Carlos Hathcock Method of Sighting in a Rifle

Am Shooting Journal ^ | G Fisher

[w1n1]

Sighting in a rifle is an important thing to do if you want your rifle to be dead on when taking a shot.
Which brings us to the Carlos Hathcock way of sighting in a rifle.
For those that don’t know who Carlos Hathcock is, he was a United States Marine Corps (USMC) sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills.
Hathcock's record and the extraordinary details of the missions he undertook made him a legend in the U.S. Marine Corps.
He was a serious threat to the NVA (North Vietnamese Army), which they placed a bounty of U.S. $30,000 on Hathcock’s head.
The following is a story by Gus Fisher a retired MGySgt USMC who talks of the time he met Carlos.
What was unique was the way Carlos had taught Gus to sight in a rifle.

Here's a short excerpt:
I bought a sporterized Mauser in .308 with a scope on it from a fellow Marine during the time I was going through the Armorer’s OJT program on Camp Pendleton. I used that for ground squirrel hunting, but was never really satisfied with my zero on the rifle.
So after I came up on “The Big Team,” I asked the second senior Armorer – Ted Hollabaugh, if he could show me how to REALLY sight in a rifle with a scope. He said sure and he would do it, but since we had all the talent in the world at MTU, why didn't I ask one of the shooters?
Well, I was a young kid and I didn’t know any of the shooters that well – most of them were much older than I. That’s when he suggested I ask Carlos Hathcock for some help.
I didn't know Carlos then and did not know of his exploits in NM and Sniper shooting. Ted talked to Carlos about it and Carlos stopped by the shop later that afternoon.

Carlos looked at me and said, "So you want to sight in your rifle, eh? OK, thoroughly clean the bore and chamber. Dry the bore out with patches just before you come down to Range 4 tomorrow at noon on the 200 yard line. Have the sling on the rifle that you are going to use in hunting." Then he went on about his business.

When I got to Range 4 the next day, he had a target in the air ready for me. He told me to get down in the best prone position I had. He checked me and adjusted my position just a bit. Then he said, “Before you shoot.
The MOST important thing I want you to do is take your time and make it the best shot possible. It doesn’t matter how long you take, just make it a good shot.
ALSO, and this is as important, make sure you give me an accurate call on where you think the bullet hit the target.” After I broke the shot, I told him where I thought the bullet had hit.
He checked it by using a spotting scope when the target came back up. He grinned just slightly and said, "not a bad call." He then took a screwdriver and adjusted my scope a bit. He had me record everything possible about the shot and weather, humidity, temperature, wind, how I felt when the shot went off, what kind of ammo I was using, the date, and virtually everything about the conditions on the range that day. Read the rest of Carlos Hathcock method of sighting a rifle story here.

[Lurker]

For later.

L

[jonascord]

"Four inches of snow on the ground at Camp Pendleton??? He must have moved to Camp Lejeune somewhere in that story."

Pendleton can get wicked cold, with the fog rolling off the ocean, but no snow. Probably MCB Quantico. The USMC Rifle Team, the Big Show, staged out of there. The Fibbies and a lot of state and metro SWAT teams went there for training.

[Big Red Badger]

White Feather

[rjsimmon]

White Feather

Which is "Long Trang" in Vietnamese.

[Big Red Badger]

Thanks.
.
I did not know that.

[golux]

Thank you for posting. Extremely valuable information, and well-written.

[IncPen]

pings

[Manly Warrior]

Hathcock also was a world class marksman- he won the US Wimbledon NRA prone match at Camp Perry in the 60s....

Being a sniper in combat and living to tell the story is much much more than just marksmanship....

[Bonemaker]

“White Feather”

Listen up democrats...there are tens of thousands of potential white feathers out here. Carlos is our icon.

[Big Red Badger]

“BLACK BELT”

read your Page.