Almost by definition, snipers operate from concealed positions, as being detected and, worse, located in combat by troops of a professional enemy is likely to bring down swift and violent retribution in the form of counter-sniper, machine-gun, tank gun, or artillery fire, or even an air strike. All soldiers admire and even love their own snipers and hate the enemy's with, if anything, greater passion. Concealability in this case is arguably dominated by fieldcraft, principally a careful choice of shooting position and the employment of camouflage, both for the sniper and the rifle. However, there are compelling reasons for making the rifles themselves easy to conceal, either completely or sufficiently to obfuscate their identities and therefore those of the soldiers carrying them as snipers, to reduce the likelihood they will be picked out as priority targets by hostile snipers. That means making them as small as practical while preserving useful range and accuracy, and/or designing them to fold down and/or break down into more easily concealable parts, preferably without making reassembly too awkward or time consuming: the take-down sniper rifle that the cool assassin carries in an attache case and assembles on a rooftop has been a staple of thrillers for decades.
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