The venerable M24 Sniper Weapon System, designed for precision engagement with specialized match ammunition, recently underwent a practical evaluation to determine its accuracy potential when loaded with standard M80 ball ammunition. This inquiry, first reported by rifleshooter.com, aimed to resolve a long-standing curiosity among precision rifle enthusiasts regarding military sniper rifle performance under less-than-ideal resupply scenarios.
The test platform was a used M24 rifle, equipped with its characteristic fixed 10X scope. The rifle’s baseline accuracy with match-grade ammunition had been previously established as excellent. When fed factory Federal Gold Medal 175 Grain SMK ammunition, the M24 consistently produced 5-shot groups well under 1 MOA at 100 yards. Furthermore, handloaded ammunition tightened these groups to an impressive 0.5 MOA, demonstrating the rifle's inherent precision with optimized loads.
For the ball ammunition segment, Winchester M80 147 grain full metal jacket cartridges were utilized. This ammunition type is the standard US Military ball cartridge, commonly found in belt-fed systems such as the M240G. After firing ten rounds, the test revealed a significant degradation in accuracy compared to match loads. The M24 recorded a 100-yard group average of 2.572 MOA with the M80 ball. Concurrently, average muzzle velocity was measured at 2,803 feet per second, with a standard deviation (SD) of 17.8 feet per second. Notably, this measured velocity was only 3 feet per second off the military's specified velocity for M80, indicating consistent propellant burn.
Despite the expected accuracy degradation, the severity of the 2.572 MOA grouping was a point of interest. Ballistic trajectory analysis using the measured M80 velocity (2,803 ft/s) was conducted against known match rounds: the 175 SMK at 2,600 ft/s and the 168 SMK at 2,756 ft/s. While the lighter M80 round demonstrably struggled more in wind deflection compared to the heavier match projectiles, its trajectory drop out to 1,000 yards showed a surprising similarity to the match rounds. This was attributed to the M80’s higher muzzle velocity, which effectively compensated for its lighter mass over distance.
Ultimately, while 2.5 MOA accuracy is far from competitive precision, the test confirms the M24's capability to deliver service-grade accuracy with standard ball ammunition, offering a viable, albeit limited, emergency option. The rifleshooter.com report concludes that while such testing is valuable for understanding system limits, shooting ball ammunition from dedicated precision rifles will remain an infrequent practice.
