The KNT-76 belongs to the broader class of designated marksman rifles, semi-automatic precision weapons issued at squad level to extend a unit's engagement range beyond that of a standard service rifle without giving up the rate of fire a bolt-action sniper rifle sacrifices. Where a classic bolt-gun needs a fresh working of the action between shots, the KNT-76 stays gas-operated and semi-automatic, letting the shooter re-engage a second or third target almost as fast as the first. Turkey developed it specifically to reduce dependence on imported semi-automatic sniper rifles such as the German Heckler & Koch HK417 and the older Soviet-designed SVD Dragunov, both of which had equipped Turkish units before the domestic program matured.¹⁰

Multiple Turkish sources credit the KNT-76 with an effective range of 800 meters and a claimed 1.5 MOA grouping performance, developed by reusing engineering experience and manufacturing lines already validated by the MPT-76 infantry rifle program.^1,2 It entered service with the Turkish Armed Forces in 2017 and has since been issued to the General Command of Gendarmerie and to special-operations units as well as conventional infantry.⁴ Beyond Turkey, small numbers have gone to Senegal and Georgia, making the KNT-76 one of the more visible small-arms exports of Turkey's post-2015 push toward defense-industry self-sufficiency.

The Gas Piston System Shared With the MPT-76

The KNT-76 uses a gas-operated short-stroke piston system driving a rotating bolt, the same basic operating principle as the MPT-76 rifle it is derived from.^3,1 Where the two weapons diverge is in role-specific tuning. The KNT-76 fires semi-automatically only (the MPT-76 offers a fully automatic setting), swaps the MPT-76's 406mm barrel for a longer 508mm (20 inch) match-grade barrel, and adds roughly 500 grams to the overall weight to steady the rifle for precision shots.^2,4 Turkish sources give the KNT-76's weight as 4.7 kilograms unloaded, though MKE's own export catalogue for the United States market lists a slightly heavier 11.02 lb (about 5.0 kg), a gap most likely explained by a different accessory or rail configuration counted in that listing.^2,3

The barrel change alone pushed effective range from the MPT-76's roughly 600 meters out to about 800 meters, and cut the claimed dispersion from 4 MOA down to 1.5 MOA.² Muzzle velocity is quoted at approximately 800 m/s (2,640 fps) using 170-grain Lapua HPS test ammunition.^2,3 The rifle feeds from the same 20-round detachable magazine as the MPT-76 family, and its adjustable, single-stage trigger breaks at 15 to 25 newtons (roughly 3.4 to 5.5 lbf) of pull.^2,3

3E EOS Optics, Thermal Sights, and the Keskin Scope

Turkish Land Forces Command requirements specified a mounted Keskin 3-12x50 scope, built domestically by the Turkish electro-optics firm 3E EOS, adjustable for aimpoint zero from 100 to 800 meters.⁶ The same supplier produced the Bozkurt 675 thermal weapon sight and the DLIRIL 50 multi-function laser designator delivered alongside the rifle, giving the KNT-76 a day, thermal, and laser-marking optics suite built almost entirely inside Turkey.⁶ A NATO-standard optic rail on the receiver lets units swap between these and other day, thermal, or night-vision sights depending on the mission.⁶

The rifle's barrel and muzzle device on both configuration variants (see Variants below) accept a suppressor, and the Land Forces version specifically adds an adjustable gas block that reduces gas pressure when a suppressor is fitted, cutting the extra mechanical wear and felt recoil that suppressor use often adds to a piston-driven action.⁷

Two Configurations for Land Forces and Gendarmerie

MKE introduced two customized KNT-76 builds around the shared action, magazines, controls, and charging handle.⁷ The version built for the General Command of Gendarmerie carries a distinct buttstock with two separate adjustment points (letting the stock angle up or down as well as change length) and an adjustable cheek pad, mounted on a custom Kayı-branded handguard.⁷ The version built for the Turkish Land Forces Command instead uses an M-LOK handguard and omits the angling adjustment, but adds the suppressor-tuned adjustable gas block described above.⁷ Neither variant changes the underlying 7.62x51mm NATO chambering, barrel length, or claimed 1.5 MOA accuracy.

From the Mehmetçik-1 to a 7.62mm Marksman Rifle

The rifle family that produced the KNT-76 began as the Mehmetçik-1 prototype in 2008, originally chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO.⁴ Turkish troops who tested it reported a preference for the older 7.62x51mm NATO round's stopping power and range, and MKE redesigned the program around that cartridge, producing the rifle that would become the MPT-76.⁴ The MPT-76 debuted publicly at Turkish defense exhibitions in 2014, delivered its first 200-rifle batch to the Turkish Armed Forces on May 18, 2014, and entered full serial production in 2015, with about 66,000 MPT-76 and MPT-55 rifles combined built by 2019.⁴

Development of the marksman variant ran in parallel. MKE began the KNT-76 project on May 15, 2014, aiming to reuse as many MPT-76 components as possible while extending the platform's precision for a squad-level designated marksman role.¹³ Five prototype rifles were built, four of which went through 18 separate qualification tests between October 5 and November 16, 2015, and the KNT-76 received its formal product qualification certificate on December 9, 2015.¹³

Qualification Testing and the December 2015 Certification

MKE ran the KNT-76's qualification program at a point when the parent MPT-76 rifle was already in serial production, letting testers evaluate the marksman variant's ergonomics and reliability against a baseline the Turkish Armed Forces had already accepted.^13,4 The December 2015 certification cleared the KNT-76 for the manufacturing and delivery contracts that followed.

Entering Turkish Armed Forces Service

The KNT-76 formally entered Turkish Armed Forces service in 2017, three years after the design project's May 2014 start and roughly two years after its December 2015 qualification.⁴ By August 23, 2019, Anadolu Agency (Turkey's state news agency) reported that deliveries under the KNT-76 contract had passed 1,200 rifles, a milestone the agency explicitly tied to reducing Turkey's need to import designated marksman rifles.⁵ Beyond the regular army, the General Command of Gendarmerie and several special-operations units also received the rifle, with configuration differences addressed by the two dedicated builds described above.^7,4

Exports followed once the domestic contracts were well underway. In December 2020, MKE delivered a batch of KNT-76 rifles to Senegal's armed forces along with 3E EOS-made Keskin optics and suppressors, Turkey's first confirmed KNT-76 export.⁸ Photographs published in Senegalese military channels in 2024 and reported by specialist outlets in February 2025 showed the rifle still in active Senegalese use, including at a Senegalese Navy special-forces anniversary demonstration.⁹ Separately, an unspecified number of KNT-76 rifles (alongside the smaller-caliber MPT-55) were transferred to Georgia's special operations forces in 2025, part of a broader Turkish assistance effort that has also trained Georgian special-forces candidates in Turkey.⁴

The KNT-76's profile has grown outside strictly military reporting too. Developer Offworld Industries added the KNT-76 as the marksman rifle for a new playable Turkish Land Forces faction in the July 2024 Squad 7.0 update, giving the rifle a visible presence in one of the more popular tactical military simulation games.¹¹

MKE's two production configurations, one tailored for the General Command of Gendarmerie and one for the Turkish Land Forces Command, form the KNT-76's only confirmed factory variants (see Specs and Design above for the buttstock, handguard, and gas-block differences between them).⁷ Both share the same 7.62x51mm NATO chambering, 508mm barrel, 20-round magazine, and claimed 1.5 MOA accuracy, and differ only in ergonomics and suppressor tuning rather than ballistics.⁷

Readers researching Turkish KNT-prefixed rifles should keep the KNT-76 distinct from the KNT-308, an unrelated bolt-action sniper rifle developed by the Turkish company Kalekalıp starting in 2008, years before the KNT-76 project began and with no shared design or manufacturer.¹² The naming overlap is a coincidence of Turkish terminology (both use the generic Keskin Nişancı Tüfeği phrase) and is not a sign of a common production family.

Turkey is by far the KNT-76's largest operator, fielding it across the Land Forces Command, the General Command of Gendarmerie, and special-operations units since 2017, with deliveries passing 1,200 rifles by August 2019 and continuing since.^4,5 Turkey is also the KNT-76's country of manufacture, produced at MKE's Kırıkkale Arms Factory alongside the MPT-76 family.²

Senegal received an initial KNT-76 shipment, with 3E EOS optics and suppressors, from Turkey in December 2020, and photographs from 2024 show the rifle still in active Senegalese service, including with Senegalese Navy special forces.^8,9 Georgia is the KNT-76's most recent confirmed operator, having received an unspecified number of rifles in 2025 as part of a wider Turkish program assisting Georgian special-operations forces.⁴

Turkey's procurement history sets up the most useful comparison for the KNT-76. Turkish forces had already fielded the German HK417, adopted in 2006, and the older Soviet-designed SVD Dragunov, dating to 1963, in the same 7.62x51mm-class marksman role well before the KNT-76 entered service.¹⁰ Both imports gave Turkey a working baseline against which to judge whether a domestic semi-automatic designated marksman rifle could match imported designs, and the KNT-76 was built specifically to close that gap.

Against the HK417, the KNT-76 uses a broadly comparable gas-piston, rotating-bolt operating system and the same 7.62x51mm NATO chambering, reflecting how closely the MPT program (and by extension the KNT-76) followed HK417-style piston design when it moved away from its original 5.56mm Mehmetçik-1 concept.⁴ The practical difference for a Turkish procurement officer was cost and supply security rather than raw ballistics, since every KNT-76 built domestically reduces reliance on imported German rifles and foreign parts pipelines, a concern Turkish state media raised explicitly when reporting the 1,200-unit delivery milestone.⁵

Against the SVD Dragunov, the comparison is more generational than architectural. The Dragunov's long-stroke gas piston and 7.62x54mmR rimmed cartridge reflect 1960s Soviet small-arms practice, while the KNT-76's short-stroke piston, rotating bolt, and rimless 7.62x51mm NATO chambering put it in the same modern, AR-pattern-influenced category as most current Western designated marksman rifles. For Turkish units transitioning away from Cold War-era Warsaw Pact-derived equipment, the KNT-76 represented a like-for-like semi-automatic marksman rifle built to NATO-standard ammunition instead.

The KNT-76 is still in service today, and it remains Turkey's standard domestically produced designated marksman rifle in the most recent confirmed reporting, issued alongside imported designs in some units rather than having fully replaced them.^4,5

What caliber does the MKE KNT-76 fire? The KNT-76 is chambered for 7.62x51mm NATO, the same full-power rifle cartridge used by the HK417 and many other designated marksman rifles.^2,3

Is the KNT-76 still in service? Yes. The Turkish Armed Forces, the General Command of Gendarmerie, and Turkish special-operations units have fielded the KNT-76 since 2017, with deliveries surpassing 1,200 rifles by 2019 and continued reporting of export deliveries into 2025.^4,5

How does the KNT-76 differ from the MPT-76? The KNT-76 uses the same basic gas-piston, rotating-bolt action as the MPT-76 but is limited to semi-automatic fire, carries a longer 508mm barrel instead of 406mm, weighs about 500 grams more, and claims 1.5 MOA accuracy versus the MPT-76's 4 MOA.^2,4

What is the KNT-76's effective range? Most Turkish sources cite an effective range of about 800 meters, though one detailed technical write-up gives 914 meters and MKE's own US catalogue lists 850 yards (about 777 meters), so treat the exact figure as approximate rather than fixed.^2,3

How much does the KNT-76 cost? Neither MKE nor the Turkish government has published a per-unit KNT-76 price. As a state-to-state and domestic-contract weapon rather than an open commercial product, its unit cost has not surfaced in available reporting.

Who manufactures the KNT-76? MKE (Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi, the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation), Turkey's state-owned ordnance manufacturer, builds the KNT-76 at its Kırıkkale Arms Factory.^2,13