An Australian apparently now holds the longest sniper kill record.

It's just not clear who it is and may never be. Distance ~2,800m. See:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/articles/20151111.aspx
It could even be that two men hold the record.

 

Imagine actually hitting something at that kind of range.

 

It's an amazing thing that combines natural talent, art, math and an alert mind to dope out all those variables under real pressure. When I lived in Kodiak there was a small SEAL training base where they'd rotate groups through to do cold water and mountain training. I could tell a hundred amusing stories about local hunters and people who lived back in the bush encountering those guys. Any encounter was a big "fail" since they were supposed to be stealthy enough to avoid any Alaskan hillbillies.
In this case though, there was an old abandoned WWII shooting range with a 500 year berm and lines coming back to 100 yards, and then beyond that flat area, a 1000 yard line on the side of a big hill which you could only access by car since there was a stream and you had to drive back to the main road, cross a bridge and then hike back to any targets you had mounted there. Anyway, one of the permanent party SEALs stationed there was a trained sniper and since I was a regular shooter I'd encounter him a lot down at that range. Years before I used to do a lot of long range shooting with black powder Sharps rifles (well before this time), so I thought I knew a thing or two about long range shooting. He didn't talk much at first - he'd be lying in the grass away from the crude benches we had put together. This was summer and he'd lay there in the grass absolutely still in a cloud of gnats or mosquitoes, sometimes for 30 or 45 minutes before taking a shot. He had a Remington 700 in .300 Winchester Magnum - the full military configuration, but it was his private rifle. We were shooting various rifles at steel gongs hanging out at 300, 400 and 500 yards, and it was obvious he was focused well beyond at that 1000 yard area.
There's a certain courtesy at ranges where you make your presence known and in this case, since there were other places to shoot (without shooting benches) some distance away, we'd ask if our shooting so close from the benches would disturb him. He was always fine with it, saying that our shooting was good training for him to keep his focus amid our outside distractions - shoot away! After a couple of meetings, he'd sometimes come over and talk guns. We were usually shooting old Garands, SMLE's and stuff like that and he'd try them out. We all reloaded and had plenty of cheap ammo. He didn't know much about anything except modern precision rifles and really enjoyed shooting that old stuff.
As for him, he told us he wasn't training just to make hits as much as he was training to lie still in all conditions, then make hits at surprise intervals. He was out there when it was raining (and we weren't), he was out there when it was cold and windy (and we weren't) and he was out there on those warm days when insects would eat him alive. Interestingly, he had a little timer in his pocket that he showed us. It was set to vibrate for 3 (or 5?) seconds at random intervals as much as an hour apart - it might vibrate in 5 minutes or it might go off in an hour and he couldn't know. His discipline was to have his sights on the target and make that shot in the short interval while that mechanism was still vibrating. Then he showed us that well beyond the 1000 yard hillside was another bare hillside - a tail coming down off a big mountain. It was a shallow slope and he would put targets at different ranges on the hill - these were in the 1500 to 2000 yard range. And of course the "dope" for each shot was different, depending on the wind which might change minute to minute, the temps, the range, etc. If you haven't shot at long ranges, you need to know that (especially in hilly country) you might have a 10mph wind blowing 44 degrees where you are, then another speed and direction at mid range and yet another where your target is. You have to dope all of that. distance is relatively easy to dope, but wind can move your slug ten feet off target long range, and crosswinds in between all must be taken into account. And he was lying there watching the grass and mentally computing the shot every few seconds until the timer gave him that short prompt and interval.

Needless to say, I was extremely impressed! These guys aren't just great shots, they have discipline beyond anything I can imagine. What I saw and discussed with him was just the shooting. There's a hundred other things they must master - stealthy movement - hours to move a mile or so, navigation, other things beyond my ken.

These are very impressive people.

 

Kody is right ...takes a lot of mental and physical discipline--to be a great shot..........seems so simple correct? sight picture, easy? no, it isn't...takes patience, which a lot of people don't have....I'm very interested in the sight picture at 2800m.....the size of the target in the scope..any ideas?......we used iron sights at 500Y with the M16A1 and A2 with a man sized target....the sight covered half the target.....but with extreme patience and discipline, you can hit 10 out of 10.....

 

The US seems to use mostly 10X scopes, at least for longer range shooting. Which would mean that the site picutre at 2,800 yards would be similar to iron sights at 280 yards. I'm not at all sure what the Australians use though and special forces often have their own equipment.

This site suggest they Australians use 12X scopes:
https://ssaa.org.au/stories/political-small-arms-of-australias-special-forces.html

 

that 'sounds ' and seems about right.....good way of putting it, as we fired from the 200y and 300y, so very easy for me to understand...I've fired lots of weapons,. though never a scoped one....

 

Forget the magnification of the scope, that's the least of it. It's doping the wind and the patience and discipline to lie in one spot for a target that may appear at any range and only for moments. Think about that. He may lie for hours until one guy moves from one building to another, then adjust for the range for those two buildings, adjust for the wind at that precise moment, adjust for the speed of his walk. You even have to adjust for temperature at those ranges, if it's cool dawn vs hot afternoon you have to adjust for that.

 

One shot...one kill.

 

yes, I am very aware...not that it's lord's truth, but it reminds me of a quote from the movie Ice Station Zebra refering to the flight mechanics of an M16 in cold weather...I was also thinking that they use computer technology to adjust for wind, temp, altitude??? not the rifle itself, but a separate device ?? .....I'm sure they would have much statistical data available--not so much combat firng stats, but manufacturers' and lab tech stats?.....all we had to deal with was the wind, but we kept data on our dope
I was just curious as to the size of the pic at that range.....how good are the scopes, since I've never used one

 

the Aussies keep doing it.....they have a fine hsitory of accomplishments in combat and other areas....maybe I'm wrong, but they seem to be up in near tops whenever I watch world sporting events...especially the Olympics....?. with only 23 million population!?

 

And we've grown by two million in the last five years...20-21 million before that...i will happily go out on a limb and say pound for pound we have more world champions and number ones than any country...and it's not all sports and beer...we have a fine artistic and scientific community here too...it's partly due to Australia always being a good destination...be it for the gold....the land or now because of our economy...it means we attract quality people...it's mostly IMO due to,the remoteness of Australia and our old cringe...we secretly thought we were always second rate to places like New York or Paris or London...this cringe made us work harder than we needed to thinking it's what was needed to just maybe keep up...little did we realise until the 80s that the world had been sitting on its laurels and we had actually overtaken in many areas...we don't want to be the poor cousins...we don't want to be the leader either...

 

I thought it was all about the beer?? as you say, I am not impressed with my country's sporting, etc achievements--considering our population size....we barely win, and lose, to countries with very tiny populations.....you bring up a very, very interesting point on the quality of people, etc.....which I've been wanting to do a thread on...---1 aspect in my mind, is, the go-getters, the industrious, [ can I say, smarter? ]etc, do not stay stagnant..they want to go, to a ''new'' land, area, etc....I consider myself not 'smart' at all--and a lot here would agree --I'm stagnant...not lazy at all though..I'm happy with what I've got....but the people that start businesses, want something different, better, ...the adventurers, etc, they do have a quality to succeed, to a higher life!?culture--if I may??? I hope no one takes this the wrong way...

 

You've got my point there nicely...in Australia those people are often Chinese, and these days more Indians...and some of Europe's finest : ) it's pretty easy to poach from Europe...

 

sorry --I went off topic fast and far.......as you know, I'm interested in all cultures, countries, etc

 

If I read it right two shots actually. Don't know who he was but they apparently wanted to make sure. Wonder if they both hit or not. Perhaps used slightly different settings to cover in case conditions (wind and such) were a bit different than they thought? Impressive whatever the details.

 

Ive hit a water melon with a high powered .308....it exploded like the Death Star...sh$t in all directions...imagine being the targets mate having a ciggie wth him outside...and his mate's head just explodes for no good reason...would be a weird situation...

 

that's why they call it Hell...I was just reading where a soldier described the sound of a round hitting a man as like a paddle hitting water.....really sickening.....all of it....