viii The Ultimate Sniper MILITARY INSTRUCTORS
Lt. Col. Gary Schraml Sgt. 1st Class Gary Gamradt
Lt. Col. Dave Loehr Sgt. 1st Class Blaine Nelson Capt. Wendell Daluge Sgt. 1st Class Michael Corrow 1st Lt. Charles Weebee
SSgt. Timothy Cole 2nd Lt. Dave Beckering SSgt. Robert Siefert
WOl Jeff Luikart SSgt. Timothy Weber CSM Dick Wagaman SSgt. Michael Anderson Sgt. 1st Class DarryJ Brown Sgt. Brent Henry MSgt. Clifton Evans Sgt. John Lepowski MSgt. Steve Lischalk Sgt. Michael Malterud MSgt. Robert Payne
Sgt. Lance Peters MSgt. Carl Peterson Sgt. Gary Zacharias MSgt. Daniel Purkat Spec. 4 Brad Hopkins
LAW ENFORCEMENT INSTRUCTORS
Officer Lyle Beauchamp, Minneapolis Police Department
Officer Lyle Delaney, Minneapolis Police Department
Sgt. Gary Hill, Minneapolis Police Department
Special Agent Kevin Crawford, FBI
Sgt. Dan Harshman, St. Paul Police Department
Sgt. Darryl Schmidt, St. Paul Police Department
Sgt. Steve Campbell, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics
Agent Tommy Squires, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics
Trooper Dave Watson,
Alabama Highway Patrol
MILITARY SUPPORT PERSONNEL
SgtMaj. Robert Roschen
1st Lt. Joseph Seaquist MSgt. James Olson
This second edition's photographers and photo technicians include my lovely wife, Gail, along with Roger Kennedy, Charles Farrow, and Doug Black. Many of Brad Hopkins' first edition illustrations have been retained, reinforced by new drawings from Tami Anderson. And finally, I thank Paladin Press publisher Peder Lund, a fellow Special Forces combat vet, and my editor, Jon Ford, for their help and encouragement.
Though the first edition of The Ultímale Sniper represented the best of what was known about sniping in 1993, this art and science advanced so remarkably in the following dozen years that a second edition has become a necessity. Thanks to these updates, changes, and revisions, I believe that this new edition will help advance sniping well into the 21st century and prove as revolutionary as the original book.
And it was revolutionary. Never before had a sniper training manual addressed man-tracking, for example. And though manuals cited compensation for crosswinds, they lacked the simple advice that you can neutralize the wind's effect by reducing your distance or shifting up- or downwind. Sniper training curriculum did not even address up/down ("slant") shooting. Having spent years in combat behind enemy lines and years instructing snipers, I knew that our institutional knowledge and combat experience were much greater than what was depicted in the manuals. I was concerned that this precious knowledge, paid for in blood, might be lost—only to have to be relearned, with still more blood paid.
That's \vhv I wrote The Ultímale Sniper—to explain things like natural lines of drift, to provide relevant insights on ballistics, optics, shooting techniques, ammunition, human vision, parallax, smart ways to divide sectors of fire, plus the role of snipers in every type of military operation—not just the two-man, independent missions that most often come to mind but the integral sniper role for every type of conventional and special operation. Until The Ultimate Sniper this had not been done, nor had sniper skills been clearly divided into three distinct areas—marksmanship, tactics, and fieldcraft—and addressed in the depth they demanded. Much of what 1 wrote existed as bits and pieces in diverse places, but no manual or book or guide had so thoroughly assembled them, focused exclusively on sniping.
And yet, The Ultimate Sniper equally contained original thoughts and techniques, from ballistic data cards (now often copied) to the sniper engagement sequence, the concept of "ballistic advantage" (later elaborated as countersniper "overmatching"), and even a clear definition of "accurate," to name a few.
From Croatia to Canada, from Alaska to Alabama, snipers, sharpshooters, and long-range riflemen found The Ultimate Sniper to be the "bible" of their craft. The Philippine Marine Corps so highly regarded it that they copied its art for their sniper unit logo, and the Karen National Liberation Army translated sections for their resistance fighters. The chapter on night operations was so auchoritative that the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, reproduced it for all its Marines. Sgt. 1st Class Earl S. Ellis, an All-Army Sniper Champion and NCOIC of the Army Sniper School, told me he found inspiration in its pages to revise die Army's latest sniper training manual. Probably the greatest compliment came from USMC Maj. Ed Land
(ret.)., founder of the modern Marine sniper training program and current National Rifle Association secretary, who told an audience he'd hoped to write a book such as The Ultimate Sniper—but now he wouldn't have to.
Several first edition prophecies came to be. As I'd anticipated [p. 123], the Ml 18 Special Ball round was improved into today's M118LR. Further, as I wrote in 1993 [p. 76], "The Trijicon ACOG, I think, should be on at least half the M16A2s in the USMC and the U.S. Army." That's nearly their proportion among our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as of this writing.
Here are some new prophecies. The next leap forward in long-range shooting technology will be a Bullet Drop Compensator that's as precisely adjustable as target knobs. Not long afterward—perhaps in the next decade-—we'll see an automated electronic reticle that's tied to a laser rangefinder so that, as quickly as you laze the distance, the reticle instandy resets itself for dead-on aiming. The other improvement is more mundane: a rationalizing of all sniping units of measurement—mils, yards, meters, and Minutes of Angle—so there's a simpler "yardstick" and no need to translate all these confusing figures and fractions when calculating and compensating.
What's new in this edition? Well, although tactics don't change, where and how we apply them do. Thus you will find here greater elaboration of sniping tactics and techniques against terrorists and insurgents, especially in the mountains, deserts, and urban areas of the Middle East and Central Asia. We've devoted an entire new chapter to countersniping in Afghanistan and Iraq. You'll also find new rifles, new cartridges, and breakthroughs in emerging technologies, some already applied and others that have yet to go beyond prototypes and lab principles.
Some of the recent historical accounts are drawn from my new book—which I'll hopefully finish within the next year—on the history of sniping and sharpshooting. When it's published, it will be the most detailed and complete book ever written on the subject.
And here's an important admin note: US. ballistic tables normally use yards, so we're using yards almost exclusively in this book. Should you need to convert yards to meters, multiple by 1.0936; to convert meters to yards, multiple by 0.9144.
As in the first edition, I urge you to support and join the National Rifle Association, and encourage your friends and relatives to do likewise. For future generations of great riflemen, we must protect this great American birthright, the Second Amendment. And finally, I ask you to join me in assisting today's U.S. Army and Marine Corps snipers on the front lines of the War on Terror via the Adopt-a-Sniper program. Founded by a Texas police sniper, Brian Sain, this nonprofit group supplies hard-to-find gear and information for our military snipers serving in remote, far-flung places. You can reach them on the Internet at www.americansnipers.org.
January 2006
Post a comment