Recons have always had a huge advantage, what other class has guns that kill in two hits at close range, one headshot at long range and fire perfectly straight? Seriously, try one of the 10 round mag rifles with a grip, holo and silencer (or laser), easily my favourite setup in the game. You can kill AR and LMG users at close range 8 times out of 10 and can get one shot kills with the same rifle if you step back a little. There are people on the Battlelog forum who bitch and moan that recons are useless, I beg to differ!
Huge advantage? I'm really dying to know what that is in BF3.
I consider myself
an alright recon, so I'm not the dozen-th noob going around saying "blah blah snipa'z weak sauce, give 50 cal DICE". I've been doing it for a long time so I'm not just saying that sniper rifles are weak because I can't handle them, but because they are handicaped.
What You and all others seem to do is compare the mag size for deciding a weapons strenght, rather than focusing on the time it takes to clear that mag. A guy with a rifle/shotgun/machinegun can go into a room full of enemies and
dominate (as to not use a 4 letter word starting with "r") whereas a sniper gets attacked by one or more enemies, most of times he will die (unless he's good with pistol, but that's irrelevant as we're talking about sniper rifles).
I also have lots of setups depending on the type of sniper rifle. SKS, E39 and M417 are really awesome stock to run and gun like a mad man. And that's because it takes 1 second to clear half a mag, whereas a bolt action rifle takes 1 second just to reload. So knowing that if you miss your 1 single shot, you're dead, and if you do hit, it might not be enough to take the enemy out.
Good recons are hard to find that's for sure, especially in conquest and rush.
P.S. A big key in this argument (about bolt action rifles not being powerful enough) is that I'm on console and you're on PC. Sniping on PC is really easy, but on console movement is slow; especially when you're millimeters away and you have to move ever so slightly, only for the target to be killed by someone else or run away or move a foot. And if you do hit them, it may not even be enough for a kill.
I'd also like to add my idea, since we're at it. If DICE were to ever bring higher caliber bolt action rifles, they should make it impossible to shoot standing; this will force users to lay or crouch and thus become an easier target. So there goes the big fear of run and gun snipers with 50cal rifles, ruining all the fun. Simple, no?
I don't have the patience for sniping. I'm all run and gun. Put me in Canals with a shotgun and I'm unstopable. Kharg Island as well. I'm coming around MG's though, starting to get used to them.
I love the snipers who lay there, taking space and taking ages to shoot (easier targets for me

). When I snipe (on TDM) I'm constantly moving. And if you play with M39 EMR or SKS and don't have any attachments on it; it feels so WW2 like. Great feeling 👍
ACB-90 is a box cutter?
I don't think so...
Yes, box cutter. It doesn't look the least intimidating.
They should have used a plastic knife, at the very least it would have been funny, like "Humiliated!"
Any tips for ranking up fast, getting a load of XP? I'm Level 32 right now, about to get a few medals (need 28 more Assault Kills). Just want to start prestiging.
Like others have said, Conquest Domination if you have the maps, or TDM if you don't. Try to get service star (100 kills) with every weapon, as you'll get 2000 points bonus + you get point for unlocks. It add's up really quickly!