Sniping for a beginner?

sammypants14

Hi guys me and my brother getting new guns if you have any offers check out my thread here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056904984

Anyways my brother is probably going to get the G36 on the third page of the ad but I think I would like a sniper rifle. I have used my friends ak47 and didn't really enjoy playing on full auto with a 500 rd magazine
Also, I won't be able to go skirmishing too often as it is quite pricey (€25 for a full day at L.A.C) so I would use the gun mostly for target shooting.

Would it be advisable for me to get a sniper rifle bearing in mind it's my first gun apart from a €20 shotgun? I was reading the sniper serial articles by kittenfire and it seemed like good fun.

I heard that sniping isn't as good here as it is in other countries because of the power limit but I also heard other people say that power doesn't matter and read somewhere on the forum that a sniper who knew his gun very well and was playing on a calm day had hit someone in a skirmish at 90m with a rifle that only shot at around 280fps with .20's! He had put around €400 worth of upgrades into the gun though!

So what do the snipers on the forum have to say about sniping in Ireland and beginners starting off with a sniper rifle?

Also, I know that snipers use heavier bb's. If I was using say, .30g bb's would I be able to use a spring that shot them up to 328 fps or would I still have to use a spring that shot .20g bb's no more than 328 fps?

Thanks for the help guys!

sharpy2010

Just to start with it has been said here before by others on this forum that owning a sniper rifle does not make you a sniper, fieldcraft and marksmanship does, bit if your willing to put in the effort to learn these then by all means go ahead an get a sniper rifle.
But I would never recommend a sniper starting off as your limiting your options to where when and how you play as some sites could be offering different styles of play at a days skirmish from attack/defend scenarios to capture the flag and a sniper rifle can offer support role but you may decide you wanna run around and sniper rifles are very cumbersome.
To start get a good all round gun to start with and practice the trade craft and tactics I mentioned above and then get a sniper in the future.
As regards the 328fps that is taken with 0.2g bbs so if your using 0.3g bbs and firing 328fps then your running a hot gun on 0.2g which is illegal.
Hope some of the above helps and welcome to the world Airsoft

Untamedlemon

As Sharpy said sniping isn't as easy as it may look and takes time to even be decent at it....unless your a natural that is!! About the .30's....there's nothing stopping you from using them but they hurt like an absolute motherf****r and I honestly wouldn't recommend using them ever. Their quite expensive as well. I'd honestly recommend getting an aeg first because it allows you to play in all scenarios. An m16 might be a good choice because of the long barrel and because of the fps limit you'll get pretty much the same range as a sniper.
Hope this helps

Leftyflip

If there's an airsoft gun hitting 90m I wanna see that. 60-65 is the best I've ever gotten and even that's at a push...

CpcRc

As regards the fps issue.
Ireland has a 1 joule energy limit.
To calculate a joule you take the speed (in fps or m/s) and the weight of the BB into account.
This means that to stay at one joule with a heavier BB the speed has to drop.
A .2g BB travelling at about 99m/s is about 1 joule as is a .25g BB travelling at about 89 m/s.
Heavier weight, slower speed, same energy.
People use heavier BBs because they typically travel further as they aren't affected by wind, etc. as much as lighter BBs.

If you want to calculate fps use this

If you want to use heavier BBs, use .25g BBs as they are better than .2g and you get about 4000 in a bag as opposed to the 5000 in a bag of 0.2g BBs. Also they are the same cost and easier to find than .3g BBs which would also be in lower quantities as BBs are usually sold by the kg s you will get more shots.

If you want to snipe you have to practice and be patient like others have said.

An aeg like a m16 will have a long inner barrel so you should get pretty good range and accuracy and you can use it in semi auto as a dmr.

I usually suggest to people to try gaming only in semi auto for a whole game a few times as a dmr role before trying to go into a sniper role. Then you know if you would ever want to use full auto or if you are willing to fire less shots and be more patient and get a springer. This also will help them conserve ammo.

Personally I always try to game in semi auto at the start. Full auto comes out when some members on the opposite team need convincing :P

sliabh

sammypants14 wrote: »

Also, I won't be able to go skirmishing too often as it is quite pricey (€25 for a full day at L.A.C) so I would use the gun mostly for target shooting.

Bearing in mind you said you will mostly be target shooting I would go for an AEG. LAC is very open site with little of the natural cover that snipers thrive in. You would be at even more of a disadvantage than usual as you would not have the rate of fire, or be able to conceal yourself.

I'd echo what other people have said, get an AEG, and when gaming try it out using just semi, and very restricted amounts of ammo.

If you are using less than 30 shots a game, you spend your time concealed and slowly working from cover to cover all the time focusing on remaining hidden from the enemy, then you are on the way to being a sniper. Then the investment in a sniper gun is worthwhile.

You don't want to be another of the people who end up selling a gun second hand for a discount as you discover that it's not actually for you.

NakedDex

Unless there's a brand of BB that has broken fundamental laws of physics, a .3g won't hurt any more or less than a .2g or .4g. There's a big psychological factor when people hear someone is using heavier BB's, in the same way that people wince when they hear someone is using 8mm.

Size and weight determines acceleration, deceleration, stability, rotation, trajectory, wind resistance, and time to target. It doesn't have a damn thing to do with force of impact when you consider the firing system is the same, though. If the muzzle energy is 1J, then that's the max energy it'll ever have, regardless of weight.

CpcRc

I think it's that heavier BBs can have less deceleration than lighter ones thus they can carry more kinetic energy over an equivalent distance so they can hit with more force at a distance.
But ya, it can't be more than 1 joule at any point if the aeg, springer, etc. is legal.

I think I heard the inventor of the anti-physics BB was horribly injured in an accident involving a tornado grenade :P

NakedDex

Deceleration is negligible at weights so small. It's more to do with rotation and surface. I'm just waiting for someone to start making dimpled ammo.

CpcRc

Well something is greater than nothing
Could be that they're not made due to increased risk of air pockets in the plastic and ruined batches because when you design a mold you try to keep it simple and smooth to avoid places for air or dirt, grease, chemical from the liquid plastic, etc. to get caught.
Plastic casting can be a b*tch.

NakedDex

True story. I'm sitting between two rather large injection moulding machines right now. My heart is broke with them some days.