The Spotter
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center A training sniper confers with his spotter. |
In observation missions, the two can take turns using the spotter scope to spy on the enemy. This helps to avoid eye fatigue and allows one team member to rest while the other watches. This is important, since in many cases they can be out there observing for days at a time.
The most important job of the spotter is to protect the shooter and the team. For this task, the spotter shoulders an automatic assault rifle like an M-4 or M-16. Army Ranger Sniper explains why this added firepower is important: "If you're sitting there and you get attacked, a sniper rifle is not real good for fighting your way out."
The relationship between a sniper and his spotter is very important. First and foremost, the two depend on each other for survival. Sniper teams work in the no-man's-land between or behind battle lines. They often have little or no support from their unit, and if they don't accomplish their mission, the safety of the whole platoon may be compromised.
Being the spotter in a sniper team is a sort of sniper apprenticeship. The sniper is the team leader. He coordinates with command to put together the mission. In the field, he has the final word in determining the route, position, rendezvous point and escape route. A spotter learns in the field from his sniper and then eventually gets his own team to lead.
In the next section, we'll learn about the tools that sniper teams use to get the job done.
Sniper Rifles
"One shot, one kill" is the sniper motto. Accomplishing this would not be possible without the specially modified rifles used by snipers in the field. A sniper rifle such as the M-21 or PSG-1 in the hands of a highly trained sniper can be a deadly weapon from more than a mile away. Army Ranger Sniper used an M-21: "It was a military M-14 with match-grade upgrades -- hollowing out the wood, fiberglass-seated receiver, different trigger mechanisms and optics."
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center As part of a training exercise, the members of a sniper team man a 7.62mm Springfield Armory M21 Sniping rifle (left) and sights through the scope of a 7.62mm M24 Sniper rifle (right). |
Match grade means the rifle has been fine-tuned by a professional gunsmith to ensure the highest possible accuracy and reliability. Match-grade rifles are also used for competitive shooting. A match-grade rifle coupled with handmade, match-grade ammunition ensures the consistency that is so important for a marksman.
In addition, sniper rifles sport a free-floating barrel to ensure that the barrel touches the least amount of the weapon possible. This reduces vibration from the recoil. Also, sniper rifles are usually designed or modified to incorporate fiberglass or composite stocks to avoid the effect of humidity on the receiver. Any swelling of the wood can affect the accuracy of the shot.
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There are many different types
of sniper rifles manufactured by countries all over the world. On
average, they cost between $8,000 and $15,000.
Sniper Scopes
After the rifle itself, the second major component of the sniper-rifle weapon system is the sniper scope. A sniper scope is basically a specialized telescope containing components that lay a targeting reticule (crosshairs) over the amplified image.
 Sniper scopes are essentially specialized telescopes. Here you see a basic telescope design. |
When sighting a target through a scope, snipers are comparing point of aim to point of impact. Simply put, when firing a bullet from over 600 yards, where you are aiming is not going to be where the bullet lands. All sorts of variables work on that bullet during its long flight to the target. Ideally, snipers want point of aim and point of impact to be the same. They line up these points with fine adjustments to the scope once range, heat and windage have been factored into the shot.
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 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center A sniper sights in a target on a range. |
These scopes sport ballistic drop compensators (BDC). The BDC looks
like a small, round dial and helps the sniper adjust the scope to
compensate for battlefield variables as well as the natural behavior of
these rounds in flight. With the BDC, snipers can make fine changes to
the scope without touching the range settings. A sniper can adjust for
any range up to 1,000 yards, as well as make adjustments up, down, left
or right.
Ghillie Suits
If you've ever seen a sniper on the news or in a film, then you have probably noticed that unsettling, half-man, half-shrubbery appearance. That is thanks to a ghillie suit. The point of the ghillie suit is to make a sniper disappear into his surroundings.The word ghillie is an old Scottish term for a special kind of game warden. Ghillies were tasked with protecting the game on their Lord's lands. From time to time, the ghillies would stalk the game by hiding in the grass and lying perfectly still. They would wait for unsuspecting deer to amble by and then leap out and grab it with their bare hands. Ghillies would then haul their prize back to the keep so the Lord could shoot it in the castle courtyard in a "mock hunt."
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center Snipers modify a type of camouflage clothing called a ghillie suit to match their surroundings. |
Ghillie suits are basically old military uniforms that snipers modify for their special purpose. The belly of the uniform is reinforced with heavy canvas to help pad a sniper's torso during hours or days of lying on his stomach. Camouflage netting is attached to the uniform. This netting is used to attach shredded burlap and other frayed materials. Ghillie suits are usually painted to match the environment of the battlefield. Local elements like twigs, vines, and branches can be incorporated into the netting to further camouflage the ghillie suit.
Nothing in nature has perfectly straight lines, so equipment like rifles and antennas often betray concealed positions. To counter this, snipers also make little ghillie suits for their rifles. Using the same principles of camouflage, snipers wrap their rifles in canvas and create little sleeves that make them blend into the environment.
Soldiers are trained to keep their eyes peeled for strange things in
their surroundings that could represent a threat. The human form is one
of the most recognizable shapes in nature. Snipers, spotters, and
trained observers all look for color and contour when trying to spot an
enemy in the brush or other terrain. Ghillie suits help the sniper to
break up his outline, hide straight lines in his gear and blend his
overall color with the surroundings. "With a good ghillie suit," Army
Ranger Sniper explains, "you could hide in a yard and people wouldn't
be able to see you."
A Day at the Office
Sniper teams are attached to special operations units. The soldiers that make up these units represent the elite members of the armed services. There is always conflict in the world somewhere, and special operations units may be involved in these conflicts even if the regular forces are not. A military sniper must spend his days training and preparing to be deployed at any time.
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center American snipers of the 166th Infantry exchange fire with German snipers on the outskirts of Villers de Fere, France, July 30, 1918. |
In the words of Army Ranger Sniper, "There really is no average day. If you're on a mission, your day would be ... moving to the objective ... walking through the woods all day to get to where you need to go or just laying in bushes and watching over a position all day long. If you're in garrison, back in the barracks, then you're training."
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- What
you do is study the mission -- the mission statement, the operation
order, which tells who's going to do what, where people are going to be
at a certain time, and this goes not just for the sniper, but ... for
people in the unit ... all the way from the private up to the company
commander. Everybody has to know what is going on. You have to memorize
radio frequencies. You don't want to be carrying a lot of this stuff
around with you. Because if you get compromised, then the enemy has all
your frequencies, call signs ... So you want to memorize as much of
this as you can -- study. You study your terrain, where you're going to
be, your mission, your route, how to get to the objective the best way,
how long you have to get there -- because everyone else is going to be
coming up behind you, so you have to get there before them. So,
basically, mission prep entails knowing what's going on with everybody
else.
In the next section, we'll see what the training is like for a military sniper.
Sniper School
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The USMC Scout Sniper School is widely regarded in the military as the finest sniper training program. The Marines offer a tremendous program that trains eligible sniper candidates in all branches of the armed services. The few candidates who are chosen to attend the school typically represent the some of the finest that branch of the service has to offer. Fewer still emerge "Scout Sniper Qualified."
When selecting a candidate, commanders aren't looking for "good shots" or "natural born killers." There are a lot of soldiers that are skilled with a rifle and have the training and ability to take an enemy's life if necessary. Being a sniper comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility. What command is looking for is a soldier that possesses good decision making and a level head.
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center The spotter uses a range card to help him estimate the range to the target. |
"You don't want a real hot head to be a sniper," Army Ranger Sniper reports. "Snipers need to be able to work on their own. You have to be independent, you know, so when you're not with your unit you need to be able to make sound decisions on your own without having to call up, 'What should I do here?' or 'Should I shoot this guy or what?'"
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- Marksmanship
- Observation
- Stalking
In the next sections, we'll go into more detail on sniper training.
Rounds Down Range
The skill snipers are most known for is their marksmanship. The ability to hit targets as far as a 1,000 yards away (10 football fields!) is not something that comes naturally. Snipers train to become expert marksman with a deeply ingrained understanding of the principles of ballistics.
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center Snipers practice marksmanship on a range at the U.S. Army Sniper School at the Sembach Army Annex in Germany. |
MOA (minute of angle) is the unit of measurement that snipers use in school to measure accuracy. The greater the distance the sniper is shooting from, the lower the accuracy, as natural forces like wind resistance work on the bullet while it travels through the air. MOA measures the accuracy of the shot taking the distance it was fired from into consideration. The basic formula is 1.047 inches at 100 yards, or, for practical purposes, 1 inch at 100 yards. For every 100 yards the bullet travels, you add 1 inch of inaccuracy.
The two biggest variables that affect a bullet's flight are wind and gravity. When estimating the range of a target, snipers must consider how the wind will affect flight over that distance. Sniper teams can use indicators like smoke or blowing leaves to help them read the wind.
Despite the high power of a rifle shot, it is still affected by gravity. If you were to fire a sniper rifle level to the ground at the same moment that you drop a bullet from the barrel height, the fired bullet and the dropped bullet would hit the ground at the same time. As a round travels through the air, gravity is dragging it down. When sighting a shot, snipers must often compensate for this by "overshooting" the target.
Air temperature affects a bullet, as well. Cold air is denser than hot air and therefore creates more drag on a bullet. On the other hand, bullets can tear through hot air. But Army Ranger Sniper explains that because humidity often accompanies hot air, which will also affect the bullet, this is yet another variable to be considered. "And with winds and heat and humidity -- if you look at all the factors it's amazing you can hit anything."
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center German and American snipers work together to sight a shot in desert training exercises. |
Even in ideal shooting situations, targets may be at odd angles or moving. Snipers are taught at the range how to deal with these problems.
Ultimately, the farther a sniper can be from his target and still remain accurate the more effective he is and the less likely he is to be discovered. Using a 7.62mm round, snipers can shoot nearly silently as long as they're shooting from over 600 meters. A bullet leaves the rifle barrel faster than the speed of sound. The cracking sound a bullet makes is a tiny sonic boom. Even if a target doesn't hear the rifle shot, he will hear the bullet fly by. But the drag created by wind resistance on a 7.62mm round as it travels through the air slows the bullet down to sub-sonic speeds at around 600 meters. So at ranges over 600 meters, the bullet no longer makes that distinct cracking sound. Army Ranger Sniper tells us, "If you're shooting at a target 800 or 1,000 meters out, you could be shooting at that person all day long and they don't even know they are being shot at."
| Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center The spotter uses a range card to help him estimate the range to the target. |
Snipers spend plenty of time in school cracking the books and in the
classroom learning the principles of ballistics, windage, air density,
and many other variables that affect the flight of a bullet. But at the
end of the day, it comes down to what snipers call "rounds down range."
A sniper's most valuable classroom is the firing range. Snipers
don't have time in the field to think about theory. Hours at the range
help snipers to apply these principles by "feel."
Observation Training
Since most of a sniper's time is spent on reconnaissance missions observing the enemy, his observational skills have to be flawless. USMC Scout Sniper School has developed some unique "games" to hone student snipers' ability to look at things critically. This section details the games used to teach advanced observational skills.
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center Snipers in Iraq. |
Army Ranger Sniper details one training exercise called the KIMS game:
-
...they would put different objects on the table: a bullet, a paper
clip, a bottle top, a pen, a piece of paper with something written on
it -- 10 to 20 items. You'd gather around and they'd give you, say, a
minute to look at everything. Then you'd have to go back to your table
and describe what you saw. You weren't allowed to say "paper clip" or
"bullet," you'd have to say, like, "silver, metal wire, bent in two
oval shapes." They want the Intel guys making the decision [about] what
you actually saw.
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Another observation game happens in the field with a sniper scope. According to Army Ranger Sniper:
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What they would usually do was hide things in a field, and you would
just line up and have a certain amount of time to find them. There
might be the tip of a pen hanging up out of the grass. You'd just have
to look at every area in that field, you know, put your scope on it and
just stare at it for a couple minutes, and move it over, stare at the
next spot for a couple minutes. Basically, after a while, you do get
really good where you can just pick these things out easy. You'd just
look for things in the field that didn't add up.
Try your hand at sniper observation games.
Use the mouse to move the sniper scope around the field to locate the
10 hidden objects. Mouse over and click to shoot. Time yourself to see
if you can do it in 30 seconds like a real sniper.
Snipers' observational skills tie into their main mission: reconnaissance. Such intense observational practice rewires a person's brain. Army Ranger Sniper explains, "Even just driving down the road now I see weird little things on the side of the road that a lot of people wouldn't really notice."
In the next section, we'll look at another critical element of the sniper's skill set: the stalk.
Stalks
Stalk training is the component of sniper school that hones a sniper's stealthy approach. Snipers have to learn to move slowly, patiently and methodically. If necessary, snipers will lie for days in the same position to observe an objective or avoid detection. Army Ranger Sniper describes the intricate process:-
When you're stalking, you would be amazed when you're on the ground the
things you walk over and don't look at. When you're trying to sneak up
on somebody, even an anthill looks like a mountain. You have pick out
your positions -- the next place you're going to crawl to. You ask
yourself, "Is that going to cover me when I get there, and how am I
going to get there?
 Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center A sniper team stalks in an open field in Iraq. |
To develop this ability, snipers have to pass perhaps one of the most challenging training games -- the stalk.
Stalk training takes place in open grassy ranges. Students start at one end of the range. One thousand meters down range, two instructors sit on top of a truck or tower with spotter scopes. Sniper students must stalk toward the instructors without being seen. To add to the challenge, the instructors have two soldiers in the field called walkers. The instructors use radios to communicate with the walkers and try to find the sniper.
Students must stalk from 1,000 meters out to within 150 meters of the instructors, all the while avoiding detection by the instructors and the walkers. Once in position, they take a shot (they are firing blanks). They must take this shot carefully because if their muzzle flashes or kicks up dirt, then they can be easily spotted. After the first shot, the snipers must stalk to a second firing position and take a second shot. To verify that the snipers were actually sighting the instructors, the snipers must read the card or count the number of fingers the instructors are holding up. Stalk training is a pass or fail game. If the sniper is spotted at any point, he fails the game. Too many fails, and the student washes out of the program.
Of course, training exercises are different from deployment. Army Ranger Sniper explains it this way:
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In the real world, it's a lot easier to get up to an objective than you
would think. When we did stalks, [the instructors] would have us get up
to within 150 meters of the objective. In the real world, you would
never get that close to an objective. The real world is actually a lot easier."
Anywhere, any time, snipers are prepared to use their specialized skills to sneak into dangerous situations and disable an enemy force through a combination of close reconnaissance and deadly long-range fire. When we asked Army Ranger Sniper if there was one thing he really wanted to get across to our readers about snipers, his response was, "Let people know that snipers aren't assassins, you know, kids always think that. Snipers aren't just assassins who sneak in, kill a general and sneak out ... that's what all the movies always show. That may happen, but it's very rare."