Competition in long-range shooting – what is it?

Snipers are believed to be the elite of military forces. They are sometimes called the killing machines. The fate of many actions depends solely on their vigilance, stubbornness and training. The weapon of their choice is the best of the best, making great impression on any enthusiast. It is therefore not a surprise, that those people have the best records in case of long-distance shots. And competitions in such shooting is getting more and more popular with each day, no matter who we are counting: the competitors or the audience.


 

Sniper competition can be divided into two categories: military, available only for the soldiers and open, where civilians can compete with professionals in uniforms. And those competitions aren’t lacking volunteers. Although not everyone is aware, weaponry trainings, including shooting with sniper rifles, are conducted in many cities and are becoming very popular. The great success of such trainings and courses derives from the fact, that many instructors are former special forces soldiers. Although it demands many hours of hard training and determination, one could learn to shoot on long distances on such course.


 

Military competitions are typically closed to any audience, excluding fellow military comrades. Their aim is to rise the proficiency of soldiers and giving them opportunity to compete which is a good motivation to train more. It is also worth noting that successes on such concourses are often followed by promotions and enticing rewards.


 

In case of open competitions, their aim is to make an opportunity to test one’s skill against professionals and propagating the idea of shooting amongst civilians. One of the most popular competition of that category is LongShot Competition, organised for around ten years now. On those international competitions, contestants are shooting on the distances ranging from 300 to 1000 meters. In case of Super Magnum competitions, those distances can increase to even 1500 meters. What’s interesting, those events have two categories: modern and history, which means that contestants are competing in both emergent and historical weapons.


 

And although some competitors can make impressive results, they are far from the world sniper records. What is the best score so far?


 

World record belongs to Canadian soldier of Joint Task Force 2. In 2017 he shot ISIS soldier, hitting him from 3450 meters. It is over two times the biggest mentioned distance used on the sniper competitions! This score is considered the official world record for combat shooting.


 

It is possible that this record will be beaten, as great snipers are still trained, and the weaponry is still improving. What was the weapon of choice for the best sniper? It was McMillan TAC-50 rifle. What’s interesting, this weapon has guaranteed effective shot range of 1800 meters, which means that Canadian soldier almost doubled that distance.

Canadian soldier’s predecessors were Australian snipers, who successfully shot their target from 2815 meters. As both snipers were shooting from almost the same position, the record was considered team effort, as there was no way to determine who, specifically, shot the target in combat situation.