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From: Carlos Hathcock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of Hathcock's most famous accomplishments was shooting an enemy sniper through his scope, hitting him in the eye and killing him. Hathcock and John Burke, his spotter, were stalking the enemy sniper in the jungle near Hill 55, the firebase where Hathcock was stationed. The sniper had already killed several Marines, and was believed to have been sent specifically to kill Hathcock. When Hathcock saw a flash of light (light reflecting off the enemy sniper's scope) in the bushes, he fired at it, shooting through the scope and killing the sniper. Surveying the situation, Hathcock contended the only feasible way he could have put the bullet straight down the enemy's scope and through his eye would have been if both snipers were zeroing in on each other at the exact same time, and Hathcock fired first. The enemy rifle was recovered and the incident is documented by a photograph.

In an episode of the fourth season of the television show MythBusters (29 November 2006, Episode 67), stars Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman attempted to test the feasibility of shooting through the scope of another rifle, citing the confirmed Hathcock incident of shooting a North Vietnamese sniper through his victim's scope. They were unable to replicate the results in the story using the modern equipment they had on hand, so they declared the myth "busted." However, they did not replicate the exact conditions of Hathcock's combat incident. The MythBusters did not take into consideration powder loads, bullet weight, muzzle velocity, angle, or variations in air pressure and density. On the show, they conceded that they were not shooting at the same scope that Hathcock shot at and stated that under the exactly ideal conditions and with extreme luck, the shot may have been possible. In the episode aired on March 21, 2007, the MythBusters revisited this myth and confirmed that it was possible, but they had to use armor-piercing rounds to fully penetrate the scope. They used a vintage scope this time, which was much smaller than modern scopes, and Jamie successfully fired a bullet through the scope. The bullet penetrated the dummy's face to a depth of about two inches, which would be lethal to a human. However, it should be noted that on the March 21, 2007 episode, that Jamie used the Rifle, M1, more commonly called the Garand, whereas Gunny Hathcock used the Winchester Model 70. The Winchester Model 70 has more penetrating power than the M1 Garand, mostly due to its bolt-action mechanism.

The Myth Busters revisited:

ShoutWire - Sniper Shot Through Scope