[wku man]

No, the .223 is not "high powered", and the killer is not a "sniper". I've seen PAC clerks, cooks, linguists and other REMFs hit targets consistently at 140 yards, which evidently the shooter hit the kid from. Start hitting your target from >600 yards, and then I'll start using the term "sniper".

Scouts out! Cavalry Ho!

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

seen PAC clerks, cooks, linguists and other REMFs hit targets consistently at 140 yards, which evidently the shooter hit the kid from. Start hitting your target from >600 yards, and then I'll start using the term "sniper".

sniper

n.

1. A skilled military shooter detailed to spot and pick off enemy soldiers from a concealed place.
2. One who shoots at other people from a concealed place.

[jim_trent]

I read that they found a tarot card with a message on it and a shell casing. It is more than obvious that the tarot card was deliberately placed there for the police to find. Seems to me that the shell casing would also have been placed there for the police to find. If he did that, it makes me think that he is not shooting a .223. There are a LOT of cartridges that shoot a 0.224"OD bullet other than the .223. They just probably jumped on that one because the .223 is chambered in dreaded "assault rifles".

[Cicero]

I agree. If you are basically coordinated, it doesn't take that much expertise to hit things with a rifle. I've only tried clay pigeons a couple of times, but I hit about half of them the first time I tried. With a stationary target, all you do is get a bead and squeeze the trigger.

When I went through basic training, most people figured out how to fire their weapons after a time or two at the rifle range even though they'd never fired anything before. It isn't rocket science.

[Shooter 2.5]

.223's are used in NRA High Power Rifle Matches and they are listed in the rule books.
The targets are at 200, 300 and 600 yards. I use the same load at the 200 as I do at the 600 yards. This is all done with iron sights and the x ring at 600 is only 6 inches across.
In the service rifle category the other rifles that are legal are the 1903, the M1 Garand and the M14/M1A.

[archy]

Start hitting your target from >600 yards, and then I'll start using the term sniper.

A real sniper is better defined by the targets he selects: high-value enemy personnel or equipment, preferably at a critical time. Taking out a key officer, a satellite dish or other piece of commo gear or crew-served weapon is the mark of a sniper, not the distance from which he engages his carefully-selected targets or the equipment he uses.

A trained sniper with the average grunt's issue weapon is still a sniper; an untrained rookie with the sniper's weapon is still just an amateur, though he may learn. But by picking unarmed ant-people not even trusted by their own government with weapons with which to fight back, the Maryland shooter has shown he's not much of a real sniper. He's shooting drones and pawns.

-archy-/-