New Sniper Record

[desertrover]

typo?

Has anyone considered that "L11583" might be "L115A3" due to a reporter being unfamiliar with weapon naming conventions? We have a phonetic alphabet for a reason! The L115A3 is what the British military calls the AI AWSM .338 Lapua weapons system.

 

[john101477]

http://www.army.mod.uk/equipment/support-weapons/1459.aspx

Calibre is a 8.59. pretty nice rifle. love the design of the stock

 

[SunTzuNephew]

Has anyone considered that "L11583" might be "L115A3" due to a reporter being unfamiliar with weapon naming conventions? We have a phonetic alphabet for a reason! The L115A3 is what the British military calls the AI AWSM .338 Lapua weapons system.

Thats what he used....Nice rifle, the price on GunBroker for them is going up right now (but nowhere near what the Brits claim to pay for them). Of course the 3x rule applies (plan on spending 1x for the rifle, 1x for the scope and mount, and 1x for practice ammo and accessories). On this, you'd want a 2000+ meter laser rangefinder, pocket anemometer, bipod, monopod, and probably a PDA for ballistics calculations -- if you want to make a 2K shot.

 

[SunTzuNephew]

http://www.army.mod.uk/equipment/support-weapons/1459.aspx

Calibre is a 8.59. pretty nice rifle. love the design of the stock

Also known as .338 Lapua Magnum, or 8.6x70mm or 8.58x70mm. Inherently a very accurate round.

 

[desertrover]

As a .338 Lapua shooter, I can say first hand that it is an amazing long range cartridge. What makes this shot truly remarkable, though, is making hits beyond the transonic barrier. Even with heavy target rounds of the highest ballistic coefficient, a .338 will become subsonic right around the one mile mark, doing very unusual and nearly unpredictable things to the trajectory of the round. Kudos to the snipers for pushing themselves and their gear beyond what was thought possible!

 

[john101477]

yeah I caught that. just doing some reading on it. comparing it with the .300 which is a round i am familiar with.

 

[bobcat charlie]

SunTzuNephew,

The 'illegal' .50cal urban myth has it's roots in Winter Soldier. In 1971 John Kerry testified before the Senate that the U.S. was commiting 'war crimes' by using .50 cal M2s against 'unarmored' infantry. He asserted that the M2 was an 'anti-aircraft' weapon and thus banned for use against infantry by the Geneva Convention. I believe that was his asertion, not one held by the U. S. Army. BTW, he failed to mention the NVA using 12.7mm's against us....

There is nothing 'illegal' about using an M2 or a Barrett, or any other .50cal against an enemy target and 1.5 mile sniper shots are awesome!

 

[SunTzuNephew]

SunTzuNephew,

The 'illegal' .50cal urban myth has it's roots in Winter Soldier. In 1971 John Kerry testified before the Senate that the U.S. was commiting 'war crimes' by using .50 cal M2s against 'unarmored' infantry. He asserted that the M2 was an 'anti-aircraft' weapon and thus banned for use against infantry by the Geneva Convention. I believe that was his asertion, not one held by the U. S. Army. BTW, he failed to mention the NVA using 12.7mm's against us....

There is nothing 'illegal' about using an M2 or a Barrett, or any other .50cal against an enemy target and 1.5 mile sniper shots are awesome!

Well, if Kerry said it, it's not a myth....it's a fantasy.

 

[Fireman78]

Craig Harrison was using this rifle.. http://www.army.mod.uk/equipment/support-weapons/1459.aspx
It is an 8.59 mm cartridge.
It was an awesome shot for sure. All the stars aligned for this one.
I am ammused that this is now moved into the "Sportsman" forum, anybody catch that?

By the way, there are plenty of Snipers using .50 caliber rifles against PEOPLE in Afganistan and Iraq, don't kid yourself. Geneva Convention? You guys are funny.

BTW, has anyone seen the story on Carlos Hathcock? That guy truly was a warrior in every sence of the word.

 

[jay3253]

I've shot farther than that... I didn't hit anything but I'm sure the bullet traveled that far.:coffeedrink:

Kidding that was a very good shot and I have no words to express how impressed I am.

 

[SunTzuNephew]

Craig Harrison was using this rifle.. http://www.army.mod.uk/equipment/support-weapons/1459.aspx
It is an 8.59 mm cartridge.
It was an awesome shot for sure. All the stars aligned for this one.
I am ammused that this is now moved into the "Sportsman" forum, anybody catch that?

By the way, there are plenty of Snipers using .50 caliber rifles against PEOPLE in Afganistan and Iraq, don't kid yourself. Geneva Convention? You guys are funny.

BTW, has anyone seen the story on Carlos Hathcock? That guy truly was a warrior in every sence of the word.

They (the brits) call it an 8.59mm. It's the .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge, based on a necked-down .416 Rigby case. Also known as the 8.58x70, 8.59x70 and 8.60x70mm....

And why not the sportsman forum? Seasons open, no bag limit....

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

I am ammused that this is now moved into the "Sportsman" forum, anybody catch that?

It was moved into a section that includes "all hunting, fishing, and gun carry topics."

Why is that amusing? It's simply relevant.

 

[J*C*M]

Very impressive, although I was really hoping that one of our boys would go ahead and take that record back from the canooks, it'll be just that much better when we do next time.

 

[SunTzuNephew]

An interesting, slightly technical discussion of the shot:

http://blog.joehuffman.org/2010/05/05/2707YardShotInAfghanistanByTheNumbers.aspx

And the Brits and Canucks are Our Boys....the League of English Speaking Democracies (N. Hemisphere Division), aligned against the forces of darkness.

 

[ntsqd]

snip.....
BTW, has anyone seen the story on Carlos Hathcock? That guy truly was a warrior in every sence of the word.

I mentioned him because I was familiar with his record from having read the book "Marine Sniper." The chapter where he was hunting the NVA sniper who was hunting him was some powerful stuff.

What I didn't know is that while he wasn't the instigator of our military sniper school that he may as well be the father of them considering how much he put into the program. In short, all of our current snipers exist because of his dedication and I have to wonder about how much influence he had with our allies' sniper schools.