Sniper Rifle Optic Usage

How complicated is the usage of optics on a sniper rifle? Is any of it intuitive, or does it require extensive training to have any flipping clue how it works, how to adjust, ect.?

Asking this because I have a scene where a character attempts to use a sniper rifle without much prior training out of... desperation basically, and I'm thinking of how their experience would go with that, along with how much they could realistically pick up through trial and error. The usage of high end optics seems like a significant part of this complication.

 

I'm no expert in this but, If in the army there are specialist snipers then I'd assume that this is quite a difficult thing and will require a lot of training. When sniping, especially long distance you need to be aware of all the things that effect the projectile motion of the bullet i.e. Distance, Height difference, angles, speed the bullet travels, wind speed, direction etc. When looking through the scope of the sniper rifle, you need to be aware of the optical zoom, the focal length of the scope etc. Then there is the handling aspect, the weight of the gun, the recoil of the gun, how it is rested. I think most snipers don't just pick any old gun up and shoot it. They use there own, specially selected gun that they have trained with for a long time so they know it inside and out. When you know all this and have a good feel for the gun, you can make the necessary adjustments.

I think it is therefore a mix of intuition, skill and experience. I would imagine that snipers are specially selected based on their innate abilities. I don't think that just any old Jarhead can be a sniper.

Why does it need to be a sniper rifle? why not an assault rifle?

 

Typically, rifle optics are dialed into 100meter incriments, any less then that and it is either too sensitive a movement or too little to matter. And typically, one will use fractions to correct. There is no "standard" sight style but really you can break them down into two different categories:

the simple version can be in the style of the "German Reticle" (Three non connected lines, two on the sides and one in the center the "post"), there is the Duplex Sight and the Fine Crosshair, both of which are very similar. The fine crosshair is typically thin lines without any boldenings for easier sight. The duplex normally has some larger sights before narrowing into the center. This is done so it is easier to see the sights. There are various other version of any of those that has various elements added or retracted to them. However, typically these types of reticles do not have any markings for range.

The second type is the 'range finding' reticle. These all have some way (and there are many) to tell the distance of a person. Typically a sitting or crouched person is half the height of a standing person and the average is taken (about 1.7 or 1.8m) is used as a standard measurement. When you compare that to sights on a reticle, you can ascertain with very little maths how far the target is. If not aiming at humans, you will require some kind of knowledge as to the size of your target.

"Mil-Dot" reticles are similar to a fine crosshair or a duplex, except along each axis is a series of dot at regular intervals. This type is perhaps one of the most common in non-soviet bloc countries or countries using mostly NATO equipement. (I will discuss the soviet sight later). Effectively, it works that an object 1 meter tall, it exactly 1 'mil' (space between dots" at 1000 meters. For example, if a 1.8 meter target is represented at occupied 4 mil dots on the reticle, that you can calculate by the forumate (height (m)/ mil dots) * 1000. I.e (1.8/4) * 1000. To make it easier, i times the height by 1000 and divide it by the number of dots. i.e 1800 / 4. The answer is 450m. Therefore, the target is 450 metres away. It may seem complicated and a someone who does not know anything about mil-dot sights will probably not know how do to this. With experience and practice, one can do this extremely quickly.

The other type is called the stadiametric reticle, also, commonly called nowadays as the SVD due to the sniper commonly used by soviet forces which used this type of rangefinding. Usually bottom left or bottom right is two lines. One on the bottom has intermediate lines (normally with markings, but not always) whilst the top curves upwards in a hyperbolic line. Depending on the maker, the increments may be marked or place on the curved line instead. But the concept remains the same. Every increment stands (typically) for 200m. The first may simply marked as a small "2" to denote 200m. This sight has a detriment that it already has an assumed height of your target (the curve). some more advanced ones have multiple lines representing multiple heights (commons ones is 2, 1.8, 1.5, 1, and o.5m). Simply put, you place the bottom of your target on the bottom line and move your sight until the top of the target touched the curved line. You look up and that's your range. If it is 3/4 of the way between 2 and 4 (going towards 4) then it is at roughly 350m.

Normally, however, snipers (or marksmen) have pre-established lines of fire which they have ranged and measured accurately with usually a rangefinder or something more accurate. They typically already know the distance of their target or the range of their target area.

In terms of windage and the other effects, this only takes place at high-ranges. At which point an untrained person will most-likely not be able to take the shot unless 'perfect' conditions.

If your target is anything closer than 500m. Assuming the rifle has been 'zeroed' corrected (i.e where the sights say the bullet is going to land is actually where it is going to land) and assuming no fouling, damage or otherwise which could otherwise decrease the accuracy of a rifle. It is possible an untrained person to hit a target within 500m from a 'resting' position (i.e the gun is mounted on a bipod, or leaned or resting against something). This of course depends on the rifle in question, ammunition used and the likes. Some rifles have much longer point-blank range. By the way, point blank range is the point where a the trajectory of a particular bullet or otherwise is still flat and therefore a person shooting directly at the target without correction for distance or bullet drop, will hit that target. For some firearms this can be really low, or incredibly far depending on a lot of factors.

Really, without knowing more about your situation it is difficult to say. Normally, any soldier should know his point blank range of his particular weapon and ammo (it changed based on ammo used and weapon due to the velocity of the ammo on the exit)). If the weapon you intend to use if for extreme long range. High caliber bullets are sometimes preferred. For "medium" ranges, typically ammunition like the 7.62x51mm is used due to it being lighter. For example, a 250 grain 338 Lapua can have a 'point blank range of about 515 yards. (470 metres) . Therefore, a person shooting at 500 meters, assuming their aim for the head (a common mistake for non-trained marksmen) will mostlikely hit the chest. If their aim at their 'hitbox' (i.e roughly corresponding to a square area that is the largest area to hit), then it may hit the lower-chest, groin or even the legs.

To summarise: Could a non-trained person (assuming they know how to fire the weapon) shoot a target? Answer: depends on range and style of reticle. Basic reticle, with target at reasonable range (like 300m) from a resting position, sure. If target further away than 500, doubtful. From a standing position with no rest, most likely not. (it takes quite some training to keep a rifle steady at full stand and have no 'sway'.) This of course assumes the rifle is properly cleaned, maintained and zeroed and does not have any faults that would cause it to have inferior accurace (such as windage, incorrect ammunition used, etc..).

Of course, remember, that there are many other factors to take into account that can affect. the above answer is based in perfect condition (i.e not wind, no change in himidity, temprature, pressure, etc...) and that the target is stationary (i.e you are not required to 'lead' the target). Also, I am assuming that the shoot does not have to deal with stuff like glare, fog, or night time.

So really, it depends on a lot of factors.

 

The biggest issue would be whether the scope had been zeroed for them. If anyone uses my rifles they have to work out adjustments for elevation and windage because the scope is zeroed for my eyes (and I won't let them touch the adjusters). Scopes are also zeroed at a specific distance and variations from that distance require a knowledge of hold-over and hold-under to adjust.

I've seen people struggle with my scope over 50 metres so at sniper distances the problem will be significant. Then you have things like parallax error to consider. If someone just picked up a scoped rifle and got the POI (point of impact) spot on at the first go, it would be a wild fluke. Some readers might believe it but anyone who understands scopes wouldn't.

 

Just going to say that Snipers are pretty well and extensively trained. And typically don't
engage over around 1000m at the farthest. As well as being able to judge all the aforementioned
factors, on top of the speed of a moving target and aim accordingly. Cause unless the target
is stationary (which most likely isn't the case unless they are engaging targets in combat
that are holding up cover positions, but some will move around), they would have to be able
to do a lot of complex calculations in a matter of seconds.

For someone without that training is going to be doing a lot of trial and error, which could take
them much longer to get it down. Even if your character were to use a rail or coil gun they would
still have to know windage, range, target speed, bullet drop, and bullet speed. But for the sake
of argument will just go with good old gas-powered projectiles.
The only way I could reasonably use a rifle of that type is if they were using those new target
tracking rounds that adjust the bullet en-route to hit the target, lowering the learning curve
quite a bit (but still have to figure out all the other factors as well).

Also air temperature can have an effect on bullet performance, in the more extreme places.

Assuming your guy isn't shooting at these ranges, it can still be a challenge.

 

As long as they know how to reload and have plenty of ammo, they'd have the time it took their target to run 1km to retry until they hit him. If they didn't manage that he'd be on top of them, snatch the rifle and beat them to a bloody pulp with it.

It could be a game show...

 

The question has adequately been answered already with "Basic reticle, with target at reasonable range (like 300m) from a resting position, sure."

How far away is your character's target?

I generally sight my hunting rifles as close as possible to be shooting 1 1/2 inches high at 100 metres. Each calibre is slightly different, but the intention is go get them to be "zeroed" for 200 metres.So my 300 Winchester magnum for example will print holes about one inch high at 200 metres, but my 270 and 280 will be pretty much bang on at 200. They will all be low to varying degrees at 300, but will still be what we call "minute of moose" or point blank, meaning anything I shoot at from 25 yards to 300 yards out will have the bullet land inside of a pie plate size target the approximate size of the vitals of a game animal.

With most of them as well, I make sure I know how they shoot at 25 and 50 yards too, which generally speaking is a just below or right in the bull's eye at 25 and just at the top of the bull's eye at 50.

Even though I'm sighted in for two hundred metres, most of my game has been shot at about 40 metres, though I've shot deer as close as 3 metres and bears at 4 metres.

But yeah, a real sniper has tons of training, knows their bullet's trajectory out to a 1000 metres and more, works with a spotter in a team and understands how to hold above and to the side of the target to account for the wind and bullet drop in addition to having much more sophisticated optics than I can afford or need.

 

Then there is the question of "What is a sniper rifle?"

Today there are various numbers of specialized "Sniper" rifles.

In Vietnam the U.S. used what were basically Remington or Winchester hunting rifles with a 3x9 scope or a fixed 8-power.

In WWII all the major combatants had sniper rifles based on standard infantry rifles fitted with usually 2.5 to 4-power scopes though some higher powers were used.

 

Great responses guys! So, let me lay out some more details, and see if it helps,

1. She(in this case), is laying down with the rifle, using the bipod, in order to take the shot. Forest, or similar location, big thing is hiding her body with the gun sticking out of brush or similar.

2. M40 Rifle, so, the Remington 700 that the Marines modified into a sniper rifle. Standard optics for that system.

3. Range is 300 to, at most, 5oo meters. Notably she wants to engage from far enough away that, if she takes a shot, her opponents can't get to her before she can pack up and relocate.

4. The gun's condition is she stole it from one of those military boxes that has the gun resting inside, then stole some ammunition for it.

 

That makes it easier, using a bipod reduces the sway of the rifle significantly.

The M40 is a bolt-action rifle, so your MC has to be able to operate that much to be able to do anything. The M40 is not the R700, but it was based upon the R700 (so was the M24). Either case, that rifle uses a .308 (7.62x51mm) ammunition. If shot from a Winchester M70, which has the same barrel length and is effectively a modern version of the M40, it has a FPS (Feet Per Second) or 3000 at the muzzle, shot from a 150 grain load at a bullet coefficient of .415. From my estimated, 300 meters is about 330 yards. This is important because the point blank range factor (at 2inch above/below trajectory) in this case is about 260 yards. At 300 yards that particular ammunition has a drop of about 5.5 inches and a drop of 18.1 at 400 yards, Since we're at 330 yards and our trajectory is hypebolic, without doing the maths the drop it probably around 7 inches. During the tests, the rifle was zeroed at 220 yards and the bullet trajectory is set at the standard 2 inch mid-range rise.

The velocity of the bullet at our target point is 2270 FPS and 3000 at our muzzle. Using quick calculations, this means about a travel time of 125ms (milliseconds) at 300 m.

I used a 150g load because that is about the average of the 7.62 made. Depending on manufacturer and type, the load may vary from 100g to 200g or thereabouts (I don't know all ammunitions and their load, this is mostly and educated guess).

EDIT: at 500m the velocity 1966FPS meaning a travel time of about 220ms (estimate). The bullet drop at that range, shot from the m70 with a 150g load is 38.2 (97.038cm). 38.2 is 3'6'', which is just short of one meter (1 m is 39.37 inches (39.37 inces is actualy 99.9998 cm). That means, if targetting the chest, the bullet will either hit the legs, or miss.

When guns are inside 'those military' boxes, they are safe, sometimes with the bolt removed or the likes. Unless they've seen prior use they wouldn't be zeroed at anything at all. Also, depending on how long that rifle has been in there and the condition of the storage (and cleaning) of the weapon, residue, fouling, rust or such may occur.

This *could* cause some issues depending on how knowledgeable your MC is in ammunition type. There is a LOT of different types of ammunition. for 7.62x51, there is (i'm probably missing a few since this is ontop of my head): Ball, HPT, AP, Tracer, Dummy, EPR, Blanks, Frangible, Duplex, Long Range, SC, LRM, and a few others with weird names i never quite remember the difference which are usually a string of numbers and letters like AB1235A1. Plus, you have variations in loads, some have Sabots, other not, some are hot-loaded, others not. etc...etc... Now I would not expect your MC to find a store with all of them inside, but depending on where and how it is stored, she may get confused with these acronyms (AP means Armour Penetrating, but she could assuming to mean "Awesome Power"). There is probably a whole slew of other ammunitions types for 7.62x51 that I do not know about, or that are very specific to certain roles, countries or may even be secret. 7.62x51 is one of the most common ammunitions in the world, so finding ammunition for it should not be a difficulty, it is just finding the right ammunition and how that ammunition changes the bullet trajectory.

EDIT2: In modern combat manuals, typically it is states to never fight beyond your range. Typically, they give a set distance which they consider that firing beyond this in ineffective due to distance, aiming, travel time, etc... This distance varies on role, weapon and training but is usually around 300m at most.

With your MC firing from at leat 300m, she should be safe for a certain period of time. During that time her target, assuming she misses her first shot, will be searching and entering cover, finding original position of your MC firing position, assuming ranges and start calculating options to either try and fight back, or run away, or flank. Considering your MC is untrained, we'll assume she misses her first shot, that means she has to correct her aim and fire again. Narrowing down the origins of a single shot is difficult if you did not see the flash, so really she had a narrow window of time until she if found. She must make corrects, and bare in mind the target is now aware and is actively trying to avoid being shot by running away, shooting back randomly, taking cover, etc... She would probably try and play for a hide, so even if he is randomly shooting into the shrubbery, she would stay still and hope not to get it to give herself more time. if she moves, her movement would be noticed and that would definitely get her a hail of bullets coming her way. If she misses again, then he (the target) would most likely know exactly where she is, or have narrowed down the MCs position significantly. At this point, he probably, assuming he is still fighting and has not run away, he would have moved forwards and changed his position. Perhaps he went to his right (most shooters don't look to their left, random psychological fact) in an attempt to gain advantage since your MC would have placed herself in a good commanding position with good cover.

At this point, the tables have turned in favour of your target, since he knows where she is and she does not. Most likely result from this is either a react-shot from her that hits her target and closer range, or she gets killed.

Mind you, this is assuming the target has a gun and is somewhat adept at using it. If he is some random unarmed civilian, then they would run like crazy in a certain direction. If they know a little about guns or are quick-thinking, they would run behind cover, try and obstruct the shooter field of fire as much as possible and when that isn't possible would run in unpredictable patterns to make it as hard as possible for the shooter to lead their target. This is done, for example, by zigzagging.

edit3: excuse my poor language, it is very early in the morning.

 

Interesting.

Does make me wonder if there's a version of this bullet military snipers use in their work.

How does one zero a gun? If she found a manual for the gun, could she learn from it how to zero the rifle?

But otherwise, will need to figure out its age and prior usage.

And I have some research to do, including what ammunition the gun actually would have if they have say, whatever the hell Marines give the gun, because I'm sure the military has multiple bullets.

Interesting. I guess one shot, pack and bolt isn't quite that easy to pull off. Interesting.

 

It would help if she had a spotter. Seeing where a shot lands when you're looking down a scope can be pretty difficult. At 300-500 meters in dense brush, unless she hit the target or some kind of backstop, even knowing how to adjust her aim for the next shot would be pretty dicey.

 

Firstly Killer300, what area does this scene happen in and who are the combatants ( and who where the people she stole that weapon from). That will give you an idea of what gun it would be and what ammo?

Secondly: Is there any specific combat role of the people she stole the weapon from? Who are they and why are they there. Their combat role will define their equippement significantly.

Thirdly: At what time does this take in? Who are the parties invovled and what are their basic reason to exist? Are their rebels, militias, professional troops, special forces, etc...?

In regards to your question. Could she zero in a scope using a random manual? No, probably not. She could randomly dial it to what she guesses it correct, but that would be a complete guess and most likely wrong (a bit like if joe bloggs tried to land an airplane, sure it is possible that he could randomly hit the right series of buttons, but unlikely). here's a quick video I found that will give you an idea:

If this is the Marines we're speaking of, Then most likely it is either an M24 or an M40 (most likely the latter as the M40 is standard to the marines, whilst the m24 is standard to the army(I think?))

There is two sites that could help with in regards to research as to what ammunition. There is a quick one, and a more indepth one. There is also this one which could be of help.

This is just some quick links. You may want to find more indepth information if you like, but they will give you a general oversight of ammunition types.

 

Fair points.

My current thought process is she got kidnapped by a group who happens to be using U.S. style gear(this could easily change), and they have a sniper rifle among gear they themselves stole, or bought as part of a batch of other weapons. Still working out details here, but basically picture the people an evil corporation uses in an action movie, for now at least.

For the manual, I guess I was thinking a manual about the rifle could possibly help zero the scope for it. At least it would, hopefully, give cleaning assistance.

 

A manual would make it better and easier for her, certainly. However, a manual only gets you so far, and does not and can not replace hours of training and practice.

To make it interesting, especially to any historians or gun-nuts out there, you could use fancier guns - or even 'design' your own. For example, your could have a "Kappa 31", perhaps the rifle has a nickname as "Artemis", which is a bullpup rifle firing a heavy imaginary cartridge, let say a 8.79x52mm cartridge, it may have a common nickname as Pingers due to the pinging sound their make when fired (as a result of the distinct solid fuel ignition cap that "dings" when fired). You could say that the muzzle velocity is 1750 m/s (pretty fast for a rifle cartridge) and the point blank range is 850m due to extreme velocity. Perhaps it is a prototype they stole or it is some kind of secret weapon or some new high-tec gun made my Gunlandia or whatever imaginary or real country you make it from. or perhaps, it is made in greece (Kappa is a greek alphabet letter) or the company that makes it is greek.

That liturally just a random bit of imagination there. But if you wish to stick with real example, you could take some soviet designs, they're always kind of cool in the name (I like russian names tbh), and their usually fairly common in many unstable countries or former east-bloc countries. So it would not be hard for a group of mercs to get one of those. It could be a very old and reliable sniper like the famous Druganov SVD (1963, soviet), the Gewehr 98 (with scope) a pre-1900 rifle that was used as a sniper rifle by marksmen troops in world war 1. I won't list them all, there is liturally thousands of different choices you can take to look at rifles, historic or otherwise. Plenty of modern ones, but in the old days they typically equipped a standard service rifle into a marksmen rifle. That's how sniping started originally, with rifles like the Lebel, Lee Enfield, Springfield, Mauser (Gewehr), etc... Plenty to chose from.

 

Perhaps, to make the gun already zeroed, she sneaks out from her camp then kills one of the guards of the company she is being held by. Perhaps he was a sentry or something like that. And there, she takes his gun and his ammunition. The gun at that point would probably be well maintained, cleaned and zeroed (to a certain distance). Plus, it would avoid from having your character roam around a storeroom looking for ammunition she may not know about.

If that is the case (above), you may want to look at "marksmen" rifles. These are slightly different then "sniper" rifles. Typically, they fire more standard rifle rounds like FMJs or EPRs and are more resembling to "battle rifles". A good example to look at is the HK417 (front)

This particular rifle, as you can see, has a multiple fire modes, a longer barrel, but it is still, effectively, the same as the HK416:

The HK416 fires a smaller 5.56 ammunition whilst the HK417 fires 7.62x51 NATO (from a STANAG magazine). There are typically more favoured for closer ranged combat or for sentry roles because they allow some more flexibility in their usage. They do not nearly have the same accuracy, range or sniping capability as deticated sniper rifles, but they, as I said, are more flexible in their use.

EDIT: Marksmen rifles are typically denoted as DMRs (Designated Marksmen Rifles). Effectively, the definition of a DMR is somewhere between a standard infantry rifle (Like the AK-47/AKM, M16, M4, etc...) and sniper rifles (R700, M24, M40, SWS, etc...). DMRs almost always use the standard ammunition of their respective military bodies (7.62x51 is the most common one used for DMRs). DMRs also have iron-sights and rails for the ability to attach other things to it like various scopes, lasers, lights, etc.... DMRs usually are not equipped with pure sniper rifle scopes (x16 time zoom for instance) but usually with weaker zooms like x4 or x6.

Most DMRs have longer barrels, thought that is not universal.

DMRS, as stated, often share the same ammunition as the standard infantry rifle. The ideology behind that is mostly to do with logistics since people that use DMRs are usually a lot more mobile then snipers (who are more static). They usually have the same ammunition so they can share ammunition with their comrades.

DMRs are, I believe, always semi-automatic in nature. Bolt action is often considered too slow to fire in the combat roles designed for the DMRs. Some also have full-auto capabilities.

Therefore, I would think that a sentry, watchmen or guard on a tower would have a DMR. Plus, snipers are often a fairly elite and specifically trained unit. DMRs are a lot more universal and require less training as the ranges are reduced. most DMRs have significantly lower effective ranges than snipers, lower muzzle velocity and the likes. It would make sense that your particular group of mercenaries or otherwise would use DMRs instead of sniper rifle, as they may not have a properly trained sniper but most likely would have a 'good shot' with a DMR.

 

Let's assume for a moment that the guys who have the guns are at least well
versed enough in handling their weapons effectively, and would probably not have
a manual floating around (in the off chance someone would happen to need
one that is). Secondly wouldn't she prioritize her escape, which would not really
give her the time to sit down and spend a while reading and zeroing in a rifle.
Unless they just happen to think that she is a low priority threat, and not locked
up in a makeshift cell, or bound up in some fashion. Where she can just wander
about their compound and stumble into a weapons cache and a manual on how
to zero a scope.
Since she has no weapons handling in general, so I am going to agree with
@Necronox in having her use a DMR as he puts it. Since they are much more
versatile compared to trying to run and gun with a long range precision rife.
Cause your MC will probably have to leave cover at some point to make her
escape, and a sniper rifle is no bueno for rapid response shooting in certain
situations (like engaging a target around the corner of a building that is being
used for cover). Also they tend to be heavier than a combat rifle, so unless she
is in really good shape, she will probably hurt herself swinging around the extra
mass (but it would make for a good blunt force instrument at close quarters in
a pinch).

And in an escape situation, you have to weigh it all on a steep learning curve if she
does not have any type of exp. or training. So at best she would have maybe a few
minutes to figure out basic operation (loading/reloading, safety switch, cycling the bolt,
etc.).

 

"How does one zero a gun? If she found a manual for the gun, could she learn from it how to zero the rifle?"

You "Bore-sight" it.

You fix the rifle in as solid a position as possible, remove the bolt, look through the bore at the bull's eye of a target 25 yards away and adjust the crosshairs to be centred as well. Take three shots and adjust from there.

There is a One Shot method. With your rifle in a very solid fixed position you bore sight it, then take one shot and move the crosshairs to be on the hole.

Once a rifle is "zeroed" for 25 yards, the routine is to then shoot at 100 yards ( or metres depending on your range) and readjust for the group you want. As I said above; generally I try to get my group 1.5 to 1.75 inches above the bull's eye.