Ultimate Sniper

MotoHunter

New member
While doing some research on long distance shooting I came across this rather large expensive book and it looked like it contained a wealth of info about sniper techniques and was wondering if anyone here has it and what do you think of it? Beside hunting, I'm also into battle rifles and the .308 (7.62)The book was released in '93 but has been up-dated it says. Worth the $70 investment or should I pass on it?
 
I got the original version right after it came out. The areas on Mil Dots and ranging are excellent. Covering the range card and book was well done. I used a lot of his ideas in teaching M/O's for the Feds. I feel like he balanced it nicely.

I've looked over the new type and it looks like it has gone into a few other areas but I would not hesitate to buy it. I bought the new one at the NRA Show in in PHX a few years ago and Plaster was there and autographed it for him. A nice gentleman I might ad.

Greg
 
Any money spent to shorten a learning curve and or improve upon a goal is money well spent. Books are cheap and always available for reference once you own them.
 
There is so much info in that book that it's almost a must have just for reference. Much of what is covered is not really useful to 99% of the people that read it, but it's fun. That said, in it's day, 1993 it was really not just the best, but the only source of info regarding just about all of the purpose designed military sniper scopes made up until that time. It also had a good chapter on night vision but I am sure that is somewhat outdated but still useful as those state of the art scopes back then are what a lot of guys use for predators today.
He gave a very accurate and fair review of the scopes in the book that he covered. I thought he could have even been more blunt than he was...I personally found the Leatherwood ART II scope junk just for the lack of clicks on the turrets. I also found the Unertl 10X USMC scope {of which he didn't really have much to say} to be heavy, a pain to zero, a pain to focus and hard to keep from rusting. He does put Russian gear in its place.
I don't know about the updated version, but back then there was no such thing as MIL/MIL so it is not covered. He does talk a little about first and second focal planes, but not for the same reasons we do today.
All in all though it is very good solid info, much of which does not go out of date very easily.
 
I read it several years ago, but I have to be honest, I read too much of that stuff to remember what I've specifically picked up in one book versus another. It's sitting on the bookshelf above my reloading bench, maybe this is a good motivator to pull it back down and refresh on it.

I've done tons of reading on "snipers" and long range shooting - not because I'm some Hathcock wannabe, but because I have always been drawn to long range hunting and target shooting, which goes hand in hand with military sniping, and the evolution of snipers in our military history is really an interesting story in itself.

The problem, if there is one, with this type of book is that you'll find that unless you're a military sniper, or using their equipment, much of the information is specialized to their equipment, so it's not always accurate and/or applicable for what we might find ourselves shooting in the field. For example - I can't recall if this is in "Ultimate Sniper" or in one of the military sniper/sharpshooter/LLRP/Etc manuals, but there's a formula for wind drift - (range in 100yrds x wind speed in mph) / 15 = MOA windage. It's actually a decent rule of thumb if you're shooting a 308win, as it tends to be accurate enough to get "minute of enemy," but when you're running a 204 Ruger at 4000fps, or a 7mm mag at 3200fps with a higher BC bullet, OR a 30-30 with a much slower bullet, it really doesn't apply.

But just looking at my copy, I have document tabs sticking out all over the book as bookmarks, so apparently I found it interesting and valuable enough that I wanted to be able to go back and revisit certain references.
 
It does have adaptable information. The constant 15 factor thing is one I have taught for the 308. The 223 is a factor of 10 BTW. I don't recall if the US gave me that as it is in some literature that I used to teach my classes with.

It's not PD accurate but good enough for two leggers.

Greg
 
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