Customer Reviews

21st Century U.S. Army Sniper Training Field Manual

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a Gulf War Veteran and Us Air Force member, I found this FM to be very genuine to standard military training literature. Actually, I was shocked that it was offered to the civilian market. To all non-military members, Yes this is the real deal. It is a portion of the clasroom training material in Us Army Sniper school. However, if you are not familiar with military terminology I would suggest a book by an actual author and not the US Government.

I was pleasantly suprised to see that this book is published by the Department of Defense. Many similar books published by Paladin press devote an inordinate amount of space to their author's political diatribes (Plaster's excellent but somewhat dated Ultimate Sniper is an exception).

This book has a wealth of information, but is devoted exclusively to the M24 Army sniper system. It has no information on older scopes (like the ART scopes), nor on the Marine M40A3 or even Army modifications like the 300 Win Mag. Some areas are too brief (like the lack of mention of problems with accuracy if the scope is has one zero and the focus adjust is changed to a different yardage).

Where the book falls short is in editing. Not only did they pick the most butt ugly fonts, which they compress and resize line by line (from around 11 to 14 points), making reading slow, but almost every page has typos, spelling, or punctuation mistakes. The figures look like they have been copied from an old mimeographed version, and are sometimes almost impossible to figure out what they are showing. Some of the figures are mislabled (like two that reverse iron site pictures with scope pictures). Some are inaccurate (like the windage mirage for 1-3 MPH wind). Some tables are way off (like the windage adjustment for different MPH winds) - though a page or two before gives accurate formulas. There is no index and some paragraphs look like they were pasted twice at different places (like the adjustment of 1 MOA for 20% humidity changes).

Regardless of one's political leanings, most of us hope that our military is not sloppy. The editing of this book makes me wonder about how much precision is valued. That is curious in a book on sniping, which is generally read by people who place great importance on precision.

21st Century? Nonsense! FM 23-10 was issued on August 17, 1994. That is over 12 years ago. I had this same exact manual on CD-ROM along with many more military manuals that came FREE with a computer war game.

Shame on Amazon for not checking the origins and date of this charade. The copy quality is terrible and there is absolutely no value to be had.

Phil Zimmermann, JD

I am writing as a SWAT officer, NRA Precision Rifle Instructor, and experienced long range hunter and shooter. This book is the absolute worst sniping manual I have ever seen. It is nothing more than a random collection of bad photocopies that someone put together in one binder with a nifty title on the outside. The information contained within this book is simplistic, outdated, and in some cases, wrong. There is nothing here that is not already available online. There are many other fine books on long range shooting and sniping that are much better than this. Again, I cannot emphasize enough that this book is terrible. I only wish that Amazon had some mechanism for negative star ratings because this book is worth a negative 5. It applies negative pressure in the worst way possible. The author/publisher should be ashamed of themselves for selling it and I strongly recommend that it be discontinued with all available copies being either burned or recycled.

As some of the other reviewers have mentioned, this copy of FM 23-10 certainly has its flaws, though they are generally common to all Army Field Manuals. Frankly, they rarely have the same editorial standards you would find in a civilian publication, as their audience (ie. the average Soldier) cares more about the information than its presentation. And yes, as THE Army sniper manual it focuses exclusively on the M24 - I don't understand why another reviewer would have expected it to have information on other sniper systems or calibers other than 7.62mm.

Moving on, my main issue with this particular item is its production quality. I asked for and received this as a gift because I didn't want to read it on my computer's LCD screen. The contents of this manual (which IS the most updated version - the Army has not produced a more recent FM since 1994) are all available online. Simply google the FM's title and you will find multiple links. Imagine my surprise when my gift turned out to be a common 3-ring binder with the pages printed out inside it. I COULD HAVE DONE THAT! And at a cost far lower than $40, I assure you. To me it seems disingenuous to represent this as a book.

The contents are still worthwhile. This is especially true for fellow Soldiers, whether as preparation before attending Sniper School or simply to learn more about shooting and fieldcraft. I would not recommend it for novice shooters, as the FM assumes the reader has at least as much background, both in shooting and in tactics, as your average Sniper School attendee - which usually requires at least a few years of service in the Army.

Furthermore, this FM was updated in 1994 because of the high standards set by the first edition of John Plaster's seminal "The Ultimate Sniper." That work set new standards in organization, information, and readability. Since Maj (ret) Plaster updated with Ultimate Sniper 2006 : An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers (Ultimate Sniper, 2006 New and Updated!), in order to reflect new technologies and tactics, I would point most readers toward it instead. It's well worth the additional $10! His book is far more extensive, easier to read, and has outstanding production quality.