Posted on 04/14/2012 8:52:20 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Snipers are the elite masters of the art of killing somebody from a distance before he or she has any idea what is going on. Of course, shooting from such a long range incurs a wide array of difficulties, leading to situations where making a successful shot is, by all logic and reason, impossible. It is in these situations where the best snipers sniff, wipe the sweat from their eyes and make the shot anyway.
(Excerpt) Read more at cracked.com ...
Those are all crazy shots.
The Barrett rifle is amazing. Thanks for sharing that!
Re: #4 Shooting through a wall
That was using a .50 round with a ring of RDX embedded in it for that extra “kick” in the fragmentation effect.
The Sniper movie with Tom Berenger was based on the “shot” by Carlos Hathcock. But here’s an excellent comment in the comments section:
POST: Mythbusters tried the scope shot and declared it busted, I’m probably the 600th person to say so.
REPLY: Mythbusters didn’t go to Marine boot camp and do two tours in Vietnam.
My pleasure.
I was wondering how he killed all three.
I saw that movie. It also had Billy Zane. Was Carlos the guy who left a feather after his kills?
I love the post and reply...classic.
Incompetence can be a blessing.
That was the episode where I really started becoming skeptical of Myth Busters. There are been numerous episodes where I think they really need some good engineers on their team.
I used to like Smash Lab because they were just flat out better than Myth Busters.
I consider myself an average shot. I’ve had some formal training, and a fair amount of experience firing everything from handguns to shotguns to modest power hunting rifles (30 cal class). I’ve also had the unique pleasure of firing a Barrett 50 cal. I honestly don’t know if all sniper rifles are like this or not but damn! With that big bright scope, the extremely steady hold made possible by the bipod, and the ridiculous hitting power of the round... I can see how modern snipers have the confidence to make the tough shots. Me, I just don’t have the knack nor the solid technique. But there are some damn fine pieces of equipment out there to support those that do...
I got to meet him and his beautiful wife awhile back here in TX. They are such "salt of the earth" types. I feel very fortunate I got to shake his hand, and thank him for his service to Our Country.
To add, the Mythbusters team are full of Obama ass-kissers. obama appeared on that show plus both hosts are liberals.
I have the Sniper trilogy on DVD. There was an exchange on Sniper 3 where the war-hating guy didn’t want to be in the operation and Berenger replies “you can head home and start peace protesting if you want but when you’re here, shut the f up and obey your orders”.
Nor did Myth whatever win the Wimbledon Cup 1000 yard match. Carlos’ marksmanship was beyond unbelievable.
What myth busters fail to take in consideration was distance. They preformed there shots at 30 yds, this was to close. The velocity was to high and the bullet had not fully stabilized. There were experiments done many years ago and it takes at least 100 yds to stabilize a 30 cal. 173 gr. bullet. To high of a velocity causes a bullet to fragment. A slower moving bullet will stay together and penetrate deeper..
That explains their lack of the ability to conduct abstract thought.
“They preformed there shots at 30 yds, this was to close.”
Are you kidding me?? Everything starts to add up that these clowns just want to downplay this achievement.
5 Real Life Soldiers Who Make Rambo Look Like a Pu(dd)y (cat)
http://www.cracked.com/article_17019_5-real-life-soldiers-who-make-rambo-look-like-pussy.html
“That explains their lack of the ability to conduct abstract thought.”
They can’t. If Sons of Guns’ created the same experiment, I would believe it more than these overrated bunch on MB. MB knows as much about guns and bullet trajectory than I do believing in the easter bunny.
The difference between fiction and real life is that fiction has to be believable.
Hathcock’s shot has been re-created numerous times. In fact it was recently done on the the show that featured Reichert. Mythbusters used modern multi lense scopes that weren’t used by the snipers that went up against Hatchcock. Hathcock shot through a crappy 3.5 power Soviet made PU scope that had lenses that were unlaminated and much more frangible than modern scopes. Also Hathcock’s rifle was chambered in 30-06 not the .308 used in Mythbusters.
He’s the guy who punched out that crackpot Ventura, isn’t he?
Yeah, he was...You know his hand seemed fine when I shook it. What a guy.
“when you’re trying to shoot from far away with any kind of wind, you have almost no goddamned idea where the bullet will end up”
I have always said that to make those really long shots you must have the wind gods on you side. You may know what the wind is at your loction at any given moment, but what is happening beetwen you and the target? Sometimes you can see heat wave to give a clue, but in a shifting gusting wind all bets are off.
My longest shot on game was an antelope at 970 yds and it was a 5 mph wind only 30 degrees off my nose. The wind shifted or died between me and the target as I squeezed the trigger an although I hit him it was a foot off and only wounded him. Fortunately the wind came back and my second shot was right on target a he dropped his head. He was dead but did not know it so I followed with a third that was right on and he went down. I really prefer making good clean humane kills when hunting.
I have that book,
another good read is,
Notes of a Sniper by Vassili Zaitsev, considered the greatest sniper of all time.
Amazing book, I read it in about a day and half.
I liked that they had some of the stuff from his wife in there. Some of the critics didn’t but I thought it added to the story hearing her perspective.
I didn’t know that there was more than one.
I like that quote a lot. :)
I have a relative who just completed his second tour as a Marine in Afganistan. He carried the Barret .50 and said it was not accurate enough.
IIRC, he had praise for the .338 Lapua. Even Savage now chambers a rifle that is very reasonably priced in that caliber.
I don’t own either, so I don’t have a review.
June 27, 1874, Adobe Walls, Tex.
The outpost was laid siege by Indians(native Americans) Several buffalo hunters are killed. BTW Bat Masterson was there.
Then ..
At the behest of one of the hunters, Billy Dixon, already renowned as a crack shot, took aim with a 'Big Fifty' Sharps (it was either a .50-70 or -90, probably the latter) he'd borrowed from Hanrahan, and cleanly dropped a warrior from atop his horse. This apparently so discouraged the Indians they decamped and gave up the fight. Two weeks later a team of US Army surveyors, under the command of Nelson A. Miles, measured the distance of the shot: 1,538 yards, or nine-tenths of a mile. For the rest of his life, Billy Dixon never claimed the shot was anything other than a lucky one; his memoirs do not devote even a full paragraph to 'the shot'.[1]
I've got the site in my GPS and one day drive out there. Over a thousand miles though.
Forgot the link..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Adobe_Walls
Is it a Discovery Channel documentary?
Probably the Discovery family. I think it was on about 2 years ago, History Channel.
Thanks.
I’m the proud owner of a .34 Weatherby Magnum and I have to say it’s one of the most accurate guns I’ve ever fired. I’ve heard about the Lapua .338 and would love a head to head match with it.
*low_whistle*
POST: Mythbusters tried the scope shot and declared it busted, I’m probably the 600th person to say so.
REPLY: Mythbusters didn’t go to Marine boot camp and do two tours in Vietnam.
Reply: Mythbusters never heard of Simo Häyhä
Ever wonder what the results are like for the fella who's the recipient of such a shot?
I'm thinking that invading Finland might not have been a good idea. Don't know how I got that idea...
At the time of the talvisota Winter War, Finland was experiencing the coldest winter of several decades, possibly of the XX Century, with nighttime temperatures certainly droping to -40°...and the Soviet troops had arrived wearing their summer uniforms, having been told that their fraternal Socialist trade unionist brothers in the cities would be welcoming them with open arms and providing shelter. The lucky ones had greatcoats, and they were indeed welcomed with arms; but few made it to the cities, and more died of exposure than from artillery and small arms fire. Nikita Kruschev, who was a company-level Commisar during the Finnish invasion, put the Soviet casualty numbers at a million soldiers; worse, seeing the drubbing handed out by Finlands reservists and amateurs gave Hitler the confidence that his professional Wehrmacht could finish the job in a year or two, and his Army high command agreed. Stalin's purges of the Soviet officer corps certainly helped, and the ineffectual Russian medical support meant that those who were wounded would freeze to death before treatment was even started, not real helpful so far as troop morale went.
At the time of the year [late Nov 1939- March 1940] and that far North on the Arctic Circle, there was only about 4 hours of daylight between darkness, making the feats of Häyhä's rifle marksmanship even more impressive. Helpfully, the only way the Soviets had to keep alive was to build fires, whick nicely backlighted them for a good marksman, whether with a rifle or *Tikkakoski mowing machine*.
And, of course, Häyhä has an olympic-level targetwshooter and hunter. Once he developed procedures that worked, he stuck to them as doctrine.
By the Russians.
Zaitsev killed Nazis.
Doesn’t matter who or what when they are going up against F-ing EVIL.
Simo BTT. About all he’d ever say about it was “I did my job.” I think of him sometimes when the topic turns to the occupation of American territory. Don’t go into the woods, fellers.
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