Story here
SCOTS SNIPER KILLS TALIBAN LEADER WITH LONGEST SHOT
What sort of rifle and ammunition was he likely using to make this shot?
To kill a *leafer *you probably need herbicide. Or just wait til Fall.
Perhaps the L115A3 It’s a 8.59mm. Can’t say I’ve heard of it before.
Ah, 8.59mm is .338. That makes more sense.
There are also .50 BMG sniper rifles. Though my understanding is they are more suited to “hard” targets (vehicles etc).
Wow. Great sniper.
It’s not the longest shot by a sniper in Afghanistan, though.
You mean, “not by a long shot”? 
As usual a a false story from the Sunday/Daily Express group. These papers are paying out libel settlements on an almost weekly basis. My rule of thumb is never to believe any story published in either the Daily Mail of the Express.
What isn’t true about the story – that it was the longest shot, or that it was a Scottish sniper?
If any part of it was true, it’d be extra motivation for the Marine sniper teams.
From this Wiki article.
It’s interesting that Cpl Furlong (and if ever there was a name for a long distance sniper…) beat the record of 2310 m set just weeks before by Arron Perry from the same Regiment. Those Princess Pats apparently really know their long range shooting.
Those kinds of ranges would suggest a .50 caliber.
So you are totally denying the actions of a very brave and very skilled man serving in a very dangerous theatre of operations without any evidence whatsoever; apart from your own apparently uninformed opinion which appears to arise out of some irrational prejudice against a particular newspaper?
Would this be for political reasons perhaps or have you actually have any factual basis for your attempted smear on this soldier?
If you have please share it with the rest of us.
In this case I choose to believe the news item,not you.
I think his point of contention was not with the fact that this shot happened, or the skill required to accomplish it, but rather the false claim that it’s a record.
I sure as hell know I wouldn’t want to be the one in this sniper’s sights…
S^G
Thank you, that’s exactly the point I was making. I wasn’t belittling the soldier’s actions, Just that, going on that paper’s record, I take with a very large pinch of salt anything it reports.
Aside from actual combat kills, what’s the world record for a “kill” in target shooting?
I’m not sure what you are asking for. The Palma Matches are regularly held at 800, 900 and 1000 meters with a 20 inch bullseye. 1000 yard matches are held annually at Camp Perry, Ohio. I believe the current 1000 yard benchrest record is 1.403 inches, which is just silly. Cite.
I know there must be longer range target shooting matches, but my GoogleFu is too weak to easily find them. Certainly the testing that Cheyenne Tactical and Lost River Ammo conducted to develop the CheyTac .408 must have involved significant long range testing.
Other accounts of long range rifle shooting include:
A group of forensic scientists tried to mythbust the ~1000-1500 yard shot by buffalo hunter Billy Dixon at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. According to this blog post , Mike Venturino wrote the article, “Sharps Rifles, just how far will they shoot?” in the April 2000 issue of Shotgun News describing tests at the Yuma Proving Ground demonstrating a .50 inch bullet similar to that used by Mr. Dixon, travelling over 3500 yards.
The military in 1879 tested the 45-70 cartridge’s efficacy at two miles distance. Cited here. The goal was to evaluate claims of effective volley fire by similar weapons during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877.
Finally, for some longer range target shooting, this article details battleship gunnery evaluation at ranges between 12,000 and 18,000 yards, with before and after pictures of the target rafts.
And this youtube clip shows impacts from Minuteman ICBM RVs at Kwajalein Atoll. Other than NASA missions like Deep Impact, that’s the longest range target shooting I know of.
The farthest distance at which someone has shot a lifesize silhouette target and scored a hit that would be considered fatal in real life. Let’s say within a 10cm radius of dead center in the chest.
It’s not a record anymore, but I just needed to mention Carlos Hathcock of the USMC, who with a 2,500 yard kill in Vietnam set a record that lasted 35 years until those enterprising gents over in Afghanistan got to work (tip of the hat to them too). If he were not a badass for shooting a guy from that distance, the case would be clinched by his documented feat of shooting an opposing North Vietnamese sniper through his rifle scope and into his eye. Semper Fi, Marine.