Elbonia has decided on .408 CheyTac as their sniper Cartridge.  They are now looking for a gun. There is 2 fundamental schools of thought in the army. Bullpup or no?

Gentlemen, please start your arguments ;)

They're looking at a down-scaled M82 Barrett as one possibility. Also, an upgraded SVD. Most likely? Max's rebarreled PTRS.

The purchasing delegates have asked me to contact Brandon Herrera, and see if he could reverse- and re-engineer his M82A2 for 14.5mm, for the new SDMR.

So, conventional sniper rifle, bullpup SDMR.

Bullpup all the way, since Elbonia isn't stuck on outdated prejudices!

Seriously now - a bullpup rifle like Desert Tech's makes a lot of sense, especially if the barrel has to be long already.

A more pressing question, however, should be - semiauto or bolt action?

Another important question - off the shelf or custom made?

DT SRS HTI vs Barrett M107 - a suppressor could be added and still have a shorter OAL

Noreen BN408 semiauto - OAL is as big as it gets

Leader 50BMG vs M4 - semiauto and compact

Lynx 50BMG vs Barrett

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What about concussion from the massive muzzle breaks?  Is that a big enough issue to make bullpups less desireable?  Then again, if the point is to secretly sabotage the country's military....?

Of course we are talking about Elbonia here, a country famous for its mud.  Whatever is chosen, it needs to be sent to Arizona so the Forgotten Weapons guys can perform their signature mud-test.   Certainly this will avoid all the expense of developing a comprehensive set of tests that are actually pertinent to the area where these firearms will be used!

my vote is bullpup, bolt action, silencer

Once you get to these large-frame guns bolt-action bullpup is the way to go especially as these days everyone is using suppressors (add cca 30cm in lenght) and rifles become lances ,but at present, there is no off the shelf rifle specifically for Cheytac , most are 50BMG rifles that offer a conversion kit for Cheytac 

As Snipers cover much more distance on foot than any other soldier with more gear and often need to stalk for some distance which is very energy intensive the most important factor for a sniper rifle ,given all other things are equal , is weight, so would take Voere X3 over DT  HTI

Desert tactical HTI is about 1kg heavier as its a 50BMG-sized action, while Voere X3 is sized so that Cheytac is maximum it will take .

Cheytac magazine for  Desert Tech HTI ,  HTI action is sized to handle 50BMG 

why not the X4?

X4 is a kilogram heavier than X3 , X4 looks like a full-sized 50Bmg action  , will check on IWA if its any smaller than X5 , i dont see much difference in receiver size between x4 and x5

Bigger, heavier receivers last longer, and suck more heat away from the barrel. That's official Elbonian design doctrine.

Mr. T (MrT4) said:

X4 is a kilogram heavier than X3 , X4 looks like a full-sized 50Bmg action  , will check on IWA if its any smaller than X5 , i dont see much difference in receiver size between x4 and x5

Did you manage to have a look?