The longest-ever recorded kill by a sniper in combat

[RoperAB]

Lying low beside the rifle, his stomach touching the ground, Cpl. Rob Furlong concentrated hard on his breathing. In, out. In, out. In, out. Deep, but not too deep. Slow, but not too slow. The tiniest twitch -- a heavy exhale, perhaps, or a breath held one second too long -- could jerk his weapon ever so slightly, turning a sure hit into a narrow miss. In the sniping world, where one shot should always equal one kill, steady breathing is just as crucial as steady aim.
On that March afternoon in 2002, Cpl. Furlong squinted through the scope of his McMillan Tac-50, a sleek bolt-action rifle almost as long as he is. In his crosshairs were three men, each lugging weapons toward an al-Qaeda mortar nest high in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Master Cpl. Tim McMeekin, hunkered behind his fellow sniper, saw the same trio through the lens of his Vector, a binocular-like device that uses a laser to pinpoint targets thousands of metres away. Speaking quietly, both soldiers agreed on the obvious: take out the biggest threat first, in this case the man in the middle carrying the RPK machine gun. According to the Vector, he was exactly 2,430 m away -- nearly 2 1/2 kilometres.
A Newfoundland boy with pale blue eyes and a chiselled frame, Furlong adjusted the elevation knob on his scope, the barrel of his gun pointing higher and higher with each turn. He knew the routine, had practised it a thousand times back at the base in Edmonton. The farther away the target, the higher the rifle should point. Wind blowing to the left? Aim slightly right. Most snipers will tell you it's not much different than a golfer and his caddie lining up a long putt. Calculation. Instinct. And a little bit of luck. "You can teach a certain amount of it," Furlong says. "But there is a large percentage that you must have naturally. A good shooter is born. You can't teach someone to be a good shot if they don't naturally have it."
The 26-year-old stared through the scope, his left finger tickling the trigger. In, out. In, out. Behind him, McMeekin gazed through his Vector, reconfirming the precise distance one last time. "Stand by," Furlong said.
The first shot missed. A second round missed too, but not by much. It pierced the man's backpack. "They had no fear," Furlong recalls of his target. "They didn't run. I guess they've just been engaged so many times." He immediately reloaded the chamber and lined up his rifle for a third try, checking to make sure his grip was flawless. Furlong knew exactly why that second shot missed; instead of following a perfectly straight line, he had squeezed the trigger a tiny smidgen to one side. Even a fraction of a millimetre can make a huge difference on the other end -- in this case, the difference between a man's knapsack and his heart.
"Stand by," Furlong said again. Another loud pop echoed through the valley, sending a .50-calibre shell -- rocket-shaped, almost as long as a beer bottle -- slicing through the Afghan sky. Four seconds later, it tore into the man's torso, ripping apart his insides.
By that point, Rob Furlong, Tim McMeekin and three other Canadian sharpshooters -- Graham Ragsdale, Arron Perry and Dennis Eason -- had spent nearly a week in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan's Shahikot Valley, reaching out and touching the enemy from distances even they had never trained for. But that shot was something special. Rob Furlong had just killed another human being from 2,430 m, the rough equivalent of standing at Toronto's CN Tower and hitting a target near Bloor Street. It was -- and still is -- the longest-ever recorded kill by a sniper in combat, surpassing the mark of 2,250 m set by U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock during the Vietnam War.
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/canada/article.jsp?content=20060515_126689_126689

[Mike]

Those 50 BMG's are amazing. That sniper was amazing too. I figure that the bullet drop at that distance was over 1500 inches. He had to have the right scope - and enough clicks to get the bullet that high.

Couldn't have been much of a wind blowing either.
That shot was approx 1.5 miles.

Here's some supposedly 50 Cal action on the Taliban:

http://www.sdcrew.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=2

[Ben H]

such a beautifull weapon, here's me with an M-107 in our tower.

[Mike]

Hey Ben. Is that a night vision scope?

What's that picture above your weapon? It's purpose?

[Ben H]

actually it's a day and night sight, has a lever on the side to switch between. I think it's a PVS-10. It's really not a good fit for the Barrett. It's calibrated for a 7.62/.308. We ended up getting another day scope on it and at night mounted a universal night sight in front of it. The Universal night sight can mount in front of any scope or sight, I was told it costs about $10,000.

The pictures is sort of range cards. A surveryor took pictures and got the distance and direction to all sorts of land marks. The panoramics, as we call them, have buildings numbered with an azimuth and distance in meters. Makes it quick when we call something in. Like when we see a bomb go off near a building we refrence it on the panoramic, call it in. Notice the white lines under the weapon with the 300, that is also the azimuth in degrees. You have to stand in the center of the tower for accuracy.

[Mike]

[Northern Rancher]

Just curious how far do you consider it to be an ethical shot at a deer. If wind is affecting you that much you must be reaching out aways. I like to stretch things out on varmints but I tend to like to 'hunt' deer till i get pretty close. Some of those hunting shows on OLN you might as well go shoot a steer out of your halfton. Ben have you ever shot a .338 Lupua-I was at Dakota Arms in Sturgis, South Dakota one time and they showed me a custom built one-it was truly a work of art.

[RoperAB]

[RoperAB]

Also RT. Col. Jeff Cooper has some really good books. One of them is called "To Ride,Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth".
I leant my Cooper books out and they never where returned

[Red Robin]

I don't care how the bullet gets there as long as it does.

[Northern Rancher]

Shooters not hunters-my two bucks last year were shot at 8 and 10 yards in the bush-still hunted. Long range markensmanship is an admirable skill but 'walking' bullets to a bull elk isn't my cup of tea. Too many long cold days spent tracking and finding bucks after those kind of deals for it to turn my crank. Like I said shoot gophers in the next county all you want but you owe it to the big game to get close enough to hit it with a kill shot the first time.

[RoperAB]