An Illustrated Manual of Sniper Skills

I purchased this book for two main reasons. First, I was building a library of publications on sniper craft and long range target engagement, and second, Mark Spicer is a well known instructor in the field. These reasons plus the relative low cost of it, made it sort of a "no brainer" for me. When I received it, I started paging though it and the first thing that crossed my mind was the obvious quality of the paper and the images in the book. This book is extremely well "illustrated" with color photographs. It seems as if every page has at least one image on it. If you are one of the folks who are attracted to imagery, you will probably like this book.As I got into the reading I realized that there was a lot of information present in the book. But equally visible was the absence of some things that were sort of expected. In retrospect, I guess we tend to be too "entitled". We expect everything to be perfect and when it is not, we have a sense of outrage toward the item and the process by which it came into our possession. Such was the case with this book... although I wasn't really "outraged". That is much too strong of a description for my concern. I just thought that a book defined as a "manual of sniper skills" would really have a lot of meat between the covers. And it does, to some extent. It is also conspicuous by what is NOT present. There is a lot of information here on situational awareness and how the sniper operates in different scenarios and conditions. Lots of information on camouflage in natural surroundings as well as urban environments. Lots of information on equipment capabilities and potential usage. There is even a bit of information on shot placement for anti-personnel as well as anti-material targets. Where the most susceptible points are for a sniper when engaging aircraft, missile launchers, artillery pieces, motorized vehicles, and yes, even ships. .... I guess that is all useful information for military snipers...( ???..) There is however precious little information here on wind solutions, ballistic solutions, technique or procedure. This is more about overall sniper process and what it takes to be effective rather than about the actual shooting technique. My guess is the author assumes that we know how to operate our equipment.... and I can't fault him for that.I did enjoy the book. It was an interesting read and gave some insight into military procedure and how a sniper could affect a battlefield environment. I liked the photographs even though some were poorly identified. Overall, I think it was very worthwhile especially considering the price. It is a welcome addition to my library.

There is some pretty ok information in this- lots of references to foriegn rifles, pictures of diverse special forces training together, and lots of vague and general targeting information. What I really wanted more of was nitty gritty technique. There is very little tactical info that a soldier with basic common sense wouldn't already know. There is some simplified distance calculations but that's about it.If you want some old photos of the author training with a bunch of other international forces then you could get this.

There are three mayor fields for every sniper all over the world to master that are marksmanship, fieldcraft and tactics;the last two ones were really exposed and debated in this manual wish I personally found very up to date information and even info that shouldn't be for every readers..,the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars it's because nothing is mention about marksmanship and long range shooting formulas and their compensation for elevation, windage ,temp,angles,humidity,reading the mirage doping for wind etc..... for the most common calibers.It's definitely oriented to teach the population of possible sniper terrorist threats, NOT a training manual,but a good reference manual for those with the experience or knowledge in the field .Overall I did enjoy it.

Now, I wasn't completely dissappointed with this book, the author seems really experienced and knowledgable, and it has plenty of good information concerning stalking, camouflage, hides, stealth techniques etc., but what good is that to a civilian? I'm not going on any covert sniper missions that I know of. I was expecting ALOT more on the shooting aspect, especially since my search was "long range shooting books", but I was fooled. All I'm saying is if you want to learn to shoot long range this book is the wrong one to buy, if you want to learn how to stalk and camouflage yourself from an enemy this is the book for you.

The Ultimate Sniper by Maj. John L. Plaster (Updated and expanded edition) like his first edition by the same name written years ago is the sniper/long range rifleman's bible. This book is an excellent reference obviously written by one of the practitioners of the stealthy sniping trade. This book touches on tactics and objectives susceptible to sniper engagement, with good practical advice and background information it just does not get into the "complete" picture and details like the Ultimate Sniper does. If you can only bring yourself to buy one or the other, then I would recommend Maj. Plasters works unquestionably. This book will be a valuable addition to the shooter that wishes to own a complete library on this subject.

Excellent. Like I expected.

Gift

good product. To much "I did this"

Mark Spicer had to tread a difficult line in writing the Illustrated Manual of Sniper Skills. He wanted to impart knowledge and yet did not want to educate those who might use the skills for the wrong purpose; it is impossible to do both. The result is that many topics which one might expect to see in a "manual" are missing and many things are not well or adequately explained; diagrams would have explained the various shooting positions much better than narrative. Some very basic information is missing, like how to hold a sniper rifle (notice the position of the non-trigger hand in the photo on page 167).The art of the sniper is not all about taking long range shots; camouflage, concealment, gathering intelligence are all essential elements which are well covered by Mr Spicer.Given the limitation which Mr Spicer sets himself (not to assist terrorists) and which he explains, I think he has done an excellent job of describing the role of the sniper in the modern world and the techniques necessary to be successful.An excellent book.

An excellent manual with a wide coverage of training and practice. The manual is well illustrated with useful photographs and diagrams.

Good book generally but not very technical.

Its a bit of a Noddy goes to Sniperland, but I guess that's what you'd expect from the title. Its not a ripping read as a result, but its factual and well written.

this was an excellent book to read for both interest & applied usage.The reader is lead throughout the techniques and applications in order to improve stalking and target acquisition skills