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8,120 feet away? Yeah, I got that.

651 views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  Hirsch  
#1 · (Edited)
Holy crap. Simply bad ass. He barely even needed to leave the house. :)

Sniper kills Qaeda-from 1½ mi. away

By LUKAS I. ALPERT

Last Updated: 7:13 AM, May 2, 2010
Posted: 4:19 AM, May 2, 2010

It was silent but deadly.

A British sniper set a world sharpshooting record by taking out two Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan from more than a mile and a half away -- a distance so great, experts say the terrorists wouldn't have even heard the shots.

Craig Harrison killed the two insurgents from an astounding distance of 8,120 feet -- or 1.54 miles -- in Helmand Province last November firing an Accuracy International L11583 long-range rifle.

"The first round hit a machine-gunner in the stomach and killed him outright," said Harrison, a corporal of horse in the British Army's Household Cavalry, the equivalent of a sergeant in the American military.

"The second insurgent grabbed the weapon and turned as my second shot hit him in the side. He went down, too," Harrison told the Sunday Times of London.

The shots -- measured via GPS -- surpassed the previous record held by Canadian Army Cpl. Rob Furlong, who killed an al Qaeda gunman from 7,972 feet in 2002.

Harrison's shots were roughly equal to the distance between the Statue of Liberty and Battery Park.

Experts called Harrison's sharp shooting as perfect as it gets.

"When you are shooting that far, if you miss by a hair, you miss by a mile," said John Plaster, a retired US Army sharp-shooting instructor and author of "The Ultimate Sniper." "That is about as precise as any marksmen on the planet could shoot."

He said Harrison's targets likely never knew what was coming.

"At a distance like that they cannot even see anyone and they would not even hear the muzzle report," Plaster said.

Harrison, who fired the bullets while his colleagues were under fire, said perfect weather helped him nail the perfect shot.

"[There was] no wind, mild weather, clear visibility," he said.

Harrison learned of his record nine days ago, when he returned to England. In the weeks after his record shot, he suffered a minor gunshot wound and broke his arms when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/sniper_kills_qaeda_from_mi_away_sTm0xFUmJNal3HgWlmEgRL
 
#2 ·
I'm a big fan of physics, so this is pretty cool.
 
#13 ·
I'll agree with Hirsch, I really don't want to hear many details.

I've heard accounts of war from my grandfather who was a machine gunner in the Pacific during WWII. On more than one occasion he had the guy in the fox-hole next to him have their head blow apart while on night watch because they were smoking cigarettes. The snipers could see the glow and pick them off from that.

He never smoked again after the first time it happened.
 
#14 ·
I didn't mean to hear all the details. More just like "yeah I was stationed here doing an op there".

My grandpa flew planes in Vietnam and Korean war. He never once told a story from there, and us grandkids never asked. If he was willing to talk that is one thing, but I would never go out of my way and try to get stories from a vet.
 
#15 ·
That sounds similar to my grandfather. The only time any of my family hear him talk about it in much detail was only a few years ago after he walked in the room when my dad, my uncle, two of my cousins, and I were watching Saving Private Ryan. It was pretty interesting.
 
#16 ·
My great uncle was in WW2, saw combat in Germany in the final days of the war. The only story he'd tell is about a 2 day fight that eventually led to hand to hand combat between the Germans and my great uncles platoon. He killed a nazi officer and collected the guys dress bayonet, sterling silver sheath and swastika on the hilt, as a souvenir. It's in my dads collection now. My great uncle got a purple heart out of that battle.

That story that the Vietnam vet told us was pretty gory, I don't remember the details(it's been 20+ years since I heard it) but one thing he told us stuck with me. This was his last sniper mission and he said as soon as he pulled the trigger he felt remorse. The guy he killed was "the enemy", but that guy may have had a wife and kids and in peacetime may have been a very good person. He said he never really got over the guilt, but only that kill caused him guilt.