target rifle vs sniper rifle

[striker]

what is the difference between the normal rifle and sniper rifle. Is sniper rifle is powerful than all the normal rifles ie hunting or target rifles.

[Vikram]

Hi Striker,

Before detailed answers start pouring in, please go through this article.It would give you a very fair idea of sniper rifles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper_rifle

Good shooting-
Vikram

[mehulkamdar]

Striker,

Vikram has posted a good link which has considerable amounts f information for a beginning gun student. To answer your question, sniper rifles are chambered for rounds that are almost always also available in sporting rifles. They are made more robust to endure battlefield conditions and have heavier barrels to ensure accuracy at longer ranges than anyone would shoot at game.

You can buy them off the shelf in countries like the USA, Canada, Germany etc but not in countries that restrict or proscribe the ownership of firearms chambered for military calibres.

There are lots of people who have never seen a sniper rifle and who know nothing more than what they read in schoolboy fiction who believe that they are something ultra special firing some whizz bang ammunition that would kill enemies in the next time zone. Don't believe any of it.

[TC]

Striker, this is my input. The world 'sniper' was coined right here in India during the British Raj. During shikars (usually after the harvest reason) riflemen often tried their skills on snipes, a bird similar but a little bigger than a sparrow, on empty paddy fields. The snipes move very fast and hardly ever rest. The plumage almost blends with the surroundings. So taking a snipe down with a single shot required exemplary skills. The best shots thus got the name snipers. And I believe for a bird of that size the rifles used were all .22s.

So you see sniping is all about skilled marksmanship and not the rifles.
The motto is "one shot one kill".

Cheers

TC

[horribleharshad]

Ah yes!

I remember now..... when I used to be a sea cadet, there was a memorial to soldiers or something....

There was a motto under it
"Ek goli, Ek dushman" it went.

Translates as : " One bullet, One foe"

[Ranjeet Singh]

A bit OT, but there is this movie called Sniper, and has two more sequels. The first one is a good movie - about sniping and counter sniping. The first one is set in a jungle, the second one is ok- set in a city. The third part is not good.

And there is this another one set in WWII, about some Russian sniper called ememy at the gates or something like that.

The movie sniper is better

Thanks
Ranjeet

[Olly]

Enemy at the Gates, was a very good movie... actually made over a famous Russian sniper... vs a German colonel... (also a sniper)...

[mehulkamdar]

The word "sniper" has its origins in Scandinavian languages from the 13th century, meaning "hidden shot." Icelanders and Norwegians both used terms that eventually found their way into English vocabulary like several other terms that the English adapted. The often suggested reference to hunting snipe is a modern myth. Snipe are hunted with shotguns and not rifles.

Enemies at the Gate was a Hollywood dramatisation of the legendary Soviet sniper Vassili Zaitsev who became a kind of cult hero when the Soviets were heavily beseiged at Leningrad by the Nazis. An interesting movie but not very factual except for the fact that it shows how many Nazisev shot at very short ranges, not the 800 to 1000 yard ranges that fiction would have us believe snipers shoot their enemy at.

[Sujay]

I also have read that the word "sniper" originated from shooting snipes. Snipes do not sit for a time sufficient to aim and shoot ;kind of jump around. A shooter who could contact the bird before some specified number of jumps ( can't recall exactly how many) was termed sniper.

The average range of kills was dramatically increased during the vietnam war and it was in fact 1000 yards during the last encounter of Hatchcock Vs Cobra ( real name not known to me), the north Vietnamese sniper sent to neutralise Hatchcock.

Vassili collected the rifle of the German sniper and is still on display in some Russian mueseum. www.snipersparadise.com had some interviews of german snipers but they have been removed now.

[TC]

Gentlemen,
Sniper, the first one starring Tom Berenger, is a good movie, at least technically sound except for a few cinematic effects.
Enemy At The Gates cannot possibly show 1000 yard shots as the war is going on inside a city.

For ciematic representation of long range shots set in modern times try --
Saving Private Ryan, Jarhead, Silent Trigger, Till The Last Bullet, Navy Seals and of course Day Of The Jackal

"Quiegly Down Under" starrring Tom Selleck and Alan Rickman is possibly the best movie on sniping set in the old West.

Cheers

TC

[penpusher]

TC,

The MHA in its Annual Report has mentioned the developement of a sniper rifle.Any idea about this.Hopefully the IOF 30-06 rifle would also be based on the same action.

penpusher

[Grumpy]

Snipe ( and Jack Snipe ) are shot with a shotgun as Mehul says. They are game birds ( and good eating ) and present a particularly difficult shot because of their erratic style of flying. The origin of the word is probably Norwegian ( Germanic ) according to the OED. The plural takes the same form as the singular ( ie, no `S` suffix. )
The OED offers no origin for the term `snipe` in the sense of a sniper - one who picks off individual targets usually from cover. The usual explaination is that it derives from the shooting of Snipe ( the bird ) but I consider that highly unlikely as Snipe are not shot from cover and are not shot with a rifle......there`d be little left of a Snipe if it were shot with a rifle ! There seems to be some evidence that the term `Snipe` was used to describe the act of ( game ) shooting from cover before it was applied to the military form of `Sniper` but I suspect that the origin is likely to derive from the Dutch/German `Snippen` or `Schnippen` meaning to `take quickly or suddenly. To snap or catch` in which case it has the same meaning as `snap` shooting - shooting very quickly. It might also derive from to `Snipe` as in to speak abusively.........although both forms have the same origin.
That snipers were trained by shooting Snipe is, as Mehul says ( again ! ) an urban myth.
Basically I pretty much agree with Mehul and very much doubt the term has anything to do with shooting Snipe.

[Grumpy]

As regards the nature of Sniper rifles they were initially the same as general issue rifles but used by a marksman. As time evolved they acquired more accurate sights and then scopes. Later they were accurised forms of the general issue rifles. Calibre was the same as general issue rifles so as to prevent problems with procurement and supply to snipers in the field.
With the almost universal adoption of small calibre assault type rifles the sniper weapon has become far more specialised - not least because the 5.56 NATO/.223 and others of its` ilk are pathetically poor long range calibres ( pathetically poor general issue calibres as recent use has proved also. ) Sniper weapons nowadays are specialist tools and specifically built for the job. Calibre - in all NATO/SEATO and allied countries - is the .7.62 NATO although there is limited use of the .338 Lapua. There are now sniper rifles designed for use against materiel rather than personel and chambered for much more powerful rounds - usually the .50BMG but also the .460 Steyr.

[mehulkamdar]

Grumpy,

Thanks for the German etymological link. It does seem to offer a very logical transition from the Icelandic and Norwegian origins for the word into English along a geographical route. I did the schoolboy thing when I was 10 and got my father to order the Hesketh-Prichard sniping manual, a difficult book to find in India those days, and it is still a part of my archives in Chennai.

Sujay,

There is a lot of blue sky in claims that the Vietnam War saw 1000 yard kills. Vietnam saw jungle warfare, not quite fighting in an open environment. Yes, Carlos Hathcock was a legend in the war and a great sniper but the whole business of rival snipers trying to flush each other out is the stuff of Wikipedia and other similar fiction. I doubt that after the Germans tried to kill Zaitsev anyone else tried this kind of stunt. The North Vietnamese offered a huge cash reward for Hathcock's head and again there is a lot of nonsense bandied about about how big the amount was but that was about it. Hollywood does not have a background in history and it is not known for offering facts and logic.

[Vikram]

I have a 1944 vintage German Sniper (Der Deutsche Scharfshutze) training video with English sub-titles. Amaging given the time the video was made.

Best-
Vikram