3/4 mile kill with .308 in Iraq

[georges]

Sniper shot that took out an insurgent killer from three quarters of a mile:

Gazing through the telescopic sight of his M24 rifle, Staff Sgt Jim Gilliland, leader of Shadow sniper team, fixed his eye on the Iraqi insurgent who had just killed an American soldier.
His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a hospital in battle-torn Ramadi, still clasping a long-barrelled Kalashnikov. Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow's commander aimed 12 feet high.
A single shot hit the Iraqi in the chest and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of 1,250 metres, well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold sight, accurate to 1,000 metres.
"I believe it is the longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a 7.62mm rifle," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, 28, who hunted squirrels in Double Springs, Alabama from the age of five before progressing to deer - and then people.
"He was visible only from the waist up. It was a one in a million shot. I could probably shoot a whole box of ammunition and never hit him again."
Later that day, Staff Sgt Gilliland found out that the dead soldier was Staff Sgt Jason Benford, 30, a good friend.
The insurgent was one of between 55 and 65 he estimates that he has shot dead in less than five months, putting him within striking distance of sniper legends such as Carlos Hathcock, who recorded 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. One of his men, Specialist Aaron Arnold, 22, of Medway, Ohio, has chalked up a similar tally............................................ More info in the link.
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/...01.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/01/ixnewstop.html

 

[9inch]

that kind of long-range shoot with bullet drop & wind are very impressive !
I would like to do the same thing in battlefield 2 with my m24 but that's sooo haaarrrd

 

[Sweeper]

Give that man a medal I suppose. He's a crack shot!

 

[hmmhoyhoy]

I have hit game from that distance while hunting, but its got to be something totally different , glad hes on our side

 

[D-rock]

That is a pretty nice shot, although probably more lucky than not. If for no other reason than the weapon they gave him probably isn't capable of doing that on a regular basis. Any human error after that just would magnify the problem. I do have to give him credit for one thing. Instead of playing around with the adjustments on his scope he adjusted his aim manually. That is something I find people don't learn to do often enough especially at the long ranges. That is also something I feel is even more important in these types of situations. It does take being incredibly intimate with your rifle before you can just do that though. It isn't just about memorizing trajectory charts, because every rifle is a little different. Although, he could have just did that only because his scope didn't adjust that far. I do wonder how hard the wind was blowing. Figuring out windage at that range is always a bitch, even harder than the bullets drop. Depending on how strong it is and in which direction it is blowing from you might have to hold off entire meters, which actually goes against most people’s instinct. Keep in mind at that range you are looking at a small target, even through the scope. One other thing, most people are used to the bullet arriving almost instantaneously, but when you start shooting that range it takes a few seconds for it to arrive. If the target happens to move during that time you're screwed. Still a 1,200+ meter shot is still great when you only get one shot.

Oh and I am not surprised he hunted squirrels. After all the long range varmint hunters are the best shots in the world.

 

[Incentive]

I still think Vassili Zaitsev is the best sniper ever

 

[juballs]

I still think Vassili Zaitsev is the best sniper ever

haha i was just about to comment how this reminded me about the great snipers in enemy at the gates

 

[youlneverstopme]

Some USA red-necks just don't get it.

USA invaded Iraq without UN backing and, what's more USA is using illegal napalm derivatives in there - USA are just a bunch of scumbag war criminals.

Here's a newflash - huge swathes of the whole fucking world hates the USA now.

Pleased about that, USA?

Wankers - the lot of you, if you support that 24-carat moron Bush.

 

[Icola]

Enemy at the Gates was such a good movie

 

[spiceworld]

Some USA red-necks just don't get it.

USA invaded Iraq without UN backing and, what's more USA is using illegal napalm derivatives in there - USA are just a bunch of scumbag war criminals.

Here's a newflash - huge swathes of the whole fucking world hates the USA now.

Pleased about that, USA?

Wankers - the lot of you, if you support that 24-carat moron Bush.

That wasn't the point of the thread.
If you really want to talk about the war itself, search the forum, there must be 2-3 threads talking about that.

 

[youlneverstopme]

spiceworld,

This thread was celebrating a USA sniper killing an Iraqi insurgent in spectacular fashion - the insurgent who got shot wasn't a tin can at a fairground, it was a human being and may have been an Iraqi who resented the invasion of his country and believed that, by killing US soldiers, he was fighting to defend it.

There's wrong on both sides.

 

[SeraphiM]

Some USA red-necks just don't get it.

USA invaded Iraq without UN backing and, what's more USA is using illegal napalm derivatives in there - USA are just a bunch of scumbag war criminals.

Here's a newflash - huge swathes of the whole fucking world hates the USA now.

Pleased about that, USA?

Wankers - the lot of you, if you support that 24-carat moron Bush.

Since when does any country need UN approval to go to war? :1orglaugh

USA are a bunch of War criminals? :1orglaugh

 

[Red Spyder]

As far as I'm concerned, to me that's excellent news. Regardless whether it was luck or training, though most likely it was individual skill with a bit of luck, just reading the entire link was good news. For all this time, whenever I've heard news of American soldiers in action in Irak, it seemed to me that for every bullet U.S. soldiers shot about 20 innocent Iraqui civilians would either be killed or wounded but no insurgents were hit and that insurgents were killing American soldiers with impunity. I'm glad to know that has not been the case.

"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and like it, never really care for anything else thereafter."
Ernest Hemingway.

"He got that right. It was the hunt, not the killing."
Carlos Hathcock on Hemingway's remark.

 

[jdb67]

Some USA red-necks just don't get it.

USA invaded Iraq without UN backing and, what's more USA is using illegal napalm derivatives in there - USA are just a bunch of scumbag war criminals.

Here's a newflash - huge swathes of the whole fucking world hates the USA now.

Pleased about that, USA?

Wankers - the lot of you, if you support that 24-carat moron Bush.

Before you go calling me a Wanker, look at my Avatar....

While I dont support Bush, I do support the Soldiers and what they are doing.

The United Nations is a useless toothless Tiger and is no better then its Predecessor, The League of Nations!!!

Africa is proof of that!!!:2 cents:

 

[McRocket]

USA are just a bunch of scumbag war criminals.

Sure you don't want to rephrase that? Like every country, there are many, many good people in the USA.

But I understand your frustration. Yes, there is wrong on both sides in my opinion. The people at and/or near the top almost certainly (as far more often then not). But the lower downs are just doing what they always do...carry out the bosses wishes. Hard to blame them too much, isn't it?

 

[spiceworld]

Before you go calling me a Wanker, look at my Avatar....

While I dont support Bush, I do support the Soldiers and what they are doing.

Exactly what i think, i've got nothing against the soldiers, just the guys who are telling them what to do.

 

[georges]

Here is my reply sorry if it is too long but I had to tell some things and my honest feelings.
The modern sniping appeared before the 20th century, in the secession war where there was an apparition of first scoped rifles.
In the 1st world war appeared rifles allowing to shoot beyond the 1000m range, the most famous of them were the mauser gewehr 98, the springfield m3a3, the lee enfield smle markI and the mosin nagant 1891-30. In the second world war, both allies and forces of the axis started to use snipers. The most of the famous snipers during WWII were mainly russian:Vasili Grigorievitch Zaitsev (257 nazis killed) and two women:Ludmiliya Pavlichenko (300 nazis killed) and Nina Alexeyevna Lobkovskaya (309 kills) all used the same weapon from 1891, the Mosin Nagant. All the three were Heroes of the Soviet Union.
In vietnam appeared the legendary Carlos Hatchcock who killed over 93 viets, after he retired from the army while being injuried, he helped Springfield to developp more accurate weapons. He also made the longest combat kill in 1967 with a browning mh2b cal 50 (12.7mm) machine gun, he shot a viet at 2250m!!!! Hatchcock's record was beaten by a canadian sniper from Princess Patricia Canada's light infantery by killing a taliban at 2340m in 2002 in Afghanistan with a 50BMG Barrett M82A1 semi auto sniping rifle.
Which shows that th combinaison of exprimented varmint or long range shooter alongwith highest accuracy material can be every efficient.

A lot of US soldiers deaths in Iraq were caused by Juba an Iraqi sniper who used the svd as his gun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juba_(sniper)
He was arrested thanksfully.

To youlneverstopme:
Since when the U.N. was able to solve conflicts efficiently? It failed in 1982 in Liban, in Bosnia in 1996 and with Irak in 2003. It has showed its uncapacity to take quick and efficient decisions when needed.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/2342/unannan1cx.jpg that pic sums very well who is Annan.
What kind of conflicts did theU.N. solve efficiently? None.

I would like to know according to which proofs do you call USA war criminals?
Maybe you forget the Marshall plan that helped your country to rebuild itself economically and socially. The whole world hates USA? On which valid proofs
did you come to make this statement? Only far leftist/communist/rogue states with no respect of Human rights hate USA and their allies.
Do you honestely think that the cowardise of some European leaders like Zapatero for removing his trrops in Irak is an example of fighting terrorism?
Zapatero was elected because of attacks that happened in Spain. Am I proud of Jacques Chirac (the shittiest president France ever had ) for not going to war against Iraq and kissing Saddam's ass before the war? No. Even Mitterand if he was alive would be ashamed of Chirac. The foreign policy that Mr Chirac has established is really full of shit and I am not afraid to say it.
I always had and always will have respect for U.S.A and countries who are backing up and acting in the same way than U.S.A than some latitudinarian countries who hide and help terrorists as well as rogue regimes.
Do you honestely think that people following Ben Laden's ideas should be respected when they kill people who are not sharing the same views and religion than them? I think no because for me a terrorist is a terrorist.

Don't you think that killing innocent civilians the 11th september 2001 and depriving many families of their relatives was not wrong and crual?

Antiamericanism has no reason to be seriously. Some people forget too quickly who saved their country during wwII and they should remember that they owe a lot to USA during the war and after the war.

 

[D-rock]

Hatchcock's record was beaten by a canadian sniper from Princess Patricia Canada's light infantery by killing a taliban at 2340m in 2002 in Afghanistan with a 50BMG Barrett M82A1 semi auto sniping rifle.

Along with a custom made long range target rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Mag., that is the one gun I have always wanted to buy someday, but they are just so damn expensive. Well, I wouldn't get that one; I would probably get the Barrett M95, which is a bolt-action version of the M82A1, and then fine tune it. Even that runs around $5,000 though . One of it's downsides is that it doesn't have the barrel length of the Barrett M99 either, but the M99 is a single shot rifle and doesn't have a magazine.

 

[georges]

Along with a custom made long range target rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Mag., that is the one gun I have always wanted to buy someday, but they are just so damn expensive. Well, I wouldn't get that one; I would probably get the Barrett M95, which is a bolt-action version of the M82A1, and then fine tune it. Even that runs around $5,000 though . One of it's downsides is that it doesn't have the barrel length of the Barrett M99 either, but the M99 is a single shot rifle and doesn't have a magazine.

Barretts are expensive, I don't know how much they cost in second hand plus you have to own a class III license and 50BMG grade match is very expensive.

 

[youlneverstopme]

jdb67,

I don't have an issue with USA soldiers - they're just following orders.

It's the orders they're being given I have problems with.

mcrocket,

I will rephrase it, but I'd like to point out that, while I personally know a number of liberal, progrsesively-minded Americans who, like me, realise the concept of a ''War On Terrorism'' is intellectually bankrupt and anyone who thinks this all ''started'' on 9/11 hasn't got the first idea how badly the West has been treating many people in the Arab world, and trampling on their religious beliefs in pursuit of their oil for many years, the sad fact is that every American gets tarred with the same brush as a reuslt of Bush's foolish polices.

Our own British PM, Tony Blair is no better - he's Bush's poodle, and Blair's popularity has dropped through the floor in the UK.

You may not fully realise it, being across the pond from Europe, but USA and the UK are pariah in the eyes of so many countries as a result of this conflict.

OK, the UN isn't perfect, but it's the only world policeman we've got, and USA and UK both ignored this policeman and its laws to invade another country.

My problem with a thread like this is it seems to dehumanise the victim - killing an American soldier doesn't automatically make someone evil and worthy of death, I'm afraid.

It's just isn't as simple as that - I wish all Americans realised this because then they might elect a smart, diplomatic president who used the power to persuade rather than the military power to bully, to get the world to see USA's line of thinking.