The downtime afforded by covid has at least given a lot of time to sit, think, analyse and reflect. I’ve picked up a great many projects surrounding airsoft, both internal and external too, which has kept me extremely busy and perhaps a little off the path of my own kit. Yesterday someone asked me how I’d describe my “sniper style”, and after a bit of thought, I’ve come up with this;

High Speed, Low Frag

Yes, a play on the well known cqb term for wearing pyjamas and carrying two mags in a tactical elasticated thong to reduce bulk.

But beyond the pun, there’s a philosophy here that I’m going to base my style on. So I’ll expand on it a little.

HIGH SPEED

One of the things I’ve had the most conflict with in the past is too much camo restricting movement (think heavily overloaded leaf suits). Whether it’s excessive headgear that restricts vision and hearing, to little pieces of raffia obstructing the view down the scope or getting caught in the bolt, heavily camouflaging things has often proved more a hindrance than a help. By contrast, some of the best days I’ve had are in summer months where I’ve dropped down to just camouflage trousers and a shirt in the heat, demonstrating that it’s not all about the ghillie. Indeed, a lot of ghillie suits are uncomfortable or impractical, especially for those of us who do crawl through puddles or navigate across difficult terrain, as opposed to those who pose for photos in it.

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I think quite often, in the UK scene, we focus too much on adding 3D crap to break up shape without giving enough thought to the 2D underneath, the science behind shapes, colours and the brains interpretation of them. It’s largely influenced by me teammate Bubba and his lightly 3D’d kit :

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From a players perspective, being able to move quickly and quietly with as little kit as possible is a huge advantage. So too being able to see and hear clearly, which I think is a problem with some of the balaclavas worn by snipers at the moment. I’ve already completely redone my load bearing equipment to help me move more easily, the Haloscreen and Nanoscreen fabrics have improved the camouflage and both work towards a more high speed loadout. Not to say it’s approaching speedsoft of course, that’s a whole different discipline but watching the way speedsofters forego any kind of realism in order to maximise their efficiency is kind of admirable.

LOW FRAG

Or no frag, I don’t tend to carry pyro as a sniper because it attracts attention, but then so too does charging around trying to score as many hits as possible. Putting yourself at risk for a kill when you have a huge disadvantage in one on one combat generally doesn’t work out too well, and I’ve always played a more patient, stealthy game. Low frag, to me, is less aggression in favour of maintaining that stealth. To chase 0 deaths in a day I feel is a bigger achievement than 50 kills. It means you’ve performed your role as the invisible man to perfection, and in the modern day, remaining hidden and not attracting attention is a great skill.

Trigger discipline is difficult for nearly all players because we do enjoy shooting more than anything else, but the defensive side of sniping relies often on letting opportunities pass in order to stay in the game. It isn’t for everyone, I know many now have video entertainment channels that need fed with scopecam kills, but to me it’s the pinnacle of the art.

Lighter, faster, quieter, stealthier, more efficient.

High Speed, Low Frag.