how do snipers adjust their scopes..

[JDP12]

Hey all, well i was reading a sniper's autobiography the other day, and a question popped up..

When he is in combat, he adjusts his scope by a certain number of clicks depending on the range.. well how the heck does he know that? here's a scenario (not necessarily from the book)

Say his gun is sighted in at 900 yards. He has an enemy at 300. How does he determine the number of clicks for range?

Then say he has another shot at 500 yards, and his scope is still at 300 yards. how does he determine that?

DO you have to know the ballistics of your bullet or something?
Might seem like a stupid question, but i've always wondered.

Thanks

[Fnord]

Ehh... there's a formula for it. I'm too lazy to find it right now, but I'm sure 5 minutes on google could tell you what to do.

Edit: of course, in the military, snipers often have a spotter with them who helps with calculations and such.

Jack answers in
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[windshrike]

Some military scopes come pre-measured for how much one click is for a certain round/gun configuration. Anyway, snipers spend plenty of time honing their skills, so I doubt that they wouldn't know how high their guns shoot at different yardages, and it wouldn't be too difficult to calculate how many clicks if you know that. After all, these men(and women) have to be able to do trajectory/wind adjustment equations in their heads, of course they will know the difference between 300 and 900 yards for their setup.

[JDP12]

lol true _Fnord... i was thinking he'd be on it fairly quick

[clide]

I would think most sniper rifles have scopes designed for the rifle and ammo and made to adjust 1 click for every 100 yards or something like that.

But more importantly they would also know from experience and practicing at the shooting range as windshike said. I imagine it would be hard not to know that stuff when they have so much practice.

[Hawkeye]

The thing I could never get is the wind adjustment. You could be in an area with virtually no wind and there could be a howling crosswind halfway to the target if it is far enough away.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

lol, I was in the garage busy spraying my latest suppressor

DO you have to know the ballistics of your bullet or something?

It's a simple as that. Through practice, a sniper knows where a bullet will hit above or below the crosshair for a given range and adjusts his sights accordingly. This is why range estimation is such an important skill, though these days laser rangefinders a accurate, compact and reasonably priced.

There are other factors that must be taken into consideration, such as temperature, humidity and altitude, all factors which affect the air's density and therefore the bullet's velocity and trajectory - for example on a hot day, the air will be less dense therefore the bullet will travel faster and drop less.

Then there's the ever present problem of wind, at 1000 yards a good 25 mile per hour crosswind will throw your average sniper's bullet off by 20 feet or so, but it's more of a guesstimate to compensate than actual hard science.

[potatoflinger]

Don't some scopes have different "crosshairs" for different ranges?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Don't some scopes have different "crosshairs" for different ranges?

That's got less to do with range and more to do with personal preference, I find the mil-dor most useful.

[Hawkeye]

If the wind would throw off a bullet by 20 feet at 1000 yards I wonder if you could even adjust the scope so that the target was still in it.
Perhaps shots are mostly attempted in reasonable conditions if possible.
Does anyone know how many shots the average sniper might take? How about misses? You would have to figure whether they hit or miss, they themselves are in just as much trouble in getting out of the area.
Movies always make shots seem like the have to count 100 percent. But if a shot is taken and a bullet misses by 20 feet, is it very apparent to a target in every case?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

If the wind would throw off a bullet by 20 feet at 1000 yards I wonder if you could even adjust the scope so that the target was still in it.

This is why snipers tend to use relatively low magnification, to widen their field of view - also, if you're adjusting the reticle by several clicks in the direction the wind is coming from, you can aim in the middle of the crosshair anyway.

I think it would be appartent that a shot was fired, especially in a non-combat zone and if the sniper wasn't using a suppressor - and as to the bullet impact, it depends on where it lands, a bullet burying itself in a mound of dirt 20 feet away might go unnoticed, but if it shatters the windshield of your jeep you might be a bit more aware.

I have no statistics on hit-miss ratios, but the current record sniper kill at extreme range in Afghanistan apaprently took 3 shots:

A three-man al-Qaeda weapons team was moving into a mountainside position when Furlong shot and killed one carrying an RPK machine gun from an accurately measured distance of 2,430 metres (1.51 miles). His first shot missed entirely, and his second shot had hit the knapsack on the militant's back. The third struck the target's torso

[ALIHISGREAT]

A three-man al-Qaeda weapons team was moving into a mountainside position when Furlong shot and killed one carrying an RPK machine gun from an accurately measured distance of 2,430 metres (1.51 miles). His first shot missed entirely, and his second shot had hit the knapsack on the militant's back. The third struck the target's torso

do you know what sniper rifle that was done by my guess is a barret .50 cal? or a cheytac intervention?

edit: ahh the McMillan TAC-50.

[JDP12]

thanks guys, that's what i thought.

[cdheller]

a very very short answer with a whole lotta room to look up more on the web

for the most part u.s. sniper/ observation teams use a fixed power 10x mil dot scope .
mil dots(milliradian} are a known size at a given scope power , comparing a mans hight ,tire,rifle,or sometthing that you can guess a close estimation of size and how many many marks on the scope are covered gits you enough info to use your calculator and dope it out.
by now i'm guessing a few laser range finders are being used.

most target shooters and even a few savvy hunters know how many clicks to come up and over to set their rig to a known range . starting from even the bottom end of their adjustments.

they don't mix ammo much .
it will have a known trajectory.

for what its worth

edited to add

Quote:
A three-man al-Qaeda weapons team was moving into a mountainside position when Furlong shot and killed one carrying an RPK machine gun from an accurately measured distance of 2,430 metres (1.51 miles). His first shot missed entirely, and his second shot had hit the knapsack on the militant's back. The third struck the target's torso

Canadians

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Canadians

That seems to have dented American pride somewhat, considering the fuss they made over this.