Suarez International recently hosted former Soviet sniper Mark Vorobiev to teach a Spetsnaz sniper course. Here, Dan Jaquish fires a Rifle Dynamics prototype PSL. (Photo: Suarez International)

The sniper looks through the 1P21 scope on his Dragunov Rifle searching for the enemy fighter. Somewhere, out there in the bush, was an enemy mujahedeen.

He'd already killed two soldiers.

There! A slight movement in the bush on the left, then the easily recognizable shine from a well-worn Kalashnikov barrel. The sniper dials up his scope's rangefinder. Five hundred meters away. He chooses the appropriate chevron in his scope, places it right on the center of the Muj', breathes, and then begins to press carefully.

This little drama didn't happen in the wastelands of Afghanistan, but in the high desert of Prescott, Ariz. at the recent Spetsnaz Sniper Course taught by Marko Vorobiev and hosted by Suarez International.

Why Russian?

One may ask why anyone would want to bother learning the Russian approach to sniping. I've always been a believer that nobody has any field of study cornered. Sniping's no different. This became obvious to me after training with another former Spetsnaz operator in the CQB applications of the AK.

The need to learn the Russian method for sniping seemed especially important in light of the recent discussions we've shared with students and colleagues regarding the Kalashnikov Sniper Concept.

It was during those various discussions and the accompanying research that we met Marko Vorobiev. Marko served as a sniper in Spetsnaz during the Afghan War, and after several emails and telephone discussions, we mutually decided to put this class together.

The Approach

The Spetsnaz Sniper Course serves as an introduction to the Russian military's concept of a sniper. We can get into all manner of pointless definition disputes about terminology which would lead us nowhere. They call the job "sniper," so that's what we'll it as well.

According to Marko, one sniper is assigned per squad and he normally operates independently. The sniper's issued an SVD/Dragunov Rifle with the mission to engage targets at further distances than practical for standard Kalashnikov Rifles.

Students' rifles included ChiCom NDMs (Type 85s), which did very well with the correct ammo. Many of these rifles performed extremely well with 7N1, but poorly with other types of 7.62x54R. (Photo: Suarez International)

The Russians were also the first to field a purpose-built, semi-auto sniper rifle - the SVD (Dragunov). The reason for the rifle became clear when we saw the importance given to follow-up shots and the ability to engage several targets. This is more easily done with some rifles than with others. This was notably different than the long-range one-shot kill from the weeds normally associated with western-style sniping.

While we certainly encouraged the use of COM Bloc-based weapons in the course, we didn't exclude those who didn't have them. Predictably, we had several Russian SVDs, a handful of tuned-up Romanian PSLs, and some Saiga 308s. But we also had a couple of bolt guns (a Remington and a Savage), an M1A, a couple of FALs, and one AR.

It was interesting to note that the shooter skills were quite varied, but by the end of the 3 days of training, almost everyone was able to hit a humanoid steel silhouette at a distance of 500 yards.

Ammo proved to be a crucial issue with the 7.62x54R. I bought a supply of 7N1 in case anyone needed it and they did. All of the 308 ammo seen in class was more than sufficient for the training drills. It ranged from Wolf to Spanish or Venezuelan surplus. One well-funded student shot all Match Ammo the entire weekend.

One shortcut that gave good results for those who couldn't afford Match Ammo was Dave Fortier's suggestion of weighing the ammo. Using that method, we had one man hitting a steel at 500 yards with 1978 Surplus Spanish ammo out of a 16-inch barreled Saiga.

The scopes were one big point of concern. The Russian Scopes POSP and 1P21 are very challenging when mounted on the SVD/Saiga. More challenging actually than I anticipated, but again, this class was as much a class as a lab for the Kalashnikov Sniper Project. Once these Russian Scopes are dialed in, they work well enough, but getting them there was easier for some than for others.

One problem I had was that of eye relief of the POSP 3-9x42. This wasn't an issue with the 1P21, but the 3-9x42 has the eye piece too close for me. Another issue I hoped would sort itself out was the offset situation (scopes site left of the bore). Most of the guys really like them. In fact, we had one man in class with a POSP on his accurized AR. I'll confess that my plan is to look for an alternative scope and mount.

-End of part 1 (of 2) -

Gabe Suarez is an internationally recognized close-combat shooting authority. He served 15 years in law enforcement as a SWAT operator. Currently he's the president of Suarez International USA - a training organization with branches all over the free world. For more on Suarez, visit SuarezInternational.com.