This Marine made history’s 5th longest sniper kill with a machine gun

Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock III is a legend in both the sniper and Marine Corps communities for a number of reasons.

One of them was a shot he took in 1967. In the book, "Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam," Army Col. Michael Lee Lanning described it:

Firing from a hillside position using an Unertl 8X scope on a .50-caliber machine gun stabilized by a sandbag-supported M3 tripod, Hathcock engaged a Vietcong pushing a weapon-laden bicycle at 2,500 yards. Hathcock's first round disabled the bicycle, the second struck the enemy soldier in the chest.

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At the time this was the longest sniper kill in history, and it was made with a machine gun in single shot mode. The record stood until March 2002 when Canadian sniper Master Cpl. Arron Perry beat it. Since then, at least three other snipers have beaten Hathcock's distance.

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Hathcock wasn't the only sniper to use the M2 instead of a traditional sniper rifle. The weapons had been used as sniper weapons in Korea and Vietnam before, but no one else made a shot at nearly the distance of Hathcock's.

In fact, Hathcock's shot beat a record that had stood for nearly 100 years. On June 27, 1874, Buffalo Hunter Billy Dixon killed a Comanche leader during the Second Battle of Adobe Walls from 1,538 yards. But while Dixon was firing at a group of warriors silhouetted against the sky, Hathcock fired against a single target.

Check out WATM's podcast to hear the author and other veterans discuss the Vietnam War adventures of Carlos Hathcock.

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