British sniper kills 2 insurgents from a mile and half away

[deth2munkies]

knocked out the Canadian's record by just under 200ft. Good on ya.

So the standings are:
First = Britain
Second = Canada
Third = USA?

Pretty sure the 3rd was a Russian at Stalingrad...he did ~1 mile with a Mosin Nagant.

 

[uncle-ellis]

I know there human lives and all but... Thats just bad-ass!

 

[JWAN]

Skill is required that's not up for discussion,

However,

1) Technology is available
-so this is really not that impressive-
2) No visible muzzle flash
3) No shot sound
-Will allow plenty of trial and error shots-

i mean kudos to the shooter, but that doesn't make him the best sniper.

Technology only goes so far. A rifle will not compensate for Coriolis, multiple wind directions (and variable wind speeds), heat differences depending on valleys/draws/saddles or altitude in general,
This methinks points to skill.

 

[Spitfire175]

Eat your heart out Hutch, Optic and T-Squared.... this is a real pro-sniper.


Now I don't know anything about sniping but my guess is that this was an extreme feat of skill, any gun owners care to explain exactly how difficult this must have been and what was involved in hitting someone from that far?

And I have been told by a buddy that at that distance with a 50 Cal bullet, due to the air it pushes up it wouldn't even have to hit you to kill you, is this true?

Ahh,finally, my area of expertise. Bona Fides, I used to carry the coveted "B4" designator, which denotes a graduate of the Long Range Infiltration and Interdiction (Sniper) school. I've trained on three primary sniper weapons, and none of them was capable of this feat, and I'll be the first to admit I wouldn't give myself one chance in fifty of hitting the shot this guy did, much less twice. It's impressive on the sort of scale I can't really convey. Long range marksmanship has always been an amalgamation of science and art, and this guy is a wizard.

The L115A3 is a hell of a rifle, and one of the most capable of extreme ranges in any nations arsenal (barring custom SF jobs). And worthy of note is that it is NOT a .50, but rather a .338 Lapua Magnum chambering, a relatively recent cartridge developed in the '80s. Also note that Harrison stated that he had taken nine ranging shots of the area in question beforehand, which lends credence to his amazing shots.

Even so, this shot was at more than twice the effective range of the rifle. Let me illustrate the difficulty here, discounting wind, (because Harrison said the wind was calm, a true rarity). Hold a bullet out at arms length and drop it, thats what happens when a bullet leaves the barrel, it drops as fast as gravity demands, it just also travels forward at high velocity. At a thousand meters, the drop on my personal weapon was 112 inches. That means I had to adjust the scope to aim 112 inches above the target for the bullet to drop into the zone. Now, the .338 is a faster cartridge than the .308 I used, but still, figure the bullet drop is at least in the same ballpark (one chart I consulted listed the .338 at 137 inches drop at 1k meters). Now note that the shot taken was 2.48 kilometres, or two and a half times the length of my benchmark shots, and recall that the bullet loses velocity over distance, and so describes an increasing parabola. The drop of that bullet would be measured in tens of meters. Now figure that at standard loadings, the .338 travels in the 2800fps category, making hte travel time to target almost three seconds. A human being can move a lot in three seconds. I hope this gives y'all some inkling, but suffice it to say, the more you know about this sort of work, the more impressive the shot is.

And at close range (less than 600 meters), a .50 can injure without contact, but I doubt there would be anything left at 2.5 klicks. Remember we're not talking about a .50 here.

I wholeheartedly agree with everything above.

The drop of the Lapua .338 is 135 inches at 1k. Or so I've read from their catalogues. And told by marksman instructors when I was in the army. (Tarkk'ampujakoulutus, or if you want it in English, sniper training.)

The longest shot I've managed to take was just above 900 metres, with my Sako TRG 42, chambered in the same .338. And That was really a lucky shot. And I'm, dare I say it, quite good with a rifle, or at least not terrible. But this Harris fellow, my god, he's beyond belief.

 

[Shadow XXVII]

knocked out the Canadian's record by just under 200ft. Good on ya.

So the standings are:
First = Britain
Second = Canada
Third = USA?

Pretty sure the 3rd was a Russian at Stalingrad...he did ~1 mile with a Mosin Nagant.

I just looked it up. Here is the wikipedia link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_recorded_sniper_kills

It goes:
1 Britain
2 Canada
3 Canada
4 United States (Carlos Hathcock FTW!)
5 Britain
6 Norway (Totally anonymous guy to so that's cool)
7 United States

 

[JWAN]

knocked out the Canadian's record by just under 200ft. Good on ya.

So the standings are:
First = Britain
Second = Canada
Third = USA?

Gunny.Carlos Hathcock

Using a modified browning .50 cal machine gun back in 1967. I think the Canook beat that record in 2003...I could be wrong though.

Anyway thats a damn good shot and a testament to cross-training between countries.

 

[Deofuta]

I bethca hes gotta bit of Aussie in him!

That's what you guys get when you use some of that Jarate, yessir!

 

[copperflyingace]

knocked out the Canadian's record by just under 200ft. Good on ya.

So the standings are:
First = Britain
Second = Canada
Third = USA?

After a certain distance, the US Army just says "Fuck it" and calls in an air strike courtesy of the US Air Force, and the US Marine Corps never let their enemies get that far away. The US navy on the other hand will kill you with a ship to ship shot at sea. Joint ops FTW!

 

[Hlain]

Bah, I've only gotten to about 1000 feet in Battlefield. :/
It was a headshot though...

 

[Gardenia]

Marksman bonus +500.
That's some real nice shooting.

Wiki Simo Häyä:
killed 500 Russians by camping 3 months in snow, how did he do it? with an old fashioned rifle and iron sights (no scope). Now tell me THATS not impressive sniping.

Ah the Finns. I wouldn't get in any kind of fight with one of them. Over anything at all. Just look at the winter war. Be afraid, be very afraid.

 

[HitsWithStyxx]

Hitting the targets from that distance is quite a feat, of course made easier with technology but still very difficult due to the Coriolis effect, wind direction, and other such. As for the 50 Cal round, it depends on a lot of factors but I believe you'd be pretty dead if it came anywhere near you.

Yeah, it would only have to pass within about a foot or two of your head and the shockwave would kill you.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

but civilians arguing over who is hte best sniper is an exercise in idiocy. It's like virgins arguing over sexual prowess.

I take issue with this, not doing something doesn't mean your opinion is automatically invalid.

Not having children doesn't mean you don't know how to look after children, doctors don't get a tenth of the diseases they cure but when it comes to firing a weapon.... pfft stupid civilians.

No, and no, I reject that a thousand times, I understand that your leet with a sniper wiffle but don't go telling other people they can't like Simo Hayha because they're a "civ" and haven't fired a Mosin Nagant.

I'm adept with a sword but I never go online telling people that aren't samurai's they can't have an opinion about Nunchaku's because they haven't held one.

Sorry to rag on you, nothing personal (apart from your comment) it just irritates me when people do that... also I'm saying sorry because you know how to use a gun and I've got a sword and bow, so I'll straight out lose this fight if shit actually gets serious.

I understand that you set your whining dial to 11 but you are misquoting.

He didn't say you can't like a sniper. He is saying that you lack any objective criteria to dictate what the "best" sniper is. There is a difference between having an opinion and talking about something you have no real reference for.

 

[era81]

knocked out the Canadian's record by just under 200ft. Good on ya.

So the standings are:
First = Britain
Second = Canada
Third = USA?

Gunny.Carlos Hathcock

Using a modified browning .50 cal machine gun back in 1967. I think the Canook beat that record in 2003...I could be wrong though.

Anyway thats a damn good shot and a testament to cross-training between countries.

Yeah in 02 Cpl.Rob Furlong during op Anaconda.

 

[SirDerick]

Now if he killed both insurgents WITH ONE BULLET I would have made a mess in my pants.

Otherwise, I'm only amazed.

 

[Spoonius]

It must have taken extraordinary skill and concentration for the soldier to pull off these shots, no doubt about that. But sniping just doesn't sit well with me, on a moral level.

Think about the two targets for a second. They never had the chance to fight back, or to avoid their fate. They weren't allowed to surrender, run, or even see their killer before they died. They never had any options at all, and were virtually defenceless.
Meanwhile, the sniper wasn't in any danger, and as the nine ranging shots would indicate, was able to calmly plan and calibrate the killing shots.

Killing in the heat of battle, when under pressure, and threatened by enemies employing lethal force is one thing, but this just seems more akin to "premediated murder" in my opinion.
Yes, the ability to inflict enemy casualties and damage morale without having to place friendly troops in danger and risk their lives is tactically sound, a logical concept that I completely agree with. Snipers are amongst the most effective assets available to a commander, without question.

I dunno... just think of one of the "badass" snipers you guys have being quoting.
Simo Hayha for example.
Now imagine being in the boots of a Russian soldier, one of the many he killed. Yeah, the man was a skilled hunter, and sure he ended up with a massive number of notches on his belt, but in my opinion the poor Russians who were tasked with finding him were braver men. They had to carry out their missions knowing full well that they were outclassed, outgunned, at could die at any moment without any warning.
Sure it takes balls to engage over seven hundred enemy soldiers, but it takes true courage to challenge an enemy you can't see, and whom will kill you without hesitation, simply because you're Russian.

Also, when people view "kill" tallies as achievements... well that just irritates the fuck out of me. If a developer makes a bad game, you all jump on the bandwagon and give them seven shades of shit about it, but a man kills OVER SEVEN HUNDRED HUMAN BEINGS and you consider him a fucking hero?!

I realise that this post isn't crystal clear, and sorry about the outburst, but you guys DO get what I mean, right?

 

[sdafdfhrye3245]

Pfft big deal I do that kinda stuff all the time

 

[DigitalSushi]

but civilians arguing over who is hte best sniper is an exercise in idiocy. It's like virgins arguing over sexual prowess.

I take issue with this, not doing something doesn't mean your opinion is automatically invalid.

Not having children doesn't mean you don't know how to look after children, doctors don't get a tenth of the diseases they cure but when it comes to firing a weapon.... pfft stupid civilians.

No, and no, I reject that a thousand times, I understand that your leet with a sniper wiffle but don't go telling other people they can't like Simo Hayha because they're a "civ" and haven't fired a Mosin Nagant.

I'm adept with a sword but I never go online telling people that aren't samurai's they can't have an opinion about Nunchaku's because they haven't held one.

Sorry to rag on you, nothing personal (apart from your comment) it just irritates me when people do that... also I'm saying sorry because you know how to use a gun and I've got a sword and bow, so I'll straight out lose this fight if shit actually gets serious.

I understand that you set your whining dial to 11 but you are misquoting.

He didn't say you can't like a sniper. He is saying that you lack any objective criteria to dictate what the "best" sniper is. There is a difference between having an opinion and talking about something you have no real reference for.

Actually I agree'd with him afterwards, but thanks for hitting it home.

Yeah i'm keeping it at 11.

 

[The Bum]

Nice Shot mate! But yeah thats danm near impossible you got your crolis effect wind air prresure humdity all that good stuff.

 

[quantum mechanic]

Wow. That's cool.
Know what else is cool? Apparently, the required shooting distance for Turkish archers in the Middle Ages to have complete their training was 900 gez. This is equivalent to 594 meters! In 1795 Mahmoud Effendi, a secretary at the Turkish Embassy in London, made a shot of 482 yards on Finsbury Fields, and reportedly apologised for an indifferent performance by Turkish standards.