Super Sniper Kills Taliban 1.5 Miles Away

sky news ^ | 3 May 2010 | Adam Arnold

[shove_it]

A British army sniper helped save his commander and set a new sharpshooting record after killing two Taliban machine gunners in Afghanistan from a mile-and-a-half away.

Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison fired his consecutive shots from such a long distance that they took almost three seconds to reach their targets.

This was despite the 8.59mm bullets leaving the barrel of his rifle at almost three times the speed of sound.

The distance to his two targets was 8,120ft, or 1.54 miles - according to a GPS system - and about 3,000ft beyond the weapon's effective range.

The 35-year-old beat the previous sniper kill record of 7,972ft, set by a Canadian soldier who shot dead an al Qaeda gunman in March 2002.

Speaking about the incident, Cpl of Horse Harrison said: "The first round hit a machine gunner in the stomach and killed him outright. He went straight down and didn't move.

"The second insurgent grabbed the weapon and turned as my second shot hit him in the side. He went down, too. They were both dead."

The serviceman then fired a third and final round to ensure the machine gun was out of action. [...]

[Red Badger]

On one episode, Jed and Jethro were lighting matches at 300 yards with their rifles............

[SJSAMPLE]

LOL, I think I remember that.

Or the time Hollywood filmed a Civil War movie in the canyon behind the “cement pond” and Grannie picked up a rifle and joined in.

[Blue Jays]

Outstanding precision shooting to kill two terrorist enemies.
Excellent decision for that third shot to render their weapon useless, too.

[basil]

Thanks for enlightening me.

[Rappini]

I saw his story on the Military Channel he had to deal with wind drift coming from two direction the first two rounds missed but he nailed him on the his third shot I think it was 2430 meters. They were walking a Mountain ridge line according to the show.

[Red Badger]

......and they “captured” General Grant!...................

[SJSAMPLE]

That’s right!!!

And Granny had a whole suitcase full of Confederate script under her bed.

[Rummyfan]

Speaking about the incident, Cpl of Horse Harrison said: "The first round hit a machine gunner in the stomach and killed him outright. He went straight down and didn't move.

Hell yeah, the kinetic energy of that round is pretty lethal.

Good shooting Corporal!

[mcshot]

I’m quite sure these are separate incidents. I saw the one you commented on and believe he was Canadian. He was using a 50 cal BMG round and they had to switch to our ammo (better ballistics) when theirs ran out. Awesome shots for sure.

[Rappini]

Thank for the correction.

[absolootezer0]

makes this record more impressive, i don’t think the .338 lapua has quite the range of a .50bmg.

[Danae]

RIGHT ON!

Damn, I have to say that is just flat out sexy. Sorry call me inhumane, but there it is.

[nonsporting]

Putting this into perspective: a normal size man is approximately 19" wide at the shoulders. For easier computation let's make it 20". 20" at 1000 yards subtends 2MOA (minutes of angle). Under ideal conditions (which seldom exist), if one can hit a 2" circle at 100 yards, one can hit a 20" circle at 1000 yards. At 2000 yards one must hold 1MOA to hit a 20" circle. At 2640 yards (1.5 miles) one must hold .758 MOA to hit a 20" circle. [Please correct my math, if I've made a mistake.]

If a shooter is dialed in and conditions are perfect, hitting a man's torso is equivalent to holding < .75MOA. That's fine shooting. (Even G. David Tubbs, a highly decorated high-power shooter, took a few shots to get on paper at a mile using his 6.5-284 match rifle in a recent video.)

[Cindy]

Thread bump.

[smokingfrog]

http://www.army.mod.uk/equipment/support-weapons/1459.aspx

Designed to achieve a first-round hit at 600 metres and harassing fire out to 1,100 metres.