Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi guys,
So looking for help from any airsofters on here, currently use a g@g cm16 raider l but am looking to switch over to a sniper rifle for different play styles. Now I'm kind of not sure where to start been looking at asg and well. Heard that asg arnt that good lower end of the scale which isn't to much of an issue as am looking to go a bit higher up price wise, say about £190 to £250.
Site Limit is 500 fps but don't really want to go below 450 fps as play in a wide open quarry. Oh forgot to say I'm looking at springers.
Cheers

I wish I could help, but I don't run with sniper rifles, so I don't know squat about them, apart from some very general stuff. I assume by "springers" you mean manually-operated guns, as opposed to electric or gas-operated? If so, that means your weapon will have a low rate of fire, so you will want to make sure your scope is a good one and that your sights are set properly. There's nothing worse than getting a good shot set up and having your first pellet miss by a foot (and with a manual operation, cocking the gun for your next shot might throw off your aim). Heavier pellets work better in terms of accuracy in guns that have higher fps. It will depend on what your fps is, but I expect you'll need to use 0.25s at least (probably 0.28s or maybe even 0.30s). You might want to consider using brown or black pellets. For some reason, people have a hard time spotting them in flight, so if you are trying to hit someone and you miss with your first shot, they may not know they are under fire which may give you the opportunity to take a second shot before they duck under cover.

If your gun has a high enough fps, you may have a minimum engagement distance (depending on what field you play on and what their rules are) which prevents you from shooting your 500+ fps gun at an opponent who is too close to you, so you may need to invest in a backup gun in case your position gets flanked and you have bad guys bearing down on you. An electric pistol or machine pistol might be a good gun for that. I don't have a backup, so I can't make any specific pistol recommendations, I'm afraid.

As far as which companies make the best sniper rifles, I don't have much I can say to that. Nobody on my crew runs with sniper rifles, either, so I haven't heard much one way or the other.

What I can tell you is that I have two guns, both made by Matrix (a zv 26 and a BAR). I have had some problems with each of them, but nothing I couldn't fix myself (or with the help of my room mate). I've heard good things about Tokyo Marui, but those guns cost a lot.

Sorry I couldn't be more useful.

FPS isn't the important thing in a sniper rifle. You need to upgrade the barrel, hop up and sears before anything else. The spring is just a number, and while it does matter, you need consistent shots and not just fast shots. Too much power and you could be using whatever size you want and the BB is just going to fly to the moon or dip to the dirt because of the spin of the BB in the barrel. So you need a tightbore and a GOOD hop up.

I've been out of airsoft for a long time, but there a few ways to go about this. An H nub is a good start in a G&G Green hop up, but there's a better option. (I remembered what it's called. An R-Hop. There are tutorials online.) Making it by hand so that the nub pushes the BB the same way every single time, giving you a consistent backspin so you KNOW where the BB goes. A good scope doesn't do crap if the BB spins right on the first shot and left on the second. You can just watch them go down range better.

Barrels I know nothing about anymore. You will need a 6.01 or a specialty barrel. I like my Miracle barrel in an AEG, and my AK can outshoot any sniper on the field with it, but that's been proven to be a subpar choice for snipers and other more specialty guns. I don't know the current 'best' drop in option so you'll have to do some research. Don't buy cheap. Also, never buy a barrel longer than 501mm. The BB can not stay powered when you're barrel is that long causing friction the whole time.

The BAR 10 is a good choice because of upgrades. There's another that looks like an L96 but I forget the name. Both are good options because of how many aftermarket parts are available. You will not buy a sniper rifle and use it on the field with good results. You buy one, then build it and most snipers put more into upgrades than the base cost of their gun. And that's still not including a scope.

I've actually heard some decent hints about WELL in terms of upgradability. Their stock parts are bad, but they don't crap out. So as you replace them bit by bit, you can still get use out of the gun.

Remember, focus on consistency first and THEN speed.

And just for BB weight, my AK uses .34 and that's a full auto AEG. You should be using atleast that weight for any sniping. Anything lighter will get blown around by a bird fart. .28s are the absolute minimum for an upgraded AEG of any kind but snipers need the weight to, again, get that consistency.

Edit in the parenthesis. Remembered a thing.

So I know nothing about airsoft guns but I do know about shooting at moving targets. Speed would probably be important if it impacts flight time significantly for the projectile. Flight time is a big deal especially with slower projectiles at longer ranges since the sound from the shot will arrive before the projectile allowing the target to "duck the shot" (serious problem in archery hunting).

Cheers for the replies guys. Been looking at the well rifles as there seems to be a good few upgrades on the market so looks like a good place to start a fun project.
No worries there nuggz although it's been a while I've used a few firearms in the past, only fired a sniper down range once mind. Was a big buzz lol

 NuggzTheNinja wrote:
So I know nothing about airsoft guns but I do know about shooting at moving targets. Speed would probably be important if it impacts flight time significantly for the projectile. Flight time is a big deal especially with slower projectiles at longer ranges since the sound from the shot will arrive before the projectile allowing the target to "duck the shot" (serious problem in archery hunting).

Sadly, this has no bearing on Airsoft. Sniping in airsoft is usually considered a novelty thing because of how vastly different to real world use it is. Like I said, most snipers are outperformed by my assault rifle shot by shot, but my AK still has full auto with near the same accuracy. The report of an airsoft sniper though is literally the sound or a piston clacking against the piston head inside the gun. And you will NEVER get it above 600fps at any legal field in the US or England. With heavier BBs like the ones I suggested, you'd be lucky to get 420-450FPS out of the gun (because 500FPS limit is judged with much lighter BBs), and at best your consistent accuracy on a man-sized target is 85 yards perfectly upgraded and tuned.

Speed does do a lot to the usefulness of the gun, but when building the gun from the ground up, it's better to focus on consistent trajectories and simply use the gun at shorter ranges. It should still shoot better than a basic automatic electric just because you can actually put the BB through a window at 150ft. Snipers can still be a force multiplier that way even at lower speeds.