A BRITISH Army sniper has set a new sharpshooting distance record by killing two Taliban machinegunners in Afghanistan from more than a mile away.
Craig Harrison, a member of the Household Cavalry, killed the insurgents with consecutive shots — even though they were 3,000ft beyond the most effective range of his rifle.
“The first round hit a machinegunner in the stomach and killed him outright,” said Harrison, a Corporal of Horse. “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 shooting — which took place while Harrison’s colleagues came under attack — was at such extreme range that the 8.59mm bullets took almost three seconds to reach their target after leaving the barrel of the rifle at almost three times the speed of sound.
The distance to Harrison’s two targets was measured by a GPS system at 8,120ft, or 1.54 miles. The previous record for a sniper kill is 7,972ft, set by a Canadian soldier who shot dead an Al-Qaeda gunman in March 2002.
In a remarkable tour of duty, Harrison cheated death a few weeks later when a Taliban bullet pierced his helmet but was deflected away from his skull. He later broke both arms when his army vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.
Not sure how much shooting you may have done or be familiar with, but reports were that the bullet drop on those shots were in the range of 400 feet. That would mean he put 2 shots on 2 targets 1.5 miles away within 5 seconds of one another.....while putting the crosshairs 400 feet above the targets.
As a side note, the reason the UK and Canada own these records is they are smart enough to be using the .338 Lapua rifles instead of the craptastic .308 that the U.S. uses. God help them if they start lugging those Barrett .50s up into the mountains.
Amazing accomplishment. Someone posts that sniper video awhile back...while disturbing, it was still interesting, scientifically speaking, to see the bodies fly after being hit.
the funny twist to the story is that Rob Furlong was out of Canadian ammo and grabbed some 50 cal from an American soldier and found out that his shots were reaching further! Gotta love American made bullets,
miir wrote:Ammo for the Lapua rifle is made in Finland.
.338 Lapua Magnum / 8.58x71
This cartridge is a purpose-designed round for long-range sniper shooting. It started its life as experimental .338/416 round, developed in around 1983 in USA by Research Armament Industries. It was based on the .416 Rigby case, necked down to .338 caliber and loaded with low-drag bullet. In 1984 RAI contracted finnish company Lapua to make production ammunition, and it soon caught up as a long-range sniper round with effective range against human targets being up to 1500 meters. Today this round is widely used in long range sniping role b military and law enforcement agencies worldwide, with many rifles being bulit for it (not surprisingly, most are bolt-action repeaters). There also few long-range target and hunting rifles in this caliber. Ammunition in this caliber is manufactured in several countries and wildey available, although expensive.
Not sure how much shooting you may have done or be familiar with, but reports were that the bullet drop on those shots were in the range of 400 feet. That would mean he put 2 shots on 2 targets 1.5 miles away within 5 seconds of one another.....while putting the crosshairs 400 feet above the targets.
Not to mention wind pull and Coriolis effect causing him to have to adjust to the left / right of his target(s).
Going out to play pool now with my fellow klan members. Have a nice night. - Midnyte
Not sure how much shooting you may have done or be familiar with, but reports were that the bullet drop on those shots were in the range of 400 feet. That would mean he put 2 shots on 2 targets 1.5 miles away within 5 seconds of one another.....while putting the crosshairs 400 feet above the targets.
Not to mention wind pull and Coriolis effect causing him to have to adjust to the left / right of his target(s).
teehee
May 2003 - "Mission Accomplished"
June 2005 - "The mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight"
-- G W Bush, freelance writer for The Daily Show.
miir wrote:Ammo for the Lapua rifle is made in Finland.
This is not accurate at all. Lapua is an ammo manufacturer and was the company contracted to finish the devlopment of the cartridge. If I had to put money down on who actually manufactured the round, my bet is Lake City Manufacturing in Missouri. They make a HUGE percentage of the military ammunition in North America....and are easily the largest in the world.
not that it matters who made the actual round....all the ammo is made to the same specs for military use no matter who made it. What matters is the guy hit actual combatants that were intent on doing damage with their machine gun and this guy smoked them from an insane distance and potentially saved lives. Gratz UK on the record!
