It’s not how many kills you get, it’s how you get your kills

I’ve been sat chilling today, chatting to various players and flicking through Instagram reels while I wait for replies on various platforms. And there’s a lot more short reels involving snipers on there than there used to be. Looking at some uploaded scopecam footage that could probably cause motion sickness, I noticed that there’s a lot of rather aggressive positioning in order to get these kills on camera.

I get that Tiktok loves this shit as much as it enjoys collecting everyone’s data. And the few seconds of the bb hitting is unfortunately the pinnacle of airsoft gameplay footage across the board. So people are falling over themselves to get as many as possible onto camera. But is it coming at the cost of actually being a good sniper? Do we prioritise the number of kills ahead of the rest of the skills?

Here’s picture of me doing exactly the same thing.

(Those trousers actually camouflage really well with the arse end of a desert camouflage Snatch Land Rover…)

At this point our team is attacking a position around 100m away which has defenders surrounding it, this is actually our spawn and there’s not really any need to go anywhere or do anything else other than take pot shots and reduce defending numbers until the rest of my team pushes forward to capture the base. Pretty standard. But this isn’t sniping to me. It’s almost a DMR role, a squad marksman that requires little to no skill beyond being able to pull the trigger and aim in the right direction.

When I watch the other snipers on site, as well as in these short media reels, it’s becoming a common practice. A sniper stood either out in the open, or sticking their head above cover, simply pouring shots onto enemy positions in the hope of hitting as many as possible. While wearing a ghillie. Perhaps there should be a better term for this play style. Ghillie Marksman or something. Super easy, you still get your ghillie photos for your Instagram, and you get to shoot a lot which is rather exciting.

For me though, sniping is about stealth and movement more than it is the shooting. Being able to appear and disappear without trace, expertly flanking or running recon deep into enemy territory. I think my best day skirmishing to date was 19 kills and 0 deaths, and to me that 0 deaths figure is by far the more important stat. If I do 15 kills with 5 deaths, then I’ve made 5 mistakes that need looked at and corrected in order for me to be a better player and that’s where my focus is. Does it give me cool insta content? No. No smoke grenades, no professional photographers following me around. That’s not why I’m out there.

To be fair, the site I play at is very well populated. There are hundreds of targets. Easy ones. Which is what makes Dirty Dog Airsoft such a good day out.

I could easily sit here watching over the Village arena and just pop shots off all day long. Could even bring a nice comfy chair and a few beers. I could sit and shoot into spawn areas for more kills, or position myself next to roads or paths where I know the enemy are coming, but that’s all a bit lazy and boring. Static, unchallenging. It might be the way society is now, always looking for shortcuts (see The Rise of AI), wanting it easy etc.

A kill that comes after expertly stalking half a mile around the back of the enemy before disappearing back into the woods is worth at least ten sitting behind a water container shooting fish in a barrel. And that’s being generous. If polishing or developing these skills is something you’re actually interested in, shoot me a pm if you’re in the UK.

Sniper is Life.