Guns Magazine exclusive: the SV98 testing Russia's latest sniper rifle; our precision-rifle editor travels half-way around the world to inspect Russia's latest

Guns Magazine, Dec, 2002 by David M. Fortier

The barreled action is mounted in a green laminated wood stock. However the rifle is also available on special order with a stock molded from fiberglass reinforced polyamide. While a laminated wood stock may seem a bit old fashioned, such is not the case when it comes to extreme accuracy. There are a number of ultra long range competition shooters who claim a wood stock provides superior accuracy over a modern synthetic stock.

Benchrest Bedding System

I was also quite interested in exactly how the rifle was bedded as it's the bedding that often makes or breaks a rifle. The SV-98 does not feature glass bedding nor pillars. Instead, the lower surface of the receiver is mated to the stock via a special thermal setting synthetic bedding compound.

Anyone who has ever played with a Remington 700-based sniper rifle knows that the torque on the action screws effects accuracy. I asked if this was the case with the SV-98.

"Nyet", Stronskiy replied. Torquing the action screws to different values has no effect, you simply tighten them down securely.

Like many current European sniper rifles, the SV-98's stock belies its competition rifle heritage. The butt is adjustable for length of pull via spacers. It is also adjustable both vertically and horizontally. Likewise the cheekrest is adjustable for height as well. This makes for a comfortable rifle that an operator can set up to suit his physical characteristics.

The front of the rifle features a stud to which a simplified and improved version of a Parker-Hale bipod may be easily attached or removed. When not in use, the bipod folds conveniently out of the way into the rifle's forend. To the rear of the cutout for the bipod is a short accessory rail. To the right side of the forend is mounted a simple carrying handle. Provisions are made for mounting an SVD's sling onto the left side of the stock.

Like A Spare Tire In The Trunk

Something not seen very often anymore on sniper rifles are back-up iron sights. The SV-98 has them. They consist of a protected front post and a simple tangent rear and are similar to the ones used on the SVD. On our test rifle though, the rear sight had been temporarily removed. Iron sights on sniper rifles are for emergencies only, as it is the optical sight that makes this type of weapon truly effective.

While a Schmidt undt Bender Tactical scope would have looked right at home such was not the case. Instead the SV-98 mounted a strange porro-prism unit, the PKS-07. While out of the ordinary today, porro-prism rifle scopes are nothing new. Our snipers fielded them on Springfields during World War I, and the French tested one on their MAS Mle 1940 trials rifle in May 1940.

Obsolete Optics

The unit mounted on our test SV-98 was a fixed 7x with 1 cm elevation and windage adjustments. The reticle was quite different, even for the Russians, and consisted of a simple aiming dot of approximately I MOA diameter inside of a large oval. That was it. No choke rangefinder, no Mil marks, no windage or lead marks, no stadia to help prevent cant, nothing. The scope attached to the rifle via two levers and was said to retain its zero if removed and then remounted.