I would like to share my thoughts and experience with sniping in ARMA.
First of all I would like to say that being sniper is not about getting the most kills. That should not be your goal. Your job is to scout the enemy and take targets of opportunity. The more you fire, the more your enemy may home in on your position. For this reason you should focus on the primary targets of 12.7 gunners, snipers and AT soldiers. These are the ones that can do the most damage at range to the approaching assault team. Save the others for later. Again, you are trying to keep your presence hidden for as long as possible. In real life you would make a shot and relocate in most situations. That is not always going to be possible in game. Your assault team will be depending on you to be in position.
Ideally you will position yourself at 500 or more meters to better conceal your position and sound from the enemy. Many times however you will have to be closer than 300 meters. In these cases you should be extra careful about making only the needed shots else the enemy will home in on you much quicker. At greater ranges your shots will take longer to hit your target. The M24 takes approximately 1.5 seconds to hit at 600 meters and about 2.5 seconds at 1000 meters. Take this in account when your target is moving. In a perfect world your targets will stand still, open their shirt and show you a bull’s eye.
I feel it is important that the sniper or sniper team be in position well before the assault team arrives on local. This way they can spot patrols and combatants and keep an eye on their positions.
The sniper team should be positioned away from each other, perhaps at ninety degrees around the target. This way they have varied fields of vision and fire. If two snipers must be on the same hill they should be on opposite sides or far enough apart that one grenade will kill both.
The M107 is a fantastic weapon but it is louder than a dinosaur fart. (I know this because we still have dinosaurs here in Texas. It was the only place large enough). This loudness gives much more opportunity for your enemy to home in on you at close ranges. The M107 is best used only at very long range for this reason. If you are going on a mission where you know you will be at close range, take the M24 instead. If you are going to be at 500 or less meters the MK12 is a nice weapon. At ranges greater than that its accuracy is unpredictable. Thus the M24 is a better choice if you are shooting a long and short range but the MK12’s high capacity and high rate of fire is invaluable for close encounters.
Below I have included screen shots detailing M24 sight picture at various ranges. The illustrations will show you how large a man will appear in the reticule at certain ranges. You can use this to determine how far the target is at what range. For instance, at 600 meters the enemy will be 3.5 pips tall in the reticule. To the right of that you will see that placing the reticule approximately 2.75 pips down will give you a chest shot.
I hope these are some aid in your righteous diplomacy.
Notice the image on the right shows a white dot. Just like the red dot there is not white dot on your reticule but is included here to give you a sense of distance on the bar.
The illustrations at 1200 and greater range show a red bar(s) in the image. The bar represents the length of half of the vertical reticule.
Yeah. You can make shots at 1600 meters. That is a mile for those non-metric people(1609 meters). A shot made at a mile places the target about an inch from the bottom of the screen.
For setting these up I placed everything on the large airport on the map, i.e. from Evolution. I was four hundred meters east off of the runway on a hilltop. To get 1600 meters the last guy is off of the far side of the runway and is actually slightly down hill.
I also made some videos of me taking each shot but I am trying to figure out where to host them. I used Fraps and turned the settings down and even though they are only about 15 seconds each they are 60 megs each.
Draven
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing - Burke"