Canadian sniper sets world record with 2.2-mile pickoff of ISIS fighter

3 pages of guff highlighting the importance of fieldcraft, camouflage, cover, and concealment at the sharp end, and the price to be paid by failing at it. Love it.

 

He was just turning his life around and planned to go to "college" in the Fall

 

There have been an awful lot of words wasted to say (in essence) that this was a lucky shot and it probably was and the guy probably couldn't have hit The next to Abdula with his next shot.

So what?

He still made the shot on Aladdin and it was still the longest sniper shot ever recorded.

 

Second Battle of Adobe Walls
Adobe Walls was the name of a trading post in the Texas Panhandle, just north of the Canadian River.

On the third day after the initial attack, 15 Indian warriors rode out on a bluff nearly a mile away to survey the situation. At the behest of one of the hunters, William "Billy" Dixon, already renowned as a crack shot, took aim with a "Big Fifty" Sharps (it was either a .50-70 or -90, probably the latter) that he had borrowed from Hanrahan and cleanly dropped a warrior from atop his horse. "I was admittedly a good marksman, yet this was what might be called a 'scratch' shot.":
Seeing their fellow warrior killed from such a distance apparently so discouraged the Indians that they decamped and gave up the fight.

and

The stand-off continued into a third day, when a group of Indians were noticed about a mile east of Adobe Walls. It is said that Dixon took aim with a quickly borrowed .50-90 Sharps (as, according to his biography, he only had a .45-90 Sharps and felt it could not reach) buffalo rifle and fired, knocking an Indian near Chief Quanah Parker off his horse almost a mile away on his third shot and killing him. Unnerved, the Indians then withdrew and left the settlement alone. .

also

With a borrowed .50-90 Sharp’s rifle he braced on a wall, windowsill or barrel (accounts of the incident are not that exacting) Dixon raised his peep sight and did mental calculations as to distance, trajectory and windage. A 24-year-old Virginian, he knew nothing of ballistic science, but he had killed hundreds if not thousands of buffalo. He did know how to handle a high-powered rifle.

Dixon pulled the set trigger (which releases some of the tension on the firing mechanism, but not all) and then squeezed off the shot. As the rifle kicked his shoulder, a conical lead bullet weighing nearly an ounce spun through the heavy octagonal barrel followed by a cloud of the white smoke created by black powder. Before the targeted Indian heard the shot, he toppled from his horse, dead or dying.

With its heavy barrels, set triggers and hefty powder charges, the 1874 Sharps was the ideal rifle for long-range shooting. Buffalo hunters frequently made killing shots exceeding 500 yards, but Billy Dixon did that range some better in 1874.

And

Later, the Army sent a team to verify the distance. It was 1,538 yards–7/8 of a mile. With iron sights. Years later, Dixon admitted it was a lucky shot. But he was also quoted as saying, “I was not without confidence in my marksmanship.”



The 50-90 is a formidable round - even in black powder loading.


The Sharps is legendary for its accuracy at long distance, even back in the day.

So it would seem some folks have been using .50 caliber weapons to eliminate the threat at extreme distances for a very long time.

.

 

^So cool. Not the dying part of course.

 

shooting the Sharps 50-90


and they had an even large round
the 50-140!



The movie shot heard 'round the world

 

Never shot a .50 cal Sharps but my .45-120 will reach out quite a ways.

 

What did Jeremiah Johnson do with his .45 ?

 

It's Frighty Night, (B&W Monster Movies) and the G-Kids are still in the pool,popcorn is waiting to be popped, Snow Caps ain't been opened, pizza ain't here yet, and BOY COULD I TOSS SOME DRIFT INTO THIS THREAD!
But that wouldn't be right BTPost.
Perhaps we should scale back and reference the magic 1K mark for Rifleman vs Artillery back in the days of black powder?

 

You asked.

He answered.

Looks fair to me, so why did you ask?

 

Because folks that have never done it wanted to inquire Merkun!
Just because I've got a little experience behind a trigger, it don't mean that other folks are not inquisitive!
Well they should be. But while I can't say what my next experience will be when I cross the line, I can pass along what I have previously done to face that moment. And perhaps others might realize that it's what you do..... vs what you think you might do.......
That matters to the folks that you lead into Combat in the first place!!!!!!!!
Now face thier folks when your opinions where responsible for toting the box that their "Loved One's" lie in....................

 

I assume he kept it.
My .45-120 in an 1874 model Sharps with a 500 grn bullet is going approx 1,590 FPS and an average 3/4" group @ 100yrds off the shooting sticks. The Cap n Ball .45 of JJ's isn't close to the Sharps. I doubt the .50 that he inherited would be either.

 

But I must direct your attention to the current state of the "Battlefield" And just what you conspired to vanquish your opponents with????????????????

 

That was my point (although poorly made) when I was replying to @M118LR and his reply to my post about my .45-120. Clear as mud?

 

So now that those of us that might have been, converse with those of us that have never been, and we are pointing out particulars of those that have gone from the past. Is it time to reference this to TODAY? Or is it more interesting to converse about what may have been vs what really was?