Posted on 08/12/2018 10:17:14 PM PDT by NoLibZone
A British soldier from the elite Special Air Service has shot and killed an ISIS commander from more than a mile away, in what is thought to be the best long-range shot in the regiment’s 77-year history.
Using a a huge .50 Calibre Browning machine gun, which is nearly 40 years old, the unnamed sergeant, who is a veteran of Iraq and Syria, managed to hit the fighter directly in the chest with a shot that blew off the commander’s arm and shoulder.
“The Islamic State commander was briefing his men and clearly liked the sound of his own voice because he was standing still for a least 20 minutes while his fighters sat on the ground in front of him,” a source familiar with the incident, which took place in June in Afghanistan, told The Daily Star Sunday.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Often stuff like this was field improvisation. In Vietnam, Carlos Hathcock's most distant kill was hit with a shot from an M2 Browning. IIRC, the armorers had come up with a way to mount the Unertl 10X sniper rifle scope on the heavy machine gun, which I'm sure was a surprise to the enemy who thought himself well out of range.
I’ll stay on the giving end...
No, No it was a AKR-500 Mosslishnacouph.
Who’s got that enimedia ID Pic for A$$ault Weeponz ?
Female Reporter: What did You feel when You made that shot ?
Sniper: A slight Recoil, Mam.
this story is hard to believe. let me explain
at over a mile, my guess of bullet flight time is 2 seconds.
that means that the bullet will drop 64 feet from line of sight.
I just don’t think you can ‘hold’ 64 feet, and get within 2 feet of your target.
perhaps someone could enlighten me
Hathcock used them too on occasion
Just call me Commander Lefty.
I remember that picture vividly. Not going to link to see it again. Super wow....
The shooter may have been on a hill and he allowed for drop...and likely wind in his aim.
Per the article:
In June 2017, the Canadian Armed Forces confirmed that one of its snipers had shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history at a distance of 3,540 metres (2.2 miles), The Globe and Mail reported.
“The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target at 3,540 metres,” the forces said in an official statement. The unit was operating in Iraq and the target was also an ISIS militant.
White Feather did it 1967 with crappy optics.
In 1967, Hathcock set the record for the longest sniper kill. He used an M2 .50 Cal Browning machine gun mounted with a telescopic sight at a range of 2,500 yd (2,286 m), killing a Vietcong guerrilla.[38] In 2002, this record was broken by Canadian snipers (Rob Furlong and Arron Perry) from the third battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry during the War in Afghanistan. Hathcock was one of several individuals to utilize the M2 Browning machine gun in the sniping role. This success led to the adoption of the .50 BMG cartridge as a viable sniper round. Sniper rifles have since been designed around and chambered in this caliber since the 1970s.
Per wiki.
Yep.
If it was a Ma Deuce he was probably lobbing bursts of rounds in the general direction. This was not precision long range classic sniper shot...not with a machine gun.
The well worn and well used Ma Deuce.....
John Moses Browning still striking America’s enemies from the grave!
I love a nice feelgood story to start the week.
I seem to remember Hathcock cycling a single round from an M2. He was the antithesis of a spray and pray guy.
“Didn’t realize those were used as sniper weapons or that they had a semi automatic setting.”
I think it’s unlikely that the sniper used a “machine gun.” More than likely it was the standard 50. sniper rifle. The media has, yet again, given us an incorrect story.
Mark Twain said, “A man who doesn’t read the newspaper is uninformed. A man who reads the newspaper is misinformed.”
General Dynamics designed a stabilized remote controlled setup for the 50 cal mounted on the Stryker. The number of rounds fired per kill with that gun went from 50 to three.
Not to pick nits with your answer but the vertical drop from line of sight would actually be 48 feet ... 16 feet in the first second and 32 feet in the second. And yes, if the sniper is positioned higher on the vertical than the target, the 48 feet figure would be reduced by the estimated vertical difference. The spotter figures all that out.
Helluva a shot in any case.
Sniper was using NZT.
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