Many out there believe that the paintball sniper does not exist. If you are one of those players, that's fine. That's your belief. This thread is for those who do believe in snipers. This is not a debating thread but a thread for paintball snipers to share trade secrets. For my post in this thread I'm going to share what I think makes a good sniper but is not necessary to be a sniper. Just helps.
1. To be a good sniper you should be able to rely on your gear. No matter what your gun is, be it a speedball marker, pump or a mil-sim or whatever, be sure it's reliable. The same for the rest of your stuff. Make sure that 9 times out of ten it won't fail you.
2. Practice, practice, practice. Be comfortable with your gear. Work with your gear over and over again so that way when you're out in the field you won't be disturbed with how your gear performs.
3. Shoot tons of paint! This is of course for practice, not during game time. You want to know how your marker, your barrel, your bolt, your hopper and every part of your gun works. You want to be able to know how far you can be from your target with the maximum percentage of hitting your target. You want to be able to know how much to lower or raise your gun based off of the wind, moisture and all other factors. Of course with paintball you can't do this as well as with real sniping, but you can do it to a degree and that small degree shall help you.
4. Travel light. The general purpose of a paintball sniper is to be able to move around with relative ease and speed. Many people think the sniper is slow which is true at times but not always. Some times snipers have to run half way across the field and beat other people there. Also at times you will be forced to crawl on the ground you don't want to carry any more equipment than is necessary. Plus it will give the enemy less to see and hit. And the best reason to travel light? If you get made by the enemy, you can haul butt quickly.
5. In my opinion, a sniper should use a small hopper (I use a 50 round hopper) and a non-electro marker (Use a Model 98). My reasoning behind this is that if you have less paint to shoot in your hopper and you can't fire very much in a quick amount of time then you'll depend more on your skill than on volume as a sniper should do. Also having a smaller hopper will be less for your enemy to see and hit.
6. Have a backup, especially if you're going to do #5. If you're going lone wolf and not working directly with the team then you either need to A) have a sidearm on you or B) have some one with you who carries more paint and air than you so that way if you get in the thick of it, you won't be caught without a chance of surviving.
7. Learn to be invisble. It doesn't matter what you do, just learn to become invisible. If you wear a full out ghillie suit, or just BDUs or you wear a pink fluffy bunny suit, that's your perogative. If you can blend into the scenery without the enemy noticing you, then you've done good. So just learn to be invisible some how, some way.
8. Be quiet. Part of being invisble is being quiet. You need to be able to move both quickly and quietly without making noise. This means making sure all your gear is snuggly fit and that you can move properly. For moving, you can of course crawl but a quicker way is to of course walk while bent over. If you're going to do the latter the best way to do it is heel toe, placing the weight of your body on the outside of your foot and as little as possible on the inside of your feet. If you get good enough with this, you can run through the woods with leaves covering the ground and make hardly any noise. This works well if done properly.
9. Be patient. Yes, I mean for waiting to take a kill shot, but I mean more so for learning. Being a sniper is not easy and it's not going to happen over night. You're going to have to practice and practice and then practice some more. But of course there's no better experience than the actual thing so go out there and play games as a sniper. Probably starting off you will get shot alot but over time you'll find that you're found out less there for shot less. Learn from your mistakes and fix them.
Remember guys, this is what I think is helpful to be a sniper. If you don't believe in paintball snipers, that you're perogative. If you're a fellow sniper and you think that everything I've said is total B.S. then that too is your perogative. If anyone wishes to post some of their sniper tips please feel free too. Please guys, no flaming or debating. The debate over whether a paintball sniper exists is a dead horse. Let it stay dead. Thanks guys.
The Joker
