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Stalks

Sniper stalk training takes place over open grassy ranges, where students must stealthily stalk from 1,000 meters to within 150 meters of instructors without being detected, in order to take shots at targets. To make it challenging, instructors use radios to direct "walkers" to try to find the stalking snipers. If spotted at any point, the student fails the exercise. The training aims to teach snipers how to slowly, patiently, and methodically move towards objectives while avoiding detection. However, the instructor notes that real world stalking situations are often easier than the intense training scenarios.

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Richard Costanza
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438 views2 pages

Stalks

Sniper stalk training takes place over open grassy ranges, where students must stealthily stalk from 1,000 meters to within 150 meters of instructors without being detected, in order to take shots at targets. To make it challenging, instructors use radios to direct "walkers" to try to find the stalking snipers. If spotted at any point, the student fails the exercise. The training aims to teach snipers how to slowly, patiently, and methodically move towards objectives while avoiding detection. However, the instructor notes that real world stalking situations are often easier than the intense training scenarios.

Uploaded by

Richard Costanza
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Stalks

Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center


A sniper team stalks in an open field in Iraq.

Stalk training is the component of sniper school that hones a sniper's stealthy approach. Snipers
have to learn to move slowly, patiently and methodically. If necessary, snipers will lie for days in
the same position to observe an objective or avoid detection. Army Ranger Sniper describes the
intricate process:

When you're stalking, you would be amazed when you're on the ground the things you
walk over and don't look at. When you're trying to sneak up on somebody, even an anthill
looks like a mountain. You have pick out your positions -- the next place you're going to
crawl to. You ask yourself, "Is that going to cover me when I get there, and how am I
going to get there?

To develop this ability, snipers have to pass perhaps one of the most challenging training games
-- the stalk.

Stalk training takes place in open grassy ranges. Students start at one end of the range. One
thousand meters down range, two instructors sit on top of a truck or tower with spotter scopes.
Sniper students must stalk toward the instructors without being seen. To add to the challenge, the
instructors have two soldiers in the field called walkers. The instructors use radios to
communicate with the walkers and try to find the sniper.

Students must stalk from 1,000 meters out to within 150 meters of the instructors, all the while
avoiding detection by the instructors and the walkers. Once in position, they take a shot (they are
firing blanks). They must take this shot carefully because if their muzzle flashes or kicks up dirt,
then they can be easily spotted. After the first shot, the snipers must stalk to a second firing
position and take a second shot. To verify that the snipers were actually sighting the instructors,
the snipers must read the card or count the number of fingers the instructors are holding up. Stalk
training is a pass or fail game. If the sniper is spotted at any point, he fails the game. Too many
fails, and the student washes out of the program.

Of course, training exercises are different from deployment. Army Ranger Sniper explains it this
way:

In the real world, it's a lot easier to get up to an objective than you would think. When we
did stalks, [the instructors] would have us get up to within 150 meters of the objective. In
the real world, you would never get that close to an objective. The real world is actually
a lot easier."

Anywhere, any time, snipers are prepared to use their specialized skills to sneak into dangerous
situations and disable an enemy force through a combination of close reconnaissance and deadly
long-range fire. When we asked Army Ranger Sniper if there was one thing he really wanted to
get across to our readers about snipers, his response was, "Let people know that snipers aren't
assassins, you know, kids always think that. Snipers aren't just assassins who sneak in, kill a
general and sneak out ... that's what all the movies always show. That may happen, but it's very
rare."

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