The guide for an airsoft sniper

[Billy210]

Crows are the worst. Damn things have a sixth sense.

[Senor Bear]

Not only that, they chase off everything else worth shooting

[Insanejoe]

Crows are the worst. Damn things have a sixth sense.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Magpies are like that, but I can't shoot those anymore being illegal. Had a teacher tell me he was hunting them once(in a state and time when you could) and whenever he raised his rifle to shoot them the damn thing would duck its body behind whatever it was near. Animals are pretty smart.

[The Bushman]

Many people underestimate animals and they can be cunning quarry. If you want to practice your skills, then get out and photograph some birds or animals.

 

Even better, simply hunt each other....

 

Sorry my film quality is lower than normal but I was immersed in the hunt and filmed as an afterthought .

 

Good Hunting

[GUILLIE]

Animals have survival skills a plenty, just like ourselves.

 

One difference would seem how much they have a born instinct and how much they learn. An experienced animal, say a Lion, can recognise a dangerous human by seeing they have a gun, and have learned what that signifies. An unexperienced one may sense danger, but not understand it. Birds can also learn, but even simple ones seem to have an excellent 6th sense, again when not really seeming to understand the danger they are in.

 

It appears that us humans have gone down the learned route, perhaps more than any other animal in history. Perhaps our biggest advantage?

 

Whats the relevance to an airsoft guide? As many have already said here, you can't beat learned experience.

 

And there are so many ways to gather it. As Bushman and many others point out, animal filming and hunting is just one way to gain more experience. In addition, its a great activity in itself.

 

In time, through practice, not only do you learn new skills and hone the ones you already have, you can start to feel that basic animal 6th sense that tells you when to move and when to stay still. When you start to listen to this and it works, you know your skills are on the right track. I am still searching for this again, since my injury time took me away from the sport.

 

Also, while I'm here among an interesting debate about the use of airsoft guns/tools and how they should be used I may as well come out and say something some people may not perhaps like...

 

Its a shame so many people with airsoft equipment seem to want to emulate the military.

 

This is a shame on many levels, from the silly glorification of war to the mis-representation of modern military method and personnel.

 

However, the biggest shame to me, is that they seem to be missing a huge opportunity to develop a new hunting sport, that is both kind to the environment and provides perhaps the biggest non lethal hunting challenge man has ever faced, to hunt a similar predator and so also become the hunted. And all this without having to kill endangered and amazing creatures, or each other, for that matter!

 

We have pretty much out competed everything on the planet. There is no more ethical big game hunting left, from what i can see. And we are given the technology to experience the big hunting vibe, I say lets use it and not get confused with plastic action men!

 

there, said it now

[Senor Bear]

Animals have survival skills a plenty, just like ourselves. 

 

An experienced animal, say a Lion, can recognise a dangerous human by seeing they have a gun, and have learned what that signifies. An unexperienced one may sense danger, but not understand it.

 

It appears that us humans have gone down the learned route, perhaps more than any other animal in history. Perhaps our biggest advantage?

 

Whats the relevance to an airsoft guide? As many have already said here, you can't beat learned experience.

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

As for any non human animals, lions would not "understand" danger per se, rather they associate the human shape with noise and panic. This is known psychologically as classical conditioning, which is learning through association.

 

Humans understand danger because we think (I think therefore I am). We understand danger in the sense that we know about it, think about it and plan ahead, even when danger is not present. We take measures so we are ready when danger occurs.

 

Of course our best advantage is that we learn, without this our skills would be limited to instinct, without being able to learn, weapons would not be developed, tools would not be created

[GUILLIE]

Interesting comment Senor Bear. Good old Pavlov's dog!

 

I'm an amateur Zoologist and an even more amateur Behavioral psycologist! Been a long time since I studied it!

 

However, I'm not completely in agreement with you I'm afraid.

 

The classical conditioning work I am aware off is non-conclusive and is hotly debated (last time I looked anyways!).

 

I must also admit to liking Bruce Fogles outlook and like the Japanese "Koykan" approach to understanding animal behaviour. As Fogle (1990) explained, animal behaviourists in the west have adhered to a non-judgmental approach, keeping wholly objective and not interpreting what an animal is thinking or perceiving.

 

Fogle believed in a mix of objective and subjective, and as said, I like this approach. He also believed that advanced animals have a greater capacity to "think" than we often give credit for. I must agree with him here also. I do believe animals have a much greater capacity to perceive and understand their environment than we give credit for. I think one of the main barriers is the lack of a common language. However, as great people, such as Monty Roberts, have helped unlock their languages, our understanding of their thoughts and emotions will only become plainer, if not still very confusing! Also feel that Christian doctrine, a key element in our my culture and so my learned behaviour, teaches us we are above animals in some way, and this I also feel is wrong and colours our understanding of them.

 

When I thought of the Lion, I was thinking Ray Mears hunting with a tribe in the african bush. He explained that he was carrying a bow for protection. However, he said that he would be unlikely to hit a large cat with it, if attacked. He more hoped it would recognise it as an offensive weapon, and would avoid him instead of attack. To me that is anecdotal evidence of one hunter recognizing the danger of another through what they are carrying. I would argue, if this is true, that the Lion, or similar big cat, recognises that a long stick type object is dangerous in the hands of man, and so will avoid them. In other word, there is a type of understanding here and so not just an example of classical conditioning affecting behaviour. Also large predators are certainly able to learn behaviour, which could be seen a a sign of culture and therefore not just instinct and conditioning. Its all very complex and certainly controversial. (as a rider, I think genetic memory plays a part too, but I'm really out of my depth here!).

 

But I often just see us as a large omnivorous ape who is/was evolving into a more predatory role and found complex language and thought expression along the way. Thus our urge to hunt, and so my love of hunteering!

 

Wow, now we are getting into the nitty-gritty of airsoft sniper skills!

 

Of course our best advantage is that we learn, without this our skills would be limited to instinct, without being able to learn, weapons would not be developed, tools would not be created

 

Interesting statement M8. Totally agree on many levels. However, I was suggesting in a way that we need to re-learn our instinct and that our dependency on learning and left brain style thinking can in fact hold us back as hunters.

 

The 6th sense of a hunter is, IMO, their most important skill. Its the ability to act without conscious thought that can save our tag and gain that of others. Sure planning etc is very important, and is learning skills, but you can't beat good instinct when the hunt is on!

 

I guess also we needed to develop weapons and tools in order to expand and survive. A risky long term strategy, but one that is seemingly paying off at the moment. To me a lion just has no need of such things, as they already have all they need in tooth, claw and hide! I guess we are unique in this tool use and so its advantage humans at the mo. But it seems it may well be this that kills us and many others in the end.

 

Happy Hunting all!

[Senor Bear]

If only more posters on this forum could post such intelligent replies.

[Flea]

ill be done with my ghillie soon..it was built for an example to this thread..

I dont plan on going into much emphasis as there is a thread for that, but Ill skim over some of the important parts. Should be done tomorrow.

[Flea]

Alright, finished it last night at 11..total of 6.5 hours of construction..seperated into two days. Built off a pair of Medium Regular MARPAT(desert) with coyote brown RhinoSkin Canvas(new product from Quantico Tactical Arms)

you can see that the canvas is a nice accurate shade of coyote brown..none of that knockoff bs. This is a very handy piece of material and will slide you right over those crunchy leaves and high branches/walls

 

 

 

Like I said earlier, sue shadows to your advantage..this isnt the place my ghillie was built for, but in comparison youll see a great different to camoflauge. It probably doesnt help that for this photoshoot I didnt veg my ghillie up.

 

shade

no shade

 

in the no shade picture im actually crawling up a wall that is about 2.5ft high, like I said, all crawling is VERY smooth..half the time im crawling around in this stuff im having fun..its like being on a slip&slide(with water of course)

 

I used almost 6 plys of natural jute, which was extremely long from quantico tactical arms..and is very light as well but it is not the systhetic ###### that is coming out these days, that stuff is not nearly as natural as this jute from quantico.

 

This ghillie is "stock" right now...meaning in my terms, none of the jute is cut to mold more comfortably and there isnt any other forms of camoflauge attached besides jute. I like to attach a little bit of camo netting and cut them making the leaf appaearance.

[ghandi]

it looks pretty cool, i like the 4th pic