Snipers undoubtedly need a wide variety of
gear to give them an edge no matter what situation they find themselves in. Whether it is a sophisticated scope, advanced
rifle, or special kinds of clothing, snipers need more than the average soldier in order
to carry out their deadly missions. But while the fancier gear that people can
see from the outside, such as rifles and scopes, might seem like their only advantage, they
would sadly be mistaken. Rather, snipers make their entire loadout
better by incorporating some things you can’t see so easily- like their ammunition. But how do these special rounds differ from
the average rounds fired by infantrymen and what advantages do they offer? To start with, snipers need different ammunition
for a variety of reasons. While the average troop on the ground will
train to put precision fire on a target up to about 550 meters, this though impressive,
pales in comparison to the distance that snipers in today’s battlefields engage targets at. It is quite common, especially in places like
Afghanistan, that snipers will only begin to engage targets at 800 yards. If that sounds like a lot, when one looks
at the past two decades of conflict in the Middle East one will find that snipers during
these conflicts have routinely made shots well over a thousand meters. In fact, eight of the top ten and 33 of the
top 40 all-time longest sniper kills have been made in the conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan
with the world record being made in Iraq in 2017 at a mind boggling 3540 meters. At these extreme distances, the forces of
nature start to have some drastic effects on the bullet in its flight path. Wind is arguably the biggest factor since
it will push a bullet off its course. Over long distances, lighter and less aerodynamic
bullets will be more easily pushed off course. Adjusting for this effect is called drift. Gravity also has a say in how a bullet will
travel to its destination. If a bullet were fired on a perfectly straight
plain it would eventually fall into the earth. While gravity remains a constant, factors
such as bullet weight and velocity will affect the time it takes for a bullet to drop into
the earth’s surface. Adjusting for this effect is called drop. Though some would be snipers might think that
merely adjusting for drift and drop would be enough they would be sorely mistaken. Snipers not only have to ensure that their
bullet hits its target but also have to ensure their position remains concealed to the enemy. There are two main ways that an enemy soldier
can spot a sniper. The first and most obvious one would be the
flash. Whenever a rifle fires, it makes a muzzle
flash at the end of the barrel that is a tell-tale sign of exactly where the shooter is and gives
them a nice target to shoot back at. Making a cartridge that will reduce the flash
as much as possible will help snipers remain hidden even after firing a shot. Additionally, enemies can find the general
area a sniper fired from by listening to the crack of the rifle. By making the resulting round quieter, snipers
can reduce their chance of their foes hearing their shot either from natural acoustics or
from the din of battle. Sniper bullets differ from regular ammunition
in a wide variety of ways and the first way is what they are encased in. The casings for sniper, also known as match
grade, ammunition are painstakingly measured for accuracy and precision measurements. This is important because if a rifle fires
cartridges of different sizes, the differences- though even just fractions of millimeters-
will degrade and change the performance of a rifle over its lifetime. While these minor changes might not mean much
to an infantryman firing thousands of rounds, for a sniper who only gets one chance to make
a difficult shot every bit of help is needed. That is not to say that the ammunition mass-produced
in a factory is bad or inaccurate. Rather, due to the sheer volume of ammunition
needed workers cannot individually measure every casing that goes through the line. Rather, these casings, and the rifles meant
to fire them, have a natural tolerance built into them to accept a tolerable limit. But sniper rifles cannot have such a luxury
since their tolerances must be incredibly tight. The next major difference for sniper bullets
would be the primer. The primer is the main ignition method in
the bullet that ignites the propellant to fire the bullet down the barrel. When the firing pin strikes the primer, the
compounds inside of it ignite causing that firing sequence to follow. A common problem that will affect ultra-long
distance shots that snipers will take is the evenness of the ignition. If a primer does not ignite evenly, such as
is common in cheaper or mass-produced primers, the bullet will receive energy unevenly. This dispersion of energy, though incredibly
slight, over long distances can have a huge impact in accuracy. By putting in place better primers that ignite
evenly, the shooter can rest assured that the bullet will receive an even distribution
of energy to make the bullet fire straighter and further. Primers can also be customized depending on
thickness. For firearms that have a weaker firing pin,
customizing with a softer primer can ensure an even ignition. While this is insignificant for non-precision
fire, this is yet another tool that snipers can incorporate into their individual rifles
since ultimately they will know them the best. The propellant is arguably the second most
important area where sniper bullets and regular bullets will differ. The propellants inside of cartridges are a
combinations of chemicals that give the bullet its power. The first major difference here is that sniper
rounds are always going to be heavier than their non-match counterparts. A bullet’s weight is measured in grains
and a single grain is equivalent to one seven thousandth of a pound. A typical sniper round, 7.62 x 51mm (pronounced
seven six two by fifty one millimeter) has a standard weight of 147 grains. Match grade ammunition on the other hand typically
comes in at 162 grains. The added difference in weight is all about
propelling rounds over farther distances. As the bullet leaves the barrel of the rifle
it immediately starts to lose energy due to air pushing back on it and from gravity pulling
it down. There is not much the shooter or even engineers
can do about nature’s effects so they have to work around them. The workaround here is simply keeping the
bullet in flight for less time than your standard rounds. Taking again the 7.62 x 51mm example again,
compared to standard ball ammunition, match grade rounds actually come out of the barrel
slightly slower. However, due to intentional slow burn times
of precision propellants, though ball ammunition will immediately feel all the effects of nature,
match grade ammunition will actually start speeding up. To put this into perspective, by the time
a 7.62 x 51mm ball round and a match grade round hit the 1000 meter mark, the match grade
one will be faster, have taken less time to get there, and been affected less by the environmentals. The most significant difference between sniper
bullets and regular rounds used by the military is their unique shape. Standard rifle rounds are what is called Full
Metal Jacket. Full Metal Jacket or FMJ is the wrapping of
a copper jacket around the lead bullet to give it better penetration power. These rounds also have bases that are perfectly
flat meaning that they create a 90 degree angle when looked at from the top. While this might be good enough for the average
shooter, snipers need something even better. First introduced in the 1970s, match shooters
started shooting with hollow point boat tailed ammunition. But to understand why this two-punch combination
is the best bullet design, it is important to know exactly what they are since there
are a lot of misconceptions out there. Hollow point bullets have exactly that: a
hollow point in the front of the bullet. The purpose for this is to increase expansion
upon entering a soft target, like a human, since this expansion is often deadlier than
the raw force of the bullet itself. There is much more to this technology since
there is a whole field of science dedicated to wound ballistics but that is the basics
for now. As for why hollow point bullets are preferred
for accuracy, it’s because they have a slightly rearward center of gravity than a full metal
jacket bullet has. By having a center of gravity further back,
these bullets can resist a natural tendency of some rounds to tumble or wobble in flight
if they are too heavy towards the nose. Again, while this is practically negligible
for almost all situations, when shooting at the extreme distances snipers have been doing
for the past twenty years even these little things matter. The second part of this technology is the
boat-tailed base. The difference between a boat-tailed base
and a regular base is that a boat-tailed base is curved. When the base is curved, it creates less drag
on the bullet than a flat base. Think of it kind of like the curved tips on
air plane wings. Through this combination of having a hollow
point and a boat tail, the bullet achieves an incredibly high ballistic coefficient. While there are many factors that go into
a ballistic coefficient, the most important thing to know about it is that the higher
the number the better it will fly through the air since it is more aerodynamic. The ballistic coefficient takes into consideration
things like weight, length to diameter ratios, and weight distribution among others. Though simply adding a boat tail to a round
adds little benefit in some cases, in others it can drastically improve the accuracy of
that round over extreme distances. Take for instance the .224 (pronounced two
two four) Valkyrie and .303 (pronounced three oh three) British rounds. The .224 Valkyrie was designed by Remington
as one of its newest additions to medium and small game hunting in 2017. It has incorporated years of technologies
that make it an already incredibly accurate and sound medium rifle cartridge. In comparing any kind of ammunition, you must
use ones that are the exact same weight meaning they have the same kind of propellant used
in the cartridge. As for the .224, by comparing the variable
of a boat tail versus a regular base in a 55 grain round, the ballistic coefficient
only increases from .237 (pronounced point two three seven) to .245 (pronounced point
two four five). While definitely better than nothing, this
technology works best on older rounds that were developed decades before this technology
came about. Take for example the .303 British round. Developed in the late 1800s as the standard
British rifle cartridge that would see service through the end of World War Two, this round
has obviously seen its fair share of use and study. Though not used by the British military anymore,
civilian shooters have taken a liking to the round and wanted to modify it for hunting
and sport shooting purposes. It is here that boat tail technology really
shows through. Hornady (pronounced horn-a-dey), a premier
match grade ammunition manufacturer, makes a regular and boat tailed version of the iconic
.303 British round. Each 174 grain round was tested to see which
one was more accurate and it was found that the regular round had a ballistic coefficient
of .262 while the boat tailed version had one of .470. That is an almost 100 percent increase in
accuracy! While this high increase in accuracy might
be unusual, it is not unheard of and this is a great example of just how much impact
even simple features can make. Snipers, though, need every advantage they
can get when it comes to taking ultra-long range shots. Even the smallest things such as how thick
their shell casing is or how hard their primer is can mean the difference between success
and failure when the mission calls for zero error. Though thankfully your average shooter will
never have to worry about any of this stuff, for snipers, any one of these factors in their
bullets that is slightly off could mean the difference between life and death on the battlefield.
