How to hit the mark.

In this thread, I will explain to you how to hit your targets with your airsoft sniper rifle.

The core to this is how you zero in your scope. Your target must remain in the centre of your crosshairs at all times. No compensating for distance by aiming above, or wind by aiming to the side. I will now explain how to achieve this.

First you need to set up a target at a distance of, say, 15-20 metres (45-60ft roughly) and then fire at the centre of the target. It is important that yo keep your crosshairs aimed right at the centre, and do not try to adjust to hit the middle. You should fire five shots, then adjust your scope so that your crosshair lies in the centre of your grouping. Now move your target back and do the same. Do this a few times to learn how far you need to adjust for each distance you are firing from.

For airsoft it is important when zeroing your scope to disregard windage, so that you are only adjusting for elevation (make sure that the vertical crosshair is dead centre. We will come to why in a moment) Now, when you are sniping, you can acquire a target, assess the rough distance to the target, adjust your scope to what you believe is the right distance. This means that you will always be firing at the target in the centre of your crosshairs, not moving your crosshairs above him to try and estimate the drop and achieve a hit. If you miss, get into the habit of adjusting your SCOPE rather than your point of aim.

Now for windage. This is something will invariably alter for each target. What you need to do is make sure that your crosshairs are NOT adjusted for windage. This may seem odd, but there's a reason. Since airsoft is not like firing real steel weapons, we have a tool that can be used to our advantage. Hop-up. The way to hit targets when there is wind is to TWIST your weapon (pivot it along it's length) so your crosshairs are slanted into the direction of the wind. The hop then compensates for the strength of the wind. The stronger the wind, the more you will need to twist the weapon. In this way, you won't be aiming wildly to the side of someone hoping that the bb will swing in. You can keep them right in the centre of your crosshairs, and just twist the gun until you get the right amount.

Now, with some practice, you can adjust your scope for the distance to target, and pivot your gun to compensate for wind, and hone in that one perfect shot right on target.

Jim

I'm confused on two points:

How is a scope zeroed if you haven't adjusted for windage?

And why wouldn't you adjust for elevation by placing the crosshairs slightly above your target? We're not shooting from a benchrest, and it would take more time to adjust the scope than it would to just raise the rifle a bit and fire.

First point on windage- As long as the windage (vertical) crosshair is dead centre, and not adjusted to the left or right, you don't NEED to adjust for windage. (the whole point is that it's not zeroed for windage)

Second point- as I explained, when you have got into the practice of knowing how much to adjust for various ranges, it is much quicker and easier to adjust and put your target in the centre of your crosshair than to aim above them, fire, miss, aim higher or lower, fire again. Because you don't need to remember which angles you have already tried.

In real life, professional snipers do NOT aim above their intended target to adjust for range as suggested in the movies. They adjust their scope.

This is crucial in airsoft sniping when you are going after a single or specific target- you will be much more likely to hit the mark than if you simply aim above the target.

Jim

The Vertical Cross hair is not Windage, it is elevation,( Up,Down)
The Horizontal ( left/right ) is your windage adjustment.

Unless you are starting with a `` Zeroed Gun ´´, attempting to Adjust your Scope in a Game would be Iffy at best.
By twisting the Gun either Left or Right, is the `` Kentucky Windage ´´ of Airsoft, and a quite effective way of adjusting, weather using a Sniper Rifle or AEG.

Nice Post Jim,

Here is something to help Players, Zero their Scopes, or AEG´s. ( Same principles Apply )

Adopt your standard prone/lie down shooting position.
Prone is the best way as if you test shoot from standing or kneeling positions you waver more and it's harder to do a "true test".
Make sure your windage and elevation turrets are ready for adjusting i.e., caps removed.


Draw 1 or 2 small dots on a piece of cardboard about 6.5cm apart vertically.
There's no precision to this step. You just want enough room on the target so no shots are lost. At 10 feet, they can't go too far.
If your scope has parallax adjustment, adjust it as close as it will go. If it has variable power, adjust it as low as it will go.
The aim point will probably be a little fuzzy at this distance.
Aim at the top dot. Expect your first shot to be as much below the dot as the center of your scope is above your gun barrel. If that's 7cm then that's how low the shot should go.
Then take another shot using the same aim point - this is to confirm the aim point as good as you can.


Keeping in mind where your first 2 shots went adjust the windage and elevation turrets .
At only 10 feet this will take a lot of clicks.
Your objective is to get your shots in line with the lower target dot. Keep shooting and adjusting until you get there.


Now it's time to get serious. Move the target out to 10 metres (33 or so feet)
Take more shots and see where they land.
In this example they went off to the right a bit too much so adjust the windage (left and right) dial and few clicks - not so many are needed at this longer distance. Experiment.


One you're aligned correctly at the horizontal level at 10 metres it's time to get the vertical zero sorted out.
Your shot pattern should look like this now (see point 4)
At longer distance your shots will rise but stay in line side to side.



Now move the target out to 20-30 metres and shoot 5 shots.
If you know what your standard - average shooting range is then set your target at that range.
They should all be pretty close on the top dot now.
Make any small tweaks to bring them closer to the dot and you're about done.

You now know that at less than this range your shots will fall lower than the aim point so you can mentally adjust your aim to compensate.
Also, at about 5 metres further away the pellet will again fall lower than the aim point, so you can adjust again.
It's trial and error basically but with testing you'll get to where you need to be and be able to trust that your shots will go where it says they will! This may take some time and a lot of shots. Be patient!


P.S. To the Contributors, Thank You, for the Work you did, and the help you provide.

Slob, the vertical crosshair is definitely adjusted by the windage dial (left and right). You are thinking it's for elevation in that you use it while aiming for elevation (the mildots) which is true, but what effects its position is the windage adjustment, which is the point I was making. I think you missed the point of my post somewhat, it's not about zeroing in your scope, it's about making your shots hit, so if your vertical crosshair is dead centre (not to the left or right at all, i.e. not adjusted for windage at all) you will be better off using the twisting method instead of adjusting for windage after every shot.

Adjusting the elevation, therefore, while playing, is perfectly legitimate when you want to hit longer distance targets, because you can simply move it up and down to zero it for various ranges.

Agreed,

But, your Vertical Cross Hair is the Cross hair that is made for making Adjustments in Elevation,
by moving the Windage Cross hair either up or down at its intersection, vica versa, corrections in Windage ( if you are going to use it ) are made by adjusting the Elevation Cross Hair either Left or Right at the intersection.

Some how I think we are both saying the same thing, but using different terms to describe it

Thank Don't use the Lord's name in vain., we don´t use MOA ( Minutes of Angle ) in AirSoft !!!

The `` Zeroing´´ explanation was only included to assist, not to take away from your Post,
Like I said Before, Nice Post, Good explanation.

Right lol. I think we are confusing each other a bit!

Jim

Guess I still don't understand what he's trying to say about windage. Seems like it's backwards to me...but then again, he's from England so that explains a lot.

As for elevation, I will continue to disagree. Sure real snipers adjust their scopes, but we're not real snipers. Real snipers have ballistics tables and data sheets specific to their own gear and maps of the terrain they're on, all to aid them with lining up the shot. We don't have all that.

`` BINGO !!!!´´

but some of the basic skills can still be applied and used in Airsoft,
Could you imagine setting up, Scanning, Reference point ( Day/Night ) information, Range-ing, Wind, Weather Data gathering, Humidity estimation then doing a range card. Game could be over by the time you got done

slob212 wrote:

`` BINGO !!!!´´

but some of the basic skills can still be applied and used in Airsoft,
Could you imagine setting up, Scanning, Reference point ( Day/Night ) information, Range-ing, Wind, Weather Data gathering, Humidity estimation then doing a range card. Game could be over by the time you got done

^Only to find that your hop-up got bumped on the way to the hide and your shot was 2ft short . I personally don't have mills so I have marked the elevation dial at two points(100ft and 200ft).

sticks

Ya in the military they need all of that because they are shooting up to a mile away but in airsoft the aerage length for a sniper shot is about 150ft. This may be wrong but Really just set your scope to 100 ft. and adjust when needed.

Quote :

Guess I still don't understand what he's trying to say about windage. Seems like it's backwards to me

Actually it is backasswards, to make adjustments for elevation, you have to adjust the Windage reticle Crosshair( UP/DOWN ), to make adjustments for Windage you have to Adjust the Elevation reticle ( Left/ Right ), and in AirSoft we have the added element of the Hop-Up, which is really nothing more than an adjustment in trajectory ( the Rise and Fall of the BB ).

Because of our limited ranges, TJ was just saying that it is easier to use Kentucky Windage, based on the Hop-Up of your gun, it may be easier and faster to twist the gun into, or with the wind, than to go making Scope adjustments for windage corrections.

slob212 wrote:

Could you imagine setting up, Scanning, Reference point ( Day/Night ) information, Range-ing, Wind, Weather Data gathering, Humidity estimation then doing a range card. Game could be over by the time you got done

I actually know someone who does stuff like that. He has detailed maps of some of the fields he's played on and has a "little black book" that has some pretty incredible info in it. Then again, he's a former Marine Scout Sniper, so he enjoys all of that crap. There's a joule/range formula in there and all kinds of stuff. I dunno, he's tried to show me how to apply all of that, but it's all to scientific for my tastes. But, I've seen him make some pretty amazing shots, so maybe there's something to all of it.

@Vader,

Quote :

he's a former Marine Scout Sniper

And I willing to bet that, he does most of the work in his head. There is alot more to applying the things he learned, than just reading about how it is done, and then attempting to make it work in Airsoft.

They don´t spend day after day, on the range, shooting 600 rounds at various ranges, for no reason.

True. Good points.

Yeah, he does a lot of that math in his head, almost on instinct really. I'm sure this is all a lot less complicated than ballistic tables. And I admit, math has never been my strong point.

for zerosing you scope I high;y suggest a bore sight.
it's pretty much a laser sight you put in you barrel and then line up the laser mark on your crosshairs deadcenter

Yeah but sometimes they are even unaccurate . Plus they are hard to find to fit an airsoft gun .

agree with some parts and disagree with others but overall good post. I understand what you mean by twist the gun and the hop up will help you but if you twist is say at a 45 degree angle your hopup should make the bb go too high. Maybe i'm incorrect because i've never done that before but in my mind it wouldn't make sense.