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I would like to go in depth about what is a sniper and how to be an effective airsoft sniper.

I would like to start with; What is a Sniper? Its questioned not often asked but the answer is often misunderstood.

Most people think of a sniper as a guy who just Camps and takes shots at unsuspecting Foot soldiers. That answer Is some what true but its a little more complicated than that. You see a Sniper is a master of Concealment, He must be an expert shooter and be very versatile. Theirs always been that Hollywood image of a sniper sitting at window with his rifle hanging half-way out and fire hundreds of rounds from that position. I know Im kinda exaggerating the truth but you get the point. So, My hopes by righting this thread would be to give you the Players the knowledge to better yourself as a Sniper and for Your team leaders to know how to use them to you advantage.

HOW TO BE A SNIPER

In order to be a good sniper you must, Have a good Rifle, Know your Role and the art of Concealment.

HAVE A GOOD RIFLE:

I cant really tell you what rifle to get because that's really up to you but i can tell you what requirement a rifle Must have in order to be a called a "Good" Sniper rifle. A good sniper rifle must Have the Ability to shoot at least 200ft with .25g bbs. It Must be able to Out range Most standard AEGs. Their are Many tricks to getting your Rifle to do that and the best way to do that is to buy Heavier weight BBs Like .28s and Higher. Another way is to buy a tight Bore Barrel from Companies Like EDGI and Prometheus. A Sniper rifle Must have the Ability to Mount a scope. Not just any scope Mind you but a Zoom scope Like 4x32 or 3-9x40. DONT go out and buy a Red dot from wal-mart.

Some examples of Good Sniper rifles would be: Bolt action- UTG L96, UTG M324 Gen 5 and JG Bar10. All these weapons Meet these requirements and with the exception of the UTG m234; they are all easily Upgradeable

Semi-auto (DMR)- Cyma M14 with scope, JG G3a4 with scope, Echo1 E25k ect

Know how to use the Rifle:

Now a I know that some of this may not be as effective with air-soft Rifles but are still effective none the less. You have to know the limits that rifle has because you don't want to waste ammo shooting at targets out of range nor want to be the Sniper who thinks he can take on a squad of guys carrying M4s with his Bolt gun. You need to be able to use that rifle in a way it was meant to be and that's consistently. The best way to Keep your shots hitting the same place over and over is by following these steps.

1. Be sure you put the butt of the stock in the same place of you shoulder each time
2. Be sure your eyes are the same space apart from the scope
3. Have good trigger control. DONT pull the trigger hard and fast. It can through you shots. A nice slow trigger pull is always best
4. Breath deep, Exhale half way, hold for 3-5 seconds and fire between heart beats. The reason i say breath half way out and stop for 3-5 seconds is because for those 3-5 seconds all you muscle are as relaxed as they can be and will bring the chance of a flinch throwing your-shot down

KNOW YOUR ROLE:

I hate seeing kids who run around with a sniper rifle equipped with a red dot sight and using that rifle as if its a AEG. They then go on to call them-self a sniper because they can "No scope" people at 100ft. If you are a sniper and you are running from place to place and doing tactical entries to buildings with your friends... You are not being a very effective sniper. your Purposes is to Stay back, Provide valuable Info to your team leaders, provide cover to your teammates and hunt for enemy snipers. You need to stay back because your Rifle wasn't meant for being up close. it was designed so you can sit back and engage enemy soldiers at ranges they cant hit you from. if you can do this than you will be a valuable soldier to you team.

KNOWING ART OF CONCEALMENT

By definition Concealment means To keep from being seen, found, observed, heard or discovered.

How do you do this may seem a i little more complicated than you may think. You may think the Best way to do this Is buy a ghillie suit and have fun. NO, I seen many people buy a ghillie suit and still stick out and ive seen people use BDU and blend in great. The Art of Concealment that Snipers follow are set up in 3 parts, Camouflage, movement and awareness.

Camouflage:

A snipers best camouflage is the Ghillie suit. But he Must know how to use that suit to blend in. The First thing they must know is the environment that suit will be in because just because the store said this is a woodland ghillie doesn't mean it will blend in to all woodland environments. Those environments can change many times so he would have to change out the vegetarian to blend in with the new area. Lets say you are Stalking through the Forrest floor which is mostly covered in brown leaves and twigs Then you come across a Large Feild of Green Grass and now twigs. Well, your ghillie covered in brown leaves and twigs will stick out. Just slowly change the vegetation.

Movement and awareness

Movement and not being aware of you surroundings can get you spotted just as easy as the wrong camo.

1 know how to move with out making a noises. How you do that is watch wear you step and walk lightly in you feet. When you take a step you slowly step with your hill 1st and then toes. Be sure not to step on and sticks that may snap under any pressure.

2. Move slowly. The Human eye is attracted to fast sudden Movements. You also dont want to Move across your Objective or target but rather straight towards it or Diagnose to it. Because the Human eye spots Side to side movement better than up and down movements.

3. would be Do not go over something when you can go around it, Dont Go around it if you can go through it and Don't go through it if you can go under it. DONT EVER GO OVER IT. movement over anything that can out line you body to thr horizon will get you spotted and killed

4. If the Foliage is Head height. Walk upright, Shoulder Height; walk slumped over. Waste height; Crawl on hands knees, Knee height; army crawl and if the foliage is about only fall enough to reach half way between you ankle and knee; skull drag. Skull dragging means you are so low that the side of you face is on the ground.

5. If you are doing any of those movements. Be sure not to Bump any foliage that if moved can be seen. This isn't just limited to trees and bushes but sticks on the ground. you could hit a stick and it move and hit a small tree and that fast sudden movement can get you spotted

6. if you fire try not to use white or bright bbs. sure they allow you to be able to see your shots but remember the saying "Tracers work both ways"

7. Don't Fire more than 3 shots from the same position. If you have to stay and engage those targets you Fire 3 rounds... STOP... Move to different spot then re-engage. Ive heard stories about how a whole platoon thought they were being shot at by many soldiers because they were talking fire from multiple sides. when in fact it wast just 1 sniper moving from place to place. If you want more evidence Just watch the scene in "The Patriot" when Mel Gibson ambushes the red coats to get his sun back

8.In urban areas like Buildings. Use Shadows to hide you in window seals. Dint stand so close to the window that your gun barrel sticks out but stand back so the shadows can hide you.

9. If you are doing this make sure that their is no light coming in from behind you and expose your position.

10. When you are choosing a firing position; make sure that it can not only hie you sitting there but hide you escape.

NOW I would like to talk to You about How a Leader should Employ His Snipers/sniper teams.

Lets say you are going to attack a position but you dont know the enemy size or where the strong points are. You can send up a group of scouts who will get spotted or a single Sniper. Id go with the Sniper because his/her ability to Blend in will mean he can watch the enemy without the enemy knowing he's there. And since his rifle should out range most AEGs; he/she can keep Him/Herself out at such ranges that they can engage targets that most other guys cant. So snipers are great for Scouting. Marines Snipers are called SCOUT snipers for a reason

Now lets say your team is Moving and an enemy sniper takes out your point man. Instead of blindly firing into the bush. Why not deploy a sniper of you own. They say The best way to catch a thief is by using another thief. Well, the Best way to kill a sniper is by using another sniper because he is Trained to do the same things that sniper is.

Now lets say you are attacking a position but your riflemen are pinned down. Instead of sending more in to get ripped apart. Just call your sniper up to take shots at the enemy Machine gunners. He doesnt even half to hit them. Just knowing that there is a guy shooting at them should keep their heads down long enough for your guys to move up and take them out. Now remember Snipers. You have to put their heads down and keep them down. Dont just fire 1 shot and stop firing. Shoot the necessary amount of rounds.

Now lastly lest say you are defending and you are about to get hit you on 2 or more side and or Just don't want to leave your rear and flanks open to enemy attack. Do you divide you firepower to cover all flanks or send in a sniper. Snipers would be a good choice. Why? you don't want to ever divide your firepower when it may not be needed. A good well trained and hidden sniper can keep whole squads pinned down long enough for you to send in troops to cover that area. The reason why a sniper can cover that area is because Guys just don't like being shot at and not being able to do something about it because they don't know wear the shots are coming from.


It is fore these reason that i think that a well trained Sniper can be the most lethal and effective soldier on the battlefield

I think it should be argued that a sniper doesn't need a good rifle to be an effective sniper. In the real world, sniper rifles do out range most everything else, but in airsoft, where the ammo is all the same, they don't. This means it really comes down to the player to keep themselves hidden. I do, however, agree that a scope is a good idea, regardless of the gun used. Being able to see far away is a great resource for information gathering. Even carrying a small set of binoculars would work well.

I believe it's a sniper's job to inform, to scout, not to take out targets. If a sniper is only effective because of his rifle, then he is ineffective as a sniper. A sniper will always have he possibility of being out gunned, which is why the information they can provide is the most important thing they can do. Knowing where the enemy is, is half the battle. But, I feel the need to bring up another point, airsoft games are short. Even the longer 8 hour games. To truly use a scout to his/her full abilities will take lots of time for them to move into position, and to actually scout the enemy team. Often times, because the games move so fast, when the sniper is in position, the enemy will have already moved on. Therefore, being mobile is a key part of being an airsoft sniper.

Something to learn about shooting, is that holding your breath is bad. It sends a small signal to your brain that causes a small panic in your body, increasing your heart rate, among other things. This will make it more difficult to get off a good shot. It's better to fire as you exhale slowly, than to hold your breath.

And, there's already a thread about the weapon a sniper should chose, so I won't go over that.

sniping is useless in airsoft

If you want more evidence Just watch the scene in "The Patriot" when Mel Gibson ambushes the red coats to get his sun back

Sniping isn't useless. you just have played with sorry snipers

okay

The internet appears to be full of serious bizness today.

I would rather have a good Designated Marksman over a "Sniper" any day of the week for air-soft. with the lack of effective communication across a faction from squad to squad, and the lack of reliance(or need) for a chain of command, A group that has long range capability is far more effective than the lone wolf in a ghillie suit which is what the majority of snipers in air-soft are. While I recognize that a good one can cause a larger amount of chaos and pin down a larger force, the fact that in air-soft being shot at most means you have to wait three minutes to go back to re-spawn means much of the usefulness of a sniper is negated psychologically.

RebelSniper wrote:I cant really tell you what rifle to get because that's really up to you but i can tell you what requirement a rifle Must have in order to be a called a "Good" Sniper rifle. A good sniper rifle must Have the Ability to shoot at least 200ft with .25g bbs.

Most AEGs can already do this, and many can out of the box. A bolt action that shoots 200ft with a .25g is a pointless weapon in airsoft, unless everyone you play against uses LPEGs and .12gs with their clear guns.

It Must be able to Out range Most standard AEGs.

Then you are going to need it to have a lot more range and accuracy than it has stock, a lot more.

Their are Many tricks to getting your Rifle to do that and the best way to do that is to buy Heavier weight BBs Like .28s and Higher.

No, a heavier BB alone will not do all this.

Another way is to buy a tight Bore Barrel from Companies Like EDGI and Prometheus.

A TBB may give you a very tiny improvement in groupings if your original barrel is crap, and a slight FPS bump. That is it. TBBs are very minor upgrades that rarely have effects that are anything more than barely noticeable.

A Sniper rifle Must have the Ability to Mount a scope. Not just any scope Mind you but a Zoom scope Like 4x32 or 3-9x40. DONT go out and buy a Red dot from wal-mart.

While a magnifying optic is very useful, due to the ranges we engage at in airsoft, it is by no means a necessity. 300ft kills with iron sights aren't that hard. A red dot isn't a scope.

Some examples of Good Sniper rifles would be: Bolt action- UTG L96, UTG M324 Gen 5 and JG Bar10. All these weapons Meet these requirements and with the exception of the UTG m234; they are all easily Upgradeable

Not a single one of these weapons, even with a TBB and heavier BBs, meet the requirements of having more range OR accuracy than your average AEG. These weapons without a lot of upgrades are pointless, because they have comparable range and accuracy to AEGs, but at the loss of semi auto and full auto.

Semi-auto (DMR)- Cyma M14 with scope, JG G3a4 with scope, Echo1 E25k ect

Again, not a single one of these have superior accuracy or range to an average AEG. In fact, a large portion of AEGs have better range and accruacy to these straight out of the box. These are mediocre AEGs, they are not DMRs unless you upgrade them make them one.

I don't mean to seem harsh, but you have a lot of misconceptions. I appreciate that you have put a lot of thought and effort into your role, and I commend you for that. You just need to realize that while your gun will easily be superior to kids in backyards with LPEGs, when you come to airsoft games most of the people out there will have just as much range and accuracy as you, or more, but with the added benefit of full and semi auto. That doesn't mean you can't still stay concealed and get kills and gather intel, but a large part of the effectiveness and usefulness of snipers is his ability to engage targets with precision and from concealed positions at longer ranges than anyone else on the battlefield. I recommend you read the following:

Dominum wrote:3: "I am not happy with my ChiClone's accuracy, how do I improve it?"
  1-STOP USING CRAPPY BBs. Why do some BBs cost more? Because they work better. If you are using Crossmans, TSDs or other cheap brands of BBs, you are getting considerably less accuracy than you could get if you spent a couple bucks more on decent BBs. Unfortunately you cannot buy decent BBs at any brick and mortar store except an exclusively airsoft one.
  2-Consider using heavier BBs. If you are shooting at more than 300 FPS (Some would say higher, but not me) with a .25g BB, you may want to use .25s. If you are over 400 FPS with a .25g BB you should consider using something even heavier. Remember, they still need to be quality, but a heavier projectile (though moving slower) will be less affected by wind and brush. It will also lose less velocity in flight due to inertia. Remember, however, that a .30 moving at 360 FPS is roughly equivalent to a .25 moving at 400 FPS, so if you are over 400 with a .25, switching to a .30 will NOT allow you to use it on full auto.
  3-Buy a better bucking and nub. The best IMHO are made by Firefly, though Element and KM use a similar design. However, these are expensive and often difficult to find in stock. You can also get a Prometheus, Madbull, Systema, or stock TM bucking (among others), as they are also good. If you have a ChiClone almost anything is better than the bucking you have now. If you are well over 400 with a .25, you need a hard type, if not you need a soft or medium type (stock ones are soft type, and so are the vast majority of buckings used).
  4-Buy a tightbore barrel. A TBB will add a little bit of FPS, and will arguably improve accuracy. If you plan to get one longer than what you already have, remember that you will likely need a higher volume cylinder to compensate.
  5-Get a one piece metal hopup chamber, it will provide a tighter and more consistent air seal and should hold the hopup setting better.
The two most important of the above are the BBs and Bucking, the rest has a less noticeable affect.

9: "Do airsoft replicas mimic their real counterparts' classification?"
  Simply put, no. Almost any airsoft gun can be made to function as most any classification. An MP5 can be made to be a DMR, and an M14 may come stock as a CQBR. As far as airsoft is concerned, classification of weaponry is based on FPS with a .25g BB and is largely necessitated by the AOSC game rules as far as MEDs (Minimum Engagement Distances), fire selection and CQB specific rules go:

300 FPS with a .25g BB or less = CQBR (Close Quarters Battle Rifle) or sidearm, though not necessarily inneffective at greater ranges, and all sidearms are not under 300 FPS, though they aught to be, that way they have no MED. Full auto allowed with no MED. The purpose of this classification is for CQB fields, as a sidearm for when the enemy is close, and for use in buildings even on non-CQB fields. If building a CQBR you obviously want something shorter and lighter, and non-magnifying quick response optics are the preference here. Sidearms are obviously pistols for the most part, though sometimes people carry small AEGs or GBBs in the form of machine pistols, PDWs, and SMGs. Some people carry separate AEGs in a CQBR setup on all fields for close work, while some teams have assigned players with CQBRs as their primary even on non-CQB fields for clearing buildings and other close engagements. With a good hopup and other upgrades an AEG shooting this low can still have comparable range and accuracy to the average AEG at a higher FPS, but with the advantage of having no MED.

300-360 FPS with a .25g BB = Standard assault rifle setup. This is the average AEG in the field, with full auto allowed and a required 20ft MED. The average stock AEG comes somewhere in this range.

361-400 FPS with a .25g BB = Pseudo-DMR or simply an assault rifle with more power, full auto and burst fire is allowed, but they have a 50ft MED. Can have more range than the standard assault rifle, but not much, and at the cost of another 30ft of MED.

401-560 FPS with a .25g BB = DMR or sniper rifle, restricted to a 100ft MED and semi auto or bolt action only. With the proper supporting upgrades you can engage targets with more accuracy and at a greater range than most other players.

*Note that though all bolt action guns are called "sniper rifles", unless properly upgraded they often have the equivalent, or even less FPS, range, and accuracy than a stock AEG. There is almost no such thing in airsoft as a stock bolt action rifle that is worthy of an actual airsoft sniper, it takes upgrades to give it the added range and accuracy over most AEGs, which is it's entire purpose. This is not cheap and should be considered when buying a bolt action.

*Note that you cannot simply throw a harder spring in any AEG and instantly have a DMR worth it's distinction. FPS alone does not mean accuracy, or even range. You must install the needed upgrades to make it more accurate, have longer range, and be able to handle the higher powered spring in order to have a useful DMR.

10: I want to buy a tightbore barrel as my first upgrade, because I hear that that is essential."
  WRONG. For some strange reason, 90% of people who upgrade their guns for the first time are under the impression that they need to buy a tightbore barrel. That is not the case. It seems that this is because most people assume that the barrel has the largest impact on accuracy, just like real firearms, but again, that is not true. Tightbore barrels are a viable upgrade, don't get me wrong, and there is a place for them. However, they will not normally give you magically better groupings or range, and will only increase your FPS by a small amount. This is almost never the first upgrade to buy for a gun. If you are overhauling an AEG for the best performance possible, you may want to buy one after you have (if needed) already bought a better hopup chamber, bucking, and nub, and are using high quality and possibly heavier BBs. Again, the point of this is to dissuade the persistent and common myth that TBBs are a must have, and that they are a major upgrade that really shows. That is not usually the case. If you want better groupings the first thing to do is improve your bucking, nub, BB quality and/or weight, and hopup chamber.

I find it funny I already did a thread on this, hahaha read the forum sometime.

All you did was post pretty much the exact same thing I posted, but in less detail to the actual guns you use, you instead put detail in tactics, tactics that don't work very well in airsoft. Before you can even go into the field of play, you must first get that rifle of yours into top shape, you don't just go out there and start wrecking face.

The reason I put this is because your information seems a bit inccorrect, I don't want people being like the dumb 8 year old snipers with an L96 that is getting outranged by a Cyma AK.

Hey Rebel sniper, are you going to Fulda Gap on the 13th and 14th of October? If so look our squad up in the camping area, ask for Wes or Mark. Mark can give you some ideas about sniping. He was in the 3rd SF as a sniper.

NECROPOST

but i had to.

"Mel Gibson ambushes the red coats to get his sun back"

dang redcoats run by Mr Burns

Wow this was during my hiatus... I don't even want to re-boot this convo right now.

But a cool read through