http://armyreservemarksman.info/2012/12/14/shooting-skill-snipers-vs-competition-shooters/
Shooting Skill: Snipers vs. Competition Shooters
by John M. Buol Jr.
Project White Feather is a U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM)-sponsored effort to apply advanced sniper weapon fire control technology that will extend range and increase first round hit probability for special operations applications. As envisioned, the fire control will provide the shooter a real-time ballistically corrected aim point with input from a laser crosswind sensor, laser range finder, inertial sensors that measure weapon motion, as well as other
sensors.
The Weapons & Materials Research Directorate of the Army Research Laboratory published a white paper of these efforts called Sniper Weapon Fire Control Error Budget Analysis To establish a baseline, groups of snipers and competition shooters were tested. Weapon Pointing (aiming) Error, the ability of a shooter to hold his or her aim on target, was obviously a key test.
According to their tests, the standard deviation of aiming error for the best, formally-trained operational snipers was three times worse than tested High Power and Long Range competition shooters sufficiently skilled to compete successfully in national level match competition at Camp Perry and the like. In fact, the worst competition shooters tested were as good or better than the best snipers in basic holding and shooting fundamentals.
Sniper Weapon Fire Control Error Budget Analysis
Weapons & Materials Research Directorate, Army Research Laboratory
ARL-TR-2065
http://www.arl.army.mil/arlreports/1999/ARL-TR-2065.pdf
Table 4. Sniper’s Approximate Aiming Error
SIGMA (in mils) – Constant Across Range
Page 16
Quality of Shooter: Operational sniper Camp Perry competitor
< .300 Magnum
Best 0.30 0.10
Worst 0.80 0.30
>.300Magnum
Best 0.50 0.20
Worst 1.20 0.50
This should bring some interesting comments…lol
John the author was one of my fellow instructors at TF SARG. Probably one of the best combat pistol/rifle shooters in the unit during that period in time. It goes without saying that the competitive shooting communities are normally better shooters, mainly b/c it is what they do (have to be the best), but I think the article should have explained that the Snipers role is not just shooting and that there are several skill-sets involved outside of being able to hold a rifle steady and apply the proper fundamentals of marksmanship. It almost came off as a “look us high power shooters are better than you guys” which would not be completely uncommon from that community.
The advanced Sniper weapon fire control technology sounds very interesting however. I would like to know more about it, if anyone can share…