Sniper Rifle project

[chjoak]

I have been dreaming up a project for a Sniper rifle and I would like to use a Mag as the base. My primary question is can a Mag be adjusted or modified to be whisper quite like a DM4? If so what can you do?

[personman]

Mags arent all that loud. Sometimes the bolt can make a little tink when you shoot but thats usually only if the barrel is small bored.
As for making it quieter? Get a barrel with alot of porting, like a smart parts all american or something.

[tae]

Sometimes the bolt can make a little tink when you shoot but thats usually only if the barrel is small bored.

Please pardon the intrusion of the post. Im just curious as to why that happens? The tinking that is.

[Jaan]

I have an old DYE Aluminum barrel on my 'Mag and she's very quiet. I believe the barrel has a lot to do with it. I used to shoot black shell paint out of it too, and it was hard for some people to tell where the balls were coming from. Not many store carry black shell paint anymore since eyes sometimes don't work good with black shells, but I think you can still get some paint like that.

Quiet barrel, black shell paint. That's my $.02

[personman]

Please pardon the intrusion of the post. Im just curious as to why that happens? The tinking that is.

Well Im not sure what the exact conditions are that cause the tinking, but I know it used to happen when I had a twistlock stainless steel barrel.
It could have been the fact that the bolt actually goes inside the barrel on a twistlock, and when the bolt hits the barrel its makes a tink, or maybe the barrel was unusally small so it made the tink when that happened, or maybe because it was stainless steel it was more audible. I dont know if mags still tink with cocker barrels or not... I havent really listened for one.

[tae]

Thanks there Person.

Dang. I want to see how this will come out Chjoak. :)

[Arstron]

Im not sure if this is of any help, but I have a xvalved spydermag with ule body and tear drop barrel and a classic mag (soon to be pump) with a ule body. This past weekend I used the same exact barrel on both guns, you could hardly hear the xvalved electro, the classic mag valve was a little louder. I am not sure if it was the fact that the sear was being operated by a solenoid or if the xvalve its self made it quieter. I will try a mech trigger on the gun when I get a chance and see how it compares.

[spsantos]

I don't want to turn down your expectations on this, but to be honest, sniping in paintball isn't possible as per comparison with real world. I say this because you always have the 300fps limit, even if you manage to get a "silent" shoot (already mentioned here) what makes the difference in real world is the accuracy and range of a sniper gun and in paintball this isn't possible, there's no "sniper gun".

So, if this is what you mean when you mentioned the DM4, you can get your mag to shoot as silent as the dm4, like using an ULE body and a barrel like Dye Ultralite or Titanium, but that's as far as you can go, to further improve the range and accuracy you'd need more FPS and really good paintballs. There's not much room to work with in this area of paintball UNFORTUNATELY

[chjoak]

I understand the range limitations of paintball. I have been playing for 8 years. I am asking for advise because I am new to Mags.

I am not looking for more range. I am looking for stealth. Check out this link. It will give you some insight as to what I am interested in doing.

[spsantos]

I understand the range limitations of paintball. I have been playing for 8 years. I am asking for advise because I am new to Mags.

I am not looking for more range. I am looking for stealth. Check out this link. It will give you some insight as to what I am interested in doing.

I understand now

What I can add is that firstly get your gun to be as silent as possible, and from my experience (15 years now) the best option on a MAG so far is to get a centerfeed and at least a 14" barrel. then practice your accuracy, some after-market parts like those sights mentioned on special ops can really help, just adjust them out at about 40-60 meters.

The rest is tactics, these will depend on your team, and how you play, but a properly positioned sniper, firing when your teammates are also firing(making it harder to pinpoint), can wreck havok in the opposite team .

[scrumpy]

Watch the movie "Enemy at the Gates", this should answer all of your questions about sniping through example. For instance - don't shoot until a shell explodes as to mask your bolt cycling noise assuming you have a sniper silent barrel. Don't forget to dress like a bush - infact if you can simply fasten the bush to your torso and still be comfortable that would give you the best results. Also make sure to stay on the field after the game is done and wait for the next one - no one will be expecting this so you can easily go "vigalante" and pick off whomever you don't like.

[AKBAR]

If you want super accuracy and long-range, the tippmann just came out with a barrel that is doling out some pretty awesome results. It's the APEX barrel system...go to pbreview.com and look it up under APEX. I don't know how quiet it is though, but the range and accuracy is hard to beat these days. Far surpasses the flatline.

[craltal]

Stiffi or CCM carbon fiber barrels. REALLY quiet. The ref didn't even know I had fired my gun and he was 15 feet away from me.

[tae]

I love the hopper on that Spec Ops longbow. Thats the stuff I want to see more of.

Chjoak, what type set up do you have so far?

[automikey]

Sometimes I think some of these people just like to regurgitate things they've read. Want some advice from practical experience?

The eyes see motion first. At paintball playing distances of 100-200 feet, you can usually get well into range using stealth. A ghillie will weigh you down and be cumbersome. You want to be light and fast in addtion to stealthy. If you want to sit in the same place all day, maybe a ghillie would help, but with some experience I bet you will leave it at home.

Don't move when people are looking at you. Look at their goggles. When you can see they are looking the other way, move to the next closer tree. You get the idea.

I've used my Phantom to take out many Angels, Ions, etc., since they can't hear me shooting at them when they are shooting "20+" bps. You can't hear anything when shooting like that. If you are fast and daring, you can barrel tag these guys. But if you think electro owners get mad when you take them out with a pump, try the barrel tag...

I use a CCM barrel kit on a Tac-One, since you will want to match the paint/barrel for consistency. I think carbon fiber vibrates less than metal (think tuning fork) so you get less sound.

You are not going to shoot many paintballs, so get a 40-round hopper.

You want HPA for consistency (what you really mean when you say "accuracy"), but co2 will work fine if you shoot 1 shot at a time since the co2 has time to reach ambient temperature. Get a 3.5 oz co2 or a 13/3000 or 22/3000 HPA tank.

Stay away from any barrel that puts a spin on the ball (apex, flatline) as these tend to veer off target at long distances. You don't want surprises, you want to be able to predict where the ball will land.

I don't use a sight because I like to aim myself, not just shoot at the red dot. They're not as useful at paintball playing distances. Too much like playing a video game.

So, Tac-One, CCM barrel kit, 40 round hopper, 13/3000 HPA tank. Very light and fast, and enough firepower to (hopefully) get yourself to safety if you screw up and they're after you.

I've recently switched to a Phantom VSC with 10-round tube and frantom (freak) barrel for sniping days. Overall lighter and faster but you don't have the semi-auto option if you get pinned.

I'll post again if I think of more.