Bearing Arms: Long-range shooting is something I have a deep respect for. The idea of hitting a target from thousands of yards despite things like the wind, the bullet’s path through the air, the patience to wait for the right moment to take the shot, all are beyond me as a shooter. As a result, I have a deep respect for those who can make those long-range shots.
Now, a gentleman in Texas claims to have made the longest shot in history.
A West Texas man has taken aim at becoming one of the world’s top marksmen.
Bill Poor, 41, says he hit a target from 3 miles away with a .408 bullet on Jan. 14 near Midland.
Hitting a target from that distance would break the record of 2.8 miles set by retired Navy SEAL Charles Melton in September.
For Poor, it was a shot that was three years in the making.
“It didn’t happen overnight,” he said. “It took a lot of homework and a lot of science.”
His efforts have brought him attention from reporters and firearms enthusiasts, but establishing his record may prove difficult.
Guinness World Records did not recognize Melton’s shot — and probably won’t acknowledge Poor’s either.
“They do not recognize shots with optics,” said Poor, who used a large scope on his rifle. “Several guys have tried and sent them in everything, but for some reason they just don’t want to take it.”
Guinness argues that because optics vary so much, they want a level playing field and thus, no shots with optics get counted.
Which, of course, means that no shot at this range will likely ever be counted as a record. I mean, how are you going to see a target from three miles away? more here
That’s a $15K gun, with at least $10K in optics and about $35.00 a round. That’s why he’s Mr. Poor.
I could hit a target at 3 miles, as long as I get to choose the gun. And the size of the target. 🤨
How many shots did he take to finally connect? Most of this stuff is complete crap, particularly ultra long range shooting at big game animals. A bunch of idiots from one of the televised long range hunting shows showed up around Augusta MT and while they filmed a trophy mule deer being shot, range riders for ranches in the area heard them blowing off a magazine of ammo every day they were there filming. Given it can take a half day to hike down off a ridge, cross a brush choked creek bottom and up the other side of a draw it is doubtful they followed up on a single shot they took and did not see an animal fall. After they left two large bucks were found dead and a third was hobbling around on three legs before it disappeared.
My cousin ranches right there and knows almost all of the ranch foremen and ranch hands on the big spreads like the Broken O and Krone Ranch.
I shoot a lot of prairie dogs and rock chucks at long range and know that it takes to deal with wind etc and have a cousin married to one of the top ultra range hunting rifle builders in the country and most of this nonsense is all about sending enough lead down range before the law of averages catches up and they finally hit what they claim to have been shooting at.
Also known as a HAIL MARY shot.
“How many shots did he take to finally connect?”
8. The previous record holder took 32. There’s a reason Metallic silhouette shoots are 500 meters. Because farther than that is no fun.
He claims a hit on a one minute target after eight shots. Land speed records have to be run both ways within an hour. I would bet a thousand dollars that he could not keep five consecutive shots on target and give him a hundred shots to get it done. A decent bench rest shot can shoot sub .2 minutes of angle five shot groups all day and into the evening at two bucks, so I am allowing five times that size group. I am also looking at the orange on white target which is a tough sumnabitch to see at anything approaching longish ranges. The contrast just isn’t there compared to black on white of white on black. The least bit of mirage, including in cold January and the human eye could not resolve that color combination when looking through three miles of dense winter atmosphere. I’m calling bullshit on this, either that or blind luck. I had a buddy tip a 10/22 up from his hip and pull the trigger at a buzzard soaring about four hundred yards up and dropped it with a single shot. He couldn’t repeat that single shot event ever again if he spent his life trying and I am betting this guy couldn’t be given eight cartridges per day and pull this off again if he spent his life trying
I once hit a target when I was four miles away. Uh, I mean originally four miles away – I actually drove 3.999999 miles until I was about three feet from the target. But I feel as though I accomplished something.
BB
I shot silhouette just for kicks back in the day. I was an AA class trap shooter and have a State shoot buckle and won my share of other good size trap shoots back then. I shot small bore rifle silhouette on weekends that there wasn’t a big trap shoot somewhere in the northwest. Trap shoots paid MONEY, and I like money. I won a fair share of matches shooting silhouette too. I have trophies at my mothers house from those days.
5 times that shot group is approx 53 inches. or 4.5 feet. The don’t say how big the targets are these guys are shooting at. I couldn’t find a bullet drop chart for a Cheytac 408, however it goes subsonic at like 2100 yards. This is no longer a rifle. It’s a mortar. What’s the point?
JD
Silhouettes are a lot of fun. They have a league here locally and I built up a Creedmoor just for that purpose. Now all I need is some time.
BB
Says 14 seconds flight time
1/2 g t^2 would say about 3150 feet drop if we disregard resistance of air
JDHasty
LOL. I think that targets laying flat on the ground or they’d be bouncing off the top edge. What a joke.
Bullet is dropping at a rate of 450 feet/second and forward velocity is im guessing something like 1,200 feet/second so that means it is dropping a third of a foot for every foot of forward travel at the target. Misjudge range by two yards and you completely miss the target except for luck.
I bet the guy couldn’t put five of ten consecutive bullets on target or even two of ten. I would give him the record if he could show that there is more skill than luck involved.
They sell patches for up to, I think, a 2,000 yard shot on a prairie dog or woodchuck.,I have shot with some of the guys who actually wear them and although I am not saying they didn’t actually hit a prairie dog at the ranges their patches claim, Hail Mary doesn’t even do justice as an accurate representation of that claim. Most of them couldn’t hit themselves in the ass with both hands on their best days.
No mention of the earths rotation that would have to be calculated, especially with a 14 second flight time.
Wonder is target was positioned true west to get the benefit of the earths rotation for a cheat.
My cousins husband is Kirby Allen. His rifles are among the best of this type of rifle and truly amazing, but this three mile nonsense is complete bullshit. Do an Internet search of Kirby’s rifles and you will see what the state of the art is capable of and by that I mean the ability to put shot after shot on target at freakishly long ranges, but that is something entirely different than getting lucky and hitting a target once out of eight of whatever many it takes
JDHasty
I’m sitting here at work, so I took the time to lay that math problem out in Auto Cad, minus the Earths rotation, you would need to have your barrel at approx a 37 degree angle to successfully make that lob. Also going by your drop calculations, and assuming that target is upright, the trajectory of approach just cut you MOA by 30%.
That is truely some Poor shooting…
The M2 .50 cal MG army manual had a section on indirect fire. It explained how to blast targets you can’t see on the other side of a hill. It helps if you have and observer, and of course firing rate of 550 rounds a minute. .Spray and pray.
“That is truely some Poor shooting…”
I don’t know about that, but I think some empty soda cans and a 22lr would be more fun.
I’d shoot midgets out of air cannons at targets with nets behind them.
whoa….. I may have invented the next Olympic sport…..
The target shooting feat that I am most proud of is consistently putting out candles on the other side of my living room with a coffee can vortex ring generator.
Uncle Al
Careful, those methane smoke rings are flammable. That’s some pretty good shooten though.
This guy didn’t need a spotter, he needed a forward observer.
BB
A guy at the club had a target that he claimed something like 3,000 yards. Bullet holes were clean and round, a bullet does not tip over as it crosses through the apex of its flight, it flies point forward perpendicular to the direction the barrel was pointed. That is assuming correct twist rate. Rotational velocity does not fall of any significant amount so if the bullet was stable it will almost always remain so and fly point on.
If that target had been shot at 3,000 yards the bullet holes would be oval or even approaching keyhole prints in the target paper. A damnable four flusher doesn’t stand a chance when trying to bullshit someone familiar with external ballistics.
Used to run t largest retail gun counter in the region. I had a cabinet with a pair of hip waders in it behind the counter with a hammer on a chain attached to it and a sign saying: In case of emergency, break glass. It gets pretty damn deep in the vicinity of a gun counter on occasion. Like every hour of every day.
I shoot long range….with black powder, using 150 yr old technology, iron sights, and hand cast heavy lead slugs.
Shiloh Model 74 Sharps (modern repro using original specs)..in .45-70 and .45-120 known as BPCR.
A Quigley as it were…with a bigger cartridge.
Sharps, Remington, Winchesters, Hepburns are the usual brands used.
My ranch has an excellent 900 yd range. I have gone out to 1200 at another friends place, but 900 is good.
There’s a youtube of Dave Gullo at a mile with black powder.
Long distance has a history with the Creedmore competition in the latter 1800’s.
Shilohrifle.com are all American made rifles….even the screws.
The only shots that count are the shots that count. Consistency is more important.
Sorry, but that guy only came in second. Donald Trump was the longest shot in history
– and he made it, too.
😉
What VietVet said!
And thank God he made it!!
I shot a bullseye at 6.32 miles but they wouldn’t credit it because I squinted.
That, and I used a mirror to sight it.
Yeah, I shot over my shoulder backwards.
I had to duck that shot …
Reggie shot a load up my ass nine inches – does that count?
.45-70
I was in Livingston MT, right down the road about twenty minutes from Big Limber Banana (Big Timber Montana for yous guys who have never spent time around there) for six months in 1992/93. They have two or three of the best modern Sharps builders located there. Mike Venturino was at the Park Co gun club a lot shooting these things and I got to know him and guys that worked building them. They shot BP silhouette and invited me to shoot with them. They are quite accurate out to way the hell and gone out there.
FWIW, the gun club was started by my grandfather who ordered two traps and a truck load of clay targets and 12 & 20 gauge ammo at a time and sold them at cost. He sink the traps in concrete and hooked them with hos wreckers and took them out to the river and all the men in town showed up to shoot one night every week. I still have a lot of the wooden ammo crates that were in his basement. Another gun writer that showed up from time to time was Bob Milek.
I ordered a rifle and optioned it to the hilt, before it was shipped I doubled my money by selling right to take ownership to another guy and pocketed $1,800.
Wish I hadn’t done that. I still have my 1886 SRC and used to live with a Marlin 1895SS in my hound hunting days chasing bruins. The 45-70 is a hell of a cartridge. I remember when it and the 22 Hornet were listed as obsolete and I was practically the only guy shooting either in western Washington. Both are strong as anything today and the future looks bright for both. That 45-70 is a punisher on both ends when loaded plumb full of 4198 and 350 Hornady.
JDHasty –
That’s awesome that you ‘know’ what BPCR is. Mike V has definitely been a driving force.
The .45-70 was put into service in 1873, i believe.
@JD ~ the .45-70 is a greatly underrated cartridge & is a lot of fun for distance. & speaking of ‘mortar shots’ there’s a world of difference between the 405 grain cartridge & the 500 grain cartridge … amazingly so
almost brought a .45-70 trapdoor Springfield, but I couldn’t get the seller to come down $400 from $1,200 … couldn’t afford to go no higher … I kick myself every time I think about that
your posts reminds me of good old days at the Isaak Walton League range up in upper Montgomery Co. Merryland, back in the day (over 50 years ago!) …. you must’ve had a great time … envious!
Most hound hunters here carried 16 or 18 inch barrel Marlin 336s in 35 Rem, another guy had a 444 and had my 1895SS. We got ribbed a lot, but those two guns had a lot of respect when a lot of breakemdownrightnow was called for. A bear can do a lot of damage real fast and the 45-70 & 444 would end the fight pronto. They made mad bruins real sick real fast especially when they were coming straight at you. Both will stem to stern the largest black bear and the only thing you have to worry about is the bullet exiting after breaking a shoulder and a hip and then killing a dog.
Venterino lived just outside Livingston, his wife had a sewing shop in town, and he was at the range most week days when I was there farting around.
Milek lived in Wyoming I think and showed up from time to time. There were always writers around back then. I met others there as well. Milek and I went to my buddy’s ranch and shot prairie dogs, when I ditched my 223 Super 14 Contender barrel in favor of an XP 100 he said: Now you are cooking with gas. He was paid by TC and never suggested that I was pissing up a rope by messing with that 223 in the Contender, but once I gave it up he let me know what his thoughts were. The Contender is graet with 22 Hornet and 256 Winchester and 30 Herrett on PDs and coyotes, but it really does not work out all that well with high intensity cartridges.
My nine year old daughter one of my old flat side frames with a MGM 23 inch heavy in 17 Hornet, 5-20 Nikon Monarch and a carbine stock. Now that is a real hummer good for .5 to .6 MOA out to two and a half bucks on rock chucks.
Kinda wish I had gone that route with my 17 Hornet instead of with the CZ for my latest walking around varmint rifle.
That’s nuts!
I’ve been to a local long range school (http://www.thompsonlongrange.com/) that helped me to make a shot at 1,000 yards – and that was extremely difficult. I can’t imagine making a shot at more than five times that distance.
One thing I would be interested in is how long was he working on this for? I can’t imagine the dedication and effort required. Well done, Mr. Poor.