A Canadian sniper reportedly shot an ISIS fighter from over 2 miles away
Robert B. Brown Jr./US Marine Corps
A Canadian military sniper took out an ISIS fighter with a record-breaking shot from more than two miles away, according to a report in the Globe and Mail, though some have cast doubt on the claim.
The unnamed sniper who apparently carried out the feat was a member of Joint Task Force 2, an elite unit in the Canadian army similar to the US Navy's SEAL Team 6. The shot, according to the paper, disrupted an ISIS attack on Iraqi security forces.
"The bad guys didn't have a clue what was happening," one source told the paper.
The report said the kill was verified by video and other data, though it was not made public. If confirmed, the 3,540 meter kill shot (or about 2.2 miles) would beat the previous sniper record set by British Army sniper Craig Harrison from a range of 2,475 meters (or 1.54 miles).
TM Gibbons-Neff, a reporter for The Washington Post who previously served as a US Marine Corps sniper, expressed skepticism over the claim in a post on Twitter. At such a long distance, he said, the tiniest adjustment to the sniper's windage or elevation settings on the scope could result in a bullet being wildly off course when it got to its target.
There's also the question of the power of the rifle's optic, and whether it could actually make out a human at such an incredible distance.
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/877882046898634753
Not saying it didn't happen, butttt woeee lets be a little realistic.
Still, the shot is possible. The rifle used was a McMillan TAC-50, a long-range sniper rifle that fires a .50 caliber bullet at 2,700 feet per second.
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