# Do sniper guns ever have those lasers planted on them? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-sniper-guns-ever-have-those-lasers-planted-on-them/313040 "2005-07-18T20:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-sniper-guns-ever-have-those-lasers-planted-on-them/313040/41 "2005-07-20T17:55:28Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > 1. I’ve seen how bulky a sniper and his spotter are. How do they get away afterwards if “cover” consists of, oh, high grass? Are they banking on the search area being 360 degrees and being small dots moving 300 meters off? More or less. Those are the skills that separate a military sniper from someone who can just shoot a rifle well. That’s among the many reasons bulky guys like me aren’t snipers. 😛 > [@](#): > > 1. I’m not a shooter. How do you hit the target if you are concentrating on the front sight? That might be some confusion with a diffecurent meanings of the word focus. The shooter cannot visually focus so the rear sight, front sight and target are all seen sharply at once. Focusing on the front sight is by far the most accurate but of course the shooter should always concenltrate on the target to clearaly identify it. With handguns the rear sight and target won’t be that badly out of focus. With a rifle using peep sights like an M16 the rear sight is so close to the shooter’s eye it appears as a blurry, indistinct “ghost ring” but this type of sight can be extremely precise even though it doesn’t seem right to a non shooter. > [@](#): > > 1. Completely off topic, why is shooting “gangsta style” less accurate? The sights on a handgun take into account how the gun moves in recoil against the shooter’s hand and this won’t work the same when holding sideways. I’ve never tried it so I honestly can’t say though if you could get a consistent group that could be compensated for by adjusting the sights. I have shot a handgun upside (hand right side up with pinkie in the trigger guard) down after seeing a demonstration by a coach and it actually works better than I expected. ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_Schmeese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Marconi\_Schmeese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_Schmeese)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-sniper-guns-ever-have-those-lasers-planted-on-them/313040/42 "2005-07-20T18:42:34Z")
I would love a laser sight on my Glock 40 (my inside gun), but alas my understanding is that they are illegal in my state. So I have nightsights on it instead. Last thing I want is the police asking me more questions if I have to kill an intruder. :rolleyes: I’m female, by the way. I also own Soviet night vision goggles and a specific shotgun is on my Christmas list. You’d never believe it if you saw me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![QuizCustodet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ba0ec/32.png) [@QuizCustodet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuizCustodet)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-sniper-guns-ever-have-those-lasers-planted-on-them/313040/43 "2005-07-20T18:59:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Quoth **Bear\_Nenno** :Incorrect. A red-dot reticle, a laser targetter, a sighting scope, and a pair of iron sights would all have exactly the same issues with regards to parallax and bullet drop, and all of them can only be correct at a single distance. Any sort of visual targetting method will target along a straight line not directly aligned with the barrel, and the bullet will always follow a curved path which matches that straight line at only one point. Slight nit-pick - sights intended to be used at distance are almost universally aligned so that the weapon’s barrel is angled upwards. The bullet thus traces the top of a parabola, and provided the line of the sight is not tangential to that path, if it intersects at all it will intersect twice: once as the bullet is travelling upwards and once as it is travelling down. This is typically used to advantage by the military: for the 5.56 round fired through the SA80 using iron sights or the SUSAT (4x scope), a bullet that is on target at 25 meters will also be on target at some multiple of 100 meters. (I think it’s 100 meters, but without doing the math 200 or 300 is equally plausible.) Thus you can have a group of six guys zeroing their weapons on a 25 meter range while the previous group does the actual shooting on an x-hundred meter range. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-sniper-guns-ever-have-those-lasers-planted-on-them/313040/44 "2005-07-20T20:09:58Z")
**Marconi & Schmeese** , I wasn’t aware that any state banned laser sights. Where do you live? …not that I plan on calling on you in the middle of the night. No way am I doing that. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-sniper-guns-ever-have-those-lasers-planted-on-them/313040/45 "2005-07-20T20:25:18Z")
> [@Padeye](#): > > Focusing on the front sight is by far the most accurate… With BB guns I’m fairly accurate focusing on the target while monitoring the haze that is the sights. I wear bifocals and could probably use trifocals so if I can see the target the rear sight is hopeless and the front sight is in that nether world where it cannot be focused on with either lens. > [@](#): > > The sights on a handgun take into account how the gun moves in recoil against the shooter’s hand and this won’t work the same when holding sideways. Oh, I see, you are AIMING. Dontcha know that when you shoot gangsta style it doesn’t matter what you hit? 😃 From a review of a [Chinese-built Broomhandle Mauser:](http://www.iar-arms.com/mausereview1.htm) > [@](#): > > Recognizing the Mauser’s weak and strong points, the Chinese developed the following technique for using the C-96 and later the 712. They would hold it sideways (what we would today refer to as “Gangbanger style”), with the index finger lying on the magazine well pointing at the target, and pull the trigger with the middle finger. In doing so they found that they could throw the weapon up very quickly and be instinctively pointing it at the target. There were also two side benefits from shooting the pistol in this manner. As the Mauser ejects straight up, fired cases can fall back into the weapon and jam it, or fall on the operator’s head and distract him. These problems were eliminated. There was one additional side benefit when the selective fire weapons came into service. They found they could master the pistol fired on full auto to produce a deadly horizontal traversing fire instead of its simply climbing uncontrollably. Having fired a Mauser 712 on full auto, I can attest that the muzzle climbs very fast! They are adamant that their method allows the 7 12 to be used quite effectively regardless of traditional Western thinking. They felt this method was particularly effective for room clearing during house to house fighting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-sniper-guns-ever-have-those-lasers-planted-on-them/313040.md?page=2)