Free Republic

In this war, snipers matter in close-quarters urban fights. So does penetrating power. Accurate ranged lethality is equally important for squads in open areas, where engagement distances can easily make 5.56mm rounds ineffective. Bolt-action sniper rifles solve these problems, but can get your best people killed in close-up automatic firefights. Semi-automatic weapons have traditionally been less reliable and accurate, but offer the only reasonable approach that covers both extremes. The result has been the emergence of a hybrid approach, on both a people level and a technical level. On the human end, militaries like the Americans and British are adopting...

US Army Charges Sniper For Lost Gear After He Was Shot Vince Veneziani Jun. 3, 2010, 5:17 PM Image: Seattle Weekly Sniper Gary Pfleider was wounded while in patrol in Iraq back in 2007. A sniper shot him through his left leg and he didn't think he was going to make it. Luckily, he pulled through and received a Purple Heart for his bravery in combat according to Seattle Weekly. But that's not the only thing the Army awarded him with. They also gave him a bill for more than $3000 because of the gear he had to leave behind...

It was recently revealed that, last November, a British sniper (corporal Craig Harrison) set a new distance record when he killed two Taliban in Afghanistan, at a range of 2,620 meters (8,596 feet). He did this with a L115A3 rifle firing the 8.6mm Lapua Magnum round. The previous record was held by a Canadian soldier, corporal Rob Furlong, who dropped an al Qaeda gunman at 2,573 meters (7,972 feet) in 2002, also in Afghanistan. Furlong, however, was using a 12.7mm (.50 caliber) rifle. These weapons are good at 2,000 meters or more, but weigh twice as much as the 6.8...

Recognizing the differences between conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army is now selecting a contractor to upgrade the 22-year-old Remington bolt-action rifle to become a more effective killing machine. The Army will pour about $5.6 million into upgrades to the M24, with the new gear expected to be delivered to troops by this fall. The M24's barrel is being modified to shoot heavier .300 Winchester Magnum rounds, instead of the 7.62mm NATO ammunition, which should extend the rifle's maximum effective range by hundreds of yards to a maximum of about 1400 yards. The suppressor will reduce the noise and...

A British Army sharp shooter has told how he killed five Taliban soldiers in 28 seconds - in a desperate bid to protect a British patrol that the insurgents were preparing to ambush. The enemy targets were more than a mile away when the sniper, a corporal serving with 4 Rifles, got the all clear to take them out. The corporal - who has 37 confirmed kills in just four months in the war zone - said that he and his spotter were set up in an old fort in Haji Alem, in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province....

A British army sniper helped save his commander and set a new sharpshooting record after killing two Taliban machine gunners in Afghanistan from a mile-and-a-half away. Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison fired his consecutive shots from such a long distance that they took almost three seconds to reach their targets. This was despite the 8.59mm bullets leaving the barrel of his rifle at almost three times the speed of sound. The distance to his two targets was 8,120ft, or 1.54 miles - according to a GPS system - and about 3,000ft beyond the weapon's effective range. The 35-year-old beat the...

British sniper Craig Harrison (The Silent Assassin) breaks record, kills target from 1.5 miles away By Michael Sheridan DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, May 3rd 2010, 1:28 PM Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison, a British Army sniper, now holds the record for the farthest shot (1.5 miles), which took down two Taliban gunmenn in Afghanistan. CPL Craig Harrison Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison, a British Army sniper, now holds the record for the farthest shot (1.5 miles), which took down two Taliban gunmenn in Afghanistan. Related News A British soldier dubbed the Silent Assassin has broken a distance record after...

Recognizing the differences between conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army is now selecting a contractor to upgrade the 22-year-old Remington bolt-action rifle to become a more effective killing machine. The Army will pour about $5.6 million into upgrades to the M24, with the new gear expected to be delivered to troops by this fall. The M24's barrel is being modified to shoot heavier .300 Winchester Magnum rounds, instead of the 7.62mm NATO ammunition, which should extend the rifle's maximum effective range by hundreds of yards to a maximum of about 1400 yards. The suppressor will reduce the noise and...

Hotshot sniper in one-and-a-half mile double kill Michael Smith A BRITISH Army sniper has set a new sharpshooting distance record by killing two Taliban machinegunners in Afghanistan from more than 1 miles 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...

FORT POLK, La., April 23, 2010 – It was April 2007 and the early-morning sky was clear as Army sniper Sgt. 1st Class Brandon McGuire and his spotter scanned for insurgents near Forward Operating Base Iskandaryia in Iraq. "We were observing a stretch of road that had recently been cleared of IEDs [improvised explosive devices]," said McGuire, now the first sergeant of Alpha Troop, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment that’s based here. "The area had also seen a lot of mortar activity,” McGuire recalled. “We had several soldiers killed and severely wounded along that stretch of road by IEDs...

"The difference between the good guys and the bad guys is whether they use human shields or make themselves human shields."

But The Sniper adds a few good ones.

<p>The Sun reports that Flight Lieutenant Ian Fortune, 28, had flown in to pick up casualties as a firefight raged between American and Afghan forces and heavily-armed rebels near Garmsir in Helmand Province.</p> <p>Flt-Lt Fortune - who had TV presenter Mike Brewer on the aircraft filming a documentary - was advised to hold off on approach to the battle as it was "too hot" on the ground. He circled until troops reported incoming fire had calmed down.</p>

IT WAS like a bloodcurdling video game for sniper Steve Lewis as he saw a Taliban hand clutching an RPG appear over a wall 50 yards away. The army's best shot watched in delight down the sights of his L96A1 rifle as the launcher bobbed along for 20 yards behind the wall... and paused. The point of the rocket dipped and aimed towards him. The enemy's face bobbed up into the crosshair. And Steve squeezed the trigger. He saw the face wobble with the impact. Half of it blew away. The grenade launcher fell back over the wall and disappeared......

The army's best shot watched in delight down the sights of his L96A1 rifle as the launcher bobbed along for 20 yards behind the wall... and paused. The point of the rocket dipped and aimed towards him. The enemy's face bobbed up into the crosshair. And Steve squeezed the trigger. He saw the face wobble with the impact. Half of it blew away. The grenade launcher fell back over the wall and disappeared... but only briefly. Seconds later it was back up, bobbing along the wall. Steve watched it until it stopped, and fired again as a second Taliban face...

Spc. Matthew Mortensen (center), of Olathe, Kan., a combat medic with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, shows high spirits with Pfc. Juan Ortega (left), of Belen, N.M., and Pfc. Jorge Cruz, of Waterbury, Conn., after he was shot in the shoulder by sniper fire while on a presence patrol in Baghdad, Dec. 10. Mortensen was sent back to the United States for rehabilitation and recuperation and anticipates returning to his platoon in Iraq in February. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Ryan Nolan, 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. BAGHDAD — "I was probably two feet from my door of...

<p>"NatWest handed Al Qaeda terrorist 100% mortgage to buy £93,000 home he turned into a bomb factory"</p> <p>SNIPPET: "A bank has sparked outrage by handing over a 100 per cent mortgage to an Al Qaeda terrorist who smuggled himself into Britain.</p>

One of the D.C. sniper's ex-wives said Thursday that she has fully healed from the abusive marriage she endured with him, and is helping her children cope with knowing their dad won't be a part of their lives. Mildred Muhammad, 49, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that she and her three children watched news coverage of John Muhammad's execution in silence at their Maryland home. When his death was announced, the children - John, 19, Salena, 17, and Taalibah, 16 - went into different rooms and cried. "It was very difficult to see them in that kind...

JARRATT, Va. -- John Allen Muhammad, the sniper who kept the Washington region paralyzed by fear for three weeks as he and a young accomplice gunned down people at random, was executed Tuesday night by lethal injection.

t - 3 hrs and counting down..