The Airsoft Sniper - Serial

Firekitten

The Airsoft Sniper.

How does one begin an article like this? I’m not entirely sure to be brutally honest. I could start by telling you all about how exacting, and difficult, and rewarding the art of sniping is, hell, I could give you real steel history and walt it up big time. But lets be honest, Airsoft sniping has about as much to do with real world sniping as ice skating does to rollerblading. Both involve a few similar principals, but the fundamental dynamics of the two are very different while maintaining the cosmetic similarity of going rather quickly on a very thin bit.

Contra to the belief of some, the Airsoft sniper is not the long range sharp shooter of the battlefield, picking off the enemy beyond the 1000 meter mark. Nor are they the lone warrior sat in a church tower on a rainy day in Northern France. Naturally, movies have much to answer for in Airsoft in general, but nowhere else is it more clear than in the world of the Airsoft sniper. The mark Walberg’s and Jude Law’s of the silver screen have portrayed two of the more famous characters when one thinks of snipers in movies today. Their portrayals have given rise to a new generation of Airsoft sniper, along side the cod4 kiddies and other video game Hathcock’s. The isolated high positions, the false ‘facts’ laid down, and the amusing antics these apparent experts get upto; I hope you all remember that boat and the coke bottle? My point exactly.

However, in the movie world, Jude law’s character in Enemy at the gate was one of the more accurate representations, and demonstrated a considerable number of core principals applicable in Airsoft. The urban fighting of Stalingrad, and the experience and tactics of Russian snipers lent itself to being a proxy for Airsoft sniping. Unlike Shooter, it was short range stuff, there is a more significant emphasis on field craft and positioning. How one moved between positions, the importance of changing position, picking your spot, remaining undetected during the ongoing battle all around. Core principals of the Airsoft sniper one will agree. Not every game can be a long range lonely hike to a position, one shot and hike back.

I hope, after this long winded introduction, to offer some insight into the art of the Airsoft sniper, and how I personally find most effective to operate. There is no right answer. And I do not profess to know all of them. This is one sniper’s view, from experience, effort, and one too many trips to the safe zone. An advantage we have over real life. We get to learn from our mistakes. Hopefully, reading this may give you some Ideas to apply yourself, or some pointers to improve your game.



In this guide, I’ll address several key aspects of the Airsoft sniper: The sniper rifle. How it is set up, how it’s used, and how best to utilise the weapon system. Secondly, field craft; how to operate in an environment to maximise your potential for success. Finally, I will discuss various case study situations, and how one may adapt within these situations. Hopefully this will act as a guide to the new sniper, and give them a few basic frameworks to apply to their game, from which they may build their own distinct style and skill base. I’ve said it before, and no doubt you will become sick of me stating this, but I believe it is central to the subject at hand: There is no right way to do this… only ineffective ones.



The sniper rifle

The rifle… there are many like it but… yeah, you know the usual lines every movie uses… As silly as it may sound, one must become more attached to a sniper rifle to really use it effectively: Know the rifle, feel the rifle. This may boarder on the group hugging management classes, but try not to laugh, I’m deadly serious. A sniper rifle is not an assault rifle. One may not pick it up and be as effective with the rifle as a person that knows it.
Trajectory, trigger pull, feel, grip and conditions all factor into a shot, and knowing how that individual rifle performs will help you land that first bb on target, no matter the system, or fps. This principal is as fundamental at 328fps as it is at 500… No matter what you shoot with, experience wins over all others.

Many will debate the varying systems available to the sniper: AEG, spring and gas. Each has benefits and disadvantages. Personally, I use a maruzen type 96a1 spring powered rifle as my primary sniper weapon system. I have a long history with this particular rifle, and a number have felt the business end. My familiarity with the rifle; my Eliana, is my greatest advantage as I have mentioned above. With the number of rounds that I’ve fired through the rifle, I can shoot accurately while focusing on other factors that affect the shot, such as wind, and air conditions. The experience I talked about above is vital. Your rifle’s trajectory and being able to estimate where on that trajectory you must aim to hit a target at a certain distance is ONLY possible with shots fired. The more shots you take, at varying ranges allows you, the shooter to begin to predict where shots land. Naturally, the rifle does not have a straight path. But then even real firearms do not. If one were to aim and fire at a figure 11 target at 1200m with an AW.338 rifle, and stand directly in the crosshairs at 600m, the bullet would pass clean over your head.
This arced trajectory is a principal in real steel sniper weapon design that extends the range of the weapon more accurately, and a characteristic of the ballistics. I’m no expert, but the principal is sound. I find a similar approach in Airsoft allows the Airsoft sniper a greater stable range with the rifle, and I will cover this bellow.


The Idiot’s guide to setting up a sniper rifle.


Ok… so you bought your rifle, and you’re chomping at the bit to get out and start dropping the enemy… Firstly, hold your horses… (I’m liking this equine theme…) As tempting as it may to get straight on with shooting, there are preparatory steps to undertake before you can really start...

Ok, you have your rifle… Aeg, gas, or spring, these steps are fundamental, and will vastly improve performance with the system. (I’m not about to go into rifle specifics, or the pros and cons of various systems, I’m not a sniper tech… I leave that to the pros.)
Firstly, clean the rifle… take it down, make sure everything is lubricated, cleaned, and in the case of the hopup, dry. It’s usually best to leave the weapon for a day after lubricating so the hopup won’t slip and perform erratically. Next, take your rifle, and find a range… I advise initially, 30 meters. This is a nice mid range, and allows you to ensure things are correct before going further. It’s easy to want to shoot further… after all, it’s a sniper rifle! But start small, and eventually move on to greater distances as we progress with this guide… Firstly, without optics, adjust your hopup so the rifle is shooting in approximately a straight line for the distance set. Short of spitting the bb, this should be possible with nearly any fps sniper rifle.

Now add your scope. Begin shooting at the target… see where your bbs land, and where your scope is placed. Personally, I like to use scopes with tool-less windage and elevation dials. This makes zeroing as effortless as physically possible, and allows for correction in the field, and without moving from the shouldered position.
Once your scope is roughly aligned with the strike point of the bbs. You can return to the hop up… using your scope to help, watch as you fire. And adjust the hopup slightly too high. At 30m, the shot should fall roughly 6 inches above your crosshair at 3x zoom. At longer range, this increased hop adds more backspin to the bb, and thus, it is moving faster, for longer. Consider a spinning top… it is made to spin by friction, and its spinning allows it to balance on its point. When it slows down, it falls over. The same principal applies to the bb when fired. Now more friction applied to a top, creates more spinning motion, which means the top will spin longer, and thus remains stable longer. This principal I find particularly helpful with lower fps sniper rifles, where pure power isn’t capable of moving the round further with the same accuracy; as Asda like to say… every little helps.

Right, now your rifle is roughly zeroed, and your hopup is tweaked. Time to finally zero those crosshairs in… Do this first at 30, and get comfortable hitting the target there. Once you’re happy, start increasing range, 10 m at a time. When the shots start dropping, learn where to aim to hit targets. And as I mentioned, become comfortable, and learn that trajectory. Airsoft sniping may not be principally about range, but it certainly helps at times. There is nothing quite as satisfying as having a barrage of aegs firing at you, while you calmly drop them one at a time from way beyond their range…

Ok, the gun is set up. Get some trigger time and practice. Unlike support gunners or riflemen, practice out of game is as helpful as in game. I talked above about my love for the spring system. But I’m beginning to see the advantage of the aeg sniper rifle in urban conditions. It may not have the consistency, and performance of the spring bolt action. But the ability to follow up a shot is sometimes extremely helpful. Something I am exploring with my TAR-21S DMR system.

The way one shoots will also ultimately affect the accuracy and range. Just as shooting standing, will prove less accurate than supported prone positions, the more comfortable the shooter, the less likely the rifle will shake, which invariably improves accuracy.
The common favourite of the Airsoft sniper, at least in their fledgling days, is ‘lol slap a bipod on it’ as if two little legs will improve their dire ability to shoot.

I’m not a huge fan of the bipod personally. It makes your system front heavy and severely restricts your positioning. In urban sniping especially, a bipod forces half the barrel out of a window, owing mostly to the fact that most Airsoft sites don’t really have much furniture in them. As you have guessed, barrel out of window is a no no… and one often portrayed in films. One option I use for this situation, is the tripod.
A folding camera tripod is light and transportable, with a customised head that can be purchased if you are loaded, or made quite easily if like me, you are an impoverished student. This allows a steady shooting position that one may hold for an extended period of time. It also allows one to shoot standing, from back in a room, hidden in shadow, but this is a principal to be discussed in field craft. Mine also fits in a daypack. Simples! Bellow are some examples of a simple tripod system, This one is suitable for sitting, kneeling, and standing shooting.




However, a more flexible system for the Airsoft sniper is the sand sock. One boot sock, half filled with sand, knotted, and folded back over itself to form a mouldable pillow. This allows the shooter to get closer to the ground when prone, without the restrictions of the bipod, and may also be stored in a pouch easily, and squeezing the sock allows for minute, subtle adjustments of height. Both options allow for stability, comfort, and flexibility: Core requirements for a shooting platform…. Almost as important as the rifle itself.



From the writer: Ok guys, I was asked for this... and this is the first installment. As I get time, I'll add the other parts, and if people request it (in a separate discussion topic,) I'll cover other aspects.
I hope this is ok.
Firekitten