What are the issue guns for a US Army Sniper?

[LiveLife]

Check out this US Army Marksmanship Unit training lessons (covers rifle, shotgun, pistol, action pistol - scroll to the bottom of link):

http://www.shootingusa.com/PRO_TIPS/USAMU/usamu.html

 

[C-grunt]

Go in as an Infantryman 11B and then train and tell your sergeants you want to go. Its not easy to get into as there are only so many slots and a big Army to choose from.

I tried SO SO hard to get in and got screwed over by an FNG. We finally got a slot comming up and I was being seriously considered by my company leadership for the slot. Then we got a new private in who was a PT stud. They chose to send him instead of me and the kid showed up to the first day of school without his orders. So the slot went unfilled from our unit. After that we didnt get anymore slots until after I was injured and got out.

 

[possum]

shooting is only a small part of being a Sniper. The reuglar Army has snipers, the sof guys do too.

our bn has the 24 and several m110's.

 

[Snakum]

Serve your country ... first and foremost. Let the rest take care of itself.



Oh, and ...

They now use M24s, M119s, and even M21s (Google it)
Don't go to a recruiter without taking a vet along
Sign up as 11X and they'll put you where you're needed
19D is a kick azz MOS, too. Consider it
Kick azz and stay motivated and out of trouble
Army uses meters
Try to get an SDM slot first (Google it) and be very good at it when you do
Stay out of the mechanized infantry at all costs, it blows
Don't get killed. That totally sucks, too
Be proud you served, whether you cooked potatoes or killed hajis with a fountain pen
I've been out for many years, don't listen to me (except on the getting killed thing)

 

[as37692]

Get in and if all possible go to the SDM Course (course code MTC-006). I did it in February last year, and it’s a hard two weeks of shooting. From 06:00 to 17:00 we shot, we had lunch on the run; well in the pits pulling targets for the guys down rang shooting. God knows at the end of the two weeks, I did not want to fire a shot for a month, but I learned a lot of great information that I did not know. And I had been shooting in CMP type matches since I was 16.
A nice thing about the SDM Course is that any Combat Arms MOS can go. I went as a 21B, and then picked up the 11B MOS at school about a month later. And now I’m sad to say I work full time for the Guard as a 42A. It’s a crazy world.
The big thing our instructors (Who also teach the Sniper School at Camp Robinson, AR) told us was that if you are thinking of doing the Sniper school, know two things.
One you will fire more rounds in a week at the SDM Course then you will fire in a full month at the Sniper School.
Two the Sniper school is all about being a PT stud, and being good at Field Craft. If you don’t have though things down, well good luck then, you’re most likely not going to make it.

 

[essayons21]

They now use M24s, M119s!!!, and even M21s

So where exactly do you mount a scope on a M119?

 

[Float Pilot]

Unfortunately many slots go to PT studs, some of whom could not spell their own name. I saw that all the way from Boot Camp, to AIT, up to (years later) OCS and beyond. (in 3 branches) Particularly the runners. If you could run fast and long, you were the darling of the big cheeses...
Although they were often the first guys to complain about their ruck, helmet, vest and boots being too heavy when we really went someplace interesting.

I was in a LRS-Det (11B-P) for awhile and we sent a couple guys off to sniper school every couple years. Before that I was a tread head 19D. I don't think we ever sent a troop off to sniper school in the 3 years I was Cav. We mostly did the F.O. type stuff.

A buddy with whom I grew up, joined the Marines in 82 after he finished 4 years of college. They promised him OCS, which of course never happened and he became a college degree Lance Corporal scout sniper pretty fast. Something he did not really want to do.. After his 4 years in the Marines he jumped out of there and came over to the Army side as a 19D. They sent him off to OCS after 6 months and now he is a 52 year old reservist infantry Major on active duty orders again.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

Remington doesn't make the R700 VS anymore do they?

 

[Abel]

No snipers are not Special Forces. Snipers, as designated by the US Army, are simply soldiers who are graduates of sniper school. SF soldiers have a whole different school and they get to wear a cool little green beret when they graduate the Q Course. Any infantry/cav. scout unit can send soldiers to sniper school. The battalion commander has to sign off on it. It could be a leg unit, a paratrooper unit, Ranger Bat., or a SF Group. Doesn't matter. But you are only SF qualified if you have completed SF training. And you are only a sniper if you have completed sniper school. Two different things...in the Army at least.

 

[Snakum]

So where exactly do you mount a scope on a M119?

On the long round thingee?

(I fat-fingered the '0' it's M110)

 

[essayons21]

LOL ya i figured, but I couldn't let it go without ribbing ya

 

[gunsandreligion]

shooting is the easiest part.

wrong.
You are shooting at your fellow human 1 1/2 miles away most of the time while they are just doing something normal. (of course it could be hostage rescue, but then you also have pretty much qaulified for olympic shooting if you are given that job.)Of course if you can sit in a old building killing humans a couple miles away and its fine with you thats alright. but I personally could never really do that and know quite a few others who had the opportunity and could do it either.

 

[X-Rap]

I'd say that they are shooting closer to 800 and under in Iraq and maxing out at 1.5. They are indeed doing what is normal and that is planing and executing plans that are meant to kill Americans and their allies. I have been accused of being Jingoistic on this site and that fine. Some of us still remember what this is about or have dogs still in this fight. Every shot the sniper makes can save an American or friendly soldier from death or injury by IED or other insurgent action. Glad to have men out there who when they shoot at the enemy can say the biggest thing they feel is recoil.

 

[C-grunt]

wrong.
You are shooting at your fellow human 1 1/2 miles away most of the time while they are just doing something normal. (of course it could be hostage rescue, but then you also have pretty much qaulified for olympic shooting if you are given that job.)Of course if you can sit in a old building killing humans a couple miles away and its fine with you thats alright. but I personally could never really do that and know quite a few others who had the opportunity and could do it either.

When you go to a scene where the insurgents set off a car bomb at a girls grammar school and the only thing that indicates how many were killed is the blood splatters on a wall........ it gets a WHOLE lot easier.

Snakum... what you got against the mech units? Those 25mms lay down some serious hurtin.