ammunition factory they were produced on an assembly line. Filled with the gunpowder blindly. The mixture a blend that was not always the same every time. This made the exact path of each round slightly different and therefore impossible to predict.

A sniper round, a proper one, was individually hand-made. The mixture an exact balance every time. The arc was more predictable and reliable then.

It was also possible to add just the right dose and slow the round so it wouldn’t break the sound barrier, that loud crack you hear when a round whizzes past removed. This lessened the range somewhat but it reduced the noise footprint so the position of the shooter was harder to identify. Knowing this level of detail on your paint and brushes was what separated