Trying to put a bullet in a potato eyeball through a scope with a .308 at 50 yards:
The Carlos Hathcock legend:
One of Hathcock’s most famous accomplishments was shooting an enemy sniper through the enemy’s own rifle scope, hitting him in the eye and killing him. Hathcock and John Roland Burke, his spotter, were stalking the enemy sniper in the jungle near Hill 55, the firebase from which Hathcock was operating. The sniper, known only as the ‘Cobra,’ had already killed several Marines and was believed to have been sent specifically to kill Hathcock. When Hathcock saw a flash of light (light reflecting off the enemy sniper’s scope) in the bushes, he fired at it, shooting through the scope and killing the sniper. Surveying the situation, Hathcock concluded that the only feasible way he could have put the bullet straight down the enemy’s scope and through his eye would have been if both snipers were zeroing in on each other at the same time and Hathcock fired first, which gave him only a few seconds to act. Given the flight time of rounds at long ranges, the snipers could have simultaneously killed one another. Hathcock took possession of the dead sniper’s rifle, hoping to bring it home as a “trophy” but, after he turned it in and tagged it, it was stolen from the armory. (Source)
BOOM… HEADSHOT. Nice work guys.
hahah that scope was a mess. I suggested they tape it to the end of their rifle barrel, using it as a half loudener.
Thoughts?
Comments
11 responses to “Highjak86 Gets His Hathcock On”
My better half is Hathcock’s great granddaughter and a former marine who also shot high expert in the Corp. I am trying to get her to reproduce this shot because she is more operator than me. All I have to do is tell her that she can’t do it because her tits will get in the way and she won’t give up until she does it. I will try to get it on video, not her tits, but the shot…
But if the tits happen to make an appearance…
Lucky.
I feel like they should be shooting through a 3.5x PU scope like the NVA sniper had on his mosin nagant. then i would find it a little more realistic
hey wait, shouldnt he have been using a 30-06 too?
I thought that mythbusters did an episode about this and concluded that it was next to impossible for a bullet to make it all the way down the rifle scope… breaking all of the lenses used up so much of the kinetic energy that the bullet stopped about 3/4 of the way through…
Still anything is possible, and it was one hell of a shot.
They used the WWII-era scope(or a reproduction) that the enemy sniper would have used. The lenses were much smaller in diameter and it was probably made of steel, not Al. They used a .30-06 and couldn’t penetrate the scope even with a perfect shot.
I want to see this test with:
.30-06 vs Mosin Nagant scope
7.62 NATO vs. Dragunov PSL scope.
Also, range is a consideration. 50 yards is point blank and the bullet isn’t coming down out of its trajectory. I don’t remember how far the shot was, it’s been forever since I’ve read the book, but it was quite a ways. Still, pretty cool shot.
Tier 1 group or someone using their range proved the shot was possible but they used authentic equipment.
Still would be a hell of a shot.
Just proves that Myth Busters doesn’t know what they are talking about when it comes to ballistics and weapons. I think they need better experts on the show to help them.
With bullets, anything is possible. They do weird things downrange that people can’t always explain. To many variables to know what can’t happen.