The day when the sniper gets serious weapon is a special one in his life. Serg Marko was fortunate to look after this unusual process for a few days. Serge, along with several good people, brought 3 extremely deadly sniper rifles for Ukrainian Marines. The volunteers of The People’s Project helped to equip those rifles with the latest technology and upgrades in terms of The “I Am Sniper” Project. A story from the first hands follows.
Mariupol. Proving ground. Soldiers with rifles are lying on the ground at the positions. Fear and hate of an enemy are invisible. It is so close, and so far from the death.
Snipers.
Today is another day of training. Snipers try out new rifles. It is a pure joy to speak to them. Most of the soldiers are satisfied with the new weapon. When an adult man immediately gives his new rifle a name, and carries it around like a child, with a joyous expression on his face you smile unwillingly.
Shot.
– Two thousandths on 6 o’clock! – shouts a snipers team commander. He stay close with the rifle watching the training.
– Ready!
– Watch out!
Shot.
– Got it! Gong!
– Hold your fire! Move the gong at 1100 meters. The man in the field, uncharge the weapon!
We shoot for 3 days already. We used a lot of an expensive ammunition. Mariupol wind covers the equipment with dust, and its costs of a few dozens of of thousands is not important for it. Sniping it expensive. However, the ability to hit the aim at a distance of over a kilometer can not be cheap.
– Ready!
– Watch out!
Shot.
– Two thousandths on 3 o’clock. You almost hit a gong. Take the weather station and recalculate the amendments, – commander gets up and takes one of the weather stations, received from The People’s Project.
– Well, we shoot the gong of 40 cm x 20 cm. If we were shooting the figure of human proportions I would have made it, – tried to justify himself the soldier.
– You have missed it, – says the commander, – and its all because the wind was from 6 o’clock before, and now it is blew with gusts from 9 o’clock. You pulled the trigger when the wind changed its direction, and not even responded to that change. You wasted the bullet in vain. I said count again, now!
A soldier got a notepad, took a meteorological station and started to spin around his axis, recalculating indicators.
Soldier came to me, holding his rifle.
– Three days. For 3 days I suffered with it, and now I feel it, and understand it! It is a really cool riffle. If you do everything correctly – it will never miss. Thank you for the rifle, the upgrades and equipment. I feel like a little child on Christmas, who met Santa, and got all the gifts he could only dream of.
And you can understand this soldier. After 2 intense and productive days he didn’t missed once today. All 3 gongs at 500, 760 and 1100 meters he reached with his every shot. He changed his positions, posture and still was able to hit the gongs. He is justified to be proud of himself. And I was proud of all of them.
Today is the last day when the riffles been tried out before being used at the front line. Tomorrow those rifles will help soldiers to monitor the enemy closely, and wait for a convenient moment. But it will be tomorrow. And today …
Shot.
– You got it!
We all can help Ukrainian defenders to prepare a few sharpshooters, and strengthen the defense of Ukraine during war. After all, at the expense of your donations for The “I Am Sniper” Project we buy the necessary equipment for snipers at the front line. Join the project. Perhaps the sniper prepared with your help will make a shot, that will change the course of the entire war.
