Modern military tactics and realism

I'm not, nor have I ever been, a sniper. But counter-sniper fire is usually a very short-lived engagement, given that one shooter is set up on the other, has him in his sights, and it only take a few ounces of trigger pressure to send one of them to heaven.

Going from my own operational background, in an engagement, the only thing that went through my mind was orienting the aircraft, maintaining spacing if in a formation, and servicing the target.

In daylight, it's more stressful than at night, simply because you can see so much more than you can under night vision device conditions--even the movement of your copilot's head registers through your peripheral vision, and it becomes just another input that your mind has to filter out.

Don't know if this is the kind of accuracy you're going for, and sorry I can't give you more specific info in the context you were seeking...

I, too, was never a combat sniper. However, I was and am a competition distance shooter who in the past has trained military marksmen and selected candidates for sniper schools.

Non-fiction (with some hilarious fictional elements) and novels which feature protracted sniper duels are nearly as prolific as orgasmic vampires.

Two recurring clichés coming readily to mind both occur in William Craig’s Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Both are widely copied, even though physically impossible.

1. The fancy: When sniping at an angle from a great distance, the shooter must hold low when shooting down (because gravity helps the bullet) and hold high when shooting up (because gravity hinders the bullet).

The fact: In the real world, when shooting at extreme angles at distances of 400 meters and greater, the shooter must "hold low," that is factor in ballistic data that there will be less arc when shooting up or down than the normal arc when shooting over level terrain. This can be demonstrated to any shooter’s satisfaction using a flexible hand-held rod to simulate trajectory and gravity.

2. The fancy: After appropriate drama, one sniper will take out the other with a bullet entering the opponent’s front scope optics, exiting the rear optics, and nailing the defeated sniper through the eye.

The fact: Can’t happen unless the snipers are zeroed for and dueling at about a hundred feet.

At great distances, bullets travel in pronounced parabolic curves. Line-of-sight may on occasion be eye-to-eye, but when shooting at targets at any appreciable distance, snipers will have rifle barrels at elevated angles. Also the trajectory of a bullet is not a perfect arc like a rainbow. At the far end of the trajectory, downward bullet flight is much steeper than at the beginning. To hit the sniper’s eye, it will have to come at an angle missing the scope tube.

However, since you mentioned futuristic sniper duels, you can have them take place in deep space where line-of-sight and bullet flight can be identical, even at astronomical distances (sorry). Oh, the fun of recoil!

Or you can dispense with archaic cartridges and go to laser fire or guided bullets.