SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
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: 2) by driverless on Friday June 23 2017, @08:50AM (3 children)
...or just putting enough lead downrange that one of them ends up being a hit. Not wanting to downplay the achievement, but being able to do that several times, rather than just as a one-off, would make it a genuine achievement. The writeup also doesn't mention whether it was a single target or not, in fact since it talks about "a Daesh attack" it's likely there were multiple targets and he happened to hit one of them. So, worst-case, fire repeatedly into a large crowd at an impressive range and you can claim a kill at a far longer range than someone going for a sole target with a single shot.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 23 2017, @10:55AM
Dude, I couldn't even hit the crowd at 2.2 miles with the exact same gear. You have no clue what you're talking about.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @04:39PM (1 child)
Maximum effective range (area target) of a M4 is 600 meters.
So the shooter would need something MUCH better then an off the shelf assault rifle to even come close to hitting a target at 3000+ meters.
Note Area target essentially means broadside of a barn.
Snipers also don't spray and pray as your post suggests. A lot of the most accurate weapons are bolt action. By the time you get a few downrange your target is under cover.
Anyone familiar with rifles knows this was a significant achievement. He sent a few ounces of lead over two miles and hit a point target. Thats a mixture of skill, his and his spotters, and luck, but it is not something any old gun owner could seriously expect to achieve. Him and the spotter had to account for gravity, wind speed along entire path of the round, curvature of the earth, air density, and the possibility of the target moving in the ten seconds it took to hit him.
Source: First hand knowledge as a vet.
Come back when you know what your talking about sparky.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:04AM
I've never fired an M4, but have fired McBros and Barrett's, and we were told a round could travel up to 7 miles. In hindsight that sounds a bit high, and it was a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure it was that. Probably had a good safety margin built in. We fired across (well, more like down into) a valley to impress on us how far a round could end up going if we were careless shooting at a target eg. up on a ridge. Dunno what the range was, but you could barely make out the puffs with 8x30s.
I never said it wasn't. What I was questioning was its repeatability. A single data point doesn't provide much useful evidence because it could be immediately negated by the 1,000 data points that follow it. Or 1,000,000. So this shot sounds like a prime candidate for regression to the mean.
How did you know I was known as Sparky? Wait, Wombat, is that you? It's been years! Did you and the sarge end up hooking up in the end?