DESCRIPTION
“[A] book about modern-day military snipers and the missions they face daily”—Foreword
My Summary
Main Ideas, Takeaways & Similarities
Questions
I. What is the problem?
A. How is this problem formulated?
B. Why is this problem important?
C. What is the history of this problem?
D. Which prominent personalities have been interested in this problem?
II. What solutions to the problem are there?
A. What are the conclusions reached?
B. By what argument(s) is the conclusion reached?
C. What facts or assumptions serve as premises?
D. When a prominent personality offers a solution, does he also argue for or against other prominent personalities? Does he raise objections to alternative solutions? Does he consider objections to his own solutions?
III. Evaluation
A. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative formulations to the problem?
B. Has the importance or history of the problem ever been misrepresented?
C. Are the solutions logically related to the premises?
D. Are the facts true? Are the assumptions acceptable? Are the objections answerable?
AI Summary
Highlights
But the sniper’s art assumes that time is fleeting, that the target is not stationary, and that the first shot must be the killing shot. In order to make the first-shot kill at 835 meters, the sniper has to know precisely what the range really is, what the angle to the target is, how hot or cold the propellant in the cartridge is, and where his particular rifle throws a projectile from a cold bore. He needs to know the air density, wind speed and direction, the humidity, and how to incorporate all this information into a ballistic solution for this particular tactical engagement. (Location 1071)
He’ll also learn the effect of temperature changes, barometric pressure, atmospheric drag, gravity, and altitude on the point of impact, and that for every twenty degrees the temperature rises, the point of impact will rise at the rate of one minute of angle, or about one inch for every one hundred yards, and that of all these factors, wind will make the largest difference in point of impact. (Location 1471)
The art of the sniper is in being able to get into position without being noticed, to be able to observe for long periods and to know what you are seeing, to make a precision long-range shot if and when appropriate, and to make tactically useful reports by radio. (Location 2092)
My rack-grade M4 was modified with a suppressor, a match-grade trigger, and an ACOG sight, (Location 2225)
Mk262 77-grain Black Hills ammunition (Location 2226)
Marine and Army snipers normally fire M118LR cartridges produced by the Lake City Ammunition Plant, each built around a Sierra Match King open-tip boat-tail projectile. (Location 2296)
Heavier calibers, like the .338 Lapua and .300 Winchester Magnum (WinMag), are good only for a thousand rounds at best. (Location 2321)
Snipers record two “zeros”: one for the first shot out of the gun after cleaning (a “cold-bore shot”), another for the second and subsequent shots when there is propellant residue in the bore. (Location 2325)
If you are shooting down at a forty-five-degree angle at a target one thousand meters from your position, the effective range for your sight adjustments is just 707 meters—you’d probably hit well above your target with a one-thousand-meter sight setting. You aim low when shooting uphill or down. (Location 2332)
A brain-stem hit results in instant relaxation and immediate death. For all other hits, death is usually minutes away. (Location 2479)
A minute of angle is the standard measurement for firearms accuracy, an angle that is one-sixtieth of one degree. (Location 2731)
One MOA is almost exactly an inch wide at a distance of one hundred yards, two inches at two hundred, and so forth, out to ten inches at a thousand yards. (Location 2732)
Quarter-MOA rifles are rare and treasured (Location 2740)
Marine sniper rifles have recently been converted from Redfield scopes to a Schmidt-Bender variable power sight with a bullet-drop compensator (BDC) and close-focusing features. (Location 2820)
Most snipers set it up so the distance from the crook of your arm, at the inside of the elbow, to the first joint of your trigger finger matches the distance from the buttplate to the trigger. (Location 2829)
This is the Mil-Dot reticle. Each of these dots may be used to measure one miliradian* of angle, a nifty feature that permits you to estimate the range to a distant target with good precision, even without a laser range finder. At full magnification, the distance from the center of one dot to another is 3.6 inches at 100 yards or 36 inches at 1,000 yards. This is handy to know because a standing soldier will be about 72 inches high. If you use the reticle to measure the apparent height of a man you’d like to shoot at, and you put the bottoms of his feet on the crosshairs and the top of his head lines up with the center of the fourth dot, you know he’s 500 yards away and you can adjust your scope’s BDC accordingly. (Location 2848)
The foundation for precision shooting is the ability to control variables, to tuck yourself into the rifle exactly the same way every time, to have your cheek kiss the comb of the stock in exactly the same place with exactly the same pressure, to have exactly the same distance from your eye to the scope, to embrace the grip with your shooting hand precisely the same way, one shot to the next. Your trigger finger enters the trigger guard only when you are ready to make the shot—a small safety ritual taught to all modern war fighters. The position of your index fingertip on the curved steel of the trigger is part of your personal ritual, always the same from one shot to the next if you expect to control the placement of your bullets on their targets from one shot to the next. (Location 2859)
standard method is to take several moderately deep breaths, then momentarily stop breathing during the middle of the inhale/exhale cycle—a respiratory pause—and then make the shot. (Location 2870)
Consistently putting a bullet within a few inches of point of aim, shot after shot, is an art and a craft, and sometimes a bit of magic. Precision long-range marksmanship is only one part of the sniper’s deadly art, but without it the other skills are useless. (Location 2876)