Longest recorded sniper kills



Reports regarding the longest recorded sniper kill that contain information regarding the shooting distance and the identity of the sniper have been presented to the general public since 1967. Snipers in modern warfare have had a long history since the development of long distance weaponry. As weapons, ammunition, and aids to determine ballistic solutions improved, so, too, did the distance from which a kill could be targeted.

The modern methodology of long-distance sniping (1.25 km shots) requires intense training and practice. A sniper must have the ability to accurately estimate the various factors that influence a bullet's trajectory and point of impact, such as range to the target, wind direction, wind velocity, air density, elevation, and even the rotation of the earth under the bullet of the sniper and target. Mistakes in estimation compound over distance and can cause a shot to only injure, or to miss completely. Furthermore, as any given combination of firearm and ammunition will have an associated value, known as the circular error probable, denoting a circle whose boundary is expected to include the landing points of half of the rounds fired, beyond a given distance, whether even a perfectly-aimed shot lands will be dictated partially by chance.

Devices such as laser rangefinders, handheld meteorological measuring equipment, handheld computers, and ballistic-prediction software can contribute to increased accuracy.

History
The science of long-range sniping came to fruition in the Vietnam War. Carlos Hathcock held the record from 1967 to 2002 at 2286 m. He recorded 93 official kills before an injury halted his service on the front lines. After returning to the U.S., Hathcock helped to establish a school for training Marine snipers, the Marine Corps Scout Sniper School, at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia. It took over thirty years for Canadian Master Corporal Arron Perry of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry to beat Hathcock's record. Perry held the title for only a few days as another man in his unit (Corporal Rob Furlong) bested Perry's distance with a 2430 m shot in March 2002. Furlong took the shot while supporting American soldiers during Operation Anaconda in the beginning years of the latest War in Afghanistan.

The current record is held by Briton Corporal of Horse (CoH) Craig Harrison, recorded a 2475 m shot in November 2009 also during in the War in Afghanistan; in which he shot two static machine gunners consecutively.

Unconfirmed Australian claim
In October 2012, Chris Masters, a reporter for the Australian The Daily Telegraph, quoted an unnamed source that claimed that an unknown Australian soldier from Delta Company, 2nd Commando Regiment had made a shot at 2815 m using a .50 cal Barrett M82 rifle in Afghanistan. If this shot is confirmed it will have broken the 2475 m record held by Craig Harrison. In the Daily Telegraph article Masters claimed that multiple shooters were engaged in a targeted kill mission. The claim has however not been confirmed by the Australian military or the Australian government, and the article in The Daily Telegraph remains the only source of the event and thus not included in the following list, any attempt by other journalists to request verification has been met with silence by the Australian Daily Telegraph.

Confirmed kills 1250 m or greater

 * Notes