[Recon 173]

I would NOT place any great stock on Mythbusters. For one thing, I don't believe that they took into account that some USMC and US Army snipers were actually shooting their own handloaded ammo. Another thing was that some snipers, at times, had to "make do" with standard ammo and not their match rounds or special loads. Mythbusters used regular ball ammo in their test if I remember right. And I'm not sure if they used the right caliber either. A lot of the USMC snipers used bolt action 30.06 rifles while Army snipers like me used 7.62 NATO Match XM-21 sniper rifles or some bolt action rifles in either 30.06 or .308. Your rifle that you got to use depended on where, when and how you were trained to snipe. So for that one particular shot Hathcock could of had a bolt action rifle with a 30.06 armor piercing ball cartridge handloaded with a tad more propellant than normal. Or something...

[Farmer]

I love mythbusters, but they do do some silly things.

Also many aussie snipers took their own rifles from home.

[Capt'n Mil Coll]

I dont know what the History Channel had on. I have seen some videos and read a few books about Hathcock and I was under the impression he shot mainly with a .50 cal sniper rifle. That would go through the scope the snipers head the engine block of the truck behind him and a few trees.

[marcusdunn8192]

i like movies but i tend to get picky about alot of the hollywood stuff ( not as much as my wife for sharing my observatiopns ) but the whole one guy with a .38 shoots 20 guys with AKM's ??? and dont even get me started on the whole LAW blowing up a skyscaper thing , but the movie itself was good

[Capt'n Mil Coll]

In shooter the sniper makes a one mile shot (or close to it). This means balisticly the bullit had to come straight down on the target. This would split a skull in half and the neck and about half the torso. While the movie was ok Im not a big fan of Marky Mark Walberg because of his frequent comments how all guns should be banned and we need more gun control etc.
I think Enemy at the Gates was a very good movie. As for historical content it may or may not be accurate. The Russians are not the easiest people to get accurate info from. You have to admit the sniping scenes were very suspensful.
Saving Private Ryan was not historical accurate. It was a story based on facts. But a damm good movie. And what a beginning. Landing on Omaha beach. Talk about blow you away. Heck half the time your dodging bullets tying to keep from getting hit.
Sniper with Tom berienger was a really good movie as well. Some of the technical aspects were a little skewed but over all very good as "the sniper movie". Shows the whole sniper team a lot better.
All were good movies.
I like the Carlos Hathcock Col Plaster interviews. Hathcock is talking like "well that is what I had to do". Plaster is a scarey dude he is more like "well that is what I like to do". Plaster was Hathcock's spotter and then a sniper in his own right in VietNam.
Talking about Mythbusters. There is a video out called Deadly Weapons. This guy made the video a few years back to dispell the movie crapola. It starts off with him shooting 1 gal milk jugs. From .17 up to I think .44 mag and showing the differences. He goes through a lot of different shooting seanarios. He shoots a guy wearing a bulletproof vest at about 3 feet away with a .308. This is while the guy is standing on one leg to show you dont get blown across the room when you get shot.
Very entertaining video. You should get it and watch it.

[jimkim]

According to the book Hathcock used a .30-06 most of the time. It was a pre 64 model 70 winchester with an 8X unertyl scope. He also used a .50 cal browning machine gun that had his sniper scope mounted on it. He would line up the target and depress the butterfly. Check this out
GySgt Carlos Hathcock Story