Spoofing/misdirecting the shot sound is an evil idea, by which I mean brilliant; using small fireworks might be cheaper than speakers, though you still need a triggering mechanism.

I have heard/read that even if the point of aim is placed exactly, any weapon has more or less inherent possibility of the bullet going slightly in a different direction, measurable in degrees (or just seconds) of arc, or as the radius of a group of hits at a set range (eg a pistol clamped into place and shot 10 times might have 6 inches between the two widest-apart hits at 100 meters, depending on that pistol's barrel length and other factors). Is that a worthwhile consideration for SR range penalties? eg if you're using a scoped pistol, even if aimed perfectly, at the range for which its circular error probability exceeds a meter, you can't buy hits anymore?

I myself have only a little experience with long arms, but did once get to fire a scoped rifle, and wow, it seemed very different from iron sights, for reasons listed above. It had been used to kill attacking bears a few times in rural Idaho, and I had a feeling of "if I can see it, I can break it", although trying that at long ranges woulda deflated my overconfidence balloon. Similarly, hitting soda cans at 50-100 meters with an iron-sights low-end .22 rifle was so, so much easier than with a handgun, at my low skill level.

In tactical FPS eg "Rainbow Six", I've learned to always pair a sniper with a SMG-armed partner, because the sniper will not notice an enemy approaching from outside their sniping arc.

An alternate to spoofing ... or in conjunction with it, this is SR. Magic has returned. How about the silence spell?

Silence could work, just not as well:

• It's a resisted test, which means it might not work on everyone.
• Because the bullet creates a sonic boom, you'd have to cover the entire area of travel and not just the local the bullet originates from. While blocking the origin will prevent them from pinpointing you, they'd still be able to infer your location from the farthest point back that's audible.

By creating sounds elsewhere, you're more likely to cause confusion and delays. And while both issues can be surpassed with some perseverance and a fast response, if you're quick, you'll be gone before they get there. With Silence, you'll be found more quickly, cause they'll only have one direction to check. Plus you'll leave an astral signature (or delay yourself erasing it) by casting the spell, making it that much easier to follow you after.

Cast silence on the bullet, and use a silencer. The silencer quiets the noise from gas escaping the weapon, and the spell keeps the boom from the bullet from making noise.

I'm not sure casting silence on the bullet would work. Silence is an area effect spell, not an object spell. As soon as the bullet starts moving, it would pass out of the area.

If you are high-end enough to have access to magic, then you are probably high end enough to have access to high-performance subsonic rounds like the .300 Whisper, and that Russian round that is similar. (PL-1?)

You avoid a sonic crack, and still have several hundred meters effective range.

A little OT here, but while looking for vids on the .300 Whisper, I came across this little gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDwz2e1Vj3o

9mm HKMP5SD integrally suppressed SMG. Note how the sound of the rounds hitting the target makes more noise than the action. Gotta love it!

Another important thing to consider with suppressed sniping is that all semiauto weapons make mechanical noise similar in pitch and volume to hitting one hammer with another.

Subsonic ammo and suppressors have no effect on this noise. It is just the mechanism doing it's job. This is a good reason to use a bolt-action weapon if you need total stealth.

So, when something says "The action operating is louder than the gunshot", that is still a lot of sound.

"A lot of sound" all depends on your criteria. If you need need to shoot a hostile while his buddy is reading a book in the next room and it's dead fucking silent throughout the whole building, then yeah, any kind of firearm, suppressed or not, isn't going to be optimal. However, if you are 200 yards away and shooting a suppressed .300 whisper, then no, the action sound is not going to generate any significant sound...or at least not enough to compromise your position.

Few other vids for hearing that weapon (with less metal ping covering it up):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68qmWCawX-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRm6jEcjK1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpTtrondTnQ

Sure, but if you fire .30-06 M1 Ball from a M1903 Springfield rifle and then .30-06 M72 Match, you now know the difference between the MOA of those two kinds of ammo; if you fire the first ammo from a M1903 Springfield and from a M1 Garand, you know the difference between the MOA of the rifles; do some tare math and you can isolate the MOA of the rifle and of the ammo, no?

Or are there synergistic factors that make it more variable than simply adding the combination?

DerMonkey:
I've been thinking about your house rule and I rather like it. Add +1 required success for each additional range bracket (or even if only applied at long and extreme range). I have nothing against requiring someone to get 2 hits to hit w/ a pistol from 6-15m. 3 hits to hit a target at 16-30m... that's rather realistic in fact!

The only other item I'd add if you want more realism w/o making things unwieldy for game mechanics is +1 AP penalty per range bracket as well for direct fire weapons (EG: doesn't apply to rockets and grenade launchers... IE: high explosives covered by scatter rules). This is just a blunt reflection of the way that the farther the bullet is from the shooter the slower it's moving (drag is the square of velocity times ballistic coefficient so high velocity lightweight objects bleed off speed very quickly).



Actually you can buy bolt guns with .25MOA guaranteed by the manufacturer in some cases. (the rifle costs 2-3k granted, but hey you get what you pay for).

Some fun misdirection ideas....
You could also have your decker buddy have some fun w/ random commlinks in the vicinity rather than planting speakers. Or you could have him deck in and snow crash their sensors. So long as the commlink is louder than your actual shot it would make it bloody tough to locate. (I don't trust wireless imagelink and the like IC... I'd rather go w/ glasses or goggles w/ a fibreoptic connection. basically I don't care much for the whole PAN bit). I quickly get reminded of Ghost in the Shell... wtf! he hacked my eyes! Where are you you !#@$@!$.....

Also raises the spectre of a technological 'invis' spell... technomancer goes in and fucks w/ your goggles pulling the high tech equivalent of putting a polaroid in front of the camera.

This got me thinking what would be the best sniping teams in shadowrun. Probably either an adept or stealthy samy on the gun paired w/ a mage as their spotter. Why mage can cast and maintain spells (invis, silence, detection spells like that one which locks on targets at range in street magic w/o a take aim action, etc.), summon nifty spirits with things like concealment. Do astral recon, notice other casters (making things like astral chameleon and masking important for him). Mage can also double as cheap long area effect artillery w/ fireballs and the like.

Another option would be a rigger w/ a nice stealthy drone, or some kind of a leave behind automated tripod he can snipe remotely through. (the whole active/passive targetting thing etc... I still don't understand all the SR4 rules on that subject...)


Suppression:
Frankly, I think a lot of people are a bit too hungup on full silencing. Modern day military snipers commonly work from 600-900yards either with or without a can. Yes there's a ballistic crack, but the sonic boom you hear is that of the bullet as it passes. You hear a sharp crack from your SIDE (not the direction the sniper came from) which is the sonic boom produced by the bullet. Put another way the sound of the bullet does NOT come from the direction of the sniper. It's not really until followon shots are fired at 'now alert' targets that it becomes possible to localize the sniper at those ranges. Generally a bullet which starts subsonic isn't going to have enough velocity at the target at any respectable extended range. And a bullet which starts supersonic and goes subsonic has another nasty problem... aerodynamics.. the boundary zone the rules change radically leading to precision problems.

The bigger purpose of the suppressor is to muffle the initial gunshot, and more importantly to truly hide the muzzle flash, especially at night. What most people call 'flash hiders' don't hide the flash, they only protect the shooters night vision so he's not nightblinded by his own muzzleflash. It's not easy at all to locate the shooter by sound alone, harder when it's muffled somewhat. The point of the suppressor isn't to make it so you can't hear it, but to make it so you don't know exactly where you heard it from on a highpower extreme range precision rifle.

Also another item a lot of people don't realize is some semi-auto's have a gas selector switch on them which you can use to disable the semi-auto action using the spindle valve (originally this was used for rifle grenades). In any weapon in which suppression is going to be expected, the ability to disable semi-auto and work the action manually is a big plus.

Also military doctrine is such that one shot is all you get. If you need two shots your position is probably blown. By this I'm referring to snipers, not necessary the designated marksman they've finally started adding to platoons/squads again. Compare that to a truly silenced SMG firing subsonic rounds. Here you truly are going for real heavy duty stealth because you are in close quarters and your only other 'silent' option is knife range or full evasion, you're using a SMG because you're expecting to take on groups or people and full auto may be a tactical necessity w/o giving away your position. (also I'm amused by SR4 in that you can get SMG's with built in suppression for 'R' legality, but as soon as you buy an external can it's an 'F' rated item!).

Glad I asked, rather that assuming I was right This seems relevant at the high end, hobbyist distance shooters or professional/military snipers. When comparing which handgun to buy on a $500 budget, or quick-and-dirty houserules for max accuracy, rougher estimates might suffice for some people.

Many players would say "well OF COURSE my character practices daily, cleans his gun after each use, and has compared results on a few different ammo loads." I would not. My PC might be careful with his car; he identifies as a rigger, though built more as a sammie, and he enjoys tinkering when he has time, but he doesn't feel the same way about his guns. Heck, I haven't even checked pressure on my car's tires (in RL). I'm a novice with guns, which actually makes me extra careful when I do handle them, since I know I *better* be careful.

I propose a new Quality: Zealous Maintenance. A character with this 5-point quality will always have one category of their gear (eg guns, electronics, blades, foci) in peak condition, which will sometimes grant a +1 DP modifier, or reduce penalties, or ameliorate glitches, at the GM's discretion. The 10-point version applies that bonus to all categories of the character's gear. At -5 points, the character has Sloppy Maintenance; they never get around to checking oil, they rarely change passwords, and so forth. Level 1 thugs often have Sloppy Maintenance.

I'm gonna post that quality set separately.

On a side note, the H&K MP5SD is one of the best guns in Rainbox Six, nice to see the real-world confirmation! Would any of the variant ammo types, eg stick&shock or poison, be useful for subsonic sniping? Could there be a sniper version of the Soaker? Big subsonic explosive bullets?

Would a STR 12-15 trollbow (presumably using injection arrows) have flatter trajectories and thus a better range table than standard for bows?

Big subsonic explosive bullets exist already..... It's called a grenade launcher