5 Problems With 'Paintball Snipers'


16/01/07
By Jamie Innes


You know. You know without me telling you. You've been there. You've heard it before. Multiple times. And you're downright sick of it. You're not interested, and don't want to hear about it. You are one, or you're not. One way or another... you have an opinion. But here's a more practical, and realistic way of looking at it (5 ways actually), that you might not have read, or considered before.

To be honest I don't know how to structure this article. Normally these things just write themselves... I pick a topic I know about, and easy peasy... it's soon done. But how to fairly and efficiently pick away at paintball snipers? oooh... I mean, the whole issue it just like...
 Yes yes yes... it's one of those nasty, god-aweful topics, that won't go away, and when you talk about it, you just KNOW you're making somebody mad. So here's my stab at it. Enough of the ranting... I'll tell you what's wrong with paintball 'snipers', and work backwards from there. Yes... this is an 'anti' sniper article. If this upsets you, consider stopping your reading, and pressing 'BACK' now. You are warned.
  1. The range a paintball gun shoots is the same range as any other paintball gun... unlike a rifle.
  2. Ghillie suits and 3D camouflage work best at ranges LONGER than you get in paintball games (ie- over 100 meters)
  3. Paintball is a game played by 2 matched teams, on terrain with boundaries, and time constraints... unlike war, and military ops.
  4. Most paintball games are structured according to a 'Capture the Flag' or similar format, where there are no 'high value' enemies.
  5. Effective shooting range, ammunition and lack of accuracy, help negate the element of surprise. 

#5 Effective shooting range, ammunition, and accuracy

I elaborated in what a defensive tactic is in the individual tactics article. But to reiterate and repeat... ambushing in paintball is usually a defensive tactic. It's defensive because in order to do it, you usually have to sit still, and wait till an enemy walks right into your line of fire. It happens this way because our eyes, like the T-Rex... are attracted to movement, it's how our brain and eyes interpret the world. Evolution has taught us to be interested in movement, because at the heart of every man is a hunter, the provider of food.

The problem with this, is that even these lying-in-wait would-be-snipers have variables working against them, despite the 'element of surprise'. Paintballs travel at a very slow 300fps, they are inaccurate, and the shooter must wait till the target gets into effective shooting range. Despite the element of surprise, these variables ALSO benefit the intended taget, because...
  1. Unlike a bullet, a 300fps paintball is fairly easy to dodge
  2. Since paintballs are inaccurate, many times the first shot won't hit, necessitating multiple shots
  3. Multiple shots give away the position of the shooter VERY quickly
  4. The target has the advantage of maneuverability since he is on his feet and moving
  5. Often, getting within effective shooting range means the target can sometimes see the ambusher before the ambusher even shoots.

#4 High Value Enemies

There are some scenario games here and there, that actually tally points, and various players (such as medics and generals) have a higher point value attributed to them, when they are eliminated. These are the types of players the 'paintball sniper' wants to eliminate. Well I got news for you... games that actually attribute higher point values to certain players, are vastly in the minority. On a regular basis, every weekend in most western countries (Especially NZ), there are regular bushball games, and 99% of the time, NOBODY EVEN KEEPS A TALLY OF POINTS, much less... players that have higher point attributes.

This in of itself should limit the entire concept of 'paintball sniping', to use within ONLY these scenarios (Desregarding the other equally important arguements in this list of 5)


#3 Boundaries & Time Constraints

There you are, hunkered in the grass, hot and heavy under your ghillie, it's taken you almost an hour to crawl along the edge of the field to get behind enemy lines. Suddenly the whistle blows, it's 'game over', and you have to get home for dinner anyway. Yep... paintballers, unlike real snipers, are constrained by these things called 'time' and 'boundaries'. (You could also add 'fun' if you like).

You see, nobody has the patience to make ONE game last an entire day, just to appease your fetish to belly crawl through grass, so you can get your 'one shot kill'. And nobody will let you go out of the field bounds to accomodate that fetish EITHER. In real military ops, snipers aren't typically bound by time and boundaries the way paintballers are..

So guess what, this isn't sniping, it's paintball. And in paintball, your gametime is limited to X minutes (Or X hours), and your boundaries are over there <points>.... there, there and there <pointing>.


#2 Ghillie Suits

To put it bluntly... ghillie suits don't work in paintball. Yes yes I know, I'm going to get somebody email me with hateful critisism about that statement. But hear me out here. Ghillie suits are most effective from a couple of hundred meters off. The jute or burlap 'random 3d' design of them is designed to make you unrecognisable as a person, as opposed to actually looking like a type of bush. At longer ranges... such as 100-200 meters, this actually works. You can look at a person in a ghillie and not think twice about it, because you can't see it in much detail. But the range of paintball guns dictates you are going to be much closer than that, and the closer you are, the more recognisable the ghillie is. This is why you always hear certain players blabbing about 'how they spotted the guy in the ghillie straight away'.

Sure... in a perfect world, even at close range... the ghillie perfectly colour matches the environment, there's plenty of soft cover to blend into, and the 'sniper' just happens to be playing against less than observant players. Yes... in a 'PERFECT' world. Here's the news, the world isn't perfect. (And I'll leave the blogging about how ghillies bounce balls, and the various problems that causes... for another article).


#1 Range comparison to military snipers

Rifles shoot a variety of ranges, ranging from a hundred meters, to a couple of kilometers. Some are super accurate, some are less accurate. Paintball guns shoot ranges in the area of 30-60 meters, depending on your velocity, barrel (flatline, apex or straight), arc of shot, etc. All paintball guns are inaccurate. Listen; I don't need to give you a lecture on ballistics, because you already know about how well 'spherical liquid filled projectiles' perform. But consider the differences in range.
CONCLUSION

Right, now that I've either said what you were thinking, made you mad, or totally shattered your fantasy.... Let me actually give you some slightly more constructive advice. Forget about the 'paintball sniper' thing. Just let it go. You don't need it in paintball, and most of the time, it doesn't serve you or your team in any SIGNIFICANT way. I'm not saying you can't call yourself a sniper... I'm just saying that paintball sniping, the way most people interpret it, is pointless.

INSTEAD:

Just be a stealthy player. A sneaky player. Covert. Hunter. Lone wolf.  Well hidden. A crawler. A marksman. A shartshooter. There's a bunch of other buzzwords you can choose from that have their own subtle connotations, but all imply thier own distinct set of skills. See I don't know if you know this, but people who actually CALL themselves 'snipers' in paintball... whether they consciously know it or not... what they intend for that to mean, is they somehow they possess skills, cunning, and technology that others don't. And for the most part, this simply isn't true. We're all shooting 300fps airguns, and we can all see eachother, camo or no... within the range of 30-60 meters.

OR:

Do like most people, and ditch the whole label thing alltogether. The labels are useless to. And guess what, nobody actually CARES anyway. Just work on your skills, and how well those skills actually benefit the team, and the game. Because at the end of the day, that's what's actually  important.
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