How does a snipper rifle work?

Answer 1

I will assume you mean a Sniper Rifle. First and foremost, the earliest "Sniper Rifles" were not even scoped. They were used by marksmen and hunters renowned for their skill at killing a small bird known as a Snipe, hence the term Sniper. The un-scoped rifles were extremely accurate for their day due to the "rifling" of the barrels; in other words, the bullet was given a spin to the shot, enhancing its accuracy at greater distances, which was missing from the muskets of the Civil War. The scope itself is essentially a multi-pronged telescope or set of binoculars attached to the rifle to assist the visual sense of the human operator and inhibit natural error. The scope itself actually holds no sway over the initial accuracy of the gun. As such, a traditional sniper rifle should be either bolt-action, like the L96 or the Springfield M1903 or semi-automatic, like the Barrett .50cal. Any gun in theory can attach a scope. In the late months of WWII, the M1 Garand, the first true semi-auto rifle, was attached with the ancestor to the Police ACOG scope, allowing for a 2x telescopic view.