Ultimate Sniper: The Book

While filming the new Ultimate Sniper III video this summer with John Plaster in Iron River, Wisconsin, we were reminded of just how much influence the The Ultimate Sniper series has had on the world of sniping. And the series all started with the release of The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers in 1993 (later revised and updated in 2006).

When Rob Furlong, Jim Gilliland, and Steve Reichert arrived in Wisconsin for the video shoot, each brought his own Ultimate Sniper story.

Reichert said he became a Marine sniper because of The Ultimate Sniper. When he was 13 years old, Reichert saved money he earned from his chores and bought his first copy of Ultimate Sniper. Hiding in a tree house, Reichert would pretend that he was a Marine sniper in combat and use the book’s information to decide what to do in various scenarios. “Soon after that,” Reichert said, “I bought the Ultimate Sniper video. It was at that time I decided what career path I would follow: join the Marines and become a sniper.”

During a break in the video shoot, Furlong approached John Plaster and asked him to autograph his copy of the 1993 Ultimate Sniper book. Seeing the battered condition of the book, Plaster offered Furlong a copy of the revised Ultimate Sniper, but Furlong demurred, explaining that he had taken that very book to Afghanistan with him in 2002 when he served with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry on Operation Anaconda, and he wanted the battle-proven copy to bear the author’s signature. Plaster happily complied.

After hearing that Furlong had carried The Ultimate Sniper book to war with him, Gilliland, himself a former sniper instructor for the U.S. Army, told us that most snipers he had met had taken their copies of The Ultimate Sniper to war with them in Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever.

We knew when we contracted for the 500-page advanced training manual on sniping by a retired U.S. Army major that the book would make a significant contribution to the professional sniping community. But we could not know that The Ultimate Sniper would become the bible on sniping for the latest generation of military and police snipers, or that it would become Paladin’s all-time best-selling title. Even now, 18 years later, The Ultimate Sniper outsells every other book and video in our lineup, by a substantial margin. John Plaster has indeed produced the ultimate book on sniping.

And the ultimate sniping video as well. Check out Plaster’s newly released Ultimate Sniper III: The Video to see these three decorated snipers in action.