Posted on 09/18/2022 11:35:14 AM PDT by PROCON
Journey to the World-Record-Shattering 4.4 Mile Long-Range Rifle Shot
Scott Austin, Shepard Humphries, and half a dozen friends surpassed the previous record for longest target hit with a long range rifle on September 13, 2022, but their journey started long before that day.
Scott and Shepard both have a passion for shooting rifles at long ranges. Extreme long ranges. For many years they have operated Nomad Rifleman, a boutique extreme long range shooting experience, out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In 2020, they guided a client to set the Wyoming state record for longest hit on a target at a whopping 3.06 miles!
Not long after helping their Nomad Rifleman client break the Wyoming record, Scott, Shepard, and a group of their friends who also share a passion for long range shooting decided to attempt to set a new world record extreme-long-range shot; the record at that time was four miles. But this time it wasn’t business; it was for the challenge, fun, and bragging rights.
In late 2020 they began planning, with a target date of June or July 2021 for the attempt. A shot like this requires a custom-made, one-of-a-kind rifle. Because of the complexity of such a build, with custom parts coming in from Canada, New Zealand, Arkansas, South Dakota, Washington and elsewhere, there were many challenges to overcome in trying to get the rifle completed on time. Summer of 2021 turned out to be wishful thinking; the rifle was finally completed in May of 2022.
Bin Laden would not have just stood here and let you try 69 times...
Impressive. I wouldn’t even be able to see that far. Scope or no scope you wouldn’t be able to see the target. Agreed its for entertainment purposes and of course bragging rights.
I,a boy from the suburbs of Boston...who had never even held a firearm,let alone fired one,liked the M-14 a lot more.
I’m guessing that it is impressive to the billionaires in Jackson Hole and will be useful to the companies profits.
“Well sure that guy has $500 million more than I do - but can he hit a target a mile away?”
Hmm - reminds me of that book “The Most Dangerous Game” where the rich hunter got bored.
.416 with a 40” barrel.
Interesting. Appreciate the additional insight.
No. Sometimes they’ll hide on the wrong side of the rock, but after 3 they start figuring it out.
Lynn and four friends hunkered down inside the steel bunkers near the target, 4.4 miles away from the rest of the team, to listen and watch for impacts from missed shots.
How did Hatcher spot his impacts?
The answer must be deep in Fr. Frog's pages?
https://www.frfrogspad.com/index.htm
Does anyone know?
Mile is pretty easy with a decent caliber and good glass and some knowledge. It’s 2000 yards and more when it starts getting very technical.
I have quite a bit of trigger time on the M-14, and while I like it, I never found them to be more than ~2 MOA in accuracy. Expanding and contracting wood stocks, heavy action moving, etc. But they certainly get the job done and it’s a fine battle rifle.
From your ‘visited’ map, looks like you ended up in ‘Nam. My dad is a ‘Nam vet, hats off to you guys.
The link is at the 3rd comment, sorry.
We qualified on the M-14 and M-16 at Fort Lewis in ‘69 also.
I spray the bullseye on after the shot
Throw enough lead downrange and you're bound to his something eventually.
It saves time.
They had multiple spotters downrange in fabbed steel bunkers listening.
Does anyone remember a 1960s TV episode in which Civil War soldiers set up an across the river sharpshooter’s killing of an enemy soldier in order to make them believe they had lots of similar accurate rifles? The show was probably a drama series like GE Theater, not sure.
"...their 69th shot hit the bullseye....
Absolutely pointless. Why not use the Queen Mary as a target?
No rules regarding target size, no rules regarding how many rounds could be fired to make the attempt, and they have the chutzpah to call it a "world record"? Utterly ridiculous and proves nothing.
I could have sat in the exact same spot with a Ma Deuce and an infinite supply of ammunition and a spotter and moved the target back another foot, and even with the iron sights I'd eventually have hit the target and become the New World Record-Holder.
Which is exactly why Bryan Litz created the King of Two Miles shooting competition. Because simply the fact that you managed to hit a randomly-sized piece of steel after a hundred warm-up shots is a pretty shoddy standard for a world record.
Wake me when he's used this same rig to finish in the money at the KO2M.
Depends on whether your target’s eventual conclusion is, “He hates these cans!”
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