A quarter mile is just over 400 meters, well within the range of a Remington 700, and for a stationary target it wouldn’t be a terribly difficult shot.
I’m not familiar with the make of rifle he used, but a quarter mile is only about 400 yards, very doable for a qualified marksman using a scope.
Found him. Simo Häyhä.
White death, not white ghost. Googling Finnish sniper, or Finnish sniper badass (google recommended I search that) yields results.
Whitman was a Marine Sharpshooter, which means he shot a course out to 500 meters. And scored very well on it, too. Basic training would include targets out to 1000 meters.
As always, friend silenus, you get my point. I have a tendency to shoot low from an elevation. I haven’t been out for deer from a tree stand in more than a few years, but I always needed practice before the season would start to correct this. Whitman had plenty of ammunition, and before he was finished he had more than likely zeroed the weapon in pretty tight. Deer are smart enough to vanish from the vicinity after the first shot. People, not so much evidently
Sure. That’s only four hundred yards. With a decent rifle, if a person isn’t moving, it would be a very makeable shot.
The range of rifles is really quite astonishing. 300 feet - 100 yards - is a very easy shot with a decent rifle. In an hour of practice and familiarization I’d have you hitting a human sized target with every shot.
While I can’t speak for Whiteman’s era, but Marines max out at 500 meters. 1000 meters is an exceptional shot, you typically need a heavier caliber rifle and a scope.
Keep in mind for trained shooters: Whiteman’s rifle score is average. “Sharpshooter” is the middle category, with “Expert” above it and “Marksmen” below.
One of the things I remember about the basic training part of Full Metal jacket was Gunny Hartman mentioning that both Charles Whitman and that guy in “the Texas Schoolbook Suppository” both learning to shoot in the Marines.
I think we fired at a target 21 feet away. As you say, it wasn’t a stringent test at all.
Most people, on hearing shots, duck and take cover. Good thinking usually if the shooter is at the same elevation as you. Not so good if the shooter is 300 feet up and has you on an angle dead in his sights.
I’m going to avoid the average/not average part and say that even as a better shooter, shots at extreme angles are tough. If I was in a tower like Texas, I would be looking for shots at things say 75 yards off from the base (or more) more than shots at things 50 yards off from the base. I’m probably going to be getting a larger target area that way and the angle I hold the gun at (flatter in relationship to my shoulder) will allow a more accurate site picture and hold. Using deer as an example I would not shoot down at a steep angle froma tree stand but would allow the deer to walk away slightly before shooting.
Worth noting that people do not, instinctively, think about threats above them. Honest, when’s the last time you looked up?
OK, now that you’re done staring at your ceiling, consider that adult humans just don’t have natural predators who fly. Most people just don’t think in that dimension as far as getting away from harm unless they have been given particular reason to think about it (if you know the Air Force is out to get you, you probably spend more time gazing at the sky than you would otherwise, or if you were trying to get into or out of a Xenomorph hive)
Also, I know from living on military bases and near airports that sound does weird things around lots of buildings. Got to my new base here on Friday, constantly hearing sounds of jet fighters, but depending on where I was standing, the sound would be coming from the nearest building (echoing off the faces of the buildings). So I never did figure out where the jets were (worth noting, I haven’t figured out where the flightline is, which says much about how totally new I am to this base, if you consider how hard it is not to find the flightline on accident on an Air Force base).
Gunshots would have the same problem, except that a gunshot doesn’t give you much time to zero where the sound came from, and while you’re standing around trying to figure it out (or hiding behind a statue or whatever), you may still be in the open for the next easy shot.
It’s interesting to note that probably the only part of the Warren Report that somebody didn’t contest was the distance from Oswald’s 6th floor window to the back of JFK’s head – 265.3 feet.
That is the definition of average. 
Yes, and no. Each is the definition of an average.
Say I have 100 people, 51 females, 49 males.
I could say, on average each persons got about 1 testicle and 1 breast. Or I could say the average person is male. Either one is technically correct.
Gotta nitpick your math: On average, each person in that group likely has one testicle and two breasts. Gentlemen, look down your shirts now and count 'em.
I was using breast colloquially, not scientifically.
I’ll grant you that. What’s the fun of using breasts scientifically?
[six million dollar man]We can make them better than they were before. Bigger, perkier… Better. [/smdm]
[You mean people who can’t really shoot actually own guns?
…Isn’t that like …extremely dangerous?]
To some degree that is changing. For a hunter to purchase a licence, it is required to have a Firearms safety cert. if born after 19** states vary.
I teach Concealed carry and we qualify at 21 feet here in MN also, although I have run some through at 50 feet in the past but many CC guns are not target guns. The 21 foot range is the result of the “Tueller Drill” .
As for the distintsion of being called a sharpshooter, That is what I got labled in the US Army because I was a poor shot!
The military trainers take the average joe off the street and turn them into experts all the time.
This Red Neck was what I thought an expert before I enlisted and there was no way that Black Man that wore the Smokey Bear Hat was going to tell me how to shoot. My stupid prejuduces caused me to qualify less than expert and I was very ashamed, still am today (for both reasons).
I payed attention with the handgun and scored expert. Then qualified for the Post pistol team.
Sharpshooter stinks!
Absolutely. As has been mentioned, old military rifles are effective to around 500m with iron sights. The sights on the SMLE Mk III rifle (a WWI/WWII British Service Rifle) are graduated to 2000 yards and effective shots have been taken at that range with just the sights on the rifle, and during the Boer War the Boers were able to pick off British soldiers at similar ranges with their Mauser rifles. Which again had iron sights on them (Telescopic sights really didn’t become easily available until the WWI, although obviously there were practical designs back in the mid-late 19th century once cartridge-firing longarms and improved rifling made shooting at long ranges practical.)
Also, in the interests of pointing out that the range on firearms is often longer than people think, I’ll mention that Metallic Silhouette pistol competitions involve shooting at (to try and knock over) animal-shaped targets the size of a coffee-table book, made of steel, at ranges of up to 200 metres with centrefire handguns.