Does a third party have to see the kill?
On a related sniper question - Why are bolt action rifles typically more accurate?
If a third party sees the kill, isn’t the sniper in deep shit?
Well no, not if the observer is a friendly. For instance many snipers have spotters. Im just wondering what the official ruling for a confirmed kill is.
Third party? The second party probably doesn’t see anything!
“See the kill” is itself ambiguous. Someone might see a hit, but a hit is not a certainty of a kill. I believe this definition changes with the unit (or service) doing the counting. An absolute confirmation may involve physically examining the corpse, which would be difficult or impossible in many instances.
An analogy would be how different air forces confirmed aircraft kills in WWII. The most rigid rules were those of the American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, in China. A kill was not confirmed unless the planes wreckage was examined, on the ground, by friendly troups. Since the Tigers were mercenaries, paid bounties for their kills, this made offensive missions over enemy territory extremely unpopular. They simply didn’t pay. The Army Air Force struggled with defining a kill throughout the war, especially as many gunners in bombers would claim the same fighter as destroyed. As gun cameras became common in fighters, claims became easier to verify.
The Germans were reputedly notorious in “easy” verification. I can’t recall his name, but one German pilot was credited with shooting down 17 Allied planes in one day, over North Africa, IIRC. Post-war records comparisoned indicated that the Allies did not lose 17 planes on that day, in the entire theater.
I’m not sure how well this answers the OP.
I don’t see any reason why they’d be more accurate. I think snipers prefer them because, obviously, they only get one shot and prefer the simplicity and reliability of a bolt action.
Also, bolt actions are slightly more powerful. All of the energy is used to propel the bullet. None is diverted to work the rifle’s action (though this is probably not too significant).
Also, especially for nefarious snipers, bolt action rifles don’t fling their brass out for police to find and trace.
They are more accurate than automatic rifles, because there are fewer moving parts. A single shot rifle is more accurate still.
This was discussed here several months ago and consistency was the consensus answer. Being a simpler design, a bolt action rifle has less parts to get back into the same place on every shot and it’s easier to drive a sliding bolt home into the same position every time. These work to make the rifle have the same muzzle velocity and aim on every shot.
(caveat-I do not personally own a rifle, but that’s probably obvious from the butchered jargon in the above post.)
There are some semi autos out there that are starting to compete with bolt action rifles in the accuracy department, but for true long range work the bolt-action is still the choice, IMO. As cornflakes et al. pointed out, the BA has fewer parts, and can be made with tighter tolerances. In shooting, accuracy comes from uniformity and repeatability, so you want an action that will seat the bullet the same way, every time. Because of all the moving parts in the autos, the tollerances are looser.
Another issue is the bullet selection available. Most semi autos are going to be designed to handle only a certain over all cartridge length. With a bolt gun, you can seat longer bullets and still be ok. For example if you were using a .308 you might want to use a 180grain Sierra Match King or some such for high accuracy, but the design of this bullet might make it too long to cycle reliably through a semi-auto. (NOTE please do not tell me I am idiot for saying this because the Math King is only x long, and blah blah blah, it is only an example)
In addition, the bolt action can be, in general, bedded to the stock more securely, and this increases accuracy too. Many bench rest shooter use single shot bolt actions because then they don’t need to have a magazine. No magazine = no big hole in the receiver = stronger and less flexible = more accurate. Like I said though, there are some semi autos that can compete with bolt actions over short to medium ranges, like you might find in an urban setting.
I believe a superior officer must see it or have something to do with it. Not sure though.