New to airsoft? Wanna be a "SNIPER"? Please read this!

[lurkingknight]

Originally Posted by chaz

Yeah, but for some of us, that waiting around for the 1 or 2 kills is a rush. Or the mercies you get to toss out as someone stumbles within range without seeing you. Kills from a distance and remaining unseen.
In the end it comes down to fun for me, regardless of which format I am playing.

Stupid Horses.

true, but the young horses asking are thinking they will lie in wait and get dozens and dozens of kills per game.

[Brian McIlmoyle]

If you like crawling through muck for hours to get to that perfect spot, line up the perfect shot.. reach out to 250 feet and hit a guy.. only to have him look around bewildered.. shrug and move on.. then Airsoft Sniping is for you.

[Drake]

stickied

[Ricochet]

Originally Posted by Brian McIlmoyle

If you like crawling through muck for hours to get to that perfect spot, line up the perfect shot.. reach out to 250 feet and hit a guy.. only to have him look around bewildered.. shrug and move on.. then Airsoft Sniping is for you.

^
Actually, this is quite common. It's funny, but most likely frusterating, especially when a kill is made. But imagine your walking back from spawn, and you feel something on your shoulder, it's not a 'Thwak!' Like a BB at medium range, and you're wondering, "was it a bee, was it a twig, or maybe my gear just adjusting?". You look around and scan, knowing that if you stand there looking concerned, you'll be hit again. No shot comes, no noises, nothing. You'd probably think, "#%&@ it, there's no one out here", and move on. As the sniper, that one kill you just waited and waited for, counts for nothing.

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

^
Actually, this is quite common. It's funny, but most likely frusterating, especially when a kill is made. But imagine your walking back from spawn, and you feel something on your shoulder, it's not a 'Thwak!' Like a BB at medium range, and you're wondering, "was it a bee, was it a twig, or maybe my gear just adjusting?". You look around and scan, knowing that if you stand there looking concerned, you'll be hit again. No shot comes, no noises, nothing. You'd probably think, "#%&@ it, there's no one out here", and move on. As the sniper, that one kill you just waited and waited for, counts for nothing.

Sniping is a singular game.. and you have to take the mind set of marking your own kills. whether the hit is taken or not.. it's still a kill for the sniper to add to his/her ledger.

The effect of snipers is often more psychological than physical.

once people know you are out there.. waiting for them.. people get more on edge.

I've deployed Snipers in many games.. often their value is measured in intelligence gathered over body count.

[ThunderCactus]

And that's why I would never classify myself as a sniper. Honestly I was a hunter more than anything.
Search for prey, stalk prey, and just wait for the opportune moment to kill prey.
And I was hardly sneaking around, well no less than a riflemen anyway. Only sneaking I did was to find a good spot to shoot from.
What I learned in my experience using a bolt action rifle (coming from a guy that's used an LMG and various rifles playing from defensive to very aggressive), is that the pro's of using a bolt action rifle are accuracy and SILENCE. Not necessarily range. Because as was stated, anyone with a similarly costly rifle can come VERY close to your range.
I ran my BAR at 380fps for the first year and a half because I'd get more silent shot kills within 60ft than at any other range.

It's the silence that's important above all else. The only time I had anything close to a ghillie was winter whites in winter. I've taken out whole squads, a dozen people in a row (no exaggeration), because I found a good hiding spot, and tagged people at the perfect moment, but because they couldn't hear me they didn't know what general direction I was in, which is a massive advantage.

Doesn't matter how good your ghillie suit is, if you can hear a rifle go off it's easy to pick out the right bush to shoot in that direction lol

[Ricochet]

Yup, good tools are an important part of the job, but you need the skill to use them.

I remember at Cold Front II, myself and a member of Wolf Pack, hunted down and killed a guy wearing a ghillie because we saw him move. It ended up that he was on our side, but that was impossible to tell until we killed him.

[ThunderCactus]

yeah that too LOL

[FirestormX]

Originally Posted by Drake

stickied

So I noticed that about 30 minutes after you stickied this, a certain staff member put a sniper rifle up in the classifieds.

Good write-up, Ricochet! I still think it will be hard for a newbie to really appreciate how, erm, "unsatisfying" it is to be a sniper, until they've actually played a few games, and see how hard it is to get a BB to accurately travel a distance, or how quickly you can get outgunned. But it'll be something for them to keep in mind before they go jumping into buying a BA as their first or second gun.

[ThunderCactus]

Not to say nobody should have a bolt action rifle, it's just not a good idea to start with one.
I'd actually recommend it as a training/game honing tool for a veteran player. It's an excellent learning experience.

[pusangani]

Ive always believed that noobs that have never been shot imagine that Airsoft realllly hurts so they opt to go the sniper route as they think it's the safest way to play

[ThunderCactus]

Commonly they believe sniping is far more effective than it really is, they dont understand the ballistic and especially the minimal range differences.
And only in games is it as simple as point and shoot lol

[Danke]

And for god's sake don't pick a user name with the word sniper in it.

No SnyPer987623432, no sniperkid, no Colin the Super Sniper from Elm st. and so on.

And the rifle is just a rifle. It's not a "sniper". The person using it might be one.

[derailed]

my first rifle was an L96 sniper rifle,spring powered
don't compete, but it looks great on my wall
i take it out only to target practice
i first thought that i was going to get this wild distance but after the first shot, realized it was just a slower longer version of my other guns i bought later
i'm ok with it tho, will never sell it
it's part of my collection

[Ricochet]

Actually, spring powered is still one if the best one shot systems. You need to upgrade the crap outta them though usually.