pretty soon a lot of your problems may begin to look like nails.
