Rare never stopped COH, or we wouldnt see many of the doctrinal units.
A M1C scoped Garand Sniper would fit the bill historically, without needing to change anything. Use the scoped Lee-Enfield model from UKF.
Of course not, I was just mentioning that they chose to use the M1C instead of the more common Springfield, thus there is no model of a Springfield that I know of.
M1 is inferior close thou and if one gives them M1 one can lower the cost so that Pathfinders can become a support unit instead of fighting unit.
That would simply be a nerf to an already incredibly niche unit though, and I don't believe any significant part of their cost is in their close range DPS. If they are to be a long-range fighting unit, they could at least out-damage a basic Grenadier squad.
That is out of the question unless one want to increase cost and pop.
I agree, an LMG for a marksman squad is an inelegant solution.
The weapon of the unit should be good at long range and unit should be weak at close range. It does not need good DPS at close range.
The Vet 3 M1 Garand is roughly on-par with their current Carbine's at close range. Their limited squad size, with one handling a DMR (which should have it's stats altered to also support long range combat) make them inappropriate at close range despite the admirable individual DPS.
I believe the best solution might be to create new M1 Garands along the lines of the ones mentioned, and retool the DMR to have an inverted DPS curve like LMG's. If not, leave the Carbines alone and focus on just inverting the DPS for the DMR instead.