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M82 Sniper Rifle


Lawn Gnome

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Just a while ago I was looking on www.ranger.org and I found the compleat list of causes of death, names, etc. from Opertion: Iraqi Freedom and then I found all the weapons they used in Operation: Iraqi Freedom and I found the M82 Sniper rifle and I went to look it up and I found some disturbing info :wacko::blink:

you can shoot over 18,000 yards (over 10.5 miles) with that thing and still be accurate and blow up armored vehicles.

Is that really true? I mean it MIGHT be able to shoot 10.5 miles but whats the point unless the have some amazing scope that can see that far. But if it really could do that then it must be like 9 feet long to shoot that far and blow up armourned vehicles.

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In theory, it would probably be possible, IF you shot high enough so that the round would hit in the right place while it sinks down due to humidity and if the round was hot enough so that the velocity was the same, and IF the ground was flat enough and there were no obstacles in the way.

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

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Actually it is possible. If you are in a plane 10.5 miles above the ground and shoot it at the ground. :lol:

Yeah Hathcock had the record, but I think I remember someone posting that some canadian broke that record in the 'stan or somewhere(if that was true, I have no clue). Hathcock used a modded 50 cal machine gun right, was it the ma deuce? That is hardcore. :ph34r:

Edit: Found a link to a story about the sniper. 2430 meters was the record breaker.

Edited by ScarfaceSAS
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Yeah, it was a M2 that he put his scope on - what makes it still superior to the Canadian shot IMHO:

1) The M2 is full auto only. He had to tap the butterfly just right to get a single shot and not disturb his sight picture

2) The Canadian used a rifle built specifically for LD shots - and ammunition that is far superior to what Gunny had in Vietnam

I shudder to think of the marksmanship Gunny Hathcock could display with today's sniper set-ups had he lived to this day and age without his injuries.

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Yeah, I was about to say the same thing. It is kind of like comparing sports records(HR record and such) from past and present. You can't really do it. Although I don't know much about ammo, I would guess that bullets and rifles have improved greatly since Nam. And especially sniper bullets and rifles, along with the training too.

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The weapon was a standard M2 - full auto only

Hathcock was shooting standard .50 cal ammo - the hand-loaded, shaved, match grade rounds snipers use today are far superior to milled rounds. Even the slightest variance in a round's facial characteristics can shift the point of impact dramatically at those distances.

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even if you do use factory sniper ammo it will be more accuret that block stabdard .50 BMG rounds, the ammo for the M-2 is meant to cuase massive damage in impact, NOT to fly strait past anything like 500 meters.

If I remember right the Marine snipers put the maximum effective range of the M-82 ata bout 2,000 - 2,500 meters with hand-loaded ammo, and at that range a 12 or even 14X scope would be nice, and the round will not damage an armored vehicle. At closer ranges it could cripple a BRDM or mabey a BMP but not a MBT of any sort.

CLARK

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I'm not very keen on the subject, but I do recall reading Hathcock actually used a modified M2 that was only capable of single shots. This may or may not be true, either way a impressive record. Just wanted to add to the conversation.

You're right. Hathcock did use a modified M2 that was capable of semi-automatic fire. I'm currently reading Sniper by Adrian Gilbert, it talks about Hathcock's amazing shot using the M2.

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Not according to Charles Henderson in Marine Sniper. It was a normal M2 - "The .50's cyclic fire rate was slow enough to allow for single shots..." page 7

Mr. Henderson stayed with Gunny Hathcock while researching the manuscript. Further, I know of no field-expedient way to convert a full-auto m2 to single fire, nor no reason to convert a perimeter defense weapon to such.

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It was not a modded M2. She was stock, the only addition being a 10X Unertl Sniper Scope, then standard issue sniper equipment.

The fact is, at first Hathcock thought he missed the target. 2500 meters is about a mile and a half. At that range, a 10X scope isnt squat. The man was amazing and will always be a legend.

It is said that the 50 has a max effective range of 2500 yards, but has a max range of something like 10 miles I believe.

RS knows more about the 50 than I do, but I think those numbers are right.

And Ill tell ya what. Even with a 50 bolt sniper rifle, a 2500 yard shot is amazing.

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OK, I got mixed up alittle, here's a quote from the book -

"Whereas the Winchester/Remington and M14 sniper rifles began to lose accuracy over 800 yards, the specially prepared single-shot .50 caliber M2 was able to hit targets nearly 1000 yards away in darkness (the book was previously talking about night vision devises for sniper rifles), and in skillful hands, over double that distance in the daylight. Joseph Ward remembers sinking an empty sampan with an explosive bullet at a range of 2000 yards, and Carlos Hathcock killed a VC supply carrier at the extraordinary distance of 2500 yards using an M2 with an Unertl scope."

It doesn't say whether Hathcock used a semi-automatic or fully-automatic M2, but there were semi-automatic M2s... I'll take your word for it though ;)

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@ RS

Me either bro. And I could have sworn that Gunny Hathcock and the Author of his book said he made that shot with a Single tap from the Ma Deuce.

Not that it's important, or worth starting an argument over, but the man was a hero of mine, and a legend, not to mention a great soldier, and one of the finest Marines this country ever turned out.

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And I could have sworn that Gunny Hathcock and the Author of his book said he made that shot with a Single tap from the Ma Deuce.

Kee-rect. Page 7 of Marine Sniper by retired USMC CWO Charles Henderson

Gunny Hathcock is one of the best warriors this world has ever seen. He will always be a Marine Corps Legend.

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  • 2 months later...

Hey I know this thread is old but the m2 .50 cal can be set to either fully auto or single shot. If you dont turn the collar half turn and hold down the middle part of butterfly then it only fires one round at a time.

Also a Canadian sniper in afganistan now has the longest kill in histroy with a m82.

Edited by soup31314
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