Craig Harrison (sniper)

Craig Harrison (born 1975) is a Corporal of Horse (CoH) of the Household Cavalry of the British armed forces, and holds the record for the longest confirmed sniper kill in combat, at a range of 2,475 m (2,707 yd). Established in November 2009, this exceeds the previous 2,430 m (2,657 yd) record set by Rob Furlong in 2002 by 45 m (49 yd).^[1]

Record details

In November 2009 CoH Craig Harrison struck two Taliban machine gunners south of Musa Qala in Helmand Province in Afghanistan at a range of 2,475 m (2,707 yd) using a L115A3 Long Range Rifle.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} In a BBC interview, Harrison reported it took about nine shots for him and his spotter to initially range the target successfully. Then, he reported, his first shot "on target" was a killing shot.^[7] This feat is not typical for the effective range with a high first-hit probability of the employed rifle system on static targets (see maximum effective range). The shots were aided by the ambient air density near the valley in which Musa Qala is situated and where CoH Harrison operated, which is significantly lower than at sea level due to Musa Qala's 1,043 m (3,422 ft) mean elevation.

In the reports CoH Craig Harrison mentions the environmental conditions were perfect for long range shooting: no wind, mild weather, clear visibility. Mr. Tom Irwin, a director of Accuracy International, the British manufacturer of the L115A3 rifle, said: “It is still fairly accurate beyond 1,500 m (1,640 yd), but at that distance luck plays as much of a part as anything.”

Creative use of environment and equipment

According to JBM Ballistics,^[8] using drag coefficients (C_d) provided by Lapua, the L115A3 has an approximate supersonic range (speed of sound = 340.3 m/s) of 1,375 m (1,504 yd) under International Standard Atmosphere conditions at sea level (air density ρ = 1.225 kg/m³) and 1,548 m (1,693 yd) at the 1,043 m (3,422 ft) altitude or elevation (air density ρ = 1.1069 kg/m³) of Musa Qala. This illustrates how environmental condition differences can significantly affect bullet flight.

The Schmidt & Bender MILITARY MKII 5-25x56 0.1 MIL RAD parallax, illumination, double turn telescopic sight used on the L115A3 Long Range Rifle has a P4 mil-dot reticle that can be adjusted in 0.1 milliradian or mil increments and has an maximal vertical elevation range of 26 milliradian. At a distance of 2,475 m (2,707 yd) 1 adjustment increment of 0.1 milliradian equates to a 24.75 cm (9.74 in) point of impact shift.

The external ballistics software program JBM Ballistics further predicts that the bullets of British high pressure .338 Lapua Magnum cartridges using 16.2 g (250 gr) Lapua LockBase B408 bullets fired at 936 m/s (3,071 ft/s) muzzle velocity under International Standard Atmosphere conditions at 1,043 m (3,422 ft) elevation (air density ρ = 1.069 kg/m³) and assuming a flat fire scenario and a 100 m (109 yd) zero arrive at 2,475 m (2,707 yd) after approximately 6.017 seconds flight time at 251.8 m/s (826 ft/s) velocity and have dropped 120.95 m (396.8 ft) or in angular units 48.9 milliradian (168 MOA) on their way. To accomplish such an extreme range shot the 5-25x56 telescopic sight with its P4 reticle offering 0.5 mil spaced holdover hash marks has to be mounted with a vertically canted base or canted rings to be able to dial in the required amount of vertical adjustment if the operator opts to use more magnification than the 5x minimum magnification the telescopic sight offers. Accuracy International produces mounts for telescopic sights with a 13.09 mil (45 MOA) built in cant designed for their .338 Lapua Magnum rifles fitted with the 5-25x56 telescopic sight. Even with a 13.09 mil canted mount the employed sighting system is not able to dial in over 39.09 milliradian of vertical aiming correction, so COH Harrison had to use the hashmarks of the P4 mil-dot reticle to compensate for this and thus achieve the required aiming solution. The long horizontal line at 5x zoom or magnification represent 49.09 milliradian (168.6 MOA) or slightly over the required assumed vertical elevation.

References

See also

• Longest recorded sniper kills