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A sniper with Canada’s elite special forces in Iraq has shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history at a staggering distance of 3,540 metres.
The Canadian Armed Forces confirmed Thursday that a member of Joint Task Force 2 made the record-breaking shot, killing an Islamic State insurgent during an operation in Iraq within the last month.
[...] The elite sniper was using a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle while firing from a high-rise during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq. It took under 10 seconds to hit the target.
[...] The military source said the JTF2 operation fell within the strictures of the government’s advise and assist mission.
[...] The kill was independently verified by video camera and other data, The Globe and Mail has learned.
[...] The skill of the JTF2 sniper in taking down an insurgent at 3,540 metres required math skills, great eyesight, precision of ammunition and firearms, and superb training.
Not our typical fare but the physics involved in making that shot are crazy.
Source: The Globe and Mail
(Score: 3, Insightful) by KGIII on Friday June 23 2017, @02:55AM (24 children)
This new record is the second time a Canadian has taken the record. It's a morbid record but quite a feat.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 3, Informative) by jmorris on Friday June 23 2017, @03:40AM (8 children)
Chart I saw had Canadian, Brit, Canadian, Canadian, American for the top five. America better up its game if we are going to #MAGA. Not that it isn't great to see the top five all be allies and friends, but a little friendly rivalry is useful.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @04:11AM (5 children)
With a single orange target worth hitting, not much opportunity to practice.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Bot on Friday June 23 2017, @04:34AM (2 children)
Had anybody made the same comment about $OLD_POTUS this site would have been shut down.
Nice to see your country is returning to normalcy.
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @01:58PM
No, no, no. If you want to have power over $OLD_POTUS, you need to use his Real Name, not just a pointer/reference. You need to call him Baraq Hussein Soetoro.
In fact, perhaps EF's invocation of his True Name has been what kept the site from being shut down!
If that doesn't work, just shout NEE! at them a few times.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday June 23 2017, @07:39PM
Had anybody made the same comment about $OLD_POTUS this site would have been shut down.
Either that, or we'd have been invited to the whitehouse: Former Trump adviser who called for Clinton to be shot attends White House bill signing [thehill.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @05:16AM (1 child)
Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi are avid deer hunters?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 23 2017, @10:00AM
I don't know, did they escape a Vietnamese prison of war camp?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Friday June 23 2017, @04:17AM (1 child)
Yup. The Canadians have been doing well. The last record they had, held for a while. Then a Brit took it. As I have citizenship in both the US and in CAN, I am okay with them being in the lead. Long distance shooting is pretty hard. This is an impressive feat, as are all the feats in you list.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by art guerrilla on Friday June 23 2017, @01:20PM
yeah, i mean, never mind if the 'target' (defined as non-human, so, it's all good) killed was actually who they said, actually a 'bad guy' (YMMV), and actually a necessary thing (basically, is Empire a necessary thing?)...
.
but, yeah, real cool to kill another nekkid ape from a long ways aways, ultra-brave, too...
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Friday June 23 2017, @03:50AM (14 children)
According to this graphic [theglobeandmail.com], the top five longest kills are:
To put that in different units, this record-breaking shot traveled two whole miles... and then continued... another one-thousand-feet!
Or, to put it another way, it exceeded the prior record by over a kilometer!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by KGIII on Friday June 23 2017, @04:12AM (13 children)
It's a feat. I qualified with the M16 at 500 yards. I hunt, so I am always finding excuses to go target practice. I am positive that I could not make shots at that distance.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 23 2017, @10:46AM (12 children)
Probably not but not all of the credit can go to the shooter. The spotter had to precisely calculate windage for 2.2 miles worth of changing winds, among other things, so he deserves some props as well.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 23 2017, @02:10PM (1 child)
Yeah - and how do you even DO that? So, the wind is blowing here, where you are, southerly, at about 5 mph. A quarter mile away, the wind is just eddying in the lee of a hill. A quarter mile further, the wind is southerly again, but 10 mph. Another quarter, and you have more eddies in the lee of a large building. The next quarter mile, wind is more south by southeast, at 10 mph. How in the FEK do you figure all of that, out past two miles? It seems like putting sensor up might attract the target's attention - maybe.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 23 2017, @05:34PM
You watch the grass/trees if there are any. You watch the dust if there isn't. You take visual measurements every so often along the range and calculate from that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @03:05PM (9 children)
And luck. A lot of these things come down to luck.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 23 2017, @05:30PM (8 children)
Lack of bad luck, yeah. You don't get lucky on a 2.2 mile shot though. You either had that shit perfectly dialed in and the wind didn't change before you pulled the trigger or you just miss.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 23 2017, @08:43PM (5 children)
Which is my question: Like the viral internet videos, how many shots did he take before he made it?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday June 24 2017, @12:34AM (4 children)
One. You can't set up again before they hear the shot and start ducking for cover, even on a two mile away target.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:02AM (3 children)
I'm not convinced that people in Iraq would identify a shot fired 2 miles away as being aimed at them.
The mention of high-rise tells me it's a city, or the edge of it. IF you can hear a muzzle blast from 2 miles away in a city, identify it as hostile from 2 miles away in a city, think that you might be within range when it's 2 miles away in a city, and think that you are potentially the target when there's another thousand targets in those 2 city miles, or even differentiate between the suppression fire that the closer enemies are filling the air with despite you being covered from their angle, then you'll duck.
And your buddy will kick your ass for being a coward no better than the infidels, for a painful humiliation that will last the whole 20 seconds before his chest explodes from one of the subsequent rounds.
I don't buy the "fire only when sure" in a war area when shooting far beyond normal range. I'm pretty sure your buddies closer to the target really want you to do your best asap, and keep trying until you don't miss.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:30AM (2 children)
They probably would want you to but what they want and what you're trained to do are two extremely different things.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 26 2017, @04:18PM (1 child)
"John and Fred got killed because our sniper cover wasn't quite sure of his shot and didn't want to spook the bad guy too early"
Spooking the bad guys is how you win wars. The guy who saw the wall explode right next to his leg may thank his god, but still has to change his underwear and tell his friends that's not a safe place to be.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday June 27 2017, @11:42AM
Bob, you've hit armchair quarterbacking level. You're not qualified to speak on this. I'm only barely qualified to speak on the general subject, which is why I've not gone into the detail you just did.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:33AM (1 child)
Squeeze, not pull.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:32AM
Which is likely why I got an M60 instead of a sniper rifle.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.