The Ethics and Methodology of Sniping after TEOTWAWKI, by P.A.

Introduction
Having served as a scout-sniper section leader in the United States Marine Corps’ Fifth Marine Regiment for two years from 2002-2004, I would like to share my thoughts regarding the application and role of sniping and long-range precision marksmanship (herein defined as shooting beyond 700 yards) in a TEOTWAWKI scenario.  Since the end of my enlistment I have had the opportunity to discuss emergency preparedness scenarios with the well-prepared, the well-grounded, and those that were neither.  Given my background the subject of sniping frequently comes up, and the sum of those conversations have led me to believe that there is a significant understanding gap between the popular idea and the reality of sniping and the ethical considerations that should, but usually do not, go along with that understanding.  After a discussion of the ethics of sniping, I’ll look at scenarios, provide an overview of marksmanship methodology, briefly examine sniping equipment and close with a few resources for further research.

No matter what you read on the internet, war and TEOTWAWKI are not the same thing.  War is inherently offensive, while surviving TEOTWAWKI should be inherently defensive.  Preparation is your best defense against becoming the dangerous parasite that poses the greatest threat to recovery after TEOTWAWKI.  If you have been caught materially unprepared, you should at least have worked to develop some knowledge or skills that will allow you to be a contributing member of a more prepared community, thus helping to ensure your survival without posing an undue burden on what functioning society is left.  As this pertains to sniping, we must consider the appropriate uses and consequences of strategically defensive sniping.

Sniping, at its core, is ideally the art of killing an enemy from a concealed position at a distance where they cannot effectively threaten you.  You are blind siding someone; it is the antithesis of a fair fight.  While conflict is about survival, all of us understand that the ends do not always justify the means.  For example, we can all agree that non-combatants should never be targeted or exploited, even if there is a potential gain to be had.  In a typical firefight the enemy poses an immediate threat to your life and the moral justification of killing that enemy is one that falls even within the established norms of a civilian society.  However, taking on the posture and therefore the mantle of a sniper removes both the immediate threat to your life and the clearer justifications that can be found in other forms of self-defense.

Each individual in our sniper platoon had to wrestle with this issue and come to their own decisions.  Our best snipers, and those who dealt most effectively with the psychological aftermath of war, were those who gave this and other considerations due and thorough  thought before they came into the platoon, during their training, and over the course of our deployed combat operations.  They approached their job professionally and rationally.  They were patient, grounded, smart, professional and lastly competitive.  These are the qualities of a sniper.  I am 5’8”, 150 pounds, when I was a sniper I wore glasses, and have always been a bit of a bookworm.  Being a sniper is not an image, and certainly not the image you see on television, it is a combination of skill and talent directed by determination and focus.  I am a Christian, and have always sought to understand my actions’ consequences to my relationship with God.  Ultimately He is the one we must answer to, and I do not believe that He would be pleased with my casually taking a human life.

With the immediacy of a firefight unavailable, a sniper in TEOTWAWKI must wrestle with the problem of threat identification.  At ,1000 yards through an eight power scope the gross details of a man are barely discernable – especially if there’s mirage.  Given that every other person carrying a firearm is not necessarily an enemy during TEOTWAWKI, it follows that it will be nearly impossible to determine whether or not an unknown person at long range is a threat.  Even assuming you observe them with a high-power spotting scope, the actions of a person at those ranges, particularly if they are unaware of your presence, are unlikely to reveal their morality or motivations.  If you can’t determine whether or not they’re a threat, and you haven’t been able to communicate that further approach will be regarded as hostile, you shouldn’t be killing them.  So, unless the person approaching is part of an armed war band that’s been burning and pillaging their way towards you (a la the situation depicted in the novel One Second After), you will never know if you’re killing a threat or a potential ally when you send that bullet humming downrange.

As I see it, sniping could justifiably be employed in a few circumstances after TEOTWAWKI.  The following four scenarios are not all-inclusive.  Careful consideration of your situation and the likely threats that you will face will help you to refine these ideas or add others.

1. If you have a primary avenue of approach to your residence you could post notices along that approach.  Those notices should delineate measures that individuals can take if they want to approach without drawing fire.  Laying aside arms, getting out of vehicles, approaching in small groups during the day, etc. are reasonable precautions to demand from unknown persons.  This kind of “checkpoint oversight” is a reasonable circumstance for the employment of a high-caliber weapon capable of disabling a vehicle.  A sniper in a distant and concealed position could observe and cover by fire such a “checkpoint” without unduly compromising their safety.

2. If an individual or group makes a deliberately covert approach, then their motives are questionable.  They may pose a threat, or they may be trying to determine if you pose a threat.  Such a group, once spotted, may be engaged with a warning shot.  Their reaction will dictate whether or not further engagement is necessary

3. If someone in your group has been kidnapped or if a group with demonstrated hostile intentions has been located (i.e., the war band mentioned above), then offensive actions may be appropriate and a sniper can be used to eliminate leaders, sentries, lights, or other high-value targets before an assault or rescue.

4. Planned meetings with groups whose motivations are questionable could be covered by a sniper.  In such circumstances the sniper’s hide should be selected and occupied well in advance of the meeting.

Terrain Limitations
Sniping (the field application of long-range marksmanship) is only effective in terrain which provides long-range fields of view.  Grab a map, Google Earth, or get up and go look around; are there 700+ yard fields of fire around where you are/plan to be?  In many parts of the US, there are not, and the capabilities of a sniper rifle and the time spent learning how to use those capabilities are going to be wasted for want of a clear, long-range shot.  Mountains, deserts, and relatively treeless areas are most likely to provide this kind of terrain.  On a related note, do you have a 700+ yard range to train regularly?  Precision marksmanship is a perishable skill, and while taking a basic course will improve your marksmanship, you will not rise to the consistent level of skill required unless you have the room to train regularly.  So, before investing in the equipment and training necessary to become a sniper, ask yourself if you’ll ever have the space to put that gear and training to use.

While not many areas present the space appropriate for long-range marksmanship, I would argue that there is a much more probable place for equipment and training in the “designated marksman” (to use a military phrase) range of about 400-700 yards.  These ranges require a good firearm/scope/ammunition system, and descent training, but nothing as specialized as the 700+ yard “sniper ranges.”  400-700 yards is beyond the effective range of run-of-the-mill shooters equipped with small arms, and thus provides you with a meaningful ballistic advantage.  As a moral advantage, your ability to distinguish friend from foe is significantly better at these shorter ranges.  A semi-automatic .308, such as an AR-10 or M1A would be my weapon of choice for this duty. (I’ll have more about equipment later.)

Terms to Know

Ballistic advantage: the positive difference in maximum effective range between your gun and your enemy’s
Caliber: the diameter of a bullet (in the limited sense of the projectile as opposed to the entire cartridge, though the term bullet is often used to refer to a cartridge) as a portion of an inch; a .50 caliber bullet is ½ inch in diameter
Cartridge: the assembled primer, case, powder, and bullet; often called “round”, and often mistakenly called a “bullet”
Foot-Pound: a unit of measure for force, used to describe the energy a bullet possess at a given range
Grain: a unit of measure for small weights; used to weigh bullets and powder
Hand Loading: making ammunition yourself from its constituent parts
Match Grade: ammunition made to very tight tolerances suitable for precision shooting
Maximum Effective Range: the furthest range that a weapon system can capably engage a target, not the absolute distance a bullet can travel
Mil: the distance between the center of one mil-dot and the next
Mil-Dots: the circles or ovals superimposed over the crosshairs in a mil-dot scope; used to determine range to a target
Minute of Angle: MOA is the angular unit of measure equal to 1” per 100 yards, so 1 MOA at 500 yards is 5”; used as a measure of accuracy or shot adjustment in precision shooting; a precision rifle should hold at least a 1 MOA group with match-grade ammunition
Mirage: The effect generated by heated air rising off the earth; easily seen over a road on a hot day
Sniper ammunition: used to refer specifically to match-grade military ammunition issued to snipers
TEOTWAWKI: The End Of The World As We Know It

Marksmanship
Long-range shooting requires brilliance in the basics of marksmanship. A sniper rifle and match grade ammo do not a sniper make!  Professional instruction by a qualified teacher is imperative to mastering long-range shooting.  Front Site is one of several shooting schools across the country that offer precision shooting courses to civilians.  Beyond the basics, precision shooting requires an understanding of ballistics, wind, and the application of shooting formulae.  Wind and range estimation and adjustment are the most critical skills that a long range marksman can possess. And while these skills cannot be learned without hands-on training and practice a few things are important to know before you begin the trigger-pulling aspect of your training

Range estimation can be achieved through a wide variety of technical aids (mil-dots in a scope, a range finder, maps, etc.), but wind estimation is another matter.  While a wind gauge can tell you what the wind speed at your position is, it will not tell you what the wind is doing 800 yards downrange.  For those of you in hilly or mountainous country, the convoluted terrain can give you nightmares as you try to determine an adjustment for a shot involving multiple different winds.

Training in wind estimation is a relatively straightforward matter.  Keep a wind gauge and a copy of the Beaufort wind scale (see below) with you during your day-to-day outdoor activities.  When there’s a wind, use the Beaufort scale to estimate what the wind velocity is, then use the gauge to verify or correct your estimate.  Along with the environmental signs, learn how wind feels at certain speeds.  With training, you will be able to feel the difference between a 12 and a 14 mph wind on your cheek, useful if you live in a desert where there’s not much vegetation to indicate the wind’s speed.  As you are doing this watch your environment several hundred yards out.  Are the signs there the same as where you’re standing?  Is the wind blowing in the same direction at the same speed?  If not, what appears to be affecting it?  By observing, questioning, and practicing you will become adept at reading and understanding the wind.

Range estimation is most easily done with a laser range finder, but that does have limitations.  Range finders don’t work well in foggy or rainy weather conditions.  Range finders designed to work at 700+ yards are expensive; beware inexpensive range finders designed for golfers.  Range finders’ greatest limitation is the fact that they require batteries.  If you have a range finder, enjoy it and use it to verify your other range estimation methods.  The most applicable range-estimation technique for precision shooters is using mil-dots inside your rifle or spotting scope to determine range.   In this a mil-dot equipped scope the mil-dots are the feint dots that run along the thin crosshairs. 

To determine range with a mil-dot scope, an object of known size must be measured in mils, broken down by tenths.  A mil is the distance from the center of one mil-dot to the center of the next.  Thus, the brown cardboard in the picture to the left is approximately 5.8 mils tall and 5.6 mils wide.  That size is computed in a formula (see below) and the range in yards or meters can be determined.

It is worth noting that with an 8 power scope this method becomes increasingly difficult to use past 700 yards due to the apparent size of the target with respect to the mil-dots and human error.  A more powerful scope and/or lots of practice can help compensate.

These skills are not easily acquired, and must be learned in the field.  Becoming a proficient long-range marksman requires an outlay of time and money which will only tangentially carry over into improving your tactical shooting abilities.  In short, don’t train to be a sniper and assume that your room-clearing skills will improve right alongside.

Shooting Formulae
Precision shooting requires math; sorry folks!  Calculating range to target, windage compensation, adjustments for a moving target, and compensation for other more obscure variables is accomplished through shooting formulae.

To use these formulae you need some basic ballistic data for the ammunition that you are shooting, which should be available from the manufacturer.  Needless to say, doing these calculations is time-consuming, especially if zombies ate your last calculator.  So, it is most efficient to perform these calculations ahead of time and compile them in ballistic charts which you can use for quick reference.  Many such charts can be found online, saving you considerable time.  While deployed in combat operations I kept a windage-adjustment chart taped to my sleeve for easy reference.

When referencing raw ballistic data or pre-compiled charts, be sure to take into consideration the circumstances under which the data was compiled.  For example, a military ballistic chart for the standard-issue M118 sniper round was compiled using a 24” barrel Remington 700 military sniper rifle (the M24 or M40).  If you happen to be shooting an M118 round out of a rifle with a 20” barrel your bullet’s muzzle velocity will be slower and subsequent performance with not match exactly with the published ballistic data.  This information may be available directly from the manufacturer if you cannot find it online.

Range-determination Formula
Ryds = (Hyds*1000)/Hmil
Ryds = (Hin*27.77)/Hmil
Rm = (Hin*25.4)/Hmil

Wind-adjustment Formula
WMOA = ((RYDS/100)*VMPH)/RC
Wmil = (((RYDS/100)*VMPH)/RC)/3.438

Moving Target Compensation
Ldft = ToFsec*SpoTfps
Ldmil = ((Ldft*12)-6)/((Ryds/100)*3.438)

Variable Key
R = range
W = windage
Ld = lead
H = height of target
in = (in) inches
yds = (in) yards
m = (in) meters
RC = range constant
V = velocity
ToF = time of flight
SpoT = speed of target

Equipment
While much ink has been spilled over the comparable merits of various firearms, scopes, and calibers, there are a few things that most can agree on.  One is that you cannot skimp on equipment used for precision marksmanship; buy expensive, quality equipment.  Match-grade ammunition is what you want for precision shooting work.  Try out different brands and different loads for your gun as some guns respond better to certain loads.  Experienced shooters may want to consider hand-loading their ammunition; many champion competition shooters do.  A purpose-designed rifle needs to hold a 1 minute-of-angle group (1” per 100 yards range to target) out of the box; some excellent rifles are guaranteed to hold .5 or even .25 MOA, though you’d have to be a better shooter than I am to take advantage of such quality!  Scopes and the rings that hold the scope on the rifle are just as important as the rifle itself.  While I highly recommend learning to shoot on iron sights, a scope is a necessity for precision shooting.  Given our discussion of mil-dots earlier you’ll already have deduced that you don’t want to consider a scope without them (or some other equivalent integrated range-finding aid).

A few accessories that you’ll want to seriously consider: A cheek-rest if your rifle doesn’t come with an integrated variable one.  Being underfunded Marines, we made ours out of green duct tape, closed cell foam and moleskin, but some very nice ones are on the market.  Bipods are very useful and a worthwhile addition.  If you don’t have one you’ll want some kind of brace for the front of the rifle.  We used more closed cell foam taped into a pair of parallel braces on our rucksacks or butt packs.  Also a good sand-sock is used for propping up the butt of the rifle by the non-trigger hand while shooting.  This eliminates another source of vibration that comes from contact with that hand.  I made mine from a one pound bag of peas wrapped in a pair of socks.  It’s functional and survival-riffic!

Caliber
I would recommend two rounds as top contenders for an anti-personnel precision shooting system: the .308 (7.62x51mm for you military types) and the .300 Winchester Magnum.  Smaller calibers, such as the .243 or .223 may have extremely high muzzle velocities, but their bullets lack the mass to counter the drift caused by wind and are thus inappropriate for long-range shooting.  On the other end of the spectrum, there are only a few descent contenders in the magnum round field; the .338 Lapua Magnum, .408 Chey Tac and the .50 BMG are the most widely accepted.  Major Plaster in the book The Ultimate Sniper analyzes five other magnum rounds against the .300 and discusses the deficiencies to be found in all of them.  The .338 Lapua Mag, .408 and .50 were not included on this list (though I believe they are discussed in his newer edition), and are large enough, expensive enough, and specialized enough that they are not truly suitable for a side-by-side comparison with the .308 or the .300 Win Mag. 

.308 vs. .300 Winchester Magnum
Off-the-shelf match-grade .308 ammunition is widely available, Match-grade .300 Winchester Magnum is also available, but in somewhat less variety.  Both rounds have quite a few excellent firearms which will chamber them.  They have a relatively flat trajectory, the ability to counter the effects of wind, and retain energy at long range (which translates into “stopping power”).  On this last point, a military M-118 173 grain .308 sniper round has 545 foot-pounds of energy at 1,000 yards, while a 200 grain Federal Premium .300 Win. Mag has 995 foot-pounds of energy at the same range.  Compare these to a 230 grain Speer .45 ACP pistol round, which at the muzzle has 404 foot-pounds of energy.  In other words a long range rifle bullet has more power when it hits its target a 1000 yards away than a standard pistol round at point blank range.

The .308 is the standard US military sniper round and can engage targets at 1000 yards.  However, Major J. Plaster makes a strong case in favor of the .300 Win. Mag in his book, citing superior energy at range and superior ability to counter the effects of wind.  The .300 Winchester Magnum pushes the maximum effective range of a good shooter out past 1.000 yards, but the ammunition is pricier, barrel life shorter, and the kick nastier than with a .308. 

Two primary choices present themselves when it comes to precision rifles: bolt action or semi-automatic.  While it is easier to make a bolt-action rifle more accurate than a semi-auto, there are quite a few tack-driving semi-auto sniper rifles on the market.  However, the semi-auto will cost more.  The choice here comes down to the rifle’s purpose.  A semi-auto can be used more effectively at closer ranges where volume of fire becomes more important, but using your $2,000 sniper rifle as a general battle rifle may not be a wildly effective use of resources.  It’s a decision you have to make based upon projected use and funds.

Closing thoughts and caveats
I believe that it is critical to keep morality in mind as we consider preparations for a possible TEOTWAWKI.  In the end, it is about more than simply surviving, it is about surviving and remaining the people we want to be.  When we pull ourselves back up by the bootstraps will you be able to look your grandchildren in the eye and recount what you did to survive?  When your Day comes, will you be able to do the same to God?

On a more technical note, there is a world of information on precision marksmanship and firearms/ammunition that I only alluded to or glossed over.  If you are considering pursuing this as a hobby, sport, or survival tool, then seek out quality information and qualified instruction – it will make for a shorter, easier, cheaper, and more enjoyable road.

Resources:
The Ultimate Sniper by Major John Plaster, 2006, ISBN 1581604947
Front Sight’s 4-Day Civilian Precision Shooting Course.
Sniper Central: a sniping-oriented site with very polite forums; there is a great deal of very excellent information about ballistics on this site if you look for it
Sniper’s Hide: another site/forum for snipers and precision shooters
Long Range Shooter: another good site for long-range shooting

JWR Adds: I also highly recommend Darryl Holland’s long range shooting school. His classes will be taught this year in Powers, Oregon and College Station, Texas.