World Record Sniper Kill

[Guest WyattEarp]

1.54 miles (or 27 football fields) is the world record for longest sniper kill ever recorded. That's impressive. You'd never know it was coming till it was too late. Scary stuff.

The Long-Shot Rifle That Can Drop a Taliban Fighter from 1.5 Miles Away

L115A3: Arctic Warfare Super Magnum .338

[zapfbroad]

love the spotter salute in the first comment

[Guest fastbilly1]

very impressive

[peejman]

love the spotter salute in the first comment

+1 That's awesome!

[1gewehr]

You'd never know it was coming till it was too late. Scary stuff.

Umm, wouldn't that be true of ANY projectile that exceeds the speed of sound? In fact, even those that do NOT exceed the speed of sound won't give you enough time to react to move away from the point of impact. From a mile and a half, you would have a difficult time even seeing the muzzle blast of a cannon, much less a rifle.

[Jonnin]

if the bullet were moving at 1000 fps, and traveled 8000 feet, it took 8 seconds to arrive and the victim would have 3/4 of a second to move after hearing the sound, roughly... however it was probably booking right along at 2500 fps or so...

[MattCary]

Be sure to read the "Real Men of Genius" comment under the article.

Funniest thing I've read on the Internet lately, right beside: "What? You're NOT carrying?..."

[Guest db99wj]

That comment is one of the best ever!!

[mikegideon]

if the bullet were moving at 1000 fps, and traveled 8000 feet, it took 8 seconds to arrive and the victim would have 3/4 of a second to move after hearing the sound, roughly... however it was probably booking right along at 2500 fps or so...

If the bullet were travelling at 1000 fps, it wouldn't make it 8000 ft.

[Jonnin]

If the bullet were travelling at 1000 fps, it wouldn't make it 8000 ft.

correct, that was not really the point, I had to pick subsonic or the round arrives before the sound (which it does in reality) and 1000 was easy to do in my head.

[mikegideon]

Got it.

[Guest BungieCord]

Gizmodo is WAY behind the times. This shooting occurred in November of 2009.

What's really significant about this is that it broke the .50 BMG's stranglehold on the record that dates back to 1967. That was the year legendary Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock shot a VietCong from 2500 yards using a Browning M2 machine gun (single-shot, with a 20x Unertl scope affixed). That stood until 2002 when Rob Furlong, a Canadian sniper, shot a Taliban in Afghanistan from 2567 yards using a .50 BMG McMillan TAC-50. That held until Harrison's .338 Lapua shot.

The report of Harrison's shots at first was met with a lot of incredulity because you can't drive a .338 fast enough to remain supersonic at that distance. With the Brit's (and AI's) claimed MV, that round would have been down to about 800 fps at the point of impact. But it turns out the Brits are using a "magic" bullet, the 250-gr Lapua Lockbase. Lapua did a special job on it and it is one of the few bullets that isn't completely discombobulated by slowing through the transonic region. Even Lapua's own 250-gr Senar bullet won't do it. I'm unaware of any .50 cal bullet that's been documented to have that capability. Since that incident there have been a number of confirmed accounts to come from Afghanistan of snipers scoring hits with the 250 Lockbase at well in excess of AI's claimed max effective range of 1,640 yards, a distance based on the loss of speed of sound. So for the moment, the .338 with that bullet is King Schiznit of extreme range sniping.

Compounding the disbelief, when the story first broke, UK's Ministry of Defense was claiming Harrison's first shot was on target. Maybe they didn't know better themselves but eventually they were pressed into revealing the shooter's identity. When Harrison came forward and started giving interviews, he told he had fired eight or nine adjusting shots (I forget which) before he found his mark.

One thing that has stood out about these sniper engagements is that some of the Taliban tend not to run for cover when they know they're being shot at. Two of Furlong's adjusting shots hit the stuff his target was carrying before he finally brained him. I seriously doubt you could miss the telltale symptoms of a 750-gr .50-cal bullet hitting you in the backpack, even when fired from a mile and a half away, yet he just kept ditty-bopping down the road like nothing had happened. But apparently it's an article of faith with those guys. They say Insha'Allah, "If God wills it," and some of them mean it. If they duck, they think it's showing a lack of confidence in Allah's ability to protect them. Or maybe worse, in his desire to do so.

Something similar must have happened in Harrison's case because the second target apparently made no effort to seek cover when he saw his bud get zapped.

[Guest WyattEarp]

Gizmodo is WAY behind the times. This shooting occurred in November of 2009.

maybe the mission and the kill were classified for a specified period of time?

What's really significant about this is that it broke the .50 BMG's stranglehold on the record that dates back to 1967. That was the year legendary Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock shot a VietCong from 2500 yards using a Browning M2 machine gun (single-shot, with a 20x Unertl scope affixed). That stood until 2002 when Rob Furlong, a Canadian sniper, shot a Taliban in Afghanistan from 2567 yards using a .50 BMG McMillan TAC-50. That held until Harrison's .338 Lapua shot.

The report of Harrison's shots at first was met with a lot of incredulity because you can't drive a .338 fast enough to remain supersonic at that distance. With the Brit's (and AI's) claimed MV, that round would have been down to about 800 fps at the point of impact. But it turns out the Brits are using a "magic" bullet, the 250-gr Lapua Lockbase. Lapua did a special job on it and it is one of the few bullets that isn't completely discombobulated by slowing through the transonic region. Even Lapua's own 250-gr Senar bullet won't do it. I'm unaware of any .50 cal bullet that's been documented to have that capability. Since that incident there have been a number of confirmed accounts to come from Afghanistan of snipers scoring hits with the 250 Lockbase at well in excess of AI's claimed max effective range of 1,640 yards, a distance based on the loss of speed of sound. So for the moment, the .338 with that bullet is King Schiznit of extreme range sniping.

Compounding the disbelief, when the story first broke, UK's Ministry of Defense was claiming Harrison's first shot was on target. Maybe they didn't know better themselves but eventually they were pressed into revealing the shooter's identity. When Harrison came forward and started giving interviews, he told he had fired eight or nine adjusting shots (I forget which) before he found his mark.

One thing that has stood out about these sniper engagements is that some of the Taliban tend not to run for cover when they know they're being shot at. Two of Furlong's adjusting shots hit the stuff his target was carrying before he finally brained him. I seriously doubt you could miss the telltale symptoms of a 750-gr .50-cal bullet hitting you in the backpack, even when fired from a mile and a half away, yet he just kept ditty-bopping down the road like nothing had happened. But apparently it's an article of faith with those guys. They say Insha'Allah, "If God wills it," and some of them mean it. If they duck, they think it's showing a lack of confidence in Allah's ability to protect them. Or maybe worse, in his desire to do so.

Something similar must have happened in Harrison's case because the second target apparently made no effort to seek cover when he saw his bud get zapped.

now that's cool. I read a book about Carlos Hathcock's record kill on the N. Vietnamese General, where he spent several days crawling a few inches at a time to get in range to take the General out, and it probably one of the most amazing books I've ever read and what sucks is I can't even remember the name of it now, been so long since I read it.

[monkeylizard]

This book perhaps?Amazon.com: Carlos Hathcock "Whitefeather" (9781885633095): Chandler: Books

[E4 No More]

I believe it took Carlos 2 shots to kill the VC. The first shot struck the wheel of the bicycle knocking him down. The second shot killed him.

[Guest BungieCord]

maybe the mission and the kill were classified for a specified period of time?...

UK's MOD made the press release in spring of 2010. By the first of May, the British press was running photos of the shooter.

I believe it took Carlos 2 shots to kill the VC. The first shot struck the wheel of the bicycle knocking him down. The second shot killed him.

Different incident. The bicycle was closer to half a mile.

From the gunny's own lips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmg9VHjlx1M

The story of that shot begins at about four minutes. Gunny mentions that the target was bent over brushing his teeth as he fired, and he would have missed high, except the unlucky fellow stood up while the shot was on the way.

Edited August 10, 2011 by BungieCord