OFFLINE

There are two lines of thought on this; Yes, and no.

On the yes side-they do, with the proper equipment and the right mindset. There are those who refer to snipers as advantageous ambushers, this is also true. But your average "sniper" is little more than long range fire support. Now, there are going to be a lot of people who will say I'm full of crap, so let's get my experiences as a "so-called sniper" on the table.

I run 3 rigs consistantly, but my choice of either depends upon the scenario. My primary weapon is a modded out A5 with a rebuilt Cyclone. No e-trigger or response. One shot, one kill. Or, one shot and "Oh hells. I missed." Save for the mods and parts upgrades, it's a stock weapon, albeit with a ported 16 inch barrel enclosed in a shroud filled with cotton balls (It cuts down on the sound a bit-call it a poor man's silencer). I tend to run this at about 250-265 fps and on an open field, it's quite capable of reaching out and touching someone at an impressive range. For a standard defend/attack scenario, it's rather accurate-but not as much as I'd like. It's role is more suited towards long range fire support...with a ported barrel.
Enter the Hammerhead barrel. Now this, ladies and gents, is a very high-priced extra. It is rifled, and depending upon your paint quality, frighteningly accurate at range. ***As LONG as you keep your velocity within reason!***
I cannot stress this enough-just because you can run at 300 FPS does not mean you have to. If anything, it will turn this finely machined work of art into nothing more than a ball blender. Those ridges cut into the surface of the ball at those speeds; 245-265 is where you should keep this if you're going to invest that kind of money. I say this simply because I can typically ram a shot into someone's mask through a 4x6" sight hole pretty consistantly from a lot farther away than they can hit me.

Rig #2 is yet another Tippmann A5 due for a total rebuild. It's my "toy" gun for trying different barrels. At the moment, it's running an old flatline. Now, from an aesthetic perspective, it's an imposing gun-the flatline gives it the look of an old WW1 water cooled machine gun, but it also give you away to an experienced player. They will be looking for you specifically. From a practical perspective, this barrel is HEAVY. If you're running a remote line, you will forever be correcting your shot until you get used to this. With this in mind, the Flatline is a wonderful add-on to your gun if you're going for range...but this is where it drops the ball (no pun intended). Range is not an issue here. It's accuracy and force enough to break the ball that suffers the most on this. Accuracy can be cured for the most part by quality of paint you use, but by and large you're at the mercy of speed at the end of the line. For the extreme long ball shots, it simply lacks the force to break on impact. I've had shots bounce right off of me fired from a flatline, and I've experienced this on the firing end. Sure, I hit you, but if the ball don't break...
All in all, it's a decent barrel at the price and best used at 260-275 FPS. Since it's not the easiest barrel for installation, it won't be coming off for awhile.
Please note-the research is out there to support this. I'm too lazy to go find the link, so if you doubt, search it out. Google is your friend.

Rig #3: A BT Delta with an Apex tip.
This one I use primarily for Capture the Flag games. It's light, easy to manuever, and damned intimidating to a casual player. Word of advice, don't mess about in the back yard without the hopper on. Just don't. The local constibulary was not amused with me at all. Be told.
Let's be honest, the stock gun is a good machine, and considering it's pretty much a 98 with some nice mods on it, it's a solid performer.
The Apex tip itself is much easier to install than a Flatline, and the ability to roll it instead of the gun around is a nice feature. It's versitile, and quite capable of doing as it's advertised; shooting "around" corners, putting backspin/topspin on the ball. However, this takes a good amount of time and paint to master, and cranking the ramp all the way will introduce you to the joys of having a ball chop inside the tip. Not fun to try and clean out mid-match. I haven't had much time (or money) to fiddle with this add-on much, this attitude may change in the long run.

Note: I do NOT use sights-a sight on a paintball gun to me is like putting a blower on a Yugo. It looks silly, and tends to be little more than eye candy. Granted, some bad-assed looking eye candy. Keep in mind you're pushing a mostly spherical object with compressed air/CO2. Even with a rifled barrel, the ball is going to wander a bit. Get that out at a distance, a 1-2 degree variance equals one great big miss.

Now to the "No" side of this debate:

Your average "sniper" is, as was mentioned previously, an ambusher or more accurately,  ranged fire support. Or in a lot of cases, to put it bluntly, someone who's afraid to get hit. In my experience, long barrels do little more than use more air. When I see a 22" barrel, I think two things, "I hope he's got an all day air pass," and "Here's hoping he doesn't snap that thing on a stump."
However, there are exceptions to this; Back when I first started, I knew a guy everyone called "Stoner." Not because he rocked the ganj or anything, simply because his last name was Stone. This man would show up, and casually slip on a 36" length of PVC on the end of his gun...and hit EVERYthing. Went through a canister of air in a quarter round, but...I digress.
Now, some will argue that my aforementioned statement before the slight topic derailment is not the case. Well, it may not be-for YOU.
Most of the time, self-professed snipers do not move from their spot at all, and that is a terrible thing to do. Once people know where you are, you've got paint coming down on you like Heaven's Wrath, you are now not only covered in paint, you are now taken out of the equation. That's not being a sniper, it's being a stationary target.

This being said, feel free to disagree, or feel free to agree. This rather long-winded dispensation of text is mostly opinion, backed with some practical experience.
But for heaven's sake-if you feel I'm wrong, explain WHY instead of the standard forum response, "Ur rong."

OFFLINE

While in the Past, I have been one to say that technically there are no "snipers" due to everyone can shoot just as far as the sniper can, especially with the apex or flatline.

I have no problem with ambushers or marksmen as that's a bit different.  Now that there is the FS rounds, truly capable of doubling the effective range and having extreme accuracy with it, not very many people can afford the FS rounds or build a platform capable of shooting them, using FS rounds I would call you more of a Sniper if you used them to your advantage.

Regardless of your setup, if you want to call yourself a sniper, I really don't care.  I call myself the whatever guy as I'll fill any "role" that is needed.

Basically my views on paintball "snipers is this:

Before FS rounds, not really "snipers" as real snipers use insane distances with high accuracy and with normal paintballs, this is not possible (the range bit).

After FS rounds, can become a "sniper" as even though its not an extreme range, the effective range has been doubled with the FS rounds.

OFFLINE

Y aknow-I've heard of these....and just looked at the price and went, "I pay the same for REAL bullets." o.O

OFFLINE

Originally Posted by Michael Winterbourne:
Y aknow-I've heard of these....and just looked at the price and went, "I pay the same for REAL bullets." o.O

Buy them in bulk and their a bit cheaper, come to about $.40 each.