British Sniper Earns Record-Setting Kill
By Wyatt Earp | May 4, 2010
This handsome gentleman is Corporal Craig Harrison of the British Household Cavalry. He is a hero, a sniper, and now, a world-record holder. You do not want to get on this man’s bad side.
An army sniper has earned a place in military history by killing two Taliban machine gunners from more than a mile and a half away. Craig Harrison’s record breaking shots felled the insurgents with consecutive bullets – even though they were 3,200ft beyond the official range of his rifle.
The Household Cavalry veteran’s kills from a distance of 8,120ft beat the previous record by 150ft.
Hot damn, that’s some good shooting!
He was using the British-built L115A3 Long Range Rifle, the Army’s most powerful sniper weapon. It is only designed to be effective at up to 4,921ft – just less than a mile – and capable of only ‘ harassing fire’ beyond that range.
But Corporal Harrison took his record-breaking shots after his commander and Afghan soldiers were attacked during a patrol in Helmand in November last year.
I’m sure Corporal Harrison thinks the record is nice, but saving his allies is much more important.
Yeah, I want one of those for Christmas!
His vehicle was further back on a ridge, with his sights trained on a Taliban compound. He said: ‘We saw two insurgents running through its courtyard. They came forward carrying a machine gun and opened fire on the commander’s wagon.
‘Conditions were perfect, no wind, mild weather, clear visibility.
‘The first round hit a machine gunner in the stomach. He went straight down and didn’t move. The second insurgent grabbed the weapon and my second shot hit him in the side.’
Truly remarkable. I mean, there are just no words.
Corporal Harrison, a married father-of-one from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, killed 12 more rebels and wounded seven others. During an extraordinary six-month tour of duty he also survived a bullet that went though his helmet and a roadside bomb.
The blast broke both his arms but he was eventually able to return to duty, his accuracy unaffected.
Does anyone out there want to question this man’s talent, honor, and commitment? Nah, I didn’t think so.
Topics: The Troops | 26 Comments »
May 4th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Absolutely Bloody Brilliant………..
God Bless the Allied Military……
God Save US…………
May 4th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Dang….previous recordholder was Cpl. Furlong of Canada’s Princess Pat’s Light Infantry….also set in Afghanistan. I think he got in some trouble with the brass Canuckles for good-naturedly defacing some tali-corpses….
May 4th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
That’s just bad ass.
May 4th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Damn fine shootin’ son, damn fine shootin’.
May 4th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Talented, and incredibly handsome!
May 4th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Awesome.
Glad to see the British lion still has teeth.
May 4th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Jeepers !
May 4th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
I like that after he took out the two machine gunners, he felt so on target that he went after the machine gun, that is really shooting…
May 4th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Just talked to my nephew (lifer/82nd AB/SF) who happens to be in sniper school as we speak and he is MOTIVATED to break this record and bring it back to the U.S.
May 4th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Rides A Pale Horse Says:
May 4th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Just talked to my nephew (lifer/82nd AB/SF) who happens to be in sniper school as we speak and he is MOTIVATED to break this record and bring it back to the U.S.
BAPH,
Please give him my best and tell him we will pray for him and his fellow troopers……
God Save US………………..
May 4th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Sorry RAPH not BAPH………
My mind is going into shut down mode…………
May 4th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Rifle cost? £6,900
Single bullet cost? £2
Two dead Taliban machine gunners? Priceless!
May 4th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
That is pretty freaking cool. Can’t get close air support, just call this dude in to cover your ass.
May 4th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
@ Loaded Dice
Copy that. Thank you very much. Will do.
May 5th, 2010 at 1:08 am
I am glad he is one of the good guys
May 5th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Give that man the BAMF of the year award!
May 5th, 2010 at 9:15 am
LDIV – Brilliant is the perfect description.
Fenway_Nation – He should have cut off a lock of their hair.
Captain – With a capital “bad.”
Jon – He certainly puts me to shame.
Mrs. Crankipants – I knew you would be all over him like white on rice.
Wes S. – Yeah, I had my doubts there for a moment.
JT – Pretty awesome.
Earl – I think that’s what we call “in the zone.”
RAPH – I wish him good luck and safe passage.
LDIV – Ditto.
Proof – And very funny, if I say so myself.
Ingineer66 – He’s taking business away from the Warthogs.
Rick – Agreed. Bad news is he wasn’t.
Sally Anne – He deserves Samuel L. Jackson’s wallet from Pulp Fiction.
May 5th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Mrs. Harrison is one fortunate dame!!!
May 5th, 2010 at 9:19 am
MeToo – Considering his good shooting, it’s a wonder he’s only a father of one. Heh.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Imagine hunting with that guy.
You’d spend 2 minutes hunting, and the rest of the day dragging deer.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:26 am
I washed out of sniper school..sniff sniff. Nothing to do with the map, compass, camo, sneaking, survival etc. training part. I wear glasses and I petered out at about 400-600 meters accuracy wise but I tried. People like Corporal Harrison are the creme de la creme, with a God given gift. May he break his own record again some day, or may RAPH’s nephew beat him to it:)
May 5th, 2010 at 11:51 am
There isn’t any question to his hotness either. I think I’m in love ♥
May 5th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
JT – And yelling, “You know, I’d like to shoot one,too!”
Jon – Yeah, it’s definitely a gift. I can go all year without shooting my Glock, and still requalify in the high 90’s. I’m no marksman, but I have some talent.
Robbie – I could look like that. I just don’t wanna.
May 5th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
I’m in a talkative mood today..please excuse.
When I was a member of an IPPSC club in Copley Ohio
back in the mid/late 80’s early 90’s (time flies) Jeff Cooper stopped by with his customized .45 pin gun to compete, his being in the area that day. I had my Colt Mark IV .45 and was shooting full house 230 gr. factory loads. When we found out we had an international champion shooting with us, nobody expected to place first, they were right of course, but score wise I got 94 out of a hundred and Jeff got an 84 out of a hundred. Unfortunately the course involved: 3 mandatory magazine changes, three moves to a new position along the course and adopt different shooting poses, and 18 rounds total (6 knockdown plates the rest on paper) for the course.
What it took me 44 seconds to do, he did in 14 seconds. The man was like greased lightning, a new magazine in the well before the ejected one hit the ground, as he ran his sight picture never left the next target coming up, we began by drawing and his initial clearing of leather was as a blur. So to make a short story longer, the total score was your hits score divided by your time, he ended beating me by almost a factor of 3 in combined score.
It was a humbling day.
May 5th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Jon – I’ll bet you were in awe, though.
May 5th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Picking my chin off the ground and brushing the dirt out of my goatee awed..yup.
People like Cooper, John Troyer from Andover (.30 cal Can/USA champ ‘64) and Corporal Harrison, and those like them, independent of practice, just have that gift of putting holes in that x-ring that nobody else can match.