Post by Wolfen on Mar 18, 2012 8:10:42 GMT -5
OK i had a person on another forum post a thread asking me why I thought paintball snipers existed. He wasn't out to troll, but was genuinely interested and as i quite often speak about the subject... Anyways i decided to make a very simple overview to him why i thought paintball snipers existed with my own experience as a marine sniper as comparison. Now Within 12 hours of posting my answer it got over 20 positive replies and not a single negative one so i thought i'd post it up here as well. Now i just hastily translated it to english from swedish so i apologize for any bad grammar or spelling errors.
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Paintball sniper Definition:
The argument you hear everyone use against those that call themselves paintball snipers is, ”there's no paintball snipers because you can't shoot further then anyone else, because of the projectile used”. Ok now this is true you can't get a normal paintball to fly significantly further or be alot more accurate then anyone elses. But does that really matter?
Im going to add up a list of what I as a trained marine sniper considers important when you want to define what a sniper really is.
1. Accurate, long range shots: Like i already mentioned, this is the no.1 argument you hear against the existance of paintball snipers. This is true, no matter what barrel or marker you use, you will not achive a significant advantage in neither range nor accuracy over anyone else using normal paintballs. However real snipers actually do the majority of their training shooting at ranges around 300-500m, which is in fact far from a impossible shot for a decent marksman using any type of assult rifle. Why does snipers train at these distances? Well simply because while we'd love to always lie 1000m+ from our targets, it is quite rare to get those oppertunities. Most of the time there's too many obsticales in the way or the target won't stand still for long enough. The same thing applies to a paintball field, most fields won't even give you the oppetunity to try and shoot people from 100m+. So in conclusion while this arugment still may hold it's not as ironclad as people think.
Alright now we can continue to all the skills a real sniper needs and uses that all the teeny fools that uses Cod,CS,MW and other videogames as their sorce of sniper knowledge know nothing about.
2. Stealth/movement: Real snipers spend ALOT of time training how to move without being seen,
3. Camouflage/concealment: Real snipers are all experts at remaining hidden and the use of proper camo.
4. The art of observation: Snipers spend hours and hours learning how to spot and track targets, what to look for and how to keep track of them without getting tunnelvision.
5. Awareness of your surrounding: You need to always know where you are and all the things around you.
6. How to shoot: Your only as accurate as you allow yourself to be. The proper shooting stance, how to aim, the calculation of distance,wind, humidity. All this does apply in paintball too...
7. Patience and the right mental attitude: This really explains itself.
Now i've played paintball for 9 years and ALL the things i learned as a real sniper from point 2-7 is directly usable in paintball. the times and distances may differ but the core skills used are the same. So if you really want to argue the point of the existance of paintball snipers, take into consideration that 6/7 things that a real sniper spends hours training directly applies to paintball as well. Also with the introduction of the first strike round into the paintball world, even the first point becomes part of paintball since the use of first strike rounds WILL give you a significant advantage in both range and accuracy over anyone using normal paintballs. If you do not know about this then i really don't think you have ANYTHING to do arguing about this topic. "
I hope this might help you if someone asks if paintball snipers exists (And for anyone that wants to argue that there's so much more going into being a real sniper then this, Well ofcourse there is... but even this simple overview of a few points is in my opinion enough to prove that the role of sniper in paintball is a valid one.)
"
Paintball sniper Definition:
The argument you hear everyone use against those that call themselves paintball snipers is, ”there's no paintball snipers because you can't shoot further then anyone else, because of the projectile used”. Ok now this is true you can't get a normal paintball to fly significantly further or be alot more accurate then anyone elses. But does that really matter?
Im going to add up a list of what I as a trained marine sniper considers important when you want to define what a sniper really is.
1. Accurate, long range shots: Like i already mentioned, this is the no.1 argument you hear against the existance of paintball snipers. This is true, no matter what barrel or marker you use, you will not achive a significant advantage in neither range nor accuracy over anyone else using normal paintballs. However real snipers actually do the majority of their training shooting at ranges around 300-500m, which is in fact far from a impossible shot for a decent marksman using any type of assult rifle. Why does snipers train at these distances? Well simply because while we'd love to always lie 1000m+ from our targets, it is quite rare to get those oppertunities. Most of the time there's too many obsticales in the way or the target won't stand still for long enough. The same thing applies to a paintball field, most fields won't even give you the oppetunity to try and shoot people from 100m+. So in conclusion while this arugment still may hold it's not as ironclad as people think.
Alright now we can continue to all the skills a real sniper needs and uses that all the teeny fools that uses Cod,CS,MW and other videogames as their sorce of sniper knowledge know nothing about.
2. Stealth/movement: Real snipers spend ALOT of time training how to move without being seen,
3. Camouflage/concealment: Real snipers are all experts at remaining hidden and the use of proper camo.
4. The art of observation: Snipers spend hours and hours learning how to spot and track targets, what to look for and how to keep track of them without getting tunnelvision.
5. Awareness of your surrounding: You need to always know where you are and all the things around you.
6. How to shoot: Your only as accurate as you allow yourself to be. The proper shooting stance, how to aim, the calculation of distance,wind, humidity. All this does apply in paintball too...
7. Patience and the right mental attitude: This really explains itself.
Now i've played paintball for 9 years and ALL the things i learned as a real sniper from point 2-7 is directly usable in paintball. the times and distances may differ but the core skills used are the same. So if you really want to argue the point of the existance of paintball snipers, take into consideration that 6/7 things that a real sniper spends hours training directly applies to paintball as well. Also with the introduction of the first strike round into the paintball world, even the first point becomes part of paintball since the use of first strike rounds WILL give you a significant advantage in both range and accuracy over anyone using normal paintballs. If you do not know about this then i really don't think you have ANYTHING to do arguing about this topic. "
I hope this might help you if someone asks if paintball snipers exists (And for anyone that wants to argue that there's so much more going into being a real sniper then this, Well ofcourse there is... but even this simple overview of a few points is in my opinion enough to prove that the role of sniper in paintball is a valid one.)
