Canadian elite special forces sniper makes record-breaking kill shot in Iraq

Globe and Mail ^

[TigerClaws]

A sniper with Canada's elite special forces in Iraq has shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history at a staggering distance of 3,450 metres.

Sources say a member of Joint Task Force 2 killed an Islamic State insurgent with a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle while firing from a high-rise during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq. It took under 10 seconds to hit the target.

"The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [Islamic State] attack on Iraqi security forces," said a military source, who stressed the operation fell within the strictures of the government's advise and assist mission. "Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn't have a clue what was happening."

The kill was independently verified by video camera and other data, The Globe and Mail has learned.

"Hard data on this. It isn't an opinion. It isn't an approximation. There is a second location with eyes on with all the right equipment to capture exactly what the shot was," another military source said.

A military insider told The Globe: "This is an incredible feat. It is a world record that might never be equalled."

The world record was previously held by British sniper Craig Harrison, who shot a Taliban gunner with a 338 Lapua Magnum rifle from 2,475 metres away in 2009.

Previously, Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong had set the world record in 2002 at 2,430 metres when he gunned down an Afghan insurgent carrying an RPK machine gun during Operation Anaconda.

Weeks before, Canadian Master Cpl. Arron Perry briefly held the world's best sniper record after he fatally shot an insurgent at 2,310 metres during the same operation. Both soldiers were members of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

JTF2 special forces are primarily tasked with counterterrorism, sniper operations and hostage rescue. Much of the information about this elite organization is classified and not commented on by the government. The unit's snipers and members of Canadian Special Operations Regiment, who are carrying out the main task of training Kurdish forces, have been operating in tough conditions in Iraq.

The Trudeau government pulled CF-18 fighter jets out of Iraq in 2016 but expanded the military mission, which will see the number of Canadian special forces trainers climb to 207 from 69 in an assist, train and advise mission. Canadian commandos are not supposed to be involved in direct combat, but are authorized to go up to the front lines on training missions with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and to paint targets for coalition air strikes.

For operational security reasons, sources would not reveal the names of the elite Canadian sniper and his partner, nor the location where the action took place.

A sniper and his observer partner are often sent to remote and dangerous locations to hunt down insurgents while having to carry heavy equipment. Once they have located the target, snipers follow the same methodical approach before each shot. Breathe in, out, in, out, find a natural pause and then squeeze the trigger.

Canada has a reputation among Western military forces for the quality of its snipers, despite the small size of the Canadian Armed Forces compared to the United States and Britain.

"Canada has a world-class sniper system. It is not just a sniper. They work in pairs. There is an observer," a military source said. "This is a skill set that only a very few people have."

The skill of the JTF2 sniper in taking down an insurgent at 3,450 metres required math skills, great eyesight, precision of ammunition and firearms, and superb training.

"It is at the distance where you have to account not just for the ballistics of the round, which change over time and distance, you have to adjust for wind, and the wind would be swirling," said a source with expertise in training Canadian special forces.

"You have to adjust for him firing from a higher location downward and as the round drops you have to account for that. And from that distance you actually have to account for the curvature of the Earth."

U.S. Sergeant Bryan Kremer has the longest confirmed sniper kill shot by a U.S. soldier. He killed an Iraqi insurgent with his Barrett M82A1 rifle at 2,300 metres in 2004.

[BBell]

If Carlos Hathcock had a McMillan Tac-50 well who knows?

[Spktyr]

That would be the M12 - ‘King Kong.’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M12_Gun_Motor_Carriage

The classic response to sniper fire is to call in artillery. Unlike most other armies, American troops would use the M12 in direct-fire mode as enormous counter-sniper weapons instead of using a barrage to flatten an area.

M12 being used in direct fire role in a city, perhaps even to respond to sniper fire. Note the gun is in full recoil. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/M-12-6.jpg

[glock rocks]

bkmk

[billyboy15]

CRACK!

SPLAT!

cool.

[Jeff Chandler]

Glad he’s on our side.

[spetznaz]

Probably more like splat >> crack (as the sound wave catches up with the bullet)

[Molon Labbie]

There are more than few photos on the internet showing the outcome of being hit in the noggin by high speed high caliber sniper rounds.

One needs a strong stomach as it is now way represented accurately in Hollywood.

Movies with that level of accuracy may not get a rating less than NC 17.

[Daffynition]

It's impossible to compare yesterday to today It’s almost like comparing your 1980’s television to today’s HD plasma flat screen.

I think he used a Winchester Model 70 .30-06 using an 8-power Unertl scope. Primitive by today's standards. **Once he put a round through a Viet Cong’s sniper scope while the two men were looking at each other, several hundred yards apart. The bullet went through the enemy’s scope and into the sniper’s head.**

*White Feather* took down the infamous *Apache*, a female Viet Cong sniper. Gunney possessed legendary skill at stalking his targets for days, inches at a time. Going without food or water.

**At his retirement ceremony, he was given a plaque with a bronzed Marine campaign cover mounted above a brass plate that reads: “There have been many Marines. There have been many marksmen. But there has only been one sniper—Gunnery Sergeant Carlos N. Hathcock. One Shot. One Kill.”

God Rest his soul. He died too young.

[21twelve]

Hathcock was asked by a typical reporter something like “Does it ever bother you - the people that you have killed?”

“The one’s I’ve killed!? No. The one’s I missed sure bother me though. How many of my brothers did they go on to kill because I missed?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

TALLEY HO!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Luck definitely played a role. He might make that shot once in a hundred tries, but most of us won’t pull it off once in 10,000 tries. Think of the 2-D gaussian scatter pattern. He must have low bias and low scatter.

[Toadman]

I had the pleasure of meeting Gunnery Sergeant Hathcock. I asked him two questions.

1. Which shot was most satisfying?
Carlos: That damn Apache (he said it with real venom in his voice and elaborated he gave her another one “for good measure”).

2. You had 93 confirmed, how many would you estimate unconfirmed?
Carlos: I never really thought about it much but I think it’d be safe to say over 300.

Rest In Peace Marine.

[billyboy15]

Probably more like splat >> crack (as the sound wave catches up with the bullet)
**********************************************************

Sure, you’re right if looking at this from then perspective of the bullets recipient. I was thinking of it from the other perspective, that of standing by the side of the sniper.

Terrorist-SPLAT then CRACK
Sniper-CRACK then SPLAT

Right?

[wastoute]

Long distance shooting is truly a “Zen” art. Just the logistics are daunting. You have to learn to reload to a consistency of about 10 fps which is a task in it’s own. Then you must learn to “read the wind” and be able to see it as “waves on the beach” and coordinate your pulse with those troughs so the bullet will suffer the least deflection. Then you have to repeat the task so many times that you squeeze with confidence as you learned to “recognize the moment”. BE the bullet. Takes dedication.

[mad_as_he$$]

Think of the equipment White Feather was using compared to the equipment today. Also, as you say jungle shooting has it’s own issues.

[Daffynition]

“I really didn’t like the killing,” he once told a reporter.

“You’d have to be crazy to enjoy running around the woods, killing people. But if I didn’t get the enemy, they were going to kill the kids over there.” Saving American lives is something Hathcock took to heart.

Period.

[Daffynition]

Gunney called it: “The Best Shot I Ever Made”

“She was a bad woman,” Carlos Hathcock once said of the woman known as ‘Apache.’ “Normally kill squads would just kill a Marine and take his shoes or whatever, but the Apache was very sadistic. She would do anything to cause pain.” This was the trademark of the female Viet Cong platoon leader. She captured Americans in the area around Carlos Hathcock’s unit and then tortured them without mercy.

“I was in her backyard, she was in mine. I didn’t like that,” Hathcock said. “It was personal, very personal. She’d been torturing Marines before I got there.”

In November of 1966, she captured a Marine Private and tortured him within earshot of his own unit.

“She tortured him all afternoon, half the next day,” Hathcock recalls. “I was by the wire… He walked out, died right by the wire.” Apache skinned the private, cut off his eyelids, removed his fingernails, and then castrated him before letting him go. Hathcock attempted to save him, but he was too late.

Carlos Hathcock had enough. He set out to kill Apache before she could kill any more Marines. One day, he and his spotter got a chance. The observed an NVA sniper platoon on the move. At 700 yards in, one of them stepped off the trail and Hathcock took what he calls the best shot he ever made.

“We were in the midst of switching rifles. We saw them,” he remembered. “I saw a group coming, five of them. I saw her squat to pee, that’s how I knew it was her. They tried to get her to stop, but she didn’t stop. I stopped her. I put one extra in her for good measure.”

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area

All terrorists are "civilians".

[mewzilla]

Here he is serving is country by killing Islamists, and back home his government is welcoming Islamists through the front door.

Sigh.

[JoeProBono]