Sniper Tricks & Tips - Scopes

I will try and post every now and then covering different topics and giving players some tricks of the trade for those topics.

Today I will be posting on the topic of scopes and addressing glare and the black hole.

A lot of players over look this small yet catastrophic item.

Glare is when a light source reflects of the lens creating a shimmer or flash of light.

The Black Hole is when you look at a scope from in front of the rifle. When viewing it from there you can't see through and it just looks like a black circle.

Your scope can be one of you biggest assets and at the same time your biggest enemy. If your scope isn’t properly concealed you might as well run around wearing bright orange screaming at the top of your lungs. A scope lens is made of (for the most part) glass which can very easily reflect sun light or any other light giving your almost perfect hide and location away.

Some simple cheap tricks can prevent this from happening.

1. Nylons

Nylons can be bought ant most any grocery store and come in a variety of different colors. When placing the Nylons on your scope you want to slide the front of the scope into the Nylons leg. Not all the way but enough that the first 2-3 inches of the scope is covered. Next you want to pull the extra nylon that is hanging off the front of the scope under the scope creating a tight & smooth cover over the lens of the scope. Then put a rubber band around the scope holding the nylons in place. Check to make sure the nylons are not so tight that they will rip easily or that they won’t stop light. Then after you adjust it to your liking cut the extra nylon off and save it for when you have/want to replace the cover.

2. Duct tape

*This is what you want the tape to look like. Note this can be done with the cover*

Duct tape really is the tool for everything! You want to buy subdued duct tape (Duct tape that isn't shiny). Also you want a color that will match the area you will be playing in. Then what you want to do is cut a piece of duct tape that fits over the front of your scope. Once you do that measure a rectangle shape on the duct tape that will reach almost across your whole scope. Leave about 1/2 Cm on either side (you can cut it closer if you want just don't go all the way to the scope). Also make sure the slit is no bigger than a cm high. Then place the duct tape cover on the scope so that the slit is horizontal. This will block out a lot of sun light and also make it easier on your eye.

3. Nest

A nest is a bunch of grass or vegetation that is put inside the scope to prevent the black hole effect and help a little with glare. This technique is more for the black hole rather than glare. To make a nest you would take surrounding vegetation and make it into a bird nest shape leaving a whole in the bottom and top. Then you would place the nest inside the lip on the front of the scope. Make sure you change this nest when switching terrains.

4. Drape(viel)

A drape is any material used to go over the snipers head and scope. I'm sure some people have seen this in movies before where the "sniper" has some type of cloth over their head and it falls onto the gun. This is a drape. There are different names for it and different people call it different things such as a shooters cloak, sniper hood etc. To successfully use this to prevent glare it needs to fall in front of the scope or reach out past the front of the scope to prevent light from reaching the lens. If you use a cloth to do this job you might want to camouflage it and make sure the color is broken up. When you place the cloth over you can fasten a stick to the side of the scope. This will allow for the cloth to reach past the front of the scope. The cloth should only reach past the scope around 4 inches or so. Use this in combination with vegetation to cover the shadow area under the hood/cloth. For example have some vegetation drape in front of the scope. If you have a ghillie suit you can use the hood or hat to reach out over the scope and drape in front of the scope. This will not stop you from viewing through your scope. If you don’t believe me look through your scope and put your finger in front of it. You can still see, you can also see the slight coloring of your finger but it doesn't block your view. You are doing the same thing with the Ghillie only it is thinner than your finger for the most part. Make sure you don’t completely black the scope with the ghillie or it will be like placing your hand over the front of the scope, now you can't see. If you have a material that allows you to look through it with the scope it can just be draped over the scope and your head and it will get the job done.

5. Person Prop

*This is an example of what I am taking about only standing*

This requires two people and ghillie suits. This can also allow the spotter and sniper to be more in tune to where each other are looking creating flow and good efficient communication. In sniping you can use your partner to fire from like a platform. There are many different ways to do this but for this post we will focus on a back to front situation. How this is set up is; the spotter is prone in front of the sniper, the sniper will be slightly to one side of the spotter using the spotter to prop the gun up. When you prop the gun you use your partner’s ghillie to cover the scope. This works almost like a drape.

A closing tip is to try and avoid setting up a hide where the sun is in front of you (This will be discussed in a future post in detail). But depending on the situation or how long you might be in that spot these tips might be the difference from being caught or completing a successful mission. 

Happy Hunting