Thread: Tell me about sniper training

I've watched a lot of specials on the History and Military channel about snipers. I don't know why, but I absolutely love snipers.

I just want to know some general things about snipers. Like, what kind of training they have to go through. Exercises they do that can be done at home. What kinds of guns they use, and if I could purchase a gun to use for hunting. What kind of gear they have and stuff like that.

Also, what are some good sniper games (preferably for the PC or 360).

Originally Posted by slayer

Also, what are some good sniper games (preferably for the PC or 360).

Sniper Elite!!


Also snipers (law enforcement or army dudes) basically spend 99% of their time sitting, waiting, watching in all kinds of weather conditions...

What kind of game do you want to hunt?

I'm not big on killing animals, but I went hunting with my dad a while ago and shot 2 rabbits.

First one I killed in one shot, the other in 3.

I can see myself hunting deer.

I asked my dad to take me out to a target range or something some time.

Hunting can be separated into small game and big game. Small game is stuff like birds, hares, etc. Big game is deer, moose, bear...

Usually small game is hunted with a shotgun. Lots of times the thing you're shooting is running really fast or flying away (not to mention that a bird or a rabbit is pretty small) so there's a lot of marksmanship skill involved. Skeet and trap shooting is also pretty fun (clay pigeons). I'd recommend a pump action 12 gauge, they're cheap, low on maintenance and versatile.

Big game is hunted with a long rifle and usually involves sitting in a hidden spot for hours on end waiting for something to pass by. There's a lot of work involved in attracting the prey, like scouting out the area for good hunting spots, calling, feeding... You see a lot less action than small game hunting but when you do kill a big creature like that it's quite the adrenaline rush. I'd recommend a really popular calibre like a 30-06 or something, the gun and bullets will be cheaper and it's plenty powerful for anything less than a rhino.

I believe I used a .22 rifle of some sort when I went rabbit hunting with my dad.

Yeah some people use small calibre rifles for certain kinds of small game. The disadvantage is that you must be super accurate (because you only have one bullet instead of a hundred pellets spreading out) and your target can't be moving. For the same reason hunting birds with a .22 is pretty much a waste of time.

I think what you need is to spend some time at the shooting range. See if you can try out a .308, a Remington 700 I guess, since I doubt you'll find an M40A3 around locally. They use the same action, actually, I'm fairly certain. Not going to be cheap, but the shooting range or club may have guns they will rent out, I'm not sure. I don't bother with shooting ranges, since I have my own set up at home.

If this is not an option, I'd suggest practicing with a good bolt-action .22LR at decent range. Something like 75 yards should be a good starting point. Find the ammunition your particular rifle likes (my Savage Mark II just happens to love Federal Eagle, which is both cheap and accurate) and stick with it. You can do this by buying a few boxes of various ammo and shooting ten rounds of each, cleaning the rifle between each set. From a bench, preferably. The most accurate ammo will make itself known.

Try shooting at both reactive targets (aluminum cans, tennis balls, ping-pong balls, swivel targets) and static targets (paper bullseyes), with a good mixture of both. This being after your rifle and scope are sighted in, of course. This is an easy enough process that your dad should be able to help with.

Don't hunt just because you like killing, or because you want to be a sniper. you should only hunt because you need the meat, or know someone else that does. If all you want to do is shoot a rifle with skill, there are a huge variety of targets both moving and static that you can build and set up to keep things interesting. I recommend starting with a .22LR (I like Savage rifles, personally, largely for the trigger but also for the amazing accuracy, and CZ makes some amazing ones as well) and working up to a .308 (Savage, Remington, M40A3, etc.) once you're dead accurate with a .22 caliber rifle.

Edit: Oh, and hunting rabbits with a .22 rifle is pretty common around here, too. Shotguns just tend to destroy more meat. However, if it takes you three shots to kill a rabbit with a .22, you're not ready to hunt them yet.

Originally Posted by slayer

Also, what are some good sniper games (preferably for the PC or 360).

I really don't know about sniper games specifically.

Only flash games. Hurrrrr

why the hell do you want to be a sniper? sorry, but this just reminds me of the columbine kids right now.

Originally Posted by cygnus

why the hell do you want to be a sniper? sorry, but this just reminds me of the columbine kids right now.

I hold a bit of this feeling too. Do you think that killing people is all fun and games? Do you really think you have the heart to stop someones life that could just as well be turned around and changed? Then again, do you have the heart to disregard such emotions? Will you be able to sleep at night knowing that you've killed a father, a friend, or a person on the verge of change? Etc.

Originally Posted by slayer

I've watched a lot of specials on the History and Military channel about snipers. I don't know why, but I absolutely love snipers.

I just want to know some general things about snipers. Like, what kind of training they have to go through. Exercises they do that can be done at home. What kinds of guns they use, and if I could purchase a gun to use for hunting. What kind of gear they have and stuff like that.

Also, what are some good sniper games (preferably for the PC or 360).

My cousin just left for sniper training in North Carolina. He's a Marine. I am also in the process of joining the Marines but I will be an officer so it is very unlikely that I could ever be a sniper, though it is something I would be interested in if I were enlisted. I'll be able to tell you a lot more about it after my cousin gets back. What I do know is that there isn't as strong an emphasis on marksmanship as there is on stalking. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of knowledge about stealth and camouflage. They say that there is a very high wash-out rate and it is mainly due to inability to stalk. Marksmenship is still important but it is easier to learn than stalking. And marksmenship at long range isn't as simple as putting the crosshairs on the target and shooting. There are so many factors to consider it makes your head hurt, it truely is an art (a very gruesome art.) There are things such as air pressure, wind, air temperature, barrel temperature (first shot is colder than subsequent shots,) you have to compensate for distance and movement of target, and on the really long shots you have to take into account the coriolis effect (rotation of the earth!) The longest shot in recorded history was made by a Canadian in Afghanistan. It was 1.509 miles over a valley between two mountains. Supposedly the cross wind changed three times during the bullets flight, meaning it started straight, then it curved left, then it curved right, then it curved left again before it hit its target. This was all calculated into his shot beforehand, pretty amazing if you ask me.

As for the people talking about Columbine and whatnot, there is nothing psychologically wrong with a person who wants to be a sniper. I think it is a very honorable profession. They aren't training to shoot civilians. Snipers are one of the only groups that you can be sure won't have any collateral damage accidents, it is a precision attack, only the person you want dead will be shot. The practicality of snipers has been ever increasing since WWII. Its not only about putting a bullet into somebodies head, it's also about security and reconnaisance. There are plenty of documented cases of snipers spotting IED's on the side of the road and having them disarmed before a friendly unit passed by. Snipers save more lives than they take.

Also I recommend reading a book called "White Feather." It's the biography of Carlos Hathcock, the greatest sniper to walk the Earth (Also a United States Marine.)

Originally Posted by Caprisun

...I will be an officer so it is very unlikely that I could ever be a sniper...

It is, however, more likely that you will be sniped.

Originally Posted by Mark75

It is, however, more likely that you will be sniped.

Not if I'm 30,000 feet in the air, but thanks for the thought.

Originally Posted by Caprisun

Not if I'm 30,000 feet in the air, but thanks for the thought.

Originally Posted by ClouD

Haha! Somehow I don't think the Taliban snipers are capable of doing that.

Originally Posted by Caprisun

-stuff-

That's some great info! 1.5 miles, that insane stuff. I was watching this thing on the History channel about this sniper guy that got a shot off at like 800 or 1,800 (can't remember) yards. I thought that was pretty awesome. But that's only half a mile. I couldn't imagine pulling off a shot that's 1.5 miles away.

stead aim, breath control, and trigger squeeze.

make sure you're not breathing when you shoot.

and when you squeeze the trigger, the pad of your index finger should be on the trigger, not the bend.

the shot should come as a surprise when it goes off.

For practice, I recomend buying a air-rifle, the kind that shoot metal pelets. While i was in cadets we had target shooting and that shit with those kinds of air rifles, they work pretty well but they are only accurate within a certain distance.

After you get pretty good at that, you can try shooting moving targets like small animals and birds. Make sure you clean up the bodies and feed them to your dog or something. You don't want dead animals with bullet wounds lying around lol. Don't shoot domestic animals like cats and small dogs no matter what though. People will notice them missing and people give a shit about these animals even if they are strays so best not to mess with them. Personally thats not for me, but if you want to you could do that.

You can get a manual on sniper training here: http://www.stevespages.com/page7c.htm

There's a fair bit of scrolling to be done, but the manuals are characterizez by a numbering system due to the sheer. The Sniper Training manual is listed as FM-23-10

That should give you the basics.


Good luck with joining the military if that's the route you wanna go, and remember to get in shape for basic. You will need to start training before you get in to make sure you are in the right shape for the military.

Thre is also a great fitness manuals on there that i downloaded for myself since it offers some great info on conditioning and just basic fitness stuff that you may not be sure of.