A lot of airsoft snipers face a significant barrier to their ability to fulfill their position as a precision marksman because they bring with them a whole host of bad habits that have been established while engaging in skirmishes as the member of a squad wielding assault-style AEGs.
Unlike those who join the military, there is no barrier to entry and no basic marksmanship training required before getting involved in airsoft. Getting started is pretty much as easy as buying a gun and showing up at an event. Load gun, point, shoot, done.
Unfortunately, this translates into an entire group of players that lack a basic understanding of the fundamentals of marksmanship and how to employ them. Now this may not seem like such a big issue in a squad-type setting with close up engagements being the norm where simply sending enough shots toward your target fast enough may be the major determining factor, but this is not the case once a player buys an airsoft sniper rifle and starts to take up long-range firing positions.
If a player finds himself on terrain that requires constant movement between concealment points, then the exertion of getting from place to place along with getting into a sometimes unfamiliar position can often make aiming a very difficult proposition when the crosshairs are bobbling all over like sugar-high kid in a moon-walk.
Other than working hard to maintain a high level of fitness, the only thing that can help overcome these obstacles so that a player can properly fill the role of an airsoft sniper is mastering the Fundamentals of Airsoft Marksmanship. These four principles will enable any sniper who is struggling to accurately place shots with his or her new airsoft sniper rifle to be able to quickly improve accuracy and become the most feared operator on your team.
In this four-part series, we'll outline what these four principles of marksmanship for the airsoft sniper are, and how you can employ them yourself. Here's the first one:
Aiming - the first thing that needs to be taken seriously when using an airsoft sniper rifle is to understand basic aiming techniques. Point, shoot, fire is the oversimplified version that many shooters take when in fact aiming is composed of two major elements. Sight alignment and sight picture.
Sight alignment is making sure that your rear sight is properly aligned with your front sight to ensure that your rifle is pointing in the direction that you THINK it is. Sight picture boils down to properly placing your sights on your target.
When shooting with a rifle that doesn't have a scope, paying close attention to both sight alignment and sight picture are essentially important.
Sighting in with a scoped sniper rifle however, is a different experience from aiming with a non-scoped gun. Sight alignment is not as much of an issue as the scope itself compensates for the proper & straight alignment of the rifle. It is important to know exactly how your scope works, and follow the instructions to properly zero it in well before showing up at the safe zone of any competition.
If your airsoft sniper rifle did not come with a scope, then it's HIGHLY advisable that you do your best to get one ASAP. With few exceptions all of these guns do not come equipped to properly aim without a scope. Trying to operate as a airsoft sniper without a scope is a lot like building the fastest NASCAR ever but then failing to budget for some good racing fuel...the thing is just not going to work right.
Your scope will come with instructions on how to properly zero it in so that your shots actually end up where you aim. If no instructions are provided, you can find various guides simply by searching the internet.
Once your airsoft sniper rifle and scope are zeroed and ready to go, aiming is as simple as setting your sights on your target and squeezing the trigger. Both sight alignment and sight picture should naturally fall into place.
About the Author:
Brian Kurtz was an active duty member of the United States Marine Corps from 2000-2004. Rated as an expert marksman and achieving high-shooter status on more than one occasion he now runs the Airsoft Sniper Rifle Shop and shares his knowledge with airsoft snipers across the globe.
