The Victrix Scorpio V Sniper Rifle at War

By: Warren Gray

Copyright © 2024

“Victrix Armaments Rifles Are Insane, and the Scorpio Might Be Its Best…

each gun is meticulously machined, with incredible attention to detail…

I was absolutely impressed when I got to shoot these guns…If you’re in

need of a dedicated, long-range rifle, make sure you put the Victrix

Armaments Scorpio at the top of your list.”

— Dave Bahde, Athlon Outdoors, March 12, 2019

On April 3, 2023, journalist Neil Hauer wrote for the Navy Times that, “Elite, Ukrainian snipers describe their war from the shadows,” having interviewed and traveled with a Ukrainian sniper named Artyom, from Kramatorsk, who joined the army in 2016. He and another sniper, Yevhen, were part of a mobile strike team hunting in the shadows, “capable of taking on isolated, Russian columns…in the opening weeks of the 2022 invasion, picking off senior enemy officers at long range, inspiring fear and confusion among the ill-prepared and disorganized Russian ranks.”

These expert snipers are permitted to select their own personalized, top-of the-line, suppressed sniper rifles, with Yevhen preferring the British-manufactured, olive-green, Accuracy International L96A1 in .308 caliber, while Artyom opted for the more-powerful, Italian-made Victrix Armaments (a market leader in Europe) Scorpio V in .338 Lapua Magnum.

Yevhen fires his Accuracy International L96A1 rifle in eastern Ukraine. Photo credit: Thomas Mutch/Military Times

Victrix is located at Cazzano Sant’Andrea in northern Italy, 10 miles northeast of Bergamo, and only 36 miles from the Swiss border. With 50 years of experience in precision engineering, they produce state-of-the-art rifles, and they are the only manufacturer that currently designs and manufactures in-house firearms ranging from .22 LR to .50 BMG chamberings.

Victrix currently produces five different sniper models: The Gladio V is chambered in .308 Winchester, .308 Match, .260 Remington, or 6.5mm Creedmoor, while the Tormento V is built for .375 CheyTac or .408 CheyTac, and the Corvo V (“Raven”) is designed for heavy, .50 BMG loads.

Next is the compact Pugio V (named for a Roman dagger) in .308 Winchester, with a 16-inch barrel, designed for urban sniping. This short weapon has been selected by the elite, 9th Paratroopers Assault Regiment “Col. Moschin,” of the Italian Army, the 17th Raiders Wing of the air force, the Central Security Task Group (NOCS) of the Italian national police force, and other specialized units. (See my Gunpowder Magazine article on “Italian Special Forces and Their Weapons” from October 3, 2021, for more information on these elite units.)

Victrix Pugio V in .308 Winchester. Photo credit: Victrix Armaments

But Artyom’s preferred, long-range weapon is the bolt-action Victrix Scorpio V. The manufacturer states that the “Victrix Scorpio is born to be the ideal firearm for military sniping, with its .338 Lapua Magnum caliber…also in its .300 Winchester Magnum and .300 Norma Magnum calibers…The most-steady .338 ever.” The armed forces of India have recently purchased a total of 5,719 Barrett Model 95s in .50 BMG, and Victrix Scorpio TGT (currently known as the Scorpio V) sniper rifles in .338 LM, to modernize their aging inventory of less-powerful, shorter-range, Dragunov SVD rifles.

Victrix Scorpio V in .338 Lapua Magnum, with ROME Signum QR suppressor. Photo credit: Victrix Armaments

The Victrix Scorpio V (the “V” is “Victrix,” not the Roman numeral “Five,” with their “V” models being top-of-the line) is named after an ancient, Roman crossbow weapon on a fixed, wooden mount, designed for siege warfare. The modern rifle is offered in three different calibers, with a 22-inch or 26-inch, match-grade, button-rifled barrel in AISI 416R chromium stainless steel, and a seven-round, single-stack, AICS-style, detachable, polymer magazine. The barrel is threaded, to accept either a Victrix ProAngle detachable muzzle brake with three baffles, or a ROME (Rottigni Officina MEccanica) Signum QR .338 suppressor, providing 39 decibels of sound reduction.

There’s a fully modular, hard-anodized, 7075 aluminum chassis, with an infinitely adjustable, finely tuned, side-folding stock that reduces overall length by 9.7 inches when folded, to a modest 35.5 inches with a 22-inch barrel, and an AR-15-style pistol grip. The chassis is available in three different Cerakote finishes: Dark Gray, Dark Olive Drab Green, or Medium Flat Brown. Overall weight is 14.1 to 14.8 pounds, depending upon barrel length.

This is not a lightweight rifle, but its weight and highly effective muzzle brake contribute to greatly reduced recoil. In fact, the Victrix website proudly says of the Scorpio, “No recoil here, we don’t know what it is.”

A Victrix Professional dual-stage trigger ($308) is convertible to a single-stage trigger, with the factory pull weight set at about three pounds, nearly perfect for sniper missions. Victrix’s Minerva three-lug, long-action bolt in AISI 630 stainless-steel alloy is fluted to reduce weight and coated in PVD (physical vapor deposition) for smooth operation and corrosion protection. Dave Bahde wrote for Athlon Outdoors that, “The bolt was also incredibly smooth and fast…through the same speed drills.”

Bahde test-fired the Scorpio V in .300 Norma Magnum, stating that, “Short of downrange energy, the .300 Norma Magnum will do anything a .338 Lapua (Magnum) will, with less cost and recoil, yet greater precision…You can reach 2,000 yards using a good scope with enough elevation…I got hits on a three-by-three-foot, steel target at 2,000 yards…within just a few rounds…within 1,000 yards, the Victrix kept everything inside 1 MOA for three shots.” His overall accuracy ranged from .47 to .80 MOA at ranges out to 300 yards, with some groups as tight as .3-inch.

In January 2022, the Italian Army selected the Scorpio V in .338 LM, with 26-inch barrel (although some 22-inch models may arrive), and Steiner 5-25x56mm scopes, as their Future Sniper Rifle, for equipping regular units, as well as Special Forces units, to begin replacing existing Sako TRG-42 rifles. It is already in use with special units such as the 9th Paratroopers Assault Regiment, the 4th Alpini Paratroopers Regiment, the Lagunari Regiment (amphibious combat), and the Italian Navy’s Operational Raiders Group (GOI). The similar, but shorter, Pugio V in .308 is also in standard service with many units.

In the embattled Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Artyom and Yevhen’s hit-and-run sniper warfare represents an evolutionary shift from the outdated Soviet approach, to a modern, Western, NATO-style of combat marksmanship, and Artyom pointed out that, “The U.S., U.K., (and) Canada; these countries are the pinnacle of modern equipment. What they use, we try to emulate…Since we’re specialists, we get to choose a lot of our own missions.”

NATO leaders today are actually studying the highly successful battle tactics of these roving, independent sniper teams in Ukraine, developing practical guidelines for what their own troops might face if Russia presses their vicious, unprovoked attack into NATO territory, since these Ukrainian snipers have been inflicting disproportionate losses upon the numerically superior Russian invaders.

Artyom also noted that, “Sniper duels are just a silly thing from the movies. When they (the Russians) really want to get us, they use mortars, or if we’re really unlucky, white phosphorus [deadly, incendiary munitions]. Everything was on fire [in the village of Bilohorivka, on the front lines]. We were lucky to escape that time.”

Actually, on his most successful day, he used an ordinary, Kalashnikov AK-74 assault rifle to kill 15 Russian soldiers over a period of three hours, because they were foolishly milling about in the same area for an extended period of time, but he definitely prefers his Italian Scorpio V for long-range sniper missions.

The big, unanswered question here is how these very expensive, top-quality weapons such as the Scorpio V rifle end up in war-ravaged Ukraine, which doesn’t have much money to spend, even for such very necessary equipment. The Italian government has donated many articles of military gear to Ukraine, including SkyGuard II/Aspide air defense missiles, artillery, rocket launchers, mortars, tactical vehicles, trucks, heat-seeking Stinger missiles, anti-tank weapons, radar systems, medium and heavy machine guns, body armor, and medical supplies, but there’s no mention of Scorpio V sniper rifles on any official list.

Whatever the source of the excellent Victrix rifles in Ukraine, the war is a real-time, proving ground for all types of military tactics and equipment, and combat-testing the Scorpio is certainly the best way to discern its relative strengths and weaknesses under very harsh field conditions.

The Victrix Scorpio V is a superb, high-precision, top-quality, long-range, sniper weapon. With an MSRP of €6,121 ($6,672), per the manufacturer, it’s a high-end competitor to other European precision rifles. In January 2024, it made the list of the “9 Best .338 Lapua Rifles [2024]: Comprehensive Guide” on Gunmade.com. Over the past year, The Scorpio V has garnered significant frontline combat experience in Ukraine, clearly proving its exceptional worth in modern, high-intensity warfare.

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Warren Gray is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism, and is an NRA member. He served in Europe (including Italy and Eastern Europe) and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author, historian, and hunter.