[dave3006]

I have a buddy that let me shoot his bolt action rifle. He had a 10x scope on it. We were aiming at targets 100-200 yards away. I was surprized at how difficult it was to find my target in the scope. It seemed like it took an eternity to scan around for it.

How do snipers in the real world ever find the bad guy or (even worse) deal with a moving target at closer range.

[Darkside852003]

They have firearms for close range use.

[R.H. Lee]

Try looking over the scope and lining up the scope with the target first before looking through the scope.

[DMK]

I find that it helps to aquire the target with your weak eye and align the scope onto it with your dominant eye. Once you have the target in the scope, then you can close the weak eye.

[Soap]

I always keep both eyes open even when shooting high magnification scopes. It makes it much easier to aquire the target. Also, if you're really lost, just peer over the scope and place the target right above it, duck down, and there it is.

[4v50 Gary]

A sniper may have a "range" card filled out that tells him the distance between him and various objects (white house, stone house, forked pine tree, white sign post). The spotter may call out 50 meters to the left of the forked pine tree and the sniper moves in.

One thing he shouldn't do is to wave the rifle around scanning for the target. Movement attracts the eye and if spotted first, it's bye bye. What RileyMc says makes sense. You look over the rifle, spot an identifiable object near the target, look through the scope and find the object then move to the target. This is done faster than it takes to write.

[Jim Watson]

Doggone, do you mean it comes down to knowhow and practice AGAIN?

[4v50 Gary]

Dang it Jim. You said it faster than I could describe it. :)

[Tomac]

That's why I have an IOR 2.5-10x42 Tactical on my Dragunov instead of a fixed 10x+. 2.5x for close-in and movers, 10x for the long shots.
Tomac

[Peter M. Eick]

I have two approaches. On my M1A's, I can usually see something and "snap" the rifle up and have the scope aiming at the object. I would guess it is just familarity with the rifles. On my 700's bolts, I crank the scopes back to low power (4.5 to 6.5) and then zoom in after I have it in sights.