Paintball Sniper

Paintball snipers lurk in the darkness of the jungle, waiting for their turn to strike. Patience, discipline, and an extremely good shot are what snipers are masters in. If you are interested in sniper play, or just need a little more advice, visit this website, http://www.squeegie.proboards21.com/

or if you are looking for paintball sniper equipment, go to, http://www.specialopspaintball.com/shop/

Here is the beginning of the book i am writing about paintball snipers.

 

WARNING: This is only for the dedicated few that are willing to put forth the effort and the time to become one with nature. This is an extremely patient position, both in training and in play. If you want a lot of action without having to wait, please try another position first. Now if you are ready to proceed, please turn the page.

 

 

Chpt. 1: The Basics (equipment)

Marker... The paintball marker (otherwise known as a "paintball gun") is probably the most crucial part of your gear. Now we all think it would be cool to have a pump gun, or a $1000 gun. But is it practical. Tourney guns are usually bright colored, an would it be worth spending hundreds of dollars on good ghillie, just to ruin it with a bright blue, or neon green gun, which would blow all that cove? Or a pump, some people use them, others don't. Personally i would not recommend it, you have to pump after every shot, which could give away valuable cover. The human eye can pickup the slightest movement, even one when all your doing is moving your hand up and down. What if your cover gets blown, how can you fight a squad of three or more with semies, when all you have is a pump? I recommend getting a tippmann, they are very reliable. And you can customize them anyway you want.

Next you want to pick a color. Like I said earlier, don't get a neon green, or firetruck red gun. I recommend getting a matt black or camouflaged gun. Most people get any color black, thinking that it is all the same. But a gloss black reflects light, which could give away your position.

Masks, masks, masks. Are they really needed...YES! Do not go onto a paintball field without one. Its not cool, or funny. What, do you think it funny to get a paintball slamming into your head at 275 fps. What do you think would happen if it slammed into your eye? Your mouth? Your nose? Huh, still funny? Think about this, a paintball slams into your your ear, paint rushing through your ear canal, and blowing out your ear drum. Seriously guys, WEAR YOUR GOGGLES. I cannot stress this enough.

Paint. Good paint. Make sure you get good paint. Crappy paint is the worst thing a sniper needs. Crappy paint is prone to breaking. Get good paint.

Chpt. 1.2: Advanced Equipment

This section is about extras that can improve your shooting ability or other areas that you will use.

 

Stocks. Stocks are good, and usually most snipers have at least one. Stocks give you a stable shooting platform, which gives you straighter shot. Better accuracy means less paint and more hits. They come in multiple styles, shapes, sizes, colors, etc., so you can choose the one that fits your sniper role. I will go into detail about the different sniper positions later. A good stock is one that will roll up to your shoulder fast, but comfortably. Not like the real sniper in the military that has hours, sometimes even days to set up a perfect shot. In paintball, you have to pick up your maker as soon as you see someone, and wait for the right time to strike. http://www.specialopspaintball.com has a wide variety of stocks and barrels, and many other things too. I recommend checking them out.

Barrels. New barrels are great, but don't get confused. People say that a longer barrel is better and it shoots further. This is not exactly true. Yes it may shoot further, but not by much. Most longer barrels also are very loud. Carbon fiber barrels offer excellent accuracy, but are also very quiet, and aren't like 20 in long. These are also available from http://www.specialopspaintball.com.

Tactics-

Lesson 1-
Okay, so your interested, but what do you do. There is not much help from the internet except from select sites, which were listed at the top in orange. And most people don't "believe" in the paintball sniper. They think it is a myth. How could anyone crawl all the way from their base to the enemies without being spotted, I mean seriously. I'll tell you how, patience, practice, and discipline. Most paintballers buy really expensive guns, thinking there better than the rest. Yes there more expensive, and in the right hands they could tear a team to shreds, but most people cant handle this type of gun. It's better to start small, than go all out and suck.

Lesson 2- Training:
This is the most important part of Becoming a sniper. In the following Section/s I will show you some training methods that some of the best paintball snipers use.
Crawling: Crawling is probably the best thing to do in paintball, because no one expects it. How many people have you seen crawl in paintball? Huh, 1 out of every 8, 9 even 10? To many people are too lazy to get down and crawl, or don't want to get their pants dirty. It is a slow process, but ultimately gets you where you want to go, undetected. Practice in your backyard, once you get the hang of it, ask someone to come and watch. Try to get from a patch of long grass to a tree or something without getting seen. Once you have accomplished basic crawling, try sneaking into a position and taking out a target.
Crawling/Shooting: Try crawling into a position that gets you a good vantage point of the field. Crawling while shooting is pretty hard if you don't have a proper stock. Try using your co2 as a rest. Brace your gun with the co2 or stock, and move with you legs. Try setting up a target (or better, get someone to be a moving target) and start shooting. Once you start hitting it consistently and around the same spot, you can move on.

Positioning and Timing: Two of the most common mistakes are where to go and when to shoot. The best positions are usually in well traveled locations with a lot of cover on the sides. The worst, well bunkers, where people are expected. Try to find a path, and make your hide. Making a hide can be easy, if you are in the right location. Try to make your hide look as natural as you can. Say you have been in your hide for twenty minutes, but it has felt like hours, and your anxious to get a couple people out. An attack squad of five come into sight. One of the biggest mistakes is to fire to early. If you fire now, they can hide and find you. If they do, you are probably going to the dead box. Wait until they are leaving, but not to far away. You want to fire when you see the back of the last person. Try to hit the people in the front first. That way its hard for the others to retreat or run forward. Practice makes perfect, especially when your a sniper. Remember, patience, practice, discipline. Thats what it takes to be a paintball sniper.

Here are a couple drills for you to learn...

Shooting- In this drill you will have a bunker, cups (or anything of the like), you and your equipment. Always practice with your gear on, so when you play for real, it will feel natural. Place the cups at different angles and places on the bunker. Start at about fifty feet. Try taking as many cups out with as little shots as possible. Then move back to seventy-five feet, then one hundred, hopefully this will make you more accurate, but keep practicing until you perfect it.

Stalking- this requires you, your gear (although this is a non shooting activity), and a friend. Try this in a wooded area or an area that looks like what your local field might look like. Place your friend about 25-50 feet in-front of you, make sure his back is turned, so he can't see you. Try sneaking up on him without him hearing you, if he does you have to restart, try it until you can do it without him hearing you. After you have, try it at a longer distance, or in a denser area of the woods, so it's harder.

How to get maximum range- This is a question most snipers really need to know. Everyone says that the flatline will get you more distance, however you sacrifice distance for accuracy. Others say that a 22in barrel will get you more distance, which is also not true. A 22in barrel will just use up air and space, and makes you LOSE distance. The best thing to do is train, and get a barrel between 14in-16in, if you absolutely have to, get an 18in, but it's your choice. Also, get good paint. You don't want crappy paint that will break in your barrel. Get paint that has a thick fill, if you do this you will get more range and good accuracy. Why, because thick fill paint has more mass, therefore it has more "energy" and i mean kenetic energy. Which means it will go further because they have more energy so they can go a further distance without sacrificing accuracy.

I was out playing paintball on Sunday with a lot of people (about 105 people). I learned a lot from that day. I decided to wear some old mixed camo. I was playing sniper and people kept coming within ten feet and not noticing me. I wondered why and how. Then it hit me (not a paintball), every time I saw someone I froze and waited. Even though my camo wasn't very good, they didn't notice me because I didn't move. As long I was still they couldn't detect me which was when I struck. So don't be discouraged if you don't have hundreds of dollars put into camo, just go out, be stealthy, and most of all have fun.

Here are some good sniper setups.
(markers and upgrades)

Basic... Here are some basic setups that you can use.

Marker... Tippmann 98 custom
Barrel choices... All American barrel/Freak kit/Stiffi barrel
Co2... 9-20oz
Sight... Basic Red-Dot

Tippman A-5
All American barrel/Freak kit/Stiffi barrel
9-20oz
Basic Red-dot sight

[NOTE: If you want a picture of your modified marker, you can send them to me at fr3aky_gamer@yahoo.com and i will try to post them for you.]