Long Range Cal. ?????

[sgj3030]

A friend of mine was talking about his tour in 'Nam when he was a sniper. He was talking about his gun and said it was a 220 hornet and shot a 185grain bullet.

Can you still get that kind of gun. If so what about the bullets? Do you have to reload them (I dont reload).

What kind of scope would you want on one?

Thanks for any info.


Stephen

[BILLY D.]

sgj3030

I don't know which 'nam your friend was in but the one where I participated in the Southeast Asia War Games I never heard of such a Round.

The Sniper Rifles were Winchester, Remington and some were M-14's in 308.

The true specialists like GSGT Carlos Hathcock had some special rifles issued to them or they had them custom made, I don't know which. "The Man" was said to have used a 300 Win Mag specially prepared Model 70 Target rifle at one time. I can't say definitely whether it was prepared by Marine Armorers or not. When I worked as a member of an Insertion Team the only Rifles I seen were Remington and Winchester target Rifles.

Many Squad Snipers in the Army had scoped M-14's and were very efficient with them. Some of these were specially prepared by the AMU. Ranges were effectively judged by the sniper judging the distance to target and noting such things as which way grass was bending or which way cigarette smoke was drifting at the intended targets location.

I had an easy job. I was a door Gunner. I had a verrrrrrrry high respect for the Long Range Recon Patrol guys. Their job was to go out and collect intelligence and snipe, then hide and wait till we came back after them and extracted them and went back to base.

Bill

[Jack]

The 220 Swift uses bullets in the 48-60 grain range.
The 22 Hornet uses bullets in the 30-40 grain range.
Neither cartridge could possibly use a bullet weighing anywhere near 185 grains.
The typical sniper rifle of the era was a bolt action in 30-06 or 7.62 Nato, or an M-14 set up for sniping.
The 30-06 and 7.62 Nato sniper ammo would most likely have used bullets of 168 or 172 grains.

[DON WALKUP]

that's an awful heavy bullet for the .22 hornet.

i too, did the door gunner thing...we used the ever popular M1919 in 30-06...as did most "snipers" of my era there...the very early 60's.

[Catfish]

I hate to tell you, but I think your friend was trying to stuff your boots full of organic fertlizer.
I`ve been playing with rifles since 1965 and have messed around with wildcats for many years also. I have never heard of a 220 Hornet, but with that name it should be a .22 cal round and as far as I know 90 gn. is the heavest round you can get in .22 cal. and the Hornet is already the name of a .22 cal. round which in it`s day was a long range gun, but today is considered short range.

[GoodOlBoy]

Know this is late in comming but isn't that the standard grain weight for the 7.62x54R as was used in the Dragunov?

Dunno just a thought

GoodOlBoy

[RagingBullPa]

Carlos Hathcock or" White Feather" as he was known to the VietCong used a winchester model 70 in 3006 for sniping , when he competed and won the 1000yard competition at camp Perry he used a model 70 winchester in 300 win mag , source his biography" one shot one kill" Marine Sniper, my company printed the paperback version of the novel a must read for anyone interested in the history of war , he is credited with a confirmed kill at over 2000 yards he did it with a 50 cal m1 machine gun to which he attached his Unertl sniper scope, and cycled it to shoot single shots thats shootin people

[RagingBullPa]

actually his greatest achievement was the killing of the Vietcong sniper by shooting him through his scope tube i'm sure you saw that in the movie marine sniper but Carlos did it for real no special effects

[GOLD-PAN]

Since were talking about the Gunny ( ''long trang'' ) was the most feared person on the planet to the lil' gook's ..... wish he was around today We know him as White Feather..... may the ol'' Gunny rest in peace.....