American Airguns Blog
Friday, March 23, 2007
MiniSniping Revisited
I have enjoyed shooting my Walther LGR in the backyard. It is amazingly accurate at 25 yards and it made me start thinking about the lost game of minisniping. I searched the web and found the old article by Peter Capstick from the October 1984 issue of Guns & Ammo. I had read the article somewhere years ago and I think there may have been another article about minisniping in US Airguns back in the '90s. It was fun to read the article again. The game as it was played back in the olden days was really a game of reading the environmental conditions. Since the targets were placed at a know distance, reading the wind and the width of the 9mm targets were the key to the game.
After reading it I looked at the figures that Mr. Capstick sited in the article for the proportional size of a 9mm casing. He uses the average height of a sniper from the top of the head to the belt line and compares that to the height of the 9mm casing. However, the proportion of a 9mm casing isn't the same as a typical human torso and the comparable 9mm torso would be a very slender sniper.
I searched on the web for typical human torso dimensions and found that the standard IPSC silhouette target is 17.75" wide and 29.9" high. So I used those dimensions and recalculated the comparable distance for a 9mm casing at 35 yards for the width of 17.75" and found that and it is roughly 1634 yards. At 35 yards, the height of the 9mm casing is equivalent to a 35" torso.
I thought 1634 yards was a rather odd distance to be shooting so I decided to calculate some more common distances and for a few other cartridge sizes. Here is what I found:
.22 Rimfire for a torso width of 17.75" the corresponding torso height is 47"
a .22 Rimfire at 13 yards is like 1000 yards
a .22 Rimfire at 19 yards is like 1500 yards
a .22 Rimfire at 22 yards is like 1760 yards or 1 mile
25 yards is like 1970 yards or 1.12 miles
9mm for a torso width of 17.75" the corresponding torso height is 35"
a 9mm at 21 yards is like 1000 yards
a 9mm at 32 yards is like 1500 yards
a 9mm at 38 yards is like 1760 yards or 1 mile
40 yards is like 1870 yards or 1.06 miles
45ACP for a torso width of 17.75" the corresponding torso height is 33"
a 45ACP at 27 yards is like 1000 yards
a 45ACP at 41 yards is like 1500 yards
a 45ACP at 48 yards is like 1760 yards or 1 mile
50 yards is like 1850 yards or 1.05 miles
I found that the .45 casing is proportionally closer the typical torso and shooting it at 50 yards is like shooting at a silhouette at over a mile. Using a low power match rifle at 50 yards would be quite a challenge! I am going to give it a try and get back to shooting those 9mm snipers again.
After reading it I looked at the figures that Mr. Capstick sited in the article for the proportional size of a 9mm casing. He uses the average height of a sniper from the top of the head to the belt line and compares that to the height of the 9mm casing. However, the proportion of a 9mm casing isn't the same as a typical human torso and the comparable 9mm torso would be a very slender sniper.
I searched on the web for typical human torso dimensions and found that the standard IPSC silhouette target is 17.75" wide and 29.9" high. So I used those dimensions and recalculated the comparable distance for a 9mm casing at 35 yards for the width of 17.75" and found that and it is roughly 1634 yards. At 35 yards, the height of the 9mm casing is equivalent to a 35" torso.
I thought 1634 yards was a rather odd distance to be shooting so I decided to calculate some more common distances and for a few other cartridge sizes. Here is what I found:
.22 Rimfire for a torso width of 17.75" the corresponding torso height is 47"
a .22 Rimfire at 13 yards is like 1000 yards
a .22 Rimfire at 19 yards is like 1500 yards
a .22 Rimfire at 22 yards is like 1760 yards or 1 mile
25 yards is like 1970 yards or 1.12 miles
9mm for a torso width of 17.75" the corresponding torso height is 35"
a 9mm at 21 yards is like 1000 yards
a 9mm at 32 yards is like 1500 yards
a 9mm at 38 yards is like 1760 yards or 1 mile
40 yards is like 1870 yards or 1.06 miles
45ACP for a torso width of 17.75" the corresponding torso height is 33"
a 45ACP at 27 yards is like 1000 yards
a 45ACP at 41 yards is like 1500 yards
a 45ACP at 48 yards is like 1760 yards or 1 mile
50 yards is like 1850 yards or 1.05 miles
I found that the .45 casing is proportionally closer the typical torso and shooting it at 50 yards is like shooting at a silhouette at over a mile. Using a low power match rifle at 50 yards would be quite a challenge! I am going to give it a try and get back to shooting those 9mm snipers again.
