Sniping Tips

Snipeyouall wrote: Here are some good tips for sniping. 1. Get to know your gun and what paintballs are best for your gun. I have an A-5 with a flatline barrel and i use a crossfire nitro tank. The best paint that I found for my gun is either Evil or X-ball. Team Colors is excellent but they sold out. You are reffering to paint to bore match, there is a chart on the bore sizes of different barrels and the size of different brands of paint. 2. Know the way your paint curves and what distance it starts to curve. My paint curves a little at about 75-100 feet. I dropped a bird from about 60 feet away. The ball nailed it square in the head. It is very important that you practice with your mask on. You should practice exactly how you would play. Take moving shots, too. Get used to different distances and learn to judge the distance accurately. Use a long tapemeasurer to see how good your judgement is. Paintball guns are far too inaccurate and inconsistent to expect results from that. 3. Before gameplay, study the field of play. Find all the possible routes that the opposite team could take and choose a suitable position with just enough cover to keep yourself hidden, but enough room to move and have a quick exit. Make sure there is at least two spots that you can safely retreat behind in case you are spotted or to get a better shot. That, my friend, is camping, quite the newb method 4. When the game is about to start, do not make it obvious to the opposite team what direction you are heading. Circle around to your spot. 5. Get to your selected spot. It would be smart to take another player with you. I prefer to take a charger with me because if we somehow come upon multiple enemies, I will usually keep their heads down by providing accurate cover fire while my charger runs up to the bunker they're behind and takes them out. 6. Never fire unless you can hit the person and NEVER take blind shots. You will give away your position and will have to move while under fire. Set a goal to make One Shot Kills. By doing this, you will have the mentality of conserving and stealth. One shot kills in paintball? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Unless you are shooting very close to your target you will not get the accuracy to make a shot like that.  Firing blind is an excellent tactic because it draws the other team to your position and if they are trying to be "uber snipp-er duds" or trying to sneak up on something it will make them panic. 7. Always relocate after a kill or a shot, especially if your seen. The worst thing is for you to get pinned down. The purpose of relocating is to confuse the enemy. They hear the shot from one place and take cover to shield themselves from the direction of the shot. If you move quietly enough you should be able to flank them and light them up. It's also a good chance to earn some respect on the field. If the enemy is clueless about where the shot came from and don't know where you are, stay. But only stay for a little while, then relocate. If your intelligent you dont have to "relocate" because you are always on the move.  Staying put in woodsball to watch a particular place is camping, a very noobish tactic. 8. You will probable want to have some camo on your mask, especially around the goggles. The goggles give a glare from light and are one of the first things spotted. If you have a colored gun, get some camo on it. Make sure your arms are hidden. A good technique is to cover them in mud. Mud will definately help you if your in a prone position. It is the color of the ground and not easily spotted. A good set of BDUs are all you need.  You dont need some ghillie suit or to cover yourself from head to toe in crap. 9. Watch your back. Their could be other snipers around or someone could be sneaking up on you. Relocating helps with this problem becuase if someone hears your shot, they could come up right behind you. Oh please, I'd be more worried the little fat newb with the brass eagle wearing a red shirt then other "snipers".  10. If you want to spot other snipers before they see you, just simply think of the spots you might choose. You mean campers, right? Scan the area. Look hard because they are usually well hidden You mean crouching in a bush with a mismatched ghillie thinking they are "invisible"? unless they are wannabe snipers that don't have a clue about anything. Hate to break it to you buddy but every "sniper" in paintball is a "wannabe" and fits that description right there perfectly. Quietly approach your area of suspicion. Make sure there is plenty of cover to hide behind if you get caught. If you're taking fire, try to pin the sniper and have the man with you flank him. Assuming he isnt "intelligent" like you and has an extra person there? Do this quickly before reinforcements arrive. When that happens, you will have a difficult time. In that situation, one of you should give cover fire so the other can move up. Alternate this pattern back and forth until you can get a close shot. Watch your back. 11. Sniping is about stealth and accuracy. Two things practically impossible in paintball.  Face it, paintball guns are INACURATE and INCONSISTENT. Furthermore, I dont care how "awsome" your "m4d sn1pp-3r dUd sKILLz" are you will fidget and crash through the brush, making stealth something that wont happen. Staying calm and not panicing is the key. Take deep breaths while waiting. When you see someone, keep calm because naturally, your instict to fire right on sight takes over and the adrenalin flows too much. That is how many rookies and even experienced players get caught or shot out. Kiddo, we covered this, EVERY sniper is a rookie or newb. Just breath slow and stay calm. Try not to move your shoulders when your sighting someone. your aim will be messed up. Remember to judge the distance and remember the curve of the paint at that distance. Keep these tips in mind while playing and your sniping skills will get better. It will take time though. Have fun

Welcome to the forum!

There are no snipers in paintball, go read the other thread on this.  These tips however can be of some use to ANY woodsballer.  Numbers 1, 4, and 7 are decent advice and parts of 3, 5, 8 and 9 are useful.  Search, and read the other misplaced thread about this in this section.


P.S - Wrong section

The Guy wrote: by the way Darur. its only called camping when you are hiding and nobody is around. If you are keeping someones head down by shooting up their bunker or waiting for them to pop out, its called posting. Its quite effective unless they are a really good snapshooter.

Opps, my bad

But still, hiding in a spot and just waiting for someone to come near when you dont know they will be comming from there is camping

I sure hope you dont blind fire behind a bunker or a tree.

Cause if you do, someone should punch you in the balls. Blind firing is dangerous and stupid.


Edited by Monk

hey darur,

**Either be nice, or be gone**

Edited by Reb Cpl

you shot a bird?...jerk...

 

maddog87 wrote: hey darur,     you suck

Your cool

BTW, after Monk's post I should clarify my point about blind firing as a useful technique but you should NEVER do it at point blank range.  Blind firing from a sfae distence can be useful.


Edited by Darur

I can here it now "who woke the Crewchief up?"

These posts/dicussions are better referenced as to what do and don't make effective tactics is recreational woods/scenario/big game paintball.

So without futher ado.. let the lesson begin...again.


First some basics need to be established. The game is paintball and for the purposes of this class it is played in the woods where the terrain dictates that you’ll be engaging each other most of the time at between 20 and 25 meters. (In other words close range) It is played most often by 2 opposing sides of roughly equal size. For all intent and purposes this game is modeled on military small unit combat.

Now several you are going "whoo hoo, my kind of sniper country"…without knowing what makes a sniper. Many of you have gone to the dictionary and found a reference saying something to the effect that a sniper is someone who fires from concealment and have used this a your basis for your claim to being one in paintball. That's all well and dandy, except you ignore the rest of the definition.

snip·er ( P ) Pronunciation Key (sn p r)n. A skilled military shooter detailed to spot and pick off enemy soldiers from a concealed place. One who shoots at other people from a concealed place.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Now you’ll note that this expanded definition is still quite general in it scope, after all anyone who squats behind bush to fire is a sniper which is not the case.

So, since the dictionary has not resolved this we must consult the experts for a better definition of what makes a sniper in our chosen environment. It happens that I’ve had the opportunity to do just that from time to time in my 22 years in the Army.

In summary here are the extreme basics of what is an effective sniper:
· A superior marksman
· Expert knowledge in the art camouflage for concealment
· The ability to approach the target without being detected
· Engage the target from beyond effective range of return fire
· The ability to engage the target without revealing your position
· The ability to egress the area after successfully engaging the target without being positively identified and engaged

The first three of these points are possible in the game of paintball, but do not make you a sniper, they just take some training and practice.

Let’s look at them one at a time.

A superior marksman

Basically someone who’s shooting skills are well above that of the average player. No big problem here, skill levels very, some people are just plain better than others.

Expert knowledge in the art camouflage for concealment

This one is a little tougher. It takes knowledge of what will fool the eye into not seeing what is really there. It’s still doable though. Trained military have an advantage over the someone whose camouflage skills are solely based on hunting. Not because the non-military hunter is any less skilled but because of who the camouflage is intended to fool. But once armed with the knowledge of what the differences are this isn’t even a problem. So, yes this can be effectively applied to paintball.

The ability to approach the target without being detected

This one is a bigger problem. If just taken as being able to move close enough to a player that is already in place to make your shot undetected is very difficult. Since instinctively humans are hunters, our attention is automatically drawn to movement or things that are out of place. It’s takes someone that is extremely skilled in moving undected to pull this one off. But I have seen it done.

I should add to this the ability to setup a position that provides an undetected position from which to shoot that covers an area you expect your opponent to move through. A basic ambush.

Both require an undetected shooting position and can be effectively applied to paintball depending on skill level


The last three points are where the concept of a sniper in paintball fails.

Engage the target from beyond effective range of return fire

No matter what you do, as long as everyone has the same approximate muzzle velocity, everyone has about the same effective range. Yes, that means Flatlines too. While Flatlines do have the ability, do to an aerodynamic backspin, shoot farther than other barrel systems the paintball still loses velocity at the same rate. What this means is that a paintball from a flatline loses the energy to break its shell at the same rate as one fired from a conventional barrel. The advantage of the flatline is initial flat trajectory that paintball has, which allows someone to fire under foliage that would otherwise break the ball. (The first failed point in being an effective sniper)

The ability to engage the target without revealing your position

Since the effective range is around 20-25m means that when you fire you have effectively revealed your general position. What I mean is this. Your shooting from such a close range that either the pop of your ball leaving the barrel or the sound of your bolt cycling (or both) will give your general position away to anyone with average hearing as far away as 40m. Unless you are only engaging 1 or 2 people or are extremely lucking you yourself can now be effectively counted as a mission kill. (The second failed point in being an effective sniper)

The ability to egress the area after successfully engaging the target without being positively identified and engaged

What this means is the ability move to a new shooting position after having engaged a target without being detected and counter-engaged your self. Since it’s been demonstrated that you can’t effectively engage a target without revealing your initial shooting position and exposing yourself to effective counter fire this one automatically fails. (The third failed point in being an effective sniper)



Now just because you can’t effectively apply all of the above tactics of what makes an effective sniper doesn’t mean that the first 3 listed can’t be applied to paintball. Do they make you a sniper? No. But they do give you the ability to setup an effective close ambush. Just a word of advice here, bring along several friends and you might even be effective at it.

Here is the truth.  There are no snipers in paintball.  Here's why.  When you shoot and claim to be a "sniper" you are just hiding and picking people off, but snipers are people who sit in a concealed position and shoot at ranges out of the other peoples' gun's reach.  In paintball you can't shoot further than other peoples' guns.  The only way is if you get the Flatline barrel for Tippmann's.  Even then I don't consider it sniping.

Sniper Definition

Now I know what you're thinking.  "That guy's stupid, it says just someone who shoots others from a concealed position."  Well yes, but snipers get out of range of other peoples' guns who are trying to shoot at them.  They can shoot further than their enemy.  Otherwise those are pretty good tips.

Dur, you need a 212 inch barrel.