Walther WA 2000
sniper rifle
The Walther WA 2000 is a semi-automatic bullpup sniper rifle produced by the Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen company from 1978 to 1988. The WA2000 was introduced to the markets in 1981 and was produced in three different calibers. Production of the rifle was limited and it was shortly stopped because it was too expensive to achieve widespread sales and not robust enough for military use as a sniper rifle. Only 176 were built due to its high manufacturing cost, making it one of the rarest, most sought-after, and extremely valuable production firearms ever made, with common auction prices in the United States starting at $50,000.
Design
The WA 2000 was designed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in response to the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
The barrel is clamped at the front and rear so that it does not twist on firing, while the rest of the barrel is free from any contact with the furniture to prevent further distortions or movement disturbing the gun's aim. Furthermore, the barrel is fluted to dampen vibrations and aid cooling. The barrel is set in line with user's shoulder to reduce recoil and the bolt mechanism sits behind the handgrip in a 'bullpup' arrangement. All stock furniture is fully adjustable, and when firing the .300 Winchester Magnum and using the standard Schmidt and Bender x2.5 to x10 sight, the rifle's accuracy is considerable.
The bullpup design was chosen to shorten weapon-length, whilst mostly preserving the accuracy and ballistic-performance of an otherwise full-length rifle.
The public source identifies “Walther WA 2000” as sniper rifle. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Walther, sniper and rifle.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42257. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 1978, 1988 and 1981.
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This entry incorporates text from “Walther WA 2000” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.