Ultra-long sniper shots. Russian sniper set a record for aimed shooting range Record shot from a sniper rifle
Long-range shooting of the enemy is a kind of special army art. Modern snipers are divided into many subcategories, but it is the range of an aimed and fatal shot that is considered one of the important criteria for assessing the skill of a sniper.
A selection of the most notable shooters, whose long-range shots made it onto the pages of history.
In seventh place is the shot of the American veteran of the war in Iraq, Sergeant Major Jim Gilliland, 1367 yards (1244 meters). Shot fired from a standard M24 rifle using standard 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition in 2005. A very good result for a general-arms rifle of not the largest caliber.
Number six is British Army Corporal Christopher Reynolds and his August 2009 accurate shot at 2,026 yards (1,844 meters). Rifle - Accuracy International L115A3. Ammo - .338 Lapua Magnum LockBase B408. The target hit is a Taliban commander nicknamed "Mullah", responsible for a number of attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan. If the sources do not lie, then the shot was so accurate that the “Mulla” fell directly into the hands of the militant following him, and if the bullet had had enough penetrating power, Reynolds would have chalked up two heads at once.
Number five - Sergeant Carlos Hascock, shot at 2,500 yards (2,275 meters). The date is February 1967, during the Vietnam conflict. The historic shot that made the sergeant a hero of his time was not made from a sniper rifle, but from an M2 Browning machine gun. Ammo - .50 BMG. Hascock is still a legend today American army- he ranks fourth in the list of snipers who hit the maximum number of targets. At one time, the Vietnamese placed a bounty of 30,000 US dollars on his head; they gave Hascock the nickname “white feather” for his habit of wearing a feather in his hat, violating the generally accepted rules of sniper camouflage. However, this was not the only thing he was noted for - Hascock's second tour of duty in Vietnam ended early in September 1969, when the armored personnel carrier in which he was traveling was hit by a mine. Despite his own severe burns (more than 40% of his body), Hascock pulled seven of his comrades out of the burning armored personnel carrier.
Fourth place - American Sergeant Brian Kremer and his shot at 2515 yards (2288.6 meters) in March 2004. Weapon - Barrett M82A1. Cartridges - Raufoss NM140 MP. During his two years in Iraq, Kremer fired two successful shots with a range of more than 2,350 yards, which confirms high level skill of the sergeant.
Third place went to Canadian, Corporal Arron Perry. Shot range - 2526 yards (2298.6 meters) in March 2002. Weapon - McMillan Tac-50. Ammo: Hornady A-MAX .50 (.50 BMG).
Second place - a shot at 2657 yards (2417.8 meters) also goes to a Canadian: Corporal Rob Furlong, who broke Arron's record, with exactly the same rifle and ammunition.
In first place is the unsurpassed (so far) record of the Briton Craig Harrison. During the Afghan conflict in November 2009, he hit his best double shot at 2,707 yards (2,475 meters). The defeat of the target was documented - two Taliban machine gunners were killed in succession. This record makes Harrison the best sniper of all time.
Why are there no Russian snipers on the list? Firstly, we never had such a cult of long-range shooting, and secondly, the army doctrine was different.
However, in a non-combat situation, Russian snipers set a world record by hitting a target located at a distance of almost three and a half kilometers from the firing position.
At the same time, it is known that the work of our sniper professionals is classified, and not only their names are not known, but also the rifles with which these masters work. It is possible that somewhere in Russia lives the heir of Vasily Zaitsev, who somewhere and sometime, in one of the conflicts, hit a target at a greater distance than any of the seven aforementioned foreigners.
When talking about the best sniper shots, the first things to consider are the range and accuracy of the shot. Based on these criteria , Guns&Ammo magazine ranked the eight longest and most accurate shots, officially registered.
Today, more than ever, modern weapons allows you to hit distant targets. However, one of the record-breaking shots was made more than 50 years ago, which also speaks of the importance of the skills and professionalism of each sniper. All ranges are given in yards (1 yard = 91 cm).
Eighth in the ranking- Shot by an American veteran of the war in Iraq, Sergeant Major Jim Gilliland (1367 yards). Shot fired from a standard M24 rifle using standard 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition in 2005.
In seventh place- shot by an unknown representative of the Norwegian military contingent in 2007 during the armed conflict in Afghanistan. Rifle - Barrett M82A1. Ammo: Raufoss NM140 MP. Range - 1509 yards.
Number six- British Army Corporal Christopher Reynolds and his accurate shot in August 2009 at 2026 yards. Rifle - Accuracy International L115A3. Ammo: .338 Lapua Magnum LockBase B408. The target hit was a Taliban commander nicknamed "Mullah", responsible for a number of attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan. For his shot, the corporal was awarded a medal from the hands of Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Number five- Sergeant Carlos Hatchhawk, shot at 2500 yards. The date is February 1967, during the Vietnam conflict. The historic shot that made the sergeant a hero of his time was fired from an M2 Browning machine gun. Ammo: .50 BMG. Hatchcock is still a legend in the American army today - he ranks fourth on the list of snipers who hit the maximum number of targets. At one time, the Vietnamese placed a reward of 30,000 US dollars on his head.
Fourth place- American Sergeant Brian Kremer and shot at 2515 yards. Date: March 2004. Weapon - Barrett M82A1. Ammo: Raufoss NM140 MP. During his two years in Iraq, Kremer fired two successful shots with a range of more than 2,350 yards.
Third place (bronze) - from the Canadian, Corporal Arron Perry. Shot range: 2526 yards. Date: March 2002. Weapon - McMillan Tac-50. Ammo: Hornady A-MAX .50 (.50 BMG).
Second place (silver) - a shot at 2657 yards, again by Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong, which coincides in date with Arron Perry’s record. The weapons and ammunition are the same.
First place (gold) - an unsurpassed record by Briton Craig Harrison. During the Afghan conflict in November 2009, he hit his best double shot at 2,707 yards. The defeat of the target was documented - two Taliban machine gunners were killed in succession. This record makes Harrison the best of all time.
Five most long shots military snipers. This rating includes only long-range shots made by military snipers during armed conflicts. A record shot must be unique for its era and glorify the shooter. Record set should hold on enough for a long time, or the shot taken must break a record that has been unsurpassed for decades.
“FROM THIS DISTANCE THEY WILL NOT EVEN HIT AN ELEPHANT”
The names of the first shooters, who became famous for the longest shots, remained in history solely thanks to their victims - high-ranking military leaders. The first attested ultra-long shot dates back to the era Napoleonic Wars- his victim was the French general, Baron Auguste de Colbert. In 1809 he was killed by a rifleman of the 95th British rifle division, a certain Thomas Plunkett - he is in fifth position. It is believed that Plunkett killed Colbert from an incredible 600 meters for that time. And to prove that the hit was not accidental, he killed the general’s adjutant with another shot - however, this is rather a legend. There is no exact information about what kind of weapon the British shooter used. Some sources say that Plunkett fired from a standard smoothbore musket of the 1722 model, the famous Brown Bess. But it is more likely that the long-range shot was fired from a rifled fitting, which by that time had appeared in the British army. By the way, British snipers of the 19th century - military men, hunters, athletes - often used a rather unusual technique - they shot lying on their backs, resting the barrel on the shin of a bent leg. It is believed that it was from this position that Plunkett shot de Colbert.
“From such a distance they won’t even hit an elephant,” they were last words American general John Sedgwick - a second later he fell from a sniper's bullet. This is already the American Civil War of 1861-1865. At the Battle of Spotsylvania, Sedgwick, who fought on the side of the United States, controlled artillery fire. The Confederate riflemen, seeing the enemy commander, began hunting for him, the staff officers lay down and invited their commander to go to cover. The enemy positions were separated by a distance of approximately one kilometer. Sedgwick, considering this distance safe, began to shame his subordinates for their timidity, but did not have time to finish - a bullet from an unknown Sergeant Grace hit him in the head. This is perhaps the longest shot of the 19th century, although it is impossible to say whether it was an accident or not. This is the fourth position in the rating. Descriptions of long-range shots - at a distance of half a kilometer - are also found in the chronicles of the War of Independence and Civil War in USA. Among the North American militias there were many good hunters, and as weapons they used long-barreled, large-caliber hunting rifles and rifles.
CARLOS "WHITE FEATHER"
The first half of the twentieth century did not bring new deadly records, at least those that would become part of history and glorify the shooter. During the First and Second World Wars, the skill of snipers was determined not by the ability to make an ultra-long shot, but by the number of enemies killed. It is known that one of the most successful snipers of all time, the Finn Simo Häyhä (he accounted for up to 705 enemy soldiers killed) preferred to shoot from a distance of no more than 400 meters.
For new range records, a weapon was needed that significantly exceeded the characteristics of standard sniper rifles. Such a weapon was the Browning M2 machine gun with a caliber of 12.7x99 millimeters (50 BMG), developed in the early 30s of the last century. During the Korean War American soldiers began to use it as a sniper rifle - the machine gun was equipped optical sight and could conduct single fire. With its help, a veteran of the Vietnam War, American Sergeant Carlos Norman Hathcock II, set a range record that stood for 35 years. In February 1967, an American destroyed the enemy from a distance of 2286 meters - third position. From his M2 sniper, Hathcock was guaranteed to hit a tall target with single shots from a distance of 2000 yards (a little more than 1800 meters), that is, approximately twice as much as the standard army “high-precision” M24 in calibers 308 Win (7.62x51 millimeters) and 300 Win Mag (7.62x67 millimeters). The Vietnamese nicknamed Hathcock “White Feather” - allegedly, despite the requirements of camouflage, he always attached a feather to his hat. Some sources claim that the command Northern Vietnam has placed a $30,000 reward on the sniper's head. It is noteworthy that Hathcock did not receive his highest award, the Silver Star, for sniper shooting, but for saving comrades from a burning armored personnel carrier. Inspired by Hathcock's successes, the US military department created a special commission that studied the possibility of creating a heavy sniper rifle based on Browning.
RIFLE FROM THE GARAGE
The Americans never made rifles from machine guns. But in 1982 former officer Police officer Ronnie G. Barrett designed a 12.7 mm sniper rifle in a garage workshop - it was later designated the Barrett M82. The inventor offered his development to monsters of the arms market, such as Winchester and FN, and after the latter refused, he established his own small-scale production, registering the company Barrett Firearms. Barrett's first clients were hunters and civilian high-flyers. accurate shooting, and at the very end of the 80s, a batch of 100 M82A1 rifles was purchased by Swedish troops; following the Swedes, the American military became interested in the Barrett rifle. Today, the word "Barrett" has virtually become synonymous with a large-caliber precision rifle.
Another “high-precision” caliber of 12.7x99 millimeters began to be produced in the mid-80s by the small American company McMillan Bros. The rifle was called McMillan TAC-50 - today they are used special units USA and Canada. Fully advantage of large-caliber precision weapons revealed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East, snipers of the Western coalition began to update range records almost every year. In 2002, in Afghanistan, Canadian Arron Perry, using a McMillan TAC-50 rifle, hit a Mujahid from a distance of 2,526 yards (just over 2.3 thousand meters), thereby breaking Hathcock's long-standing record. In the same year, his compatriot Rob Furlong made a successful shot at 2657 yards (just over 2.4 thousand meters). These two shots are in second position.
American sniper Brian Kremer came close to the shooters from Canada - in March 2004 in Iraq, he hit a target at a distance of 2300 meters with a Barrett M82A1 rifle. During his two years of service in Iraq, Kremer is believed to have fired two successful shots with a range of more than 2,100 meters.
In first place is the unsurpassed record of Briton Craig Harrison to date. During an operation in Afghanistan in November 2009, at a range of 2470 meters, he destroyed two Taliban machine gunners and their machine gun. According to Craig himself, before the three effective shots he had to make nine more sighting shots.
Russian sniper Andrey Ryabinsky, in a team with spotters Yuri Sinichkin, Evgeny Titov and Vladimir Grebenyuk, set a world distance record aimed shooting from a sniper rifle. According to a blog post by the Russian arms company Lobaev Arms, the range of the accurate shot was 4210 meters.
For accurate shooting, the SVLK-14S “Twilight” rifle was used, specially designed for the maximum possible range of an accurate shot. According to Ryabinsky, the bullet covered a distance of 4210 meters in 13 seconds. For targeted shooting at such a distance, experts took into account many factors, including wind, Atmosphere pressure, derivation, temperature and rotation of the Earth.
Derivation is the deflection of a rotating bullet after a shot. The deflection occurs perpendicular to the plane of the oncoming air flow. The displacement of the bullet coincides with the direction of the rifling of the barrel of the weapon from which it was fired. For the SVD sniper rifle, the deflection is up to 60 centimeters when shooting at a target at a distance of one kilometer.
Many modern sights for small arms derivation is taken into account constructively. In particular, the PSO-1 for SVD is specially mounted so that after the shot the bullet goes slightly to the left. In artillery, this phenomenon is either included in the firing tables, or is also taken into account constructively.
The SVLK-14S sniper rifle is available in three calibers: .408 Chey Tac (10.36 x 77 mm), .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6 x 70 mm) and .300 Winchester Magnum (7.62 x 67 mm). A .408 caliber weapon was used to shoot at a record distance. Shooting was carried out at a target one meter wide and one meter high.
The length of the rifle is 1430 millimeters with a barrel length of 900 millimeters. The rifle is equipped with a longitudinally sliding bolt. The mass of SVLK-14S is 9.6 kilograms. The accuracy of fire from a rifle is 0.3 arc minutes.
The previous world record for accurate shot range was set by the American M300 sniper rifle. It was 4157 meters. Meanwhile, in June 2017, a Canadian sniper set the record for a confirmed successful accurate shot made in combat conditions. Using a 12.7 mm TAC-50 rifle, a Canadian in Iraq killed a militant at a distance of 3540 meters.
Correction: Initially, the news stated that the SVLK-14S sniper rifle is equipped with a five-round magazine. In fact, another rifle of this family, the SVLK-14M, is equipped with such a magazine. The SVLK-14S was deliberately left single-shot by the developers to maintain maximum accuracy and firing range. We apologize to the readers.
Vasily Sychev
The experiment was carried out on agricultural fields Kaluga region.
The world record was set by Russian snipers who hit a target located almost three and a half kilometers away from the firing position. The incredible result is now being called a new victory domestic weapons and are even going to apply to the Guinness Book of Records. Our field shooting masters beat the previous group record by 100 meters, and the professional sniper record by more than one thousand.
The fire experiment took place on the border of the Kaluga and Tula regions near the regional center of Tarusa. It was here that sniper Vladislav Lobaev, together with his team, decided to carry out an ambitious task - to break the world record in rifle shooting.
This is an exclusive shooting - of a record nature. This is not group shooting - this is shooting to hit, at least one shot,” says Vladislav Lobaev, designer of sniper rifles.
By the way, Vladislav Lobaev himself is an athlete and enjoys long-range shooting. In addition, Lobaev developed the latest sniper rifle, which now bears his name. A few years ago, a man created the first private company in Russia serial production precision weapons. After many achievements in the development of weapons to go to a new record - already in sniper business- Vlad, one might say, was forced by the Americans.
We are talking about a video that appeared on the Internet in which four foreign cowboys of advanced age hit a target at a distance of 30 football fields - that's about three thousand three hundred meters. Among domestic masters, the foreign experiment aroused suspicion and turned into a challenge.
Already here, in Russia, a distance of three thousand four hundred meters is a hundred more than that of the Americans. In other words, the territory for the experiment is comparable to 32 football fields according to FIFA standards. Or a little less than any runway at Domodedovo Airport. And in Moscow itself, this is almost the same distance as from Manezhnaya Square to the Belorussky Station - the entire Tverskaya Street. Find your way around rural areas The rangefinder helped. It was with his help that points for the sniper and targets were chosen in the fields.
The main condition of the experiment is the absence of obstacles at the entire distance. Only the field in the Kaluga region turned out to be like this. The target was set three agricultural fields from the firing position. The participants had to get here through plowed soil and mud.
The target itself measures one meter by one meter. The shield was dug right into the remains of last year's hay.
Mission Impossible. 3400 - simply no one has done it. If this happens, it will be a world record,” says Sergei Parfenov, master of sports in bullet shooting.
In Vladislav’s hands was a complex rifle, the likes of which have no analogues in the world. The sniper created the weapon with his own hands. In total, the athlete has six different models in his weapon range. By the way, this sniper rifle is called “Twilight”. Its caliber is 408 Chey Tac, muzzle velocity is 900 meters per second, length is 1430 millimeters, barrel length is 780 millimeters, weight is more than nine and a half kilograms.
True, to achieve the record, in order to increase the range, the weapon had to be modified: the bar for the sight was increased, the rear part of the barrel was moved higher. In addition, even the bullets had to be loaded with special ones - with a pointed tip that, like lightning, cuts through the air.
The first few shots were encouraging - although they didn’t hit the target, they definitely caught up with the Americans. And in order to overtake, it seems that all the conditions at the shooting range coincided - sunny weather and even the wind subsides from time to time. After some time, the bullet still pierced the target.
According to Vlad Lobaev, this result is still better than the American one and is worthy even of the Guinness Book of Records. Note that the previous record was set in Afghanistan by professional British military sniper Craig Garrison. In 2010, using an L115A3 Long Range Rifle of 8.59 mm caliber, which has a standard firing range of about 1,100 meters, he hit a target located at a distance of 2.47 kilometers.