The Practical Marksman

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... istan.html

"It took me nine rounds but I took him down with the ninth.

"Then the other four had moved closer, so I took them down as well.

"They were taken down in the next 28 seconds."

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying any of it. Certainly not in "28 seconds". Here is why. He said in his own words it took him 9 rounds to hit the first guy. Then, he "took the other 4 as well". Assuming he killed each one of the 4 with just one round, that would mean a total of 13 rounds were fired minimally in just 28 seconds at targets that were at least ONE MILE AWAY! 13 rounds in 28 seconds equals 2.15 seconds per shot! This from a .338 Lapua rifle that only holds 5 rounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_military_rifles

"Calibre .338 Lapua Magnum (8.58x70mm) (L115 / AWM), 7,62x51mm NATO (L96 / AW) Weight 6.8 kg, Length 1,300 mm, Muzzle velocity 936 m/s, Feed 5-round box and Effective range 1,100 m plus."

So in order to fire 13 rounds in 28 seconds, he would have to not only shoot at the rate of one round every 2.15 seconds, but he would also have to RELOAD 3 TIMES! Even if he had an extended magazine that held 13 rounds, (which he didn't), there is no way you are going to accurately acquire man sized targets one mile away, fire, work the bolt, reacquire the target, and fire again in the small span of 2.15 seconds. You can see in the picture there in fact is no extended magazine in his rifle. They show it resting flat and being supported from the trigger guard forward. They also show him holding it, and the magazine is flush. So it is no more than a 5 round capacity. I'm calling complete and total B.S, Bill T.

I read it a little different than you- it looks to me like it took him 28 seconds to kill the last four after making the first hit. That drops the rate of fire to one every seven seconds if he had no misses.

It appears in print 3 times that 5 were killed in 28 seconds. 1.) In the headline. 2.) In the highlighted lead paragraph. 3.) In the side article written by the author Mr. McNab titled "My View". Regardless, shooting 4 or 5 live targets at over a mile away with a bolt action rifle in less than half a minute borders on the impossible. Also, this is one of those supermarket rags that has articles that Big Foot was sighted eating at Taco Bell last week.

If this had in fact happened it would be all over Fox News, The Military Channel, and in every newsworthy magazine in the free world. It's not. Another thing is how these sniper long range records that have stood for years, are now being broken just about every week. It's become a "can you top this" contest. Bill T.

Time of Flight on a 300gr Scenar at 2800fps at standard baro with a distance of 1800 yards is 3.140 seconds. The first 10 shots took over 30 seconds if he was spotting his hits and walking them on to target. He said he took out the remaining 4 in 28 seconds. That's shoot, spot hit, correct hold, and shoot again in 3 seconds. It could be done. In the heat of battle or in a stressful situation, 3 seconds can seem like a looooong time. It's pretty hard to breathe between shots shooting that fast at that distance, but the scenario is doable.

I'm finding the possibility that anyone believes details from the popular press to be a bit amazing.

Leam

Regardless of how it's written or interpreted, it's an all but impossible feat. Even if it were 4, and even if it were done without a mag change, I'm not buying any of it simply because common sense applied to this kind of shooting negates it. All of it. Forget the 9 pot shots it took him to, "get sighted in".

Remember, you are talking about killing 4 live, human, moving targets with just 4 shots, at over 1 mile away in just 28 seconds? That is a fatal one shot kill at over 1 mile away every 7 seconds! Forget the article. Apply common sense. Could he have hit one? Perhaps. Two? highly unlikely. But 4?? No way, no how. This guy wasn't Superman. He was a human shooting a rifle from a field position. No more, no less.

Don't take my word for any of this. Go to a 1,000 yard match and talk to guys that do this on a weekly basis, with rifles built to much more precision standards than the gun this guy was supposedly using. Ask them under ideal conditions if they could put 4 rounds in a 24 inch circle, (about the size of a large pizza), every 7 seconds for 28 seconds at 1,000 yards. Then add another 760 yards to the equation. Remember, these were supposedly all fatal one shot kills. That simply means he had to have hit each and every one in the boiler room. Not hitting them in the a$$, or in the feet, legs, or anywhere else.

As I said, watch the video produced by David Tubb titled, "The One Mile Shot". You will see the unbelievable difficulty involved in even attempting to do something like this. And this is with one of the greatest high power long range rifle shooters on the planet. With a specialized, custom built rifle, with immaculately prepared handloaded ammunition. This is nothing more than a barber shop ghost story, prepped and printed by a rag who's credibility is about as good as Ron Blagojevich. Bill T.