Microsniping

In the October 1984 issue of Guns and Ammo magazine Peter Hathaway Capstick described a sport called minisniping. A combination of bench rest and silhouette, minisniping was started in Angola. Competitors use Olympic quality air rifles with target scopes to shoot at empty 9 mm brass at a range of 35 yards. With a few modifications this game can become a fun and useful training tool.

One of the big advantages is the availability of a shooting range. International air rifle competitions are fired at 10 meters. Most of us have that much space in our houses or garages without even having to set up in the back yard. It may be difficult to find a range that handles more than 600 yards in your area but 50 yards is generally not a problem. It doesn’t take much to stop the pellets. Commercial bullet traps are available but I just use a cardboard box with newspapers loosely stacked inside. I also use a large piece of 3/4 inch wafer board as a backstop.

These rifles are not the BB guns you grew up with. These are full sized match rifles that will shoot under half minute of angle all day long. My RWS 100 will put four out of five shots through the exact same hole at 20 meters. Feinwerkbau, Anshutz, Walther, Dianawerk, and El Gamo are a few of the manufacturers that handle match grade airguns. I chose the Dianawerk 100 imported by RWS for a number of reasons. Being pneumatic rather than spring powered, the loading port ends up in the same position it would be on a center-fire. This makes scope mounting a lot easier. Some of the spring guns have their loading ports right under where the objective bell of a scope falls. This makes loading the pellets a chore as there is so little space left. Many match rifles are designed for iron sights only and require special scope mounts. The RWS 100 required only standard .22 dovetail rings and a small amount of shimming. The stock on the 100 has fully adjustable buttplate and cheek piece. Overall it feels very similar to the stock on the Robar SR90 sniper rifle. Olympic air rifles are expensive initially. Most will run over $1000. Used rifles can be found and might save you a few dollars. You will end up saving money when you start shooting. 500 rounds of the most expensive match pellets cost less than one box of Federal match ammo. I put over 500 rounds through my rifle the first two days I had it. You will get more shooting out of these guns than anything else you own.

Maintenance on these rifles is a little different from gunpowder arms. After a shooting session I fire a few wool pellets with some metalophilic oil through the bore. I wipe down the exterior and I’m done. The manufacturer recommends sending it to a factory authorized repair center once a year for maintenance. Air rifles require special lubricants. Follow the directions that come with the rifle. You’ll find it worthwhile to purchase one of the specialty cleaning kits offered by Beeman or FSI. The zero on these rifles will change from day to day so it’s important to allow unlimited sighters before each match or exercise. If the rifle has been cleaned since it’s last use it may take several “fouling” shots before the barrel settles back down. Once sighted in they will hold their zero for the rest of they day.

The very powerful spring powered airguns can be a little hard on scopes due to the push-pull double recoil they exert. With those types of airgun it’s important to buy a scope and mount designed to withstand their peculiar recoil. The air rifles designed for 10 meter match shooting are recoilless. This means standard scopes and mounts are suitable. While the match guns will retain their zero over the course of a day, they tend to need rezeroing at the beginning of each session. Target type windage and elevation knobs are a must. Airguns are typically fired at very short ranges requiring a scope that is parallax adjustable to 10 meters. I like to work with a scope that has the same magnification I use on my .308. I use a Bushnell 6-18X set at 10X. The Bushnell is a good entry level target scope. Burris and Leupold make short range scopes and both companies offer mil dot reticles. If I upgrade I’ll probably get a Leupold 6.5-20X EFR with the mil dot reticle. Leupold offers a 50 foot focus lens for their 42 mm objective scopes as well.

It’s important to test your air rifle with several types and brands of match grade pellets. You will find that individual rifles of even the same make and model show definite and different preferences for ammo. FSI offers sampler packs of several brands of pellets. Each pack contains enough pellets to allow thorough testing to decide which type your rifle prefers. Another gadget available from Beeman is a pellet sizer. By trying several sizing dies you can exactly match your pellets to your rifle. I find that RWS R10 pistol pellets work best in my rifle unsized while Supermags from the same company work best sized to .1785”. Sizing the cheaper hobby pellets can sometimes bring their groups down to near match size. Given the cost of even the finest match pellets it’s not much of a money saver but it may make you feel better if you’re used to reloading center-fire ammunition. Be careful of the very cheap economy pellets. Some brands contain abrasives in the lead.

http://www.airgunsusa.com Firearms & Supplies, Inc. has an excellent selection of airguns and accessories at reasonable prices. If you buy a match rifle they waive shipping charges and give you their volume discount as well. FSI also sells a “Dealer Info Pack” (free to FFL holders) consisting of catalogs from several major manufacturers, an FSI catalog, and the “Airgun Digest”. The Beeman catalog alone has tons of information on airgun use and maintenance. An FFL is not required to receive airguns through the mail. FSI also sells pellet sampler packs and complete airgun maintenance kits.

These rifles are recoilless and nearly silent. There’s nothing to cover up any bad habits you may have developed. Jerking, bucking, or flinching all become immediately apparent. There’s a quiet splat and you see a hole appear directly under the crosshair. This can encourage the bad habit of watching the target instead of the reticle so you must be aware of the tendency and fight it. Because of the very low velocities involved, the pellets spend a long time in the barrel. Follow through becomes critical and any fudging in this area becomes immediately apparent.

There are some disadvantages to practicing with air rifles at reduced ranges. Your elevations will be different. Even though you’re looking at the visual equivalent of 600 yards, the drop you dial into your airgun’s scope is going to be significantly different from what your center-fire is going to need at an actual 600 yards. The same applies to windage. Windage is a factor and you will have to hold off for it but there’s not much point in memorizing windage for the air gun. It’s better to just do up tables and work off of them. If you want to practice estimating drop and windage log the figures for your center-fire and then dial in what you have in your airgun tables. Later you can compare your logged numbers to your center-fire tables for those conditions. Mirage is simply not going to be the factor at less than 100 yards that it is at over 300. You will have to go to a full sized range to practice reading mirage. The triggers on these match guns are significantly lighter than what you’ll probably have on your field shooter. Cranked all the way up mine went to just over a pound. It’s easy to get spoiled with ultra light triggers. Most of the match guns aren’t set up for a military type sling either. If you’re used to shooting with a military sling you’ll have to work something out or just do without.


Sometimes I will put some honey on a target and shoot the flies it attracts (microvarminting). If I had a large anthill I might treat it like a prairie dog town. I will also reduce standard silhouettes on my computer and use them at reduced ranges. The targets I usually use are the small plastic soldiers you can buy in buckets or bags in the departments store. These guys are two inches tall. This makes for a neat one inch equals one yard scale. A thousand scale yards is less than 28 yards. In the 20 meters I have available in my back yard I have a scale 792 yards. You can just line them up and shoot but it’s a lot more fun and instructive to set them out at different ranges. You can practice your target detection. Hide them behind weeds or even camouflage them. Some are standing, some kneel some are prone. You can practice using the mil dots on people in various positions. Instead of reading yards you’ll read inches and can verify it with a tape measure. Have your spotter practice indexing targets by calling you onto different toy soldiers. Make up a range card and practice using that to index targets. Practice your target selection. These toy soldier sets have officers carrying binoculars and heavy weapons crew including mortar and machine gunners. Get a toy cannon and set some of them up next to it. Take the prone rifleman and put glue on them. Roll them in some dry grass and dirt and you have a ghillie suit. Now try to spot the little beggars when you put them in the weeds. The bag I bought had tan as well as green soldiers. I can place these out and treat them as friendlies. Hit the bad guys without hitting a friendly. If you really want to get serious, get in your war gear and move tactically into firing position. If you have someone else set up the soldiers you can plan your shots just as you would in the real world.

The most important thing is to enjoy yourself. The more shooting you do the better you get. This game is like salty snacks, once you start you can’t stop.