Scots Sniper Kills Taliban Leader With Longest Shot

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Scots Sniper Kills Taliban Leader With Longest Shot

A SCOTTISH soldier has been praised for making the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan after shooting a top Taliban fighter from almost a mile away.

Corporal Christopher Reynolds took out the Afghan drug lord during some of the hardest fighting of the war so far.

The 25-year-old, of 3 Scots, The Black Watch, kept watch on a shop rooftop for three days to eliminate the target.

But he admitted the top-level Taliban fighter – known as Musa – was so far away it took him a couple of attempts to get the aim right.

Initially Musa, who was with four men, did not even realise he was being shot at.

But Cpl Reynolds, of Dalgety Bay, in Fife, together with his spotter Lance Corporal David Hatton, worked out different factors such as wind speed and the trajectory of the bullet to hit the target. Musa, who was more than 1,500 metres away, was taken out with a single shot to the chest.

Cpl Reynolds, who has killed 32 Taliban fighters, said: “I was quite proud of that shot. It is the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan. I am going to use that fact as a chat-up line in the pub when I get back home.”

His 20-year-old spotter, from Castlemilk, in Glasgow, added: “We had been in position for three days when he made that shot. He did a top job that day.”

Another Scot in the same unit eliminated a sniper by using a precision missile launcher which costs £70,000 to fire.

Sergeant Daniel Buist, of Arbroath, Angus, hit the insurgent hiding in a two-feet wide “murder hole” dug out of a wall.

The 34-year-old fired his Javelin launcher – only used in the “most desperate of situations” – to take out the sniper after seeing him shoot patrols.

Incredibly, his aim was so accurate he hit the enemy fighter without damaging the compound wall.

Sgt Buist said: “If something that large hits you, it is going to do some damage because it is designed to attack tanks.

“It was later confirmed that I had actually hit someone, as there were fresh blood trails.

“The remains had been dragged away by other Taliban. It can be gruesome, but I had to stop that guy from taking out my men.”
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Good Work![cheers]
 
A couple questions for you military guys from someone who has very limited experience with scoped rifles. How often does a sniper have to take a couple attempts to get everything right? And how far off could his shots realistically have been from a mile away? Are we talking a few yards? 10 yards? 30 yards?
 
That brought a smile to my face. Amazing! I would like to know all the equipment he used including what sort or range finder and ballistics calculating device.
 
Excellent!

Palladin said:
The Javelin launcher is pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKfW0CIQ6W8
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Ok, if I read this story right, a Taliban sniper was hit by a Javelin and his fellow fighters dragged his body away? Um, what body? Watching that video I would think all there would be left would be small bits and pieces. Not that there's anything wrong with that! [laugh]
 
I've shot the L115A3 when I was in Scotland, nice gun.

zeppelinfromled said:
How often does a sniper have to take a couple attempts to get everything right?
Click to expand...

Not very often does a sniper get multiple attempts on the same target. That's why it's critical to get wind, mirage, and distance calculations correct the first time. However, in this environment at the said distance, I could see why a sniper could get more then one shot on target, but it doesn't happen very often hence the saying - one shot one kill.


And how far off could his shots realistically have been from a mile away? Are we talking a few yards? 10 yards? 30 yards?
Click to expand...

I would say inches rather then yards. I'm not sure I'm following you here. I've shot as far back as 1000 yards, and the fudge factor is minuscule, almost can't make any mistakes when you're shooting that far out.
 
Welcome to the world of the .338 Lapua.

A good novel about the .338 Lapua in the hands of a civilian during the inter-war years in Kurd country is "Holding the Zero" by Gerald Seymour. Seymour is a suspense/military/action writer from the UK who is not all that well known in the US.
 
The facts in the story are incorrect, heres why:
The longest range recorded for a sniper kill currently stands at 2,430 meters (2,657 yd, or 1.51 miles), accomplished by Master Corporal Rob Furlong, a sniper from Newfoundland, Canada, in March 2002 during the war in Afghanistan. Furlong made this record-breaking kill while he was participating in Operation Anaconda. He was a member of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). To make the kill, he used a .50 caliber BMG (12.7 mm) McMillan TAC-50 bolt-action rifle.[11]

Utilizing a ballistic calculator, it is possible to reproduce the trajectory and time-in-flight of such a ranged shot. With a nominal muzzle velocity of 2,910 feet (890 m) per second for the .50 BMG M1022 Long Range Sniper[12] round, and an estimated ballistic coefficient of 1.05[13], such a shot fired at the estimated altitude of 9,000 feet (2,700 m) for the Shahi-Kot_Valley would have taken 3.92 seconds to reach the target, and drop 155.8 feet (47.5 m) during flight. Also note at such a long range, even a light breeze of 20 kilometres (12 mi) per hour would have blown the bullet off target by 20.8 feet (6.3 m).

The previous record was held by U.S. Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock in February 1967 during the Vietnam War, at a distance of more than 2,347 yards (2,146 m) using a scope-mounted Browning M2 .50 machine gun.[14][15][16]

By contrast, much of the U.S./Coalition urban sniping in support of operations in Iraq is at much shorter ranges, although in one notable incident on April 3, 2003, Corporals Matt and Sam Hughes, a two-man sniper team of the Royal Marines, armed with L96 sniper rifles each killed targets at a range of about 860 metres (941 yd) with shots that, due to strong wind, had to be “fire[d] exactly 17 meters (56 ft) to the left of the target for the bullet to bend in the wind.”[17]

During Operation Enduring Freedom, Spanish Navy Marine snipers shot cables hanging from the mast to the bridge of the North Korean freighter So San, smuggling Scud missiles through the waters of Socotra Island. These cables were preventing it from being boarded by fast rope for an arms inspection. The shots were made at a range of 400 yards (370 m), with rough sea, from the deck of SPS Navarra (F85), and the Marines were armed with Barrett M95 rifles.[citation needed]

During Operation Harekate Yolo in Afghanistan, one Norwegian sniper of the 2nd Battalion, aiming from a trench, hit a Taliban insurgent from a distance of 1,380 meters, using 12.7 mm multi-purpose ammunition.[18]

Just got this off of Wikipedia...
 
zeppelinfromled said:
A couple questions for you military guys from someone who has very limited experience with scoped rifles. How often does a sniper have to take a couple attempts to get everything right? And how far off could his shots realistically have been from a mile away? Are we talking a few yards? 10 yards? 30 yards?
Click to expand...
IDK about a mile away, but I can get a cold bore (first shot out of the rifle) hit on a target the size of a human torso at 600 yards. Every time.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been shooting competitively at that distance for a decade now and hold NRA master classifications in both mid range (300 - 600 yds) prone and long range(800 - 1000 yds) prone.

I also have never been a military sniper, nor claim to be one. Point is, these shooting skills are available to any mere mortal that wants to buck down and learn how to.
 
The reason I estimated so high of an error is that I would think that you would be able to tell that you were being shot at if he missed by a very small amount. Granted it's never happened to me, but I'd imagine that you could hear a bullet passing several inches from you. Maybe not though.
 
Jose said:
I also have never been a military sniper, nor claim to be one. Point is, these shooting skills are available to any mere mortal that wants to buck down and learn how to.
Click to expand...

I understand and appreciate what you’re saying, and I agree, any monkey can be trained to be an expert shooter. I used to love watching the NRA high-power matches back in the day, some are very good static line shooters -- especially wearing shooting jackets and then lubing themselves up with spray gluing while laying on a nice soft shooting matt.

They are very good at what they do shooting on nice sunny days, I give them credit.

However, most wouldn’t be half the shooters they think they are without the extra gear, fancy gadgets, and overall shooting crutches.

Over time, anyone monkey can be trained to be a shooter; but very few of those folks are capable of being military snipers capable of delivering precision rifle fire, on command, in complex and unfriendly environment.
 
According to the Guys over at AR15.com(where I am also a member) one of the guys there holds the ARMY record Linky.

Just so we are clear here I am not looking to start anything. I am a paying member at both boards and enjoy both of them. I am just posting a link I found interesting(for some reason I felt this might be misinterpreted).
 
what idiot let the name of the soldier out into public domain, he and his family are now targets
 
TheWookie said:
I understand and appreciate what you’re saying, and I agree, any monkey can be trained to be an expert shooter. I used to love watching the NRA high-power matches back in the day, some are very good static line shooters -- especially wearing shooting jackets and then lubing themselves up with spray gluing while laying on a nice soft shooting matt.

They are very good at what they do shooting on nice sunny days, I give them credit.

However, most wouldn’t be half the shooters they think they are without the extra gear, fancy gadgets, and overall shooting crutches.

Over time, anyone monkey can be trained to be a shooter; but very few of those folks are capable of being military snipers capable of delivering precision rifle fire, on command, in complex and unfriendly environment.
Click to expand...
A) Highpower Rifle matches happen come rain or shine. The only time I have ever seen one called is because lighthing was fast approaching and the wind ripped several target off their frames. Capm Perry CMP week 2004.

B) bpm990 already covered the gear issue.

C) I said before and I will say again, I have never been a military sniper nor do I claim to have all the skills they have beyond shooting.
 

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