A Russian sniper set a record for the range of aimed fire. The American broke the world record for the range of a sniper shot

five most long-range shots military snipers. In this rating, only long-range shots made by military snipers during armed conflicts are taken. A record shot should be unique for its era and glorify the shooter. Record set must hold on enough long time, or the shot fired must break a record unsurpassed for decades.
"FROM THIS DISTANCE THEY WON'T EVEN HIT THE 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. First attested ultra long shot belongs 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, by 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 also shot down the general's adjutant with another shot - however, this is more of a legend. There is no exact data on what kind of weapon the British shooter used. Some sources say that Plunkett fired from a standard 1722 smoothbore musket, 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 their shin 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,” - such were last words American General John Sedgwick - a second later he fell from a sniper's bullet. This is the American Civil War of 1861-1865. At the Battle of Spotsylvane, Sedgwick, who fought on the side of the United States, controlled artillery fire. The Confederate riflemen, seeing the enemy commander, began to hunt for him, the staff officers lay down, and invited their commander to go into cover. The positions of the opponents were separated by a distance of about 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 farthest shot of the 19th century, although it cannot be said whether it was an accident or not. This is the fourth position in the ranking. 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 the USA. There were many good hunters among the North American militias, and they used long-barreled large-caliber hunting rifles and fittings as weapons.

CARLOS "WHITE PEAT"

The first half of the 20th century did not bring new deadly records, at least those that would become the property 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 productive 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 regular sniper rifles. Such a weapon was the Browning M2 machine gun of 12.7x99 mm caliber (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 with optical sight and could conduct a single fire. With its help, a participant in the Vietnam War, American Sergeant Carlos Hathcock II set a distance record that lasted for 35 years. In February 1967, the American destroyed the enemy from a distance of 2286 meters - the third position. From his sniper M2, Hathcock was guaranteed to hit a growth target with single shots from a distance of 2000 yards (a little more than 1800 meters), that is, approximately twice as much as compared to the standard army "high-precision" M24 ​​in calibers 308 Win (7.62x51 millimeters) and 300 Win Mag (7.62x67 millimeters). The Vietnamese nicknamed Hathcock the "White Feather" - supposedly, despite the requirements of disguise, he always attached a feather to his hat. Some sources claim that the North Vietnamese command put a $30,000 bounty on the sniper's head. It is noteworthy that his the highest award- Silver star - Hathcock received not for sniping, but for rescuing comrades from a burning armored personnel carrier. Inspired by the success of Hathcock, the US military created a special commission that studied the possibility of creating a heavy sniper rifle based on the Browning.

RIFLE FROM THE GARAGE

The Americans did not make rifles from a machine gun. But in 1982 former officer Police Ronnie G. Barrett built a 12.7mm sniper rifle in a garage workshop, later designated the Barrett M82. The inventor offered his development to the monsters of the arms market, such as Winchester and FN, and after the refusal of the latter, he set up his own small-scale production by registering Barrett Firearms. Barrett's first clients were hunters and civilian lovers of high-precision 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 Barrett's rifle. Today, the word "Barrett" has actually become synonymous with a large-caliber precision rifle.

Another "high-precision" in the caliber of 12.7x99 millimeters began to be produced in the mid-80s by a small American company McMillan Bros. The rifle was called the McMillan TAC-50 - today they are used by special units of the United States and Canada. To the fullest of the dignity of a large-caliber precision weapons opened up 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 (Arron Perry) with a McMillan TAC-50 rifle hit a Mujahideen from a distance of 2526 yards (slightly more than 2.3 thousand meters), thereby breaking Hathcock's long-term record. In the same year, his compatriot Rob Furlong (Rob Furlong) made a productive shot at 2657 yards (slightly more than 2.4 thousand meters). These two shots are in second position.

American sniper Brian Kremer (Brian Kremer) crept close to the shooters from Canada - in March 2004 in Iraq from a Barrett M82A1 rifle, he hit a target at a distance of 2300 meters. It is believed that during his two years of service in Iraq, Kremer fired two successful shots with a range of over 2100 meters.

In first place - unsurpassed to date, the record of Briton Craig Harrison (Craig Harrison). 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 three effective shots, he had to make nine more sighting shots.

Speaking of best shots snipers, first of all, you should take into account the range of the shot and the accuracy of the hit. 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 in yards (1 yard = 91 cm).

Ranked eighth- Shot by American Sergeant Major Jim Gilliland (1367 yards) in the Iraq War. Shot from a standard M24 rifle using standard 7.62x51mm NATO rounds 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. Cartridges - Raufoss NM140 MP. Range - 1509 yards.

number six- Corporal of the British Army Christopher Reynolds and his accurate shot in August 2009 at 2026 yards. Rifle - Accuracy International L115A3. Cartridges - .338 Lapua Magnum LockBase B408. The hit target is a Taliban commander nicknamed "Mullah", responsible for a number of attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. For his shot, the corporal was awarded a medal from Queen Elizabeth II of England.

number five— Sergeant Carlos Hatchhawk, shot at 2500 yards. Date - February 1967, the time of the Vietnamese conflict. The historic shot that made the sergeant a hero of his time was fired from an M2 Browning machine gun. Cartridges - .50 BMG. Hatchcock and today a legend american army- he is ranked fourth in the list of snipers who hit maximum amount goals. At one time, the Vietnamese put a $30,000 bounty on his head.

Fourth place- US Sergeant Brian Kremer and shot at 2515 yards. Date is March 2004. Weapon - Barrett M82A1. Cartridges - Raufoss NM140 MP. In two years in Iraq, Kremer fired two successful shots over 2,350 yards.

Third place (bronze) - from a Canadian, Corporal Arron Perry. Shot range - 2526 yards. Date is March 2002. Weapon - McMillan Tac-50. Cartridges - Hornady A-MAX .50 (.50 BMG).

Second place (silver) - a shot at 2657 yards, again by Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong, by date coinciding with Arron Perry's record. Weapons and ammo are the same.

First Place (Gold) - an unsurpassed record of the British Craig Harrison. During the Afghan conflict in November 2009, he fired 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.

New distance record sniper shooting belongs to the team of Vladislav Lobaev, a Russian arms manufacturer whose precision-guided sniper rifles have been adopted by the FSB and FSO of Russia.

The record was set on September 28, 2017 at the training ground in Tula region in Russia. Successful shot fired Andrey Ryabinsky from a distance of 4,170 meters at a target measuring 1x2 meters, from a rifle SVLK-14S "Dusk" cartridge caliber .408 Cheytac.

To set a new record for shooting at ultra-long distances, Lobaev Arms specialists modified the rifle and refined the cartridge. This made it possible to disperse a bullet weighing 30 grams to initial speed at 1000 m/s.

As Vladislav Lobaev himself said, 4170 meters is a little more than the recent record of colleagues from North America- they had a shot at 4,157 meters. However, this is not the limit. In the coming days, Russian gunsmiths are planning to set a new record - by 4,200 meters!

Lobaev's team, in addition to the production of high-precision weapons, has already distinguished itself by earlier record shooting - in April 2015, they installed . After this event, disputes erupted on the Internet about whether it makes sense combat shooting for such distances. Part of the particularly knowledgeable "experts" claimed that the bullet allegedly loses everything lethal force and falls on the head like "pigeon droppings." Let's leave these statements on their conscience and on the conscience of the developers computer games where "experts" draw their knowledge from, and in order to find the truth, let's turn to reality.

This June, in the Iraqi city of Mosul, Canadian sniper from the division special purpose Joint Task Force 2, with an accurate shot, destroyed one of the ISIS militants ( terrorist organization, banned in Russia, CIS countries and Europe) who attacked Iraqi army soldiers. The most remarkable thing about this story is that the shot was fired from a distance of just over 2 miles, namely - 3 540 meters!

Canadian sniper in Iraq
(c) dinardetectives.info

The command of the special operations forces of Canada did not disclose the name of the sniper and the circumstances of the battle, saying that the fact of the shot and the elimination of the militant was confirmed by documentary satellite footage.

It is only known that the sniper used a rifle McMillan TAC-50 with ammunition .50 BMG (12.7x99mm), the sniper position at the time of the shot was in high-rise building, the bullet's flight time was about 10 seconds. At the same time, the shot had a strong demoralizing effect on the terrorists and actually thwarted the offensive, representatives of the Canadian military department said.

The previous record of a “combat” sniper shot was set in 2009 in Afghanistan, in the Musa-Kala region. Then Corporal Craig Harrison, a special forces sniper from the UK, shot from McMillan TAC-50 eliminated 2 Taliban machine gunners from a distance 2475 meters.

Harrison said that on the day of the record shot, the weather was almost perfect and completely calm, and visibility was excellent. It took him 9 sighting shots to accurately hit the target with 3 shots. Bullets fired by a corporal from a sniper rifle reached their targets in 6 seconds.

There is also information about the allegedly absolute record for the range of a shot from a sniper rifle - 3,850 meters, which was set last year Jim Spinell from the American company Hill Country Rifle. But this is not a “combat” shot, but in terms of high-precision shooting in “peaceful” conditions, the world record now belongs to the team of Vladislav Lobaev.

A sniper's shot can not only hit the enemy, but also sow fear and panic in his ranks. Behind a single shot can be years of preparation and weeks of waiting for the right moment. Often, spending a long time in wild environment and while waiting for the target, the sniper must have not only all the skills of survival, but also the ability not to lose concentration at a critical moment. At such a moment, a lot depends on what kind of weapon he has in his hands. Modern sniper rifles are sometimes real miracles of engineering and are capable of hitting objects at a distance of more than two kilometers. We have selected for you 10 of the most famous sniper rifles - from those that helped near Stalingrad to those that are used in modern special operations.

(Total 10 photos)

Sponsor of the post: Visas to England: The entire package of documents without leaving home!
Source: dnpmag.com

1. "Three-ruler" Mosin

In 1931, the Mosin rifle became the first Soviet sniper rifle, having received the "sighting tube" of the Podolsk Optical Plant. The design subsequently underwent certain changes. "Three-ruler" has proven itself well at short and medium distances during the Second World War. Yes, in Battle of Stalingrad 98 snipers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division destroyed 3879 German soldiers and officers.

ASVK, or large-caliber army sniper rifle, was developed in the USSR in the late 1980s. This 12 kg rifle is capable of hitting lightly armored and unarmored military equipment up to a kilometer away. You can’t even talk about the defeat of a person - a bullet fired from this gun will fly one and a half kilometers at a speed of about 850 meters per second.

3. Vintorez

This silent sniper rifle was developed in the same 1980s as ASVK. She was intended for special units. Later, after the collapse of the USSR, the screw cutter was actively used during the First and Second Chechen wars, as well as during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. The length of the rifle does not even reach 90 centimeters, and the weight is less than three kilograms.

After domestic samples, it's time to move to the USA, where in 1990 the Calico M951S rifle was developed, which perfectly hits targets at medium distances. Its features are a high rate of fire and an extremely capacious magazine that can hold up to 100 rounds. Which, however, is not surprising, because the model was created on the basis of the Calico M960 submachine gun.

5. Dragunov sniper rifle

The Dragunov self-loading rifle is the best product of the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant. This sniper gun was developed from 1958 to 1963 by a group of designers led by Evgeny Dragunov. Over the years, "Dragunov" has been repeatedly modified and still a little old. Currently, the SVD is considered as a high-quality, but regular rifle for a line fighter who is a sniper in a unit. Nevertheless, at a distance of up to 600 meters, it is still a formidable weapon for the destruction of enemy manpower.

6. CheyTac m200 “Intervention”

CheyTac m200 "Intervention" - one of the components of the American CheyTac LRRS sniper system - has been produced in various modifications since 2001. This model is distinguished by the ability to hit targets with high accuracy at long distances (about 2 kilometers). We can say that "Intervention" has become a real phenomenon in the world of computer shooters. So in the famous game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" she is present as one of the most powerful species weapons.

7. AMP Technical Services DSR-1

German rifle DSR-1 can be called the most accurate, however, only when shooting at ideal conditions- when using specialized cartridges and in the absence of wind. It refers to police or anti-terrorist weapons and is applied European formations type GSG-9. The professional military doesn't really like the DSR-1 - it is susceptible to dirt and sand, and in real combat, for example, when there was an explosion nearby, it misfires.

8 Accuracy International AS50

The AS50 was first shown to the general public in January 2005 at ShotShow-2005 in the USA. The 1369-millimeter equipment weighs 14.1 kilograms without optics and cartridges and is intended mainly for special operations. The sniper can fold or unfold it with lightning speed and bring it into combat readiness. High accuracy shooting at long distances, a device for mounting various optics, including night ones, make the AS50 one of the best modern examples of sniper rifles.

This rifle has interesting story creation. M82 was assembled by American Ronnie Barrett in his garage back in 1982. After the refusal of a number of leading arms firms, he decided to start small-scale production for the domestic market. After 7 years, the Swedish Army buys 100 rifles from Barrett Firearms, and then the US Army pays attention to them during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Today, the Barett M82 is in service with several dozen countries and can conduct aimed fire at a distance of almost 2 km. The rifle is present in a number of famous films and computer games up to GTA V, which once again confirms its authority.

10 Accuracy International Arctic Warfare

Another brainchild of the legendary English company Accuracy International Ltd., which has been unrivaled since 1980. The UK uses it for military purposes, and special forces and police use modified models. However, in the market civilian weapons this rifle is positioned as "sports" - for example, in Russia a few years ago it could be bought in gun shop for about 20 thousand dollars. The longest recorded combat sniper shot in history was fired from the AWM - British soldier Craig Garrison fired at a distance of 2475 meters. The "cultural footprint" of this weapon can also claim a record - AWM is mentioned in a number of the most famous computer shooters, including Call of Duty, Battlefield and, of course, Counter-Strike.

Russian sniper Andrei 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 Russian arms company Lobaev Arms, the range of an 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 aimed shooting at such a distance, specialists took into account many factors, including wind, Atmosphere pressure, derivation, temperature and rotation of the Earth.

Derivation is the deflection of a spinning bullet after a shot. The deviation occurs perpendicular to the plane of the oncoming air flow. The displacement of the bullet coincides with the direction of cutting the barrel of the weapon from which it was fired. For sniper SVD rifles the derivation is up to 60 centimeters when firing at a target at a distance of one kilometer.

Many modern sights for small arms constructively take into account derivation. In particular, PSO-1 for SVD is specially mounted so that after the shot the bullet goes a little 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). For shooting at a record distance, weapons of .408 caliber were used. 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 firing from a rifle is 0.3 minutes of arc.

The previous world record for accurate shot range was set with the American M300 sniper rifle. It was 4157 meters. Meanwhile, in June 2017, a Canadian sniper set the record for a confirmed high-scoring accurate shot fired in combat. From a TAC-50 rifle of 12.7 mm caliber, a Canadian in Iraq killed a militant at a distance of 3540 meters.

Correction: Initially, the news claimed that the SVLK-14S sniper rifle was equipped with a five-round magazine. In fact, another rifle of this family, the SVLK-14M, is equipped with such a magazine. SVLK-14S was deliberately left single-shot by the developers to maintain maximum accuracy and range of fire. We apologize to our readers.

Vasily Sychev