By: Brendan Smith, Westchester Rise Paintball Team
One of the most increasingly popular types of weapons in the game of paintball is the paintball sniper gun.  These fairly large guns come extremely close to mastering the look and feel of a real sniper rifle; their realism and performance being a huge contributing factor to their popularity.  Because of their terrific accuracy, these types of guns are among the scariest in the game of paintball!  If you are looking to intimidate your opponents, try a paintball sniper marker.

When scenario paintball started these types of guns were a big hit.  Sniper paintball guns added a whole new position to play as well as a myriad of fun strategies to use.  Now with their popularity at an all time high the choices in the category of sniper rifle paintball guns seems endless.

Most people think that all sniper paintball markers work the same, however this is not entirely true.  While all paintball guns are powered by CO2 or high pressure air tanks and can only handle a certain pressure, they all shoot with a similar amount of power.  However, some brand paintball guns can operate at higher velocities and can shoot a bit farther than others.

You can also get better distance and accuracy with any paintball marker by adding certain accessories.  A rifled barrel longer than 16 inches will make a huge difference in distance and accuracy with your shot.  To make things even more precise, add a sniper scope or red dot sight to better dial in your targets.  Also, consider upgrading to a high pressure air tank for more consistent air flow; this will immediately translate into a more consistently performing marker. 

No mater what brand of sniper rifle you buy, you will have to reach deep in your pockets for most of these guns.  The average price of a sniper rifle paintball gun is around $500.00, with the top, most realistic snipers going for more than $1000.  At first, this may seem steep, however the performance of these guns make whatever they ask for them worth it. 

When I wrote this article, I did not own one of these awesome weapons, however a friend of mine did.  One day we hit the field together and he brought his sniper rifle to play on an opposite team of me.  When we first walked out on to the field, I laughed at him because the gun was half as tall as he was!  But after the first five minutes of the game, I wasn’t laughing anymore when he was accurately sniping every one on my team out.  When I was the last one left, he confidently shot me right in the center of the mask.

He played like some of kind of pool shark that acted like he didn’t know much about pool, and then proceeded to skillfully pocket every ball on the table; one right after another.  After the game and a little kidding from my friend, I was excited when he let me borrow his sniper paintball marker for another game. 

I was delighted by it’s sheer power and amazing straight line accuracy.  At first, I was a bit nervous about using it as it was so different from the gun I was used to.  Needless to say, I was the only offender left standing on my team as I single-handedly eliminated all the enemy players.  I was shocked at how much difference a sniper paintball gun made; it made my game 10 times better than normal.