Timberwolf .338 PGW

The Timberwolf originated as a civilian long-range hunting and target rifle developed by the Canadian firm Prairie Gun Works, later renamed PGW Defence Technologies Inc. The civilian design was built around super magnum cartridges and was offered in chamberings up to the .408 Cheyenne Tactical and the .416 PGW, a wildcat derived from it. During the 1990s the Canadian Armed Forces set out a requirement for a sniper rifle capable of engaging personnel at longer ranges than the 7.62×51mm NATO C3A1, which had been in service since the 1950s. Rifle trials held at CFB Gagetown in 2001 selected the Timberwolf, and in 2005 PGW Defence Technologies won a $4.5 million contract to supply the rifle to Canadian Forces Land Command. Production for the military began that year under the designation C14 Timberwolf Medium Range Sniper Weapon System.

The C14 uses a manually operated stainless steel bolt action with a right-hand bolt and ejection port. The rotary bolt carries dual front locking lugs and a third lug at the rear, the latter reducing the likelihood of binding during chambering, and requires a 90-degree lift. The bolt body is partly helically fluted to reduce weight and to trap debris. Cartridge cases are removed by a hook extractor and a double plunger ejector. PGW offers a titanium receiver as an alternative to the stainless steel unit, though this was not adopted by the Canadian military. The single-stage trigger is adjustable for weight, creep and over-travel, and the three-position safety includes a middle field-strip position. Feeding is from a detachable box magazine seated ahead of the trigger guard. The heavy, free-floating barrel is made by Krieger, cryogenically stress relieved, partly helically fluted, and fitted with a detachable proprietary stainless steel muzzle brake. No iron sights are provided; an integral Picatinny rail with a forward slope runs along the receiver, with two shorter MIL-STD-1913 rail sections at the front of the stock for lights and lasers. Canadian Forces optics were initially the Leupold Mark 4 LR/T and later Schmidt & Bender PM II sights, with Simrad night sights fitted on custom ring sets and UNS or MUNS units on a PGW proprietary mount. The rifle uses a McMillan A5 fibreglass stock, an evolution of the A3 pattern used on the M40A3, with an adjustable saddle cheekpiece, length-of-pull spacer plates and a PGW titanium cantilever monoblock bedding block. Standard accessories include bipods, slings, suppressors, cleaning kits, maintenance tools and soft or heavy-duty transit cases.

The C14 replaced the C3A1 as the principal sniper rifle of the Canadian Armed Forces, the older weapon being progressively withdrawn from active service after 2005. PGW states an accuracy potential of sub-0.75 MOA with suitable ammunition; the Canadian Forces standard was expressed instead as hit probability against a chest-sized target, and each rifle delivered under the contract was tested for accuracy with Department of National Defence officials present. Beyond Canada, the rifle is used by the British Special Air Service and the Royal Saudi Land Force. In early 2022 the Canadian government delivered C14 rifles to Ukraine, where they entered use with the Ukrainian Ground Forces and the Ukrainian Marine Corps. The civilian Timberwolf remains in production, offered with a longer custom barrel that can also be fitted to the military rifle.