How accurate is a sniper on a helicopter?
SolomonW
remember being told that it cannot be done so I was interested in this
article.
http://coastguardnews.com/hitron-snipers-taking-on-smugglers/2008/06/04/
Typhoon502
With practice, a skilled sniper can hit a head in one moving boat
while firing from another moving boat, so putting a bullet into an
engine block shouldn't be that hard given the same level of training.
Jeffrey Hamilton
Whilst watching Top Sniper a while back, the team that scored the highest
marks sniping from a helicopter were a Police swat team. So I guess if you
practice enough, it's quite doable with a high degree of accuracy.
cheers.....Jeff
Gordon
It took a minute to realize this piece of prose isn't actually from
the USCG, its an excerpt from Vogue.
My experience with shooting from a helicopter is that it would be
quite a difficult math problem for a sniper/door gunner, but if the
pilot and aircraft can manage a steady hover (not always something you
can get), I suppose reasonable accuracy isn't impossible. I can't
imagine a situation where I thought I was against a bogie that needed
shooting, and I'd sit in my doorway swapping an LMG that fills my
doorway with a sniper rifle. I'd be thinking return fire, @$%^ tail
rotor, and blood in the water, so I doubt I would tell the pilot, "Let
me have a go at that Evenrude with a sniper rifle, skip?" But, its
the Coasties and they gotta do everything weird.
/old man voice/ Back in my day, we hung an M-60D with old fashioned
butterfly handles (think "Twelve O'clock High" B-17 gunners) in the
door and if/when some fool opened fire at us, we didn't worry about
his engine. The Navy gave us cans of ammo and never asked for us to
bring any back.
But isn't this going to be a screed about the Israelis...?
If you are asking if they could do what is being claimed, no, here was
no way to "snipe" from a 40' hover when you are looking down into a
complete melee' underneath your helo. Target acquistion at that close
of range and the nature of hand-to-hand combat means you'd be taking a
chance of drilling one of your own. Take out the Captain through the
windows of the bridge, but as for actually having a positive impact on
a bar brawl happening vertically below the helo, I sincerely doubt it.
Typhoon502
> If you are asking if they could do what is being claimed, no, here was
> no way to "snipe" from a 40' hover when you are looking down into a
> complete melee' underneath your helo. Target acquistion at that close
> of range and the nature of hand-to-hand combat means you'd be taking a
> chance of drilling one of your own. Take out the Captain through the
> windows of the bridge, but as for actually having a positive impact on
> a bar brawl happening vertically below the helo, I sincerely doubt it.
I imagine that kind of engagement would be frowned upon whether you
were airborne or not, though.
deem...@aol.com
But, but.....I've seen it at the movies!!!!!!!!!!!
The Raven
news:NAsPn.25337$c_2.20289@hurricane...
Cable had a series covering an international sniper competition (military
and law enforcement). One event was sniping from a Black Hawk. Weapon choice
and style of shooting was open. It was difficult but many of the military
guys (faces blurred out) did exceptionally well at hitting man sized
targets. OK, no 'between the eyes' type hits but nothing I want to be on the
receiving end of.
Ken S. Tucker
Old Boy was a WW2 Canuck vet who made Marksman in the Army.
Soldiers who qualify get extra pay so they want to.
His method (he proved it) was to sweep the target and time the
squeeze.
Didn't matter much if the target, him or both we're moving, using that
method.
That's in antithesis to the usual method of setting still on the
target then
squeezing, but that's why they're in the top 1%, timing the squeeze.
Ken
SolomonW
Yes, it appears that it appears doable
Jeff Crowell
> Old Boy was a WW2 Canuck vet who made Marksman in the Army.
> Soldiers who qualify get extra pay so they want to.
> His method (he proved it) was to sweep the target and time
> the squeeze.
> Didn't matter much if the target, him or both we're moving,
> using that method.
> That's in antithesis to the usual method of setting still
> on the target then squeezing, but that's why they're in
> the top 1%, timing the squeeze.
Phooey.
Any experienced shooter knows that he (or she) can never be
completely still, even if shooting off a bench rest. For
precision shooting of any sort, you time the squeeze so
that the sear breaks as the sights move through the optimum
point. That "squeeze so that you're surprised when it
goes off" mantra is hogwash, fit only for untrained or
inexperienced riflemen. An expert knows when it is going
to fire.
By the by, at least in US forces, 'Marksman' is the lowest
performance you can turn in and still qualify. 'Expert'
is the score that results in a bump in pay, at least at
that time (WW2). I have no idea if you get the pay bump for
shooting 'Expert' any more.
Jeff
--
Definition of Agnostic: An Atheist who's afraid of lightning.
Ken S. Tucker
Me and a buddy were fairly good shots, could hit a sparrow at
20' 50% of the time, snap shooting with a pistol. In the Old Boys
basement we set up a shooting range, nice and cool on a hot
summer afternoon ~35-40' for pellet rifle shooting.
We were tied at hitting a hanging thingy 4 times in a row.
Old Boy comes down, staggering a bit (it was Saturday) to see
what we're doing.
He grabs the rifle and he's weeving all over the place, me and
buddy were snickering, bang he get's it, we figure he got lucky,
after 7 f*cking times in row, he puts down the rifle, and leaves,
and he was spiffed, but got bored of shooting, we were in awe.
You gotta see an expert Marksman demo his skills skunk drunk,
he was definitely a class above us, and we were good.
He explained that in WW2 if you get a Marksman rating you get
$20-30 bucks extra every month, and evidentally he had a knack,
got the bonus.
I guess it was a Canuck Army incentive to get soldiers to shoot
as well as they could, likely paid off, the SS didn't like combat
with canucks, who were regarded as good or better than SS.
He explained that he didn't aim, he swept the target and timed
the squeeze, and was adamant about emphasis on squeeze.
I was ok with snap shooting with a pistol, some guys who know
guns can tell how many bullets are in it by weight of pistol,
but I tended to pull instead of squeeze cuz of snap shooting.
Ken
David E. Powell
engines. .