After the military snipers took their shots, they got to evade search parties on the hunt. How big is a target on a 16X day-light scope at a range of 1,500 yards?
Erm that kinda depends what the target is. It's considered inhumane in many countries to use greater than 50 cal on a human with a snipers rifle anyway so you're aiming for materiel (not a typo).
I know it's inhumane to use 0.50 cal on a human but 0.50 cal is probably the only bullet with enough kinetic energy to take down a soft target at 1,500 yards down range.
Not really, Aussies ain't allowed to take down people with 0.50 cal sniper rifles. You can take down a soft target with the standard 7.62 NATO round or 0.338 Lapua I think (not that I've ever tried), the furthest I've shot with a rifle is 300 m.
The requirement in question is 1,500 yards or 1,350 meters. A 0.338 Lapua or 7.62 X 51 mm doesn't have sufficient kinetic energy to completely knock out the target at that range.
That's purely a function of what they are fired from, with sufficient muzzle velocity, a 0.338 or 7.62 can take someone down from that range.
Inhumane? LOL More like slaughter! .50 Cal sniper rifles are used to stop vehicles... on people they would literally rip them in half.
Bombs are designed to kill too, however chemical/biological bombs are banned, the argument is the same.
Hmm... I really don't see the difference. Shrapnal dismemberment and burning from regular bombs or asphyxiation and burning from chemical bombs. Not much difference... it's still murder.
Well yeah, however at least people are trying to be consistent, I personally have nothing against using 0.50 cals against people if I'd have to shoot them anyway (hopefully that never happens). Since we are getting waaay off track and into politics I think it's best that we stop talking about the morality of it.
Well, the big caliber bullets are for ultra-long-range sniping and not the average joe's 100 to 300 m shooting.
Well actually the larger calibers were orginally designed to do more damage at what are now considered short ranges, even pistol ranges, because as you said kinetic energies were too low, this was due to low muzzle velocities. That was a long time ago, muzzle velocities are much higher now, using 7.62 NATO sniper rifle, say AWP (not the weapon you saw in CS guys, that was a mislabelled AWM, AWP is designed for 7.62) and killing someone at 1,500 yards with a 10x sight would not be difficult for a sniper.
Spot the sniper! And no it's not the guy standing to the right of the photo... he's actually looking for him too!
Oh I did some checking, all the largest round used in a rifle defined as a snipers rifle is 9mm. All the 12.7 or 0.50 cal are defined as anti-materiel weapons. Also when fired from an AWM, the round is still supersonic at 1400 m (greater than your defined 1500 yards) carrying over 1000 J, far more than enough to kill someone.
