Sniper Recommendations

[Impulse]

Time to throw my thoughts into the mix. I won't echo the "sniping is hard" arguments that others have pointed out, as it's already been said and argued. I wouldn't say it's "hard" but it's definitely a different way of playing.

You can make a perfectly good rifle for your budget.

JG BAR10 or cyma cm701 ~ £100

AA hop unit ~ £50

Maple Leaf MR hop or new Decepticon bucking ~ £10

Maple Leaf Omega tensioner ~ £2

Crazy Jet barrel ~ £50

Some sort of cheap, but decent scope ~ £50

Spare mags ~ £10 each

Hey would you look at that, I built a rifle with spare mags that will perform pretty damn well for under £300 and likely out-shoot a lot of your local site's "snipers". Honestly, the JG and cyma VSRs come at a decent enough power where you don't have to worry about replacing the trigger, spring, spring guide etc until they break. This is the build I did, minus the super expensive HPA bits, and it shoots stupidly well, especially considering the price tag. Now, I would probably use a PDI or Edgi barrel myself (they're more £100 - £150) instead of Crazy Jet because I've gone off Crazy Jets recently, but they're perfectly decent barrels and I am currently running one in my current build (read: I'm too poor at the moment to afford to replace it)

Firing at about the same power as my spring VSR (2.2J in both), which has a professionally installed r-hop, edgi barrel and laylax/springer custom works internals, my cheapo mostly maple leaf build actually shoots further and more accurately. You absolutely can build a sniper rifle on a budget.

Also, do you need a ghillie? Not at all. I spent the entire summer in a short sleeve OD t-shirt and pair of OD trousers, with a scrim net draped over my OD boonie once I got into my hide position. Yes, all OD, no camo patterns. People looked directly at me and didn't see me because I stayed perfectly still and didn't silhouette myself.

If you want a cheap, lightweight ghillie I swear by my Webtex Concealment Vest (~£50) that I've tied a bunch of artificial ghillie strands to (~£12) and just load it up with natural foliage on the day using the elastic loops. My last game day had me using this and lying down in the middle of the enemy team for about 15 minutes because they're respawn was 5m in front of me for a bunch of the game. You don't need one of these all over super-pricey KMCS suits that you then have to put a bunch more stuff on to have an effective ghillie.

So, for a rifle + ghillie, I've outlined it above for ~£354 (I assumed 3 extra mags). Yes, you could argue "but what about load bearing?" but you can pick up cheapo belt kits for peanuts these days that you could also put some ghillie material and natural foliage on, but I just wear mine under my ghillie. My rifle wrap is scrim net and cable ties, which are also peanuts. I also only use my belt for pistol and pistol mags. All my VSR mags are in a stock pouch (which cost me about £10 from Taiwangun and I'm thoroughly impressed with it)

Sorry if my post came across as snarky. I'm just the guy who thinks "sniping is expensive" is a myth that dissuades people from doing what they want. I'm also the guy whose first RIF was a Well L96 about 14 years ago because I'm a massive hypocrite when I echo the "don't get a sniper rifle as your first gun" argument

 

[alxndrhll]

'Expensive' is such a hard word to throw around because it's a relative term. What is cheap to me may well be very expensive to others. Though I agree that the 'price of entry' does often get inflated I'd argue that it usually works out costing more than an equivalent AEG setup (though this largely down to the excellent budget AEG choices available nowadays). Combine that with the increased chances of not having as much fun doing it as you'd hoped you might, leading to wanting to sell it on at a significant lost. That is the recipe that I believe leads to general phrasing of 'sniping is expensive'. Returns on investment for airsoft kit is generally not great, 'upgraded' bolt action rifles crank that to 11.

Well that and the cost of decent ammo. Even though I've found it lasts significantly longer than your average bag of 3000 0.2-0.32s it still stings everytime I top up the supply.

 

[Samurai]

JG BAR10 or cyma cm701 ~ £100

AA hop unit ~ £50

Maple Leaf MR hop or new Decepticon bucking ~ £10

Maple Leaf Omega tensioner ~ £2

Crazy Jet barrel ~ £50

Some sort of cheap, but decent scope ~ £50

Spare mags ~ £10 each

Click to shrink...

Forget the AA unit, You'll get better results with a proper hop arm.

Cheap scope is a fixed 4x40 one. I used mine for years and I got it for £6 new. Now I'm using the same brand 6x40 that costed £12. They have better picture than any variable scope I tried, including expensive ones.

I'd agree with @Skara about sniping is not (much) harder but very different, but he said leaf suits are shit so he is my enemy now.

Success is measured with different metrics in sniping. If you count the kills then it's "harder" to snipe than AEGing. Different mindset, different goals.