Machine Gunner Hits ISIS Target From 1.5 Mile Away

| August 23, 2018

This story kind of writes itself. Nice photos in the article, too.

https://tribunist.com/military/special-forces-sniper-obliterates-isis-commander-from-1-5-miles-away-using-40-year-old-machine-gun/

From the article:

The Browning .50 Machine Gun is an ancient and well respected workhorse for allied troops. Some variation of the old M2 has been in service since its inception before World War II. The gun is most often thought of as a sledgehammer of sorts, not a instrument capable of finesse. Yet a British sniper just knocked down a jihadi from 1.5 miles out with a single shot from an M2.

The British sniper killed an Islamic State commander with a shot to the chest. “This feat is believed to be the first time the machine gun has been used for a sniper hit by the SAS,” The Daily Mail writes.

It appears that the shot both stunned and frightened the Isisers at the location of the target because they got up and ran away. The machine gun has now been decommissioned and will be on display in the unit’s Hereford headquarters.

As a small piece of information, in “The Public Enemy”, one of Jimmy Cagney’s best-known movies, in the scene in which Cagney ducks into an alley, a Navy machine gunner stitches a precise line of bullets up the alley corner of that building.

I assume that a Browning machine gun would not be appropriate for use in hunting geese, but might it have some place in shooting Asian carp when they jump out of water they’ve invaded?

I know, I know: that’s not a machine gun at the top, but there are photos of them in the article for you Gunnutz.

Hat tip to GDContractor for the link to the story.

Category: Guns, Isis, War Stories

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Devtun

So much more exciting than marching up and down the square.

desert

They put the weapon in a museum..? What did they give the shooter? a pat on the back or a victoria cross? As if the weapon did it on its own…..sounds like the gun ban nuts doesn’t it?

A Proud Infidel®™

So the Brit Sniper did like Legendary USMC Sniper Carlos Hathcock when he mounted his Unertyl Scope on a “Ma Deuce” and made confirmed kills with it in Vietnam, it’s in the book “Marine Sniper” by Charles Henderson along with a photo of the scope on said ‘Deuce, Bravo Zulu!!

AW1Ed

Ma Duece

The Firearm Blog

While the current record for the longest “confirmed” sniper kill is over 2,700 yards (just over 1.5) miles, with a .338 Lapua Magnum round, for nearly 35 years the record stood not with a traditional centerfire rifle, but with a modified M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun, affectionately known as the “Ma Duece”

The “sniper?” None other than the famous US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock III. Using a 8x scope common for the era (a Unertl), Hathcock engaged the Vietcong from a stabilized tripod mounted M2. Per the book Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Veitnam, by Colonel Michael Lee Lannig stated that Hathcock engaged a moving target on a bicycle at over 2,500 yards, requiring two shots.

Not taking away the Brit’s excellent shot by any means; think of the effect of those around the target when a .50 from Ma Deuce taps him in the chest. Demoralizing at best, Venezuelan Army breaking ranks over flying IEDs worst.

AW1Ed

A bit overkill, Ex. Besides, last I checked .50BMG went for $9-10 USD a pop- too spendy! A 12 gauge shottie and bird shot should do just fine against the evil Asian carp.

SFC D

DuPont spinners. Take 1 stick DuPont straight, attach via 1 foot of baling twine to 1 rock, approximately 1 pound. Attach via 2 feet of baling twine, 1 capped gallon jug to dynamite, in such a fashion that dynamite is suspended between the jug and rock. Light fuse, toss into center of pond. Bye-bye, fishies.

Not very sporting, but very effective.

Wilted Willy

Reminds me of a story my Dear Pa used to tell. Seems a game warden came upon a man using dynamite in a pond to get the fish, he started to admonish the man about his method. Where as the man lit a stick of dynamite handed it to the warden and said, Are you going to talk about your job or fish??

Mason

It’s only overkill if you like cleaning and eating Asian Carp. If you don’t like cleaning fish, then the .50 cal will turn it into pink mist and bone chips for you.

rgr769

Hitting even a large carp with a .50 BMG round would leave little of the fish left you could find.

GDContractor

Long distance. Reach Out And Touch someone.

Graybeard

Dad used a M1919(?) .30cal machine gun in WWII.

His brag shot was ringing the bell in a bell-tower where a German mortar spotter was stationed. His spotter was, himself, a mortar spotter and gave Dad the range, and Dad squeezed off a burst. (Dad’s regular feeder had frozen downslope and the mortar man was subbing for him.)

It was a bit over a mile, as I recall. As my younger brother (82nd AB) tells it, the German mortar spotter fell out of the tower. The mortar fire ceased and the Americans moved into the town.g

5th/77thFA

BZ SAS. May not be designed for surgical shots, but it cut off shoulder and arm. That’s the kind of surgery all of them need, especially with no anesthesia, and Hey Haj; No co-pay.

David

Helluva shot. It’s one thing to walk up a burst, whole different thing to just use one.

rgr769

The Barrett semi-auto sniper rifle fires the same cartridge with similar trajectory, but better accuracy. Kills at over 1000 meters were not uncommon in A-stan and Iraq.

chooee lee

Just some Clorox upstream from them. Seems their gills have a problem with it and it causes them to float to the surface, From there a Ruger .22 will do nicely.

jon spencer

“The Islamic State fighter seemed to be briefing his men as he stood addressing fighters for about 20 minutes,”
If he and his men were standing around for twenty minutes, why was there not a couple of Mk 83’s or BLU-110B/B’s delivered to take all of them out?

PLASTIC DUCK

As is the hackneyed saying “Rest in Pieces”. But -Hey Guys, please call them DAESH because there can be no recognition of statehood in that bunch of terrorists and murderers. That’s the insulting term the Kurds call them, and it’s good enough or even better for me