As you probably know, most people will tell new players that it's not a good idea to start out with a sniper rifle, and that's for a good reason, well, several actually....
First up, it's not like real life sniping, where you are generally out of range from return fire, have a spotter helping you, who also has short range defensive capabilities, and you don't have all the other stuff a sniper can do, such as a radio which can call in artillery and air strikes etc, nor can you tab it the feck out of there if it looks like you've been compromised and have chopper evac you from your pre-arranged rendezvous. In airsoft, you're gonna be on your own, so you have to spot and shoot, your range is much shorter, and people will be far more inclined to try and assault your position, since unlike in real life, the worst that can happen to them, is a 500fps BB in the nuts. In real life, they'd be dead, because you would have set up with clear open ground killing zones out to 1200 metres in any direction a threat was likely to come from, which would pretty much make you impervious to anyone with an assault rifle, since they wouldn't be able to get anywhere near you, and would probably call for artillery support to take you out, if they spotted your location. So, not like airsoft at all, where an AEG rifle could indeed hit you, since you won't outrange people by much. If there really is a sniper about in real life, people are sh*t scared to even pop their heads up out of cover, much less run towards where they think the sniper is. Do sniping in airsoft and they will come for you.
In addition to that, in airsoft, you've got basically four things you could be doing, CQB indoors, Woodland outdoors, attacking, and defending. Out of these four, sniping is only ideally suited to one or two, namely woodland and usually defending. It's kind of tough to snipe on the attack, the role is more suited to finding a decent spot and awaiting attackers, who will probably not be able to close you down or flank you too easily if you pick a spot also covered by some team mates with regular rifles, but there's no guarantee of that of course. So, to get the best out of a sniper rifle in airsoft, it's generally not a bad idea to have skirmished at the site a lot of times so you know the typical attack routes people take, and the decent defence locations, so you can pick your concealed spot accordingly, and if you are new, then none of that knowledge is likely to be available to you.
On the other hand, an AEG assault rifle is ideal for a starter, because it can do CQB, woodland, and is suited to both attacking and defending.
Then there is the additional expense as well. Yes you can get a spring airsoft sniper rifle for 120 quid or so, but that is the basic package. You are going to need to tart it up a lot to give you as much range as possible, as much accuracy as possible, as much consistency as possible, and the ability to put stuff onto the target with as little noise and conspicuity as you can manage. So, we are talking souped up hop up, souped up barrel, souped up spring, souped up piston (which you might even drill ports into), then decent bipod, decent scope, expensive quality ammo, good camouflage (i.e. a ghillie suit or similar, which admittedly, you could make yourself for not much money). Then you'll need a decent back up weapon, smoke grenades to enable you to conceal your withdrawal or repositioning moves, frag grenades to stem an assault on your position, and ideally, some team mates and a radio so you can work in concert with them, to try and make the enemy get driven toward your killing zone.
In other words, a shitload more than simply a 120 quid G&G M4, which is all you need to get going in the regular skirmishing role.
I'm not trying to put you off the notion of sniping, it can be good fun, but if I were you, I'd make a few friends doing regular skirmishing, see whether you prefer CQB or woodland, and then if circumstances suit, buy a sniper rifle as a 'project' that you can work toward implementing somewhere down the line when all the required knowledge and extra bits and bobs are in place and you have the spare cash to be able to indulge in making the thing fancy. The last thing you wanna be doing when you start out, is taking your one and only brand new rifle to bits, awaiting parts for it, etc. That sort of thing is far more fun when it isn't urgent that you get the thing working in time for your next skirmish.
What might possibly appeal to you, is Designated Marksman Rifles (DMRs), which are more like a 'mobile assault sniper/support gunner', who stays with the squad of regular riflemen as they assault the enemy, but can pop the odd shot which has more accuracy. Aside from being a less 'lonely' role, there is more scope for variety in the kind of weaponry you can use as a DMR, and most of the true DMRs can - at a push - stick up for themselves in a stand up firefight. It's quite common for people to get things such as the longer barrelled gas blowback WE M16A3, and make that a DMR, by upping the fps to 400, locking it to semi-auto fire only, and sticking a fast acquisition optic onto the thing. Again, since DMRs take a bit of work and lack some flexibility, I wouldn't say they were a great choice to start out with, but might possibly be something you could try after a while, since you can kind of regard DMR as 'sniper light'.
In short, stick with an AEG assault rifle to start out with. You'll find it suits you better.
I agree with what everyone else has said but you won't be working alone for long. You find that your teammates will be feeding you info on targets they can't hit and you'll find yourself as an asset to your side (If you help your team). I actually found it more of a team position than with an AEG. I tend to go by myself but for the first time I found other players interacting with me. Yeah, you could easily just sit right at the back, camo'ed up playing for yourself but it's more fun to be slightly more forward (Out of MED).
OK, Next time I go to my local range, I'll get a vid of me shooting the target at 100 meters. Maybe a week or so! Only issue is I don't have a laser range finder but this is the 75 meter range, I walk back 25 meters (You stand on a small raised grass section) to achieve the 100 meters. I'll take my 30 meter tape and take pics of everything.
