Sniper Shoots ISIS Fighter Dead From Over One Mile Away With 40-Year-Old Gun

Newsweek ^ | 8-12-18 | Jason Lemon

[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.

[Big Red Badger]

God Bless the Snipers!

[Vaquero]

How WORN was the barrel.

I have a 116 year old Krag that has an almost pristine barrel (shoots real good) I have a 136 year old 1873 winchester with a horrible barrel from black powder/mercuric primers and missed cleanings. It shoots ‘ok’.

40 years is in and of itself meaningless.

A Ma Deuce barrel that is not abused will last a long time.

[Manly Warrior]

Whew! Thank goodness someone with a bit of knowledge chimed in. Indeed the M2 can fire in both semi (single shot) and automatic modes. It also weighs in with tripod and T&E at around 130 lbs....pretty stable platform compared to a Barret M107 (M82 50 BMG snipers rifle) at about 35 lbs.

As afar a few other posts- no the bullet was not nor ever could fall into the target at 60 degrees. That is a diagram exercise- the angle of fall would be, for any bullet less than a few degrees at long range, as the bullet is stabilized and its CG and center of pressure keep it a bit nose up in its trajectory. even when the bullet reaches its max range, if still stabilized would be settling rather gently to the ground. Think of a football spiraling along- it settles rather than falls unless it is thrown upward at a very steep angle- bullets are not fired at much more than a few degrees above the gun-target line to achieve their max range- maybe 20 degrees for the average bullet/velocity combination. Google firing tables and max ordinate/range angle of fire....

The guy who mentioned a 20 degree wedge, he means a 20 minute of angle (1/3 degree) sight base. Space gun means either a long barreled adjustable stocked micrometer or optic sighted AR platform, or a modular chassis system bolt action like the Tubb T2000 etc.

Regarding the level of difficulty hitting a human target with a ball round from a tripod mounted optically sighted M2 at 1760 yards, well, probably not as hard as one may think. The M2 firing M33 ball rounds from a standard 48 inch heavy barrel runs a 633 grain bullet at 2900 fps or so, with about 12k lbs of muzzle energy and a very efficient bullet that carries its velocity well. The optics in use for general purpose may not be too useful, but the mounts allow the use of precision optics and the hard part becomes doping the atmospherics- sunlight effect, winds, mirage and yes, even rotation of the earth at longer ranges ( plus about 10 more bullet dependent variable like spin drift and precession etc).

The 128 lbs of MG and equipment adds to the stability of the weapon system and reduces shooter induced errors as well ( you don’t have to hold the weapon on your body at all, just aim and gently depress the trigger lever).

The standard precision requirements for the M2 and ball ammunition is somewhere around 6 inch mean radius at 1000 meters- meaning all rounds strike a target of less than about 12 inches.... Switch to modern sniping rounds and that can drop to less than a few inches-so again, the doping of the conditions and selection of a position that allows observation/engagement of the target become the critical skill sets.

Well done, Squaddie!

[tm61]

I like how the article states 3rd place goes to a Canadian, so, he got the Bronze in this years event?

[shelterguy]

“”””””Keep in mind this is from Newsweak.
They know it’s a machine gun because it’s black. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t say it was an “AK-15”.”””””””””””””

Did it have a high magazine clip?

[ltc8k6]

http://looserounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FD7D075F-6EB9-4DE4-BD73-1316829DDEF4-e1533914426703.jpeg

Image is huge...

[rlmorel]

I have also heard that it was used for single shot long range pinging/sniping...

[rjsimmon]

I’m guessing it was not a “Ma Duce”, thinking a Barrett or something like that. Can’t rely on reporters to get the technicals right on something like this.

White Feather did so in VN, so this chap may very well have done so too.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Carlos Hathcock sometimes used a .50 machine gun in single-shot mode in Vietnam.

https://www.military.com/marine-corps-birthday/carlos-hathcock-famous-marine-corps-sniper.html

[drop 50 and fire for effect]

We think of a “machine gun” as an area fire weapon. However they are rifles as well (a long, rifled, barrel, not smoothbore).

Big, heavy, rifles capable of automatic fire, and usually needing a couple of people to lug around all the associated crap (tripod, T&E, ammo, spare barrel, etc...)

But, assuming the barrel has not warped, that first round can be very accurate. Assuming the gunner knows the fundamentals of marksmanship.

[ontap]

If you just load one round it becomes semi auto!!!

[ontap]

There are such things as lucky shots you know!!!

[I want the USA back]

Betting the worm didn’t have time to yell “allahu akhbar.”

[HangThemHigh]

"The ground .50 shoots so slow it would not be hard to crank of single shots."

And if he sent 1-2 more rounds, so what? One is enough, if the extras hit bystanders, I suspect they weren't all that innocent.

[snoringbear]

Well, I stand corrected. Buy, knowing how the barrel is afixed in the receiver I find it difficult to believe the Duce can hold necessary tolerances to maintain accuracy for such a shot. But, maybe it just wasn’t the dudes day, don’t know. Maybe as fighter pilots refer to it, “magic bee-bee got him 🙄..

[SkyDancer]

American sniper Carlos Hathcock used one in Vietnam and a captain in Korea the same thing.

[Rashputin]

How many rounds had been through it and how much it had been used on auto, especially with tracer in the belts, is actually what I was wondering about. I should have been more precise.

In VN, Hathcock used a new barrel with a scope mount on the weapon and zeroed like you would any other sniper rifle. I gather that he got hits at out to a mile pretty regularly so I'm told. He had the record for a long shot until sometime around 2007, maybe 2006.

[ltc8k6]

You probably know this already, but if not you’ll be glad to know it.

They still make new M2’s for our military. It’s been much improved.

https://www.army.mil/article/92130/m2a1_machine_gun_features_greater_safety_heightened_lethality

FN still makes beautiful new M2’s under license as well.

http://www.fnherstal.com/en/product/fn-m2hb-qcb

[Bonemaker]

Thank you. However, the excerpt mentioned machine gun so I took that the kill shot was made with it in that role. But even with slow fire and superb glass a hit at that range would seem somewhat fortuitous. (What does an Air Force pistol guy know about infantry.?😎)

[Magnum44]

I don’t think its that steep. The flight time is roughly 3 seconds. The terminal velocity is still upwards of 1300 ft/s. The vertical velocity will only be 1/2*g*t^2 (g is gravity at 32 ft/s^2) and that not accounting for starting with a positive (up) vertical velocity due to elevation adjustment (about 65 to 70 MOA). SO vertical velocity at impact is less than 144 ft per sec (1/2*32*3*3) and horizontal is ~10 times that. The image you posted is not to the same scale in horizontal and vertical.