Two Amazing Feats of Marksmanship of Yesteryear
Marksmanship is an essential military skill. And in truth, hitting a man-sized target out to around 300m isn’t that difficult with a well-zeroed weapon.
But hitting a target of that size at extreme ranges is a different story. Doing that takes extraordinary marksmanship skill.
Wikipedia maintains a reasonable list of the longest verified sniper kills in history. Two shots in particular on that list stand out.
They stand out because they were done over 140 and 150 years ago, repectively.
In late June 1874, buffalo hunter Billy Dixon performed such a shot – at Adobe Walls, Texas. Dixon and a party of settlers had been besieged by a party of Native Americans under Chief Quanah Parker. The siege lasted 3 days. During the siege, Dixon – using a borrowed Sharps .50-90 buffalo rifle – fired at a group of warriors near Chief Parker. His third shot dropped one of the warriors. The siege ended shortly afterwards, and the settlement was thereafter left alone.
The distance for Dixon’s shot is credited today as being 1,406 meters – nearly a mile. It’s still the 11th longest confirmed sniper kill in history.
Dixon later worked for the Army as a civilian scout. He was one of only 8 civilians ever awarded the Medal of Honor.
1400+ meters, with a borrowed rifle, on the 3rd shot. Amazing.
And IMO, there’s one shot that’s even more amazing.
During the US Civil War, Union forces blockaded the Confederate port of Charleston. During this blockade, Union forces occupied Battery Gregg; Confederate forces occupied Fort Sumner – 1,390 yards (1,271 meters) away. On 5 December 1864, an unnamed Confederate sharpshooter shooting from Fort Sumner – believed to have been using a muzzle-loading Whitworth rifle firing hexagonal .451 cal bullets – shot and killed a Union soldier at Battery Gregg. This shot today still ranks as the 14th longest confirmed sniper kill in history.
Think about that: over 1,250 meters – with a muzzle-loading rifle. Also amazing.
No confirmed sniper kills in World War I, World War II, or Korea (and only one from Vietnam) are longer than these two amazing shots from 140+ years ago. For close to 100 years – until Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock’s legendary shot in Vietnam in 1967 – these two shots from 1864 and 1874 ranked as the longest confirmed sniper kills in history.
Category: Guns, Historical
The Whitworth rifle was well-suited to such shooting. It’s hexagonal bore and fitted round were designed for long-range, accurate shooting, and the Confederacy imported a number of them for just such a reason.
A few were fitted with brass telescopic sights. Single-power to 3 power, depending upon the model, but the majority were used with open iron sights and the mark-I, mod-0 eyeball.
Whitworth also published a book on ballistics and marksmanship that supported his theories that a hexagonal bore was superior to a rifled one. It was reproduced at some point, maybe 25-30 years or so ago. I used to have a copy, but it “walked” one day from my field desk during an open house. If you can ever find a copy, it’s worth the read.
For its day, the Whitworth was quite accurate. However, “accurate” is relative.
Per the linked article about the Confederate sniper’s shot, 10-shot groups from the Whitworth (firing from a special stand) at 1,400 yards were reputedly on the order of 9 feet in diameter. So shooting one accurately at extreme range required great skill – along with some luck. (smile)
http://www.guns.com/2012/02/09/jack-hinson-the-civil-war-sniper/
Jack Hinson: The Civil War Sniper
2/09/12 by David LaPell
Some stories beg to be told, and one of those is that of a man named Jack Hinson—family man turned one-man army and one of the Civil War’s most prolific sniper.
Man on a Wire
At the outbreak of the Civil War Hinson owned a flourishing plantation in Stewart County, Tennessee. The wealthy father of ten children, Hinson opposed secession, had actually freed his slaves prior to the Emancipation Proclamation and even once had General Ulysses S. Grant over for supper.
This being the case Hinson decided to sit out the war, refusing to choose a side even when one of his sons enlisted in the Confederate Army. Unfortunately for Hinson, the atrocities of war would choose a side for him in 1862 when a Union Patrol picked up his Hinson’s sons, George and John (who like their father were not affiliated with either side) while out hunting for game.
The Union soldiers from the 5th Iowa Cavalry assumed the two Hinson boys were rebel guerillas despite their pleas of innocence. The two were disarmed, tied to a tree and then shot. As a further outrage, a lieutenant with the company used his sword to decapitate the two and set their heads on posts around the Hinson farm.
Jack Hinson swore revenge.
(more at link)….
http://www.guns.com/2012/02/09/jack-hinson-the-civil-war-sniper/
As Johnny Carson used to say, I did not know that. Interesting piece of history. Thanks for the link.
The Book – to own. It is more than the story of Revenge. It is the History of a Man who did not want to become involved
– most of his neighbors didn’t want to either. The relentless hounding of Civilians by both sides during the Civil War forced their participation.
Hinson was a bad ass. He was actually a loyal Union Man, until a Yankee Patrol killed his two sons who were hunting assuming they were Confederate Bushwackers.
Then they supposedly delivered their heads to the gates of Hinson’s Plantation.
Hinson had the local Gunsmith fabricate him a heavy barreled custom hunting rifle and commenced to hunting blue-bellies. He knew the area like the back of his hand. He picked off couriers and patrols and shot the crewman of union Vessels on the Tennessee River. His rifle is here on you tube, there is a series of videos by the writer of a book about him as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZJMRF9-evI
Believe I read an article some time ago which debunked some of the Adobe Walls story… when they surveyed the area and matched descriptions to actual distances, Dixon’s shot was determined to be more like 1000 yards. Other people made more of a fuss over the shot than he did… Dixon himself described the shot as more or less blind luck, and said he was holding about 30 feet over and 30 feet ahead of the Indian he was shooting at.
I’d be interested in seeing that if you can find an online copy, David. And I’m guessing so would the folks at Wikipedia who maintain the article listing the top 15 longest verified sniper kills.
I think the thing to remember about the Dixon shot is not only was it made with a borrowed rifle he was not familiar with, it was a black powder load. I shoot BP and can say that compressed powder in a rifle that is made for it can be pretty darn impressive but that shot was much more than impressive.
Either way, the fact I’ve put a 3-round group in a 1 inch target at 400 yards with a bolt action .308 is nice, but by no means anywhere that level of impressive.
Most of us already know this, but Carlos Hathcock’s legendary shot was made with a M2 machine gun, and he fired one round in semi.
If you really know the M2, NOTHING about the gun is designed to accommodate accuracy.
Carlos mounted his Unertl scope, previously on his Winchester, to the not-exactly-a-solid-lock-up night sight mount at the rear of the receiver of the M2. He knew that a certain VC always came to the same place on the far river, to gather water, and had already sighted the scope and MG on that spot, then he sat back, cracked open some C’s…. and waited.
The most remarkable thing about the entire shot, is that his spotter said ‘you only wounded him, he’s flopping around’.
Carlos said…..they always do that when you shoot them in the head.
A confirmation patrol reported that a single VC was found by the river, with a large caliber hole in his head.