A Brief History of Snipers and their Rifles
Ever since my stint in the military I have always been interested in the art of sniping, if one can call it an art, and a few people have asked me to do a history on the development of sniper rifles.
so here’s my take on the subject.
Where did the term sniping come from?
The phrase “to snipe” originated in the 1770’s amongst soldiers in British India and referred to the shooting of snipe, a bird that was notoriously difficult to shoot because of it’s erratic flight and speed. They were considered to be a very challenging target for marksmen.
The first time the word sniper was used was in the 1820’s and in 1824 was used in conjunction with the word marksmen or sharpshooter.
The first recorded use of the word sharpshooter (with probable German origins) was used in British newspapers in 1801.
I know this sounds a bit confusing, but even today there is very little distinction between a marksman or sharpshooter and a sniper, some people consider the three words to mean the same thing.
So what is a Sniper?
In the definition below, which I got from Wikipedia, which has probably the best definition I could find, you will see how the word marksman and sniper are used to define the same thing.
“A sniper is a
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG Tag der Veröffentlichung: 26.04.2016 Alle Rechte vorbehaltenImpressum
ISBN: 978-3-7396-5086-9