Book Review: Guerrilla Sniper & Guerrilla Sniper II

Atlas Shrug sends this review of Guerrilla Sniper and Guerrilla Sniper II:

Double Shot Review:
“Guerrilla Sniper” by Anthony James and Gabriel Suarez
“Guerrilla Sniper II” by Sua Sponte

As a serious student of the Guerrilla Sniper Rifle concept, a high percentage of my very limited internet posting time and forum participation is focused on this subject. I like it, and furthermore, I fear it may be more useful than many other more popular outlets for skill at arms. Consequently, I pay close attention to new offerings on the subject. A good bit of the recent written developments are either on or motivated by the Warrior Talk forum. 

It was through this forum that I learned originally of the books “Guerrilla Sniper” and “Guerrilla Sniper II” – both available exclusively from Suarez’s One Source Tactical web site. Following are brief reviews of these two books.

“Guerrilla Sniper” by Anthony James and Gabriel Suarez

This brief review is primarily from a post that I contributed to the thread about the book on the Warrior Talk forum.

Pros:   -

great to have a book that actually addresses the topic

            -good intro to some aspects that the average person needs a starting point on
            
-touches on several areas not normally mentioned (backpacks, etc)
            
-does not dwell on brands, models, gear, instead bringing up concepts



Cons:  

-a bit thin and short for the money
            
-some pictures are out of sync with the surrounding text
            
-lack of suggestion for other reading, research, etc., aside from the SI courses in the back 

(NB: I  have no problem with the Suraez International (SI) advertising,  as it's a SI book and I'm all about capitalism. My concern is that the SI courses are all that is there, with nothing else suggested to the reader for further study.)



My biggest complaint with Guerrilla Sniper is the cursory handling of sling support. The text only casually mentions that using slings can improve the stability of several field positions, and there are NO photographs of actually using a sling for support while shooting. Given the nature of the book, IMHO anyone seriously considering this role needs to be at least competent in shooting from multiple positions using proper sling support. No, you don't have to be a top rated Olympic style shooter, but not knowing and practicing sling support of the rifle in field positions is like not knowing how to drive a stick shift. Sure, you're fine as long as you have an automatic to drive, but if you must drive a manual and you don't know how, you'll end up in the ditch - or worse.

 

(NB: As to a sling, get one from Andy Langlois and you'll be happy. All of my Ching Slings are from Andy – a great guy. He makes something that will work for you, no matter the need.)



I'm not attempting to bash Guerrilla Sniper, but instead to put it into a proper perspective. If you take this book, Cooper's "The Art of the Rifle," and "Fry The Brain" all together, then you've got a good start. Any of the three alone don't get you there, though. (One might throw in Plaster's "Ultimate Sniper" for additional reference.) 

Obviously, much field work is required during and after digesting the above material.

 It's just my $0.02 on the subject, but do get all four of the above if you are serious about the subject.

“Guerrilla Sniper II” by Sua Sponte

Following the release of Guerrilla Sniper, there were several very useful threads started on the Warrior Talk forum by a member going by the nom de plume "Sua Sponte". Several of these have been referenced here in a few WRSA threads. It became quite clear that he was planning to combine the Warrior Talk material into another book. Before long, it was announced that he was finished with the book and that Suarez International would release it as “Guerrilla Sniper II”.

Having followed many of the Sua Sponte-penned threads on Warrior Talk, I greatly looked forward to the release of “Guerrilla Sniper II” and promptly ordered two copies.

My initial review of this book also started with a post on Warrior Talk. Unfortunately, this contribution was not as well received as that for the first book, and my post was promptly deleted. Yes, the post was critical, but my effort was not to bash the book, but to motivate Suarez International to do a better publishing job.

What prompted my critical comments? What does Suarez International need to improve? 

In a word - editing.

While the overall content and usefulness of “Guerrilla Sniper II” is worthy of study, the proofreading and editing are atrocious. While a few obvious errors are forgivable, poor editing on a gross scale makes it painful to slog through the text in question. In this book, there are many poorly edited sections. Misspellings are numerous, sentence fragments plentiful, and other grammatical stumbles trip the reader up regularly, repeatedly, and painfully. In defense of the author, I did not notice such errors in his Warrior Talk posts. It may be that the ball was dropped after the material was handed off for editing and formatting.

In the words of a Rifleman friend of mine from out West with whom I correspond, when dealing with “the sort of writing that is designed to communicate, educate, and persuade” as this book is, “the persuasion takes a pause with each misspelled word."

That pretty much sums it up.

To be considered professional and competent, one must at least appear to be so. With as many marketing self-congratulations as Suarez International indulges, they should know this and recognize the cost of putting out something that is clearly not ready for release. Yes, time to market is important, but a sacrifice in quality to such a high degree is not a worthwhile trade-off, IMHO. 

Maybe in time, the folks at SI will thank me for my candor, but for now they likely just curse me and delete my critical posts. We shall see. 


Back to the content -  Guerrilla Sniper II is generally very good. However, it does omit several gems from the Warrior Talk threads that would have made it much better. In particular, the excellent Nikon BDC ranging technique graphics are not reproduced in the book. Yes, they are particular to that reticle, but still it would be better to have included them if for nothing other than an example of the concept. They are well done and well represented on the Warrior Talk thread. If you have a Nikon BDC, by all means register on the site, review the thread, and download the pictures for your own study and use.

The book does cover several of the excellent forum subjects. The section on field expedient positions is quite useful and should be read, practiced, and tested by the serious reader. Likewise, the exercises on equipment choice, creation of firing positions (urban, rural, stationary, and mobile), and camouflage are all well presented. Additionally, Guerrilla Sniper II presents some new areas on which I don’t recall  specific Warrior Talk posts. The section on cache material and concepts is also good. The often overlooked aspect of reloading your own ammunition is covered, with some very good suggestions for constructing a “field reloading kit” that any practitioner of the Guerrilla Sniper concept should seriously consider. These are nice extras that add considerable merit to the overall product.

Should you buy the book? I am neutral on that question. While it’s nice to have the material in a non-electronic format and all in your hands at once, having to wade through the product of poor editing does have its own cost. 

I suggest you read all of the Sua Sponte/Guerrilla Sniper threads on Warrior Talk and then decide for yourself if you need the blemished printed version of Guerrilla Sniper II. My guess is that most who do so will opt to buy the book, if for no other reason than to obtain the sections that are not on the forum. It would be nice if such a consideration was not necessary, but until an improved and properly edited second edition is released by SI, that is the choice on the table.