This is Awful, Gory, Horrible, and AWESOME !

The following gives you an upfront and personal perspective on the war in Afghanistan and why war is such an awful business. But thank God for the Canadians.

Afghanistan . These video shots are not made through the shooter's telescopic sight... they are made looking through the spotter's scope. The spotter lies right next to the sniper and helps the sniper to find and home in on the target.

The sniper is using a 50 caliber rife. A 50 cal. round is about 7-8 inches long and the casing is about an inch in diameter. The bullet itself is one-half inch in diameter and roughly one and one-half inches long.

Pay close attention to the beginning of the video. A Taliban is laying on top of the peak in front of you ... when you hear the shot fired .... Watch what happens. The sniper is also about a half mile away ... or more.

A Canadian sniper in Afghanistan has been confirmd as hitting an enemy soldier at a range of 2,310 meters, the longest recorded and confirmed sniper shot in history. The previous record of 2,250 meters was set by US Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock in Vietnam in 1967. The Canadian sniper was at an altitude of 8,500 feet and the target, across a valley, was at 9,000 feet. Canadian sniper units often operated in support of US infantry units, which were grateful for their help. The record lasted only one day, until a second Canadian sniper hit an enemy soldier at 2,400 meters (8000 feet).

The Canadian snipers fire special .50-calibre McMillan tactical rifles, which are bolt-action weapons with five-round magazines. The Canadian snipers were the only Canadian troops oprating without helmets or flak jackets as they had too much other equipment to carry. Each three-man team has one sniper rifle, three standard rifles (Canadian C7s), one of them with a 203mm grenade launcher.

Jeez there were bodies flying everywhere! lol

Holy-moly - that's some amazing footage of a devasting weapon

Sorry Senkat.

Those aren't Taliban fighters. They're rock-chucks being shot at by a varminter somewhere, probably in the U.S, with a caliber like .220 Swift, .223, .22-250, or some other flat-shooting, high velocity centerfire long-rage small game caliber.

While it's an impressive and devastating rifle, the .50 cal does not have the ability to throw a human body any significant distance. A lucky shot might remove a limb or a head, but even then it would just fall off. If it were possible for the momentum/energy of a .50BMG round to throw a body like that on impact, it would also throw the shooter back even worse.

(IIRC, this video is also debunked on Snopes.com) I wold also refer you to the Mythbusters episode where they shot a pig carcass hung on a very well balanced hook to see which, if any calibers would throw it a significant distance. None, including the .50 did.

If you want to see more of the same, go here: http://www.dogbegone.com/video.htm

In some of the videos, due to the foreshortened angle of filming along the bullets trajectory, you can even see Matrix-like "bullet time" contrails of the bullet's shock-wave.

wow both those videos blew me away (lol).

i cant imagine being one of those people though, one minute youre just minding youre own business on a cliff, and the next your body is shredded in millions of pieces and youre flying off into the air. i wonder if they know at all before the die.

For those of you not familiar with the 50 caliber rifle -- it is amazing. !!  The cartridge as I load them range from 5.8 to about 6.25 " long depending on the slug.  The largest diameter at the base is about .8".  Over 230 grains of powder pushing a ~650 grain slug to ~3,000 fps  ---- Do the math  over 14,000 Foot pounds of energy.

Due to the balistic coefficient of the slug, it tends to be quite accurate with winds and thermal conditions.  

I have never shot mine at a creature of any kind - only at targets.  The slugs available to me are basic jacketed rounds - for sure not what is available to our military for special use.

AJ -- As for the recoil and Newton's laws       These rifles weigh over 25 pounds (mine weighs 37 pounds) and have muzzle breaks on them to reduce recoil to about that of a large 12 gauge shotgun round.  Never fire one without the break or it will break you !!!  Some of the new "wildcat" rounds based on the 50 BMG round can fire a 400 grain slug in excess of 3,500 fps causing the reaction observed in these pictures.
The new Barret 416 has power in excess of the old 50 Ma Duce.

Mike

*Rob is scared of Mike: laser pointer + gun = run*

Yeah I saw that Mythbusters episode.  Every action has an equal and opposite re-action.

I was going to ask wheather maybe the rounds where exlosive or something like that, I have heard of depleted Plutonium, or was it Uranium, being used in some rounds but i'm not sure how that works.  It is an impressive looking Vid though.

EDIT: Ooops TWO posts beat me, LOL !!

Well, that is damned dissapointing At any rate, it is an EXTREMELY powerful image portrayed by this video....there is hope for the underdogs in that battle afterall !

Not many scopes or siteing devices will stand up to the 50. What the gov't has is not available to us I don't think. I have an $800 Leupold on my rifle and it will take the beating.

There are pyrotechnic rounds for the 50 BMG but they have to strike a very hard object to go off. Depleted Uranium is mostly for armor piercing usage as I understand. What the gov't is shooting here is unknown but I'd guess that it's a smaller hollow point slug going near 5,000 fps. That's a lot of energy !!! E=1/2 MV^2 !!!! Yes - that can be done.

Mike

/me Can't say too much but I know how it is for sure, as this was part of my job. not this exact detail but missions like this with equal calibre and more. These are explosive points @ .50cal that sort the towel heads out.......................

Hemlock Mike said:

AJ -- As for the recoil and Newton's laws These rifles weigh over 25 pounds (mine weighs 37 pounds) and have muzzle breaks on them to reduce recoil to about that of a large 12 gauge shotgun round. Never fire one without the break or it will break you !!! Some of the new "wildcat" rounds based on the 50 BMG round can fire a 400 grain slug in excess of 3,500 fps causing the reaction observed in these pictures.
The new Barret 416 has power in excess of the old 50 Ma Duce.

Mike

Click to expand...

Yes, as is the .408 Chey-Tac Windrunner. They certainly seem to have found a ballistic "sweet spot" in the +/- .40 calibers. I don't deny a .50 or most any high powered long-range rifle round the lateral hydrostatic shot won't pop your gourd like a pumpkin with an M80 in it. However you're still going to just drop like a sack of potatoes. The problem is momentum transfer. The 14,000-odd foot-pounds isn't all transfered to the body, as the slug just won't stay in it, it passes through, carrying a significant portion of it's momentum with it. And further, a great deal of what is transfered goes sideways with the exploding tissue. Enough to send a prairie dog or rockchuck spinning, but not a man. Parts of him might go flying like that, but for the most part he'll get a nasty jerk and fall roughly where he stands.

It takes HE, and in sufficient quantities, to send a grown man's body cartwheeling.

That's not to say the Canadian snipers DIDN'T make kills like this, they certainly did, and it's been documented. The bodies just don't do cartwheels. That's all.

It's true the .50's are extremely heavy, and have very good muzzle brakes, or other systems like the Barret's long recoil operation, but even without these you may well detach a retina, break a collarbone, or dislocate a shoulder, but the 25 lb rifle won't go flying, much less the shooter, and that's with near 100% momentum transfer. The target will get significantly less, as the bullet's going to pass through.

I've done similar things on a wood chuck using a 65 grain hollow point slug going 3000 fps from a 243 Win. The slug dumped its energy into the critter blowing a 20 pound carcass all over the place.
I've shot both my 50 and my 458 Win Mag into bowling pins -- sad -- just drills a hole because the slug was made for deep penetration on dangerous game or armour.
The unknown slugs used appear to be designed to expend full energy in a short distance like an open hollow point - I doubt that they are pyro slugs.

AJ - I've talked to tactical team snipers here and they tend to agree with you about the "hollywood" effects shown here. It's also a far cry from what they shoot (223 and 308) to these special HE rounds.


Mike

Maybe you dont get the same affect but taking out gophers with a .17 hmr is pretty fun.

Glad I haven't had breakfast yet!! ;D

wow! that last guy exploded into lots of little chunks...

In a few years when i turn into a violent criminal ill have you guys to thank ;D