Rifle shooting can be an artform, a religion, a job, or just an interesting hobby. I did it as a job for a while, got Army buck sergeant pay to show up at the range every day and become a more than passingly competent shooter. But before that, it was a hobby, and after that, it’s still a hobby.

I am fast nearing the end of my self-imposed summer shooting hiatus. It’s just too d*mned hot to go stand out in the sun to shoot recreationally on the Gulf Coast, in my opinion, so from June through September, I shoot very little. Cooler days are coming, though, and I’ll be at it again.

Now, on to the subject matter, the “sniper” rifle thing. Let’s get something straight. There are “snipers” and there are SNIPERS. In one sense of the term, any one who shoots from cover is a sniper, and therefore any rifle he uses is by default a sniper rifle. That’s pretty much the media take on it: some “insurgent” with an AK-47 leans out a window and cracks off a burst in the general direction of American troops, the news hears about it, it’s “sniper fire”, when a more accurate military term might be “harassing fire”. Of course, if I was the soldier in the general direction of said rifle fire, I’d call it sniper fire myself. You never know when one of those goat-molesters might get lucky. As the saying goes, I’m not concerned about the bullet with my name on it. It’s the ones addressed “To whom it may concern” that bother me.”

A step up from that is today’s military’s designated marksman. It’s a sad state that the general marksmanship capabilities have degraded to the point that one guy in the bunch has the designation that he’s supposed to be able to actually aim at a target and expect to hit it.

And then there’s the REAL sniper: Specially trained and equipped, this guy and his spotter are a team that uses stealth, fieldcraft and precision shooting capabilities to eliminate specific targets at long ranges.

As for what constitutes a REAL sniper rifle, our military has settled on a bolt-action rifle of robust design and caring assembly, but I want to make one thing clear: I see a lot of “sniper” and “tactical” rifles show up at the range, and along with them I see some very disappointing results. What gives? Having the right wrench doesn’t make you a mechanic.

Much more important than the absolute perfect rifle is a shooter who can take THE RIFLE HE HAS to the limits of its capability. Simply put, a man with a rifle which can hold two inches at a hundred yards is going to be absolutely deadly out to six hundred yards if he can shoot so well as to add only an additional half-inch of human error. Far more common is the guy who buys rifle and ammo which can hold an inch at a hundred yards but because of his lack of training and understanding, he adds an additional three to four inches of error.

Me, I’m NOT a sniper. I’m just an old Cajun who likes rifles. I have a few good ones. I have a scoped Armalite AR-10 which I have proven will do less than an inch group at a hundred yards with good FACTORY ammo, so when I lay myself down in a good prone position and go after a six-inch target at 200 yards, the only way a miss is made is if **I** don’t do my part. If I HAD to be a sniper, I would not feel too bad if this was the rifle I had to do it with, although many an “expert” sniper would sneer at this semi-auto rifle.

I’ve got a Springfield Armory M-1A (harking back to the M-14 I carried in Korea before the Army forced the M-16 on us) that will hold the 12-inch ten-ring of an NRA highpower rifle target at 600 yards. Of course, the best ten-shot score I’ve ever managed to get out of it is 92, because I am the weakest link in the man-rifle equation. A modified M-14 has been used as an “official” sniper rifle in the services before. And a good one will darned sure do the job. This one would, if (big if…) I decided to put a scope on it.

What I don’t have is the official-looking sniper or tactical rifle, bolt action, huge scope, synthetic stock, maybe a bipod. Just ain’t my thing, you know…

Final word. If your’e of a mind to emulate a sniper, learn how to shoot first, then talk about it… If you want to be taken seriously, don’t show up at the range wearing black BDU’s, a big black rifle with a scope sufficient for tracking asteroids, and a full set of tactical webgear, and the proceed to demonstrate your prowess by putting ten shots in a 6-inch circle at a hundred yards and circling three that are closer together and declaring them your “group”.