Sniper Book

Notes of a Russian Sniper ~ Vassili Zaitsev  NEW!!
This book is the one written by the legendary sniper Vassili Zaitsev many years ago and recently republished again.
It was an interesting read from the perspective of Zaitsev himself and does provide a good account of his personal experiences.
The translation was performed by several people and is very well done and there are a good number of foot notes explaining certain
words and nuances of Russian culture that English speakers may not know.
This also included some good information about Soviet military organization that I found helpful.
The writing style from a half century ago is a different style than the war accounts you read now as you do not typically get the gory details.
What you do get is a personal perspective of the Soviet mindset during WWII when their country was being over run by Germany.
Having read several accounts from both sides of the war during the invasion of the Soviet Union,
I can say that Zaitsev seems genuine in his feelings and recounting of his stories.
There are some sketchy parts were the details are not enough to determine how authentic some stories may be,
but for the most part it is a good personal account of Zaitsev's experiences and the experiences of Soviet snipers during the Battle of Stalingrad.
As you might imagine, his own personal telling of his story is nothing like the movie "Enemy at the Gates" and more authentic and believable.
For those looking for more details about the famous 'Duel' might be disappointed as the story is not overly detailed in his telling of the encounter and you may not learn anything new about it.
All in all, I did find the book worth reading and a good learning tool.

Trigger Men: Shadow Team, Spider-Man, the Magnificent Bastards, and the American Combat Sniper ~ Hans Halberstadt
The author, Mr. Halberstadt, has done a pretty good job with this book compiling a series of true stories told by the people that experienced them. These stories are primarily from a year period in Iraq from several different units. There is also a few stories from other conflicts prior to Iraq as well as some information about the history of snipers and some details about the current sniper schools in the USMC and US Army. Over all the author is a bit over the top in terms of "rah rah snipers are the ultimate soldier" enthusiasm, but it does not detract too much from the down to earth telling of sniper operations by the actual snipers. It was a pretty good read and it does give a good feeling of how modern day sniper operations in a built up area go down and for that I recommend it as a good read.

Sniper Ace: From the Eastern Front to Siberia ~ Bruno Sutkus This is not a typical book written by an accomplished author but rather more like a summary of the authors own sniper log book during WWII. The first half of the book covers Bruno Sutkus' fairly short but active combat time on the Eastern Front as a sniper. There is some information about the German Sniper school and other very interesting historical information about the German Sniper program during the war. It does read like a log book and actually has many log entries from his 209 confirmed kills including many photos from his log book as well as letters and commendations. For these reasons the book is worth reading, though it is a bit slow in the 2nd half of the book which covers his time spent in Siberia after the war and up until he finally gets back to his native land. I did find some parts of the book a bit troubling about his involvement as part of the Hitler Youth organization and the fact that it does not appear that he recognizes any wrong doing on the part of Germany during WWII, but there are not many comments about these subjects and if the book is treated as a soldier's After Action Report (AAR), it does have some good

Sniper rifle

 Introduction

The concept of this rifle developed in my mind over the past several years as I watched the conflicts in the Middle East and as the sniping tactics evolved during those conflicts over the past several years.
The one major area of change that evolved, more so in Iraq, was with the development of the urban battlefield as a major hot bed of combat operations and sniper involvement.
It became such an integral part of the combat operations that it actually helped contribute to the adoption of a new Sniper Rifle for the US Army, the M110 Semi-Auto Sniper System (SASS) which is pictured below:

Sniper History

A sniper is a highly trained marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles.
In addition to marksmanship, military snipers are also trained in camouflage, field craft, infiltration, reconnaissance and observation.^[1] Snipers are especially effective when deployed within the urban terrain of urban warfare, or jungle terrain of jungle warfare.

Second Boer War
Frederick Russell Burnham in Africa

The first British sniper unit began life as Lovat Scouts, a Scottish Highland regiment that earned high praise during the Second Boer War (1899–1902).
The unit was formed by Lord Lovat and reported to an American, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the British Army Chief of Scouts under Lord Roberts.
Burnham fittingly described these scouts as "half wolf and half jackrabbit.
Just like their Boer scout opponents, they were well practiced in the arts of marksmanship, field craft, and military tactics.
They were also the first known military unit to wear a ghillie suit.They were skilled woodsmen but also practitioners of discretion: "He who shoots and runs away, lives to shoot another day.
" After the war, this regiment went on to formally become the British Army's first sniper unit, then better known as sharpshooters.

Sniper movie

Shooter is a 2007 thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua based on the novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.
The film concerns a former United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper, Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), who is framed for murder by a rogue secret private military company unit.
The film was shot mainly in British Columbia, Canada. It was released in theatres on March 23, 2007 and for home viewing on June 26, 2007, topping the sales charts.

Sniper Rifle

 

The Dragunov sniper rifle (formally Russian: Снайперская винтовка Драгунова, Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova (SVD), literally "Dragunov's sniper rifle")

is a semi-automatic sniper rifle chambered in 7.62x54mmR and developed in the Soviet Union.
It was selected as the winner of a contest that included three competing designs: the first was a rifle designed by Sergei Simonov (known as the SSV-58),
the second design, a prototype designated 2B-W10 by Alexander Konstantinov, and the third rifle, the SVD-137, a design submitted by Yevgeny Dragunov.
Extensive field testing of the rifles conducted in a wide range of environmental conditions resulted in Dragunov’s proposal being accepted into service in 1963.
An initial pre-production batch consisting of 200 rifles was assembled for evaluation purposes, and from 1964 serial production was carried out by Izhevsk Mechanical Works.
Since then, the Dragunov has become the standard squad support weapon of several countries, including those of the former Warsaw Pact.
Licensed production of the rifle was established in China (Type 79 and Type 85) and Iran (as a direct copy of the Chinese Type 79).

 

 The Barrett Model 82 is the most recognized 50 caliber anti-material rifle in the world.
In 2005 the US Army officially designated a version of the M82 the M107 and approved it for full material release.
The M107 fires a variety of .50BMG rounds and has a listed range of 1,500m, with record shots at the 2,500m range.
It is a heavy semi-automatic shoulder-fired sniper rifle designed for an anti-material role.
It has a few changes from the classic M82, with a rear grip and monopod socket as well as a lengthened accessory rail.
It is also equipped with a “Leupold 4.5×14 vary X scope”.

Introduced in the early 70’s by Steyr Mannlicher of Austria, the AUG (Armee Universal Gewehr - “Universal Army Rifle”) became the standard rifle of the Austrian military in 1977, and was marketed aggressively internationally since then. (I remember the booths, sample rifles, and promotional materials at the Canadian ARMEX expositions). The AUG has been released in multiple variants in the decades since including the one above, the AUG A2. The AUG was known for being easily changed from one role to the next - with a modular design that allows it to switch from heavy-barreled light machine gun to a variety of rifle and carbine lengths, as well as a very short-barreled version for use as a 9mm or 5.56mm submachine gun.

   





 Introduction

The concept of this rifle developed in my mind over the past several years as I watched the conflicts in the Middle East and as the sniping tactics evolved during those conflicts over the past several years.
The one major area of change that evolved, more so in Iraq, was with the development of the urban battlefield as a major hot bed of combat operations and sniper involvement.

It became such an integral part of the combat operations that it actually helped contribute to the adoption of a new Sniper Rifle for the US Army, the M110 Semi-Auto Sniper System (SASS) which is pictured below: