AIRSOFT SNIPER

An airsoft sniper rifle is a highly realistic replica of a real sniper rifle.  Airsoft sniper rifles are designed to shoot further and with greater accuracy than airsoft rifles or pistols, allowing the shooter to stay behind the front lines and take out opponents from a distance.  Sniper rifles are available as bolt action airsoft sniper rifles or semi-auto sniper rifles.  We carry many of the best airsoft sniper rifles inculding Tokyo Marui VSR-10, Amoeba Striker, Silverback Airsoft sniper, Novritsch sniper rifles, PSG-1 Airsoft snipers, and the Barrett 50 Cal Airsoft gun.

An airsoft sniper is a very realistic replica that mimics the look and functionality of a real sniper rifle.  Designed for recreational purposes, airsoft snipers generally shoot more accurately and longer range than regular airsoft pistols and rifles.  Airsoft rifles are designed for long range engagement and their long barrels make them suited for high power upgrades to achieve effective ranges of up to 100 meters (330 feet) or beyond.

There are 3 main types of airsoft sniper rifles which we will explain below.

‧ Spring Airsoft Sniper Rifles
The most popular category of airsoft snipers are powered by spring.  These rifles require that you manually cock the rifle before each shot.  Most are bolt action sniper rifles where you rotate and pull back a cocking lever to compress an internal spring.  The spring is held in a compressed position by a trigger sear, and once you pull the trigger, the spring is released and used to compress air in a piston that generates power to shoot the BB out of the gun.

Spring sniper rifles have the benefit of working consistently under all weather conditions and are less susceptible to temperate changes, unlike gas sniper rifles.  The simplicity of a spring sniper rifle’s design and the fewer moving parts means that they can be very accurate and generally require very little maintainance.

The downside of a spring sniper rifle is you need to cock it for each shot.  On high power spring airsoft sniper rifles, the cocking motion can also be very stiff and require that the shooter is strong enough to pull back the cocking lever.

‧ Gas Airsoft Sniper Rifles
Gas sniper rifles are powered by pressurized airsoft gas that is charged into a gas reservoir inside the gun, usually in the magazine or some part of the stock.  The benefits of gas sniper rifles is that they are much easier and quicker to cock.  Gas sniper rifles can also be upgraded to very high power levels compared to spring snipers.  The downside of gas sniper rifles is they are sensitive to low temperatures and may not operate too well in very cold weather.

‧ Electric Airsoft Sniper Rifles
Electric sniper rifles are powered by a battery and motor that can compress a spring mechanically.  This means that you simply have to pull the trigger without needing to manually cock the gun.

The best airsoft sniper rifle for you will ultimately depend on your budget and your skill level.  Airsoft sniper rifles are available in a range of prices, starting at below USD 200 for entry level rifles that have decent performance but cannot really be considered precision long range shooters.  Sniper rifles in this price range would require upgrading to get them to become much more superior than regular rifles.  Tokyo Marui VSR-10 sniper rifles are the best ones to start at a reasonable price, and you can upgrade them over time as you have the budget.  The ARES Amoeba Striker sniper rifles offer a lot of hardware for the price and shoot with decent performance, but offer less upgrade potential as the Tokyo Marui VSR-10.

If you can spend a little more and afford something in the USD 300 range, you should consider the Silverback TAC41P, the Novritsch SSG10 A1 airsoft sniper, or the SSG24 airsoft sniper.  Both of these offer far superior performance than the sniper rifles that cost below USD 200 and they truly reflect the performance of a sniper as compared to regular airsoft rifles.  Or consider the ARES Remington MS338 rifles which look fantastic.  Push into the USD 400 range and get the beefy Modify MOD24 with fantastic performance.  Modify is the OEM manufacturer for some of Novritsch’s own sniper rifles, and Modify Airsoft took that knowledge and infused it into their own MOD 24 sniper rifle.

As you move into the USD 500 - 600 range, you have access to some of the top-of-the-line airsoft snipers from Sliverback in their SRS Airsoft sniper rifles, Novritsch, and Archwick.

If you are on a very tight budget like less than USD 100, we recommend you do not get tempted to get an airsoft sniper rifle on the cheap because the performance will be very poor and you will not really be able to snipe at all.  Cheap airsoft sniper rifles may look like a sniper rifle but be completely lacking in performance.  In that case, you will be better off buying an entry level gas pistol instead to truly enjoy airsoft.  The Tokyo Marui MK23 is a frequent choice of people who want to snipe, despite it being a pistol. But its superior range and consistent hop-up makes it perform like a sniper.  If you really want a sniper rifle, then at the minimum, go for an ARES AMOEBA Striker or a Tokyo Marui VSR-10 mentioned above.

How accurate airsoft sniper rifles are depends on the brand and also model.  For an affordable price, nobody beats Tokyo Marui’s VSR-10 sniper rifles when it comes to nailing targets consistently in tight groupings.  If you want something more precision at long distances, then consider the Silverback sniper rifles, Novritsch sniper rifles, Modify Sniper rifles that we have mentioned above.  These are really the big three when it comes to high performance airsoft sniper rifles.  Accuracy also depends on the quality of the BBs you use in the sniper rifle.  The most accurate ones tend to be bolt action airsoft sniper rifles.  Electric powered semi-auto sniper rifles have a bit too much vibration that he affect accuracy.  Read our article : A guide to Accuracy and Range.

The best airsoft sniper rifle title falls on the big three brands, starting with Tokyo Marui VSR-10 as the best affordable airsoft sniper rifle, Silverback SRS A2 as the best overall in terms of build quality and performance, and the Novritsch SSG10 A1 as the most popular thanks to being seen in Youtube videos more than any other rifle.  Modify MOD24 gets an honorable mention because they incorporate most of the technology from Novritsch rifles.

If you do not know what an airsoft hop-up is, read our article on What Is An Airsoft Hop-Up And Why You Need It.  Hop-up is extremely important for airsoft sniper rifles to shoot far and straight.  

The hop-up adjustment lever or dial is located in a different location on every sniper rifle. Some require more work and only provide a hex nut, which you can only adjust using a hex key or wrench.  Adjusting hop-up takes a lot of patience and you need to find a large area where you can shoot the maximum distance of your airsoft sniper rifle.  If you are doing this outdoors, then make sure you choose a place with no wind so that the BB’s flight is not affected by external factors.  You need to set a paper target up, and then set up your rifle in a rested position to reduce human error.  Adding a bipod will also aid in this process.  Also keep in mind that once you have dialed-in the hop-up for a particular brand and weight of BB, you will have to keep using that same brand and weight of BB going forward.  If you change brands or weight, you may need to adjust the hop-up again.

As you increase hop-up on your sniper rifle, you are essentially increasing back-spin on the BB to counter gravitational effects that pull the BB downward during flight.  Take successive shots at your target and see if the BB is dipping early.  If it is, keep increasing the hop-up to add more backspin.  You should see that the BB flies farther and father.  However, there is a limit on how far you can tune the hop-up.  Once you start seeing that your BBs are starting to rake upward well beyond the original flightpath of your BB, that probably means you have added too much backspin on the BB and it is therefore flying upward.  The objective of tuning your hop-up is to provide just enough backspin to counter the gravitational force so that the BB flies in a straight line for as far as possible.

Keep in mind that when you lubricate your hop-up with silicone spray as part of your regular maintenance, it will change the grip on the hop-up bucking and therefore will affect the behavior of your hop-up.  Just keep shooting and the silicone fluid will eventually dry up slightly and allow the hop-up bucking to return to its normal behavior.

Some sniper rifles have aftermarket hop-up units to enhance the consistency and accuracy of your rifle.  Once your hop-up is dialed-in, make sure you that your rifle scope is also adjusted to match where you are shooting.  Read our article on How To Adjust A Rifle Scope in Airsoft.

Everyone who starts out with snipers in airsoft ask the question “What is the most powerful airsoft sniper rifle in the world?”.  There is no definitive answer since manufacturers release different specifications on each of their rifles for different markets based on government power regulations.  In general, CO2 airsoft sniper rifles or HPA airsoft snipers will create the highest power due to their high pressure.  When matched with a long precision inner barrel, these types of sniper rifles can create eye-watering power that can get quite dangerous when shooting friends at close range.  Airsoft co2 sniper rifles are listed together with our gas airsoft rifles.  Many of our airsoft rifles are capable of very high power with the right components, but due to regulations of our home city and also many other countries that we ship to, we sell airsoft sniper rifles that max out at 2 joules of power (466fps on a 0.2g BB).  Most fields in the world will only allow airsoft sniper rifles that max out at 500fps of power anyways.  And while everyone wants an 800 fps airsoft sniper rifle, the reality is that such a high power sniper rifle becomes unusable in an airsoft game.

Airsoft snipers can be upgraded to make them more accurate than when they came from the factory.  Key factors to increasing accuracy include the quality and the tightness of the inner barrel, the hop-up unit and hop-up bucking, and whether the inner barrel has the proper bushings to keep it from vibrating and wobbling during shots.  An airsoft sniper upgrade can greatly enhance the performance of your rifle and also adds to the joy of ownership.

You can also get airsoft sniper kits like EdGI Custom Works to upgrade the power and / or accuracy of airsoft snipers. 

That really depends on the power and hop-up performance of your airsoft sniper rifle.  Stock rifles can shoot 30 - 40 meters (100 - 140 feet) with good accuracy, with a maximum effective range of about 50 meters to hit a man-sized target.  High performance sniper rifles or upgraded snipers can acheive greater distances up to 70 or 80 meters, with some even topping 100 meters (330 feet).