From the number of confirmed kills to the longest shots ever made, here are 8 of the deadliest snipers in history! 8. Billy Dixon (US Civilian) Billy Dixon was known for being a skilled
marksman, buffalo hunter and Indian fighter in the late 1800s. He is one of only 8 civilians to receive the
US Medal of Honor. Originally from West Virginia, he was of European
and Native American ancestry and eventually moved to the Texas Panhandle to hunt buffalo. He moved to Adobe Walls (now Hutchinson County,
TX) where hundreds of buffalo hunters roamed the area and the buffalo population began
to drop. The Native Americans from the area realized
the threat of the Adobe Walls trading post and the buffalo hunters and organized to try
to get rid of them. Early in the morning on June 27, 1874 combined
force of Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho warriors attacked the town. There was a reported force of 700 warriors,
and Billy Dixon was one of 28 men (and 1 woman) who participated in the Second Battle of Adobe
Walls from inside James Hanrahan’s saloon. Over the following three days, the buffalo
hunters repelled the attacks with their pistols and short range weapons. On the third day, 15 warriors rode onto a
bluff to decide how to proceed. Billy Dixon took a shot with a ‘Big Fifty’
Sharps rifle. Already known as a great shot, Dixon shocked
even himself when he cleanly hit a warrior from his horse nearly a mile away. While now controversy reigns over the exact
distance, US Army Surveyors who conducted a post battle survey determined that the shot
had, in fact, been over 1,500 yards, or nine-tenths of a mile away. Supposedly an impossible shot. Following these events, Dixon joined the army
as a scout, and three months later found himself in another battle at Buffalo Wallow. His gallantry in battle at this subsequent
fight earned him the Medal of Honor. 7. Roza Shanina (Soviet Red Army) Roza Shanina was 19 when she joined the Soviet
Red Army after the death of her brother in 1941. Smart, beautiful, and deadly, she is credited
with 59 confirmed kills. It took her 18 months to convince the military
to let her sign up after learning how to shoot at a range, and she was finally accepted into
the Central Female Sniper Academy. From there she became one of the most prolific
snipers in the war, taking part in crucial operations to repel the German forces. She would become renowned for her ability
to score doublets (hitting two targets, one right after the other), and became obsessed
with taking out the snipers of the opposition. In 1944 a Canadian newspaper described Shanina
as the “unseen terror of East Prussia.” She became the first Soviet female sniper
to be awarded the Order of Glory in 1944. She died in January 1945 during the East Prussian
offensive as she tried to protect an injured artillery officer while the Germans attacked. She was 20 years old. Her legend remains as one of the most deadly
snipers in the war. 6. Carlos Norman Hathcock (US Marines) Carlos Hathcock was a Marine Corps sniper
whose success in the Vietnam war became legendary. Although his confirmed kill count was 93,
since that was the number that had witnesses, Carlos estimated that he’d probably taken
out over 300 enemy fighters. This suspicion is backed up by the fact that
a bounty was put on his head by the North Vietnamese Army of $30,000 – about 15 times
more than the usual rate for snipers. They called him the ‘White Feather’, because
of a feather that he would wear on his hat- a name that would be given to a variant of
the M21 rifle in his honor. He first deployed to Vietnam in 1966 and returned
to the US a year later after a particularly brutal mission. He returned to Vietnam again in 1969 to command
a platoon of snipers. While he was never hit by an enemy bullet,
he was severely injured when the armored vehicle he was travelling in hit an anti-tank mine. He suffered third degree burns before escaping
the wreckage, and received the purple heart for his brave efforts. He would later also receive a silver star. Hathcock served almost 20 years in the Marine
Corps and helped to set up the Marine Corps Sniper school in Virginia. 5. Chris Kyle (US Navy SEAL) No list of snipers would be complete without
mentioning Chris Kyle. He is the most accomplished sniper in US history,
and his bestselling autobiography American Sniper was later turned into a movie directed
by Clint Eastwood. Kyle received an invitation to the 24-week
Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL school (BUDS) in 1999, and went on to serve four tours in
Iraq as part of SEAL Team 3. He served in many major battles that took
place during the Iraq War where he became notorious for his marksmanship skills. His first confirmed long-range kill was a
woman approaching a group of Marines while carrying a hand grenade. Kyle called his longest successful shot a
“straight-up luck shot” from his McMillan Tac-338 sniper rifle when he killed an insurgent
sniper aiming at other US military personnel at 1,920 meters away. His effectiveness led to a bounty of up to
$80,000 placed on him by insurgents who called him ‘The Devil of Ramadi’, while the Marines
he was tasked to protect began to call him “The Legend”. Like many other snipers, that exact number
of sniper kills is unknown since they have to have been witnessed. The Navy confirmed 160 people, which would
have beaten Adelbert Waldron’s US record of 109. Kyle was killed in 2013 along with a friend
at a shooting range in Texas by 25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh (Rowth) who was suffering
from PTSD and schizophrenia. 4. Craig Harrison (British Army) Craig Harrison is believed to hold the record
for the highest number of confirmed sniper kills for someone who is still alive today,
as well as the record for the longest confirmed kill in combat. Having joined the British army when he was
16, Harrison was a Corporal of Horse in the Blues and Royals cavalry regiment of the British
Army, and served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia. In November 2009, Harrison was in the Helmand
Province of Afghanistan. He was in a three-vehicle convoy when the
soldiers ahead of his vehicle were ambushed. They were stuck in a gulley fighting for their
lives. Harrison spotted an enemy machine gun that
was spraying bullets in their direction. He realized that it would take 6 seconds for
the bullet to reach the target, and began calculating how he would attempt to pull off
such an impossible shot. He fired, and the first one missed. 6 seconds later the gunner dropped dead from
Harrison’s second attempt. Later, an Apache helicopter measured the distance
of the miracle shots, 2,475 meters, over 900 meters beyond his rifle’s effective range. He had over 170 confirmed kills. In 2009, he was sent home after a bullet went
through his helmet and his vehicle was blown up by a mine. When Harrison returned home, the Ministry
of Defence released details of the record-breaking shot, but accidentally revealed his identity
to the public. Al-Qaeda published his personal information
and that of his wife and daughter on the internet and the government warned he was now in danger
of being kidnapped by Al-Qaeda sympathizers. This led to the end of his career. He was awarded £100,000 in compensation by
the MoD for this mistake and for the damage it had caused him and his family. 3. Adelbert Waldron (US Army) Another sniper from the Vietnam War is Adelbert
Waldron. Until 2011, Waldron held the record for most
confirmed kills by any American sniper at 109. Waldron deployed in Vietnam in 1969 as part
of the 9th Infantry and set his kill record in only 8 months of service. At the time the 9th Infantry was based in
the Mekong Delta, which was one of the most hostile territories in the war. This brought out his superior marksmanship
skills- at one point scoring a confirmed kill after firing from a moving boat 900 meters
away. Another time he managed to take out a group
of 8 Vietnamese soldiers from 500 meters away by using only 8 shots. One shot, one low. Waldron became one of the most feared and
wanted by the Viet Cong and became known as Daniel Boone. The Vietnamese had a $50,000 bounty on his
head. He was sent home in 1969 became a sniper shooting
instructor for the army, and left the military a year later. By the end of his service he had earned many
military honors including a Silver Star, many Bronze Stars, and a Presidential Unit Citation. 2. Fyodor Okhlopkov (Soviet Red Army) Fyodor Okhlpkov is famous for his extraordinary
count of 429 confirmed kills on behalf of the Soviets in the second world war. He started life as a farmer, hunter and gold
miner but, in 1941 when war broke out against Germany, Okhlopkov joined the Soviet Red Army
as a machine gunner. By October 1942 after his brother had been
killed, he became a sniper. He was soon one of the most effective snipers
in the Army and in the world. The army newspaper called the ‘Defender
of the Fatherland’ spoke about him saying, “he has the keen eye of a hunter, the hard
hand of a miner, and a big, warm heart.” He taught many young snipers and was injured
12 times during the war until finally being released after a serious chest wound. He was from the Yakut region and was at first
denied honors due to his ethnicity. In 1965 he finally received the Order Of Lenin
and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in recognition of his efforts during the war. And now for number 1, and if you are new here
be sure to subscribe! 1. Simo Häyhä (hey-ha) (Finnish Army) Simo Häyhä holds the record for the most
confirmed kills and is widely seen as the most skilled and successful marksman that
there has ever been. Häyhä fought for the Finnish army in the
Winter war that took place between Finland and the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1940. The Finnish snipers would traverse the snowy
terrain on the border of the countries wearing white camouflage, taking advantage of mistakes
made by the Soviet leadership that left their troops without the necessary clothing, and
easy to spot. Using a M/28-30 rifle, Häyhä was only there
for 100 days, but with a confirmed kill count of 505 in total, that meant he was taking
out at least 5 enemy soldiers per day. Some reports even claim he killed up to 800
combatants, but this figure is unverifiable. He earned the name, ‘The White Death’
for his skills, and became a prime target for the Soviets, who finally caught up with
him in March of 1940 when he was hit in his jaw by an explosive bullet. He was found by soldiers who said he had half
of his face missing, and was taken to the hospital where he survived. He regained consciousness on the day that
peace was declared, and after recovering from his injury he went on to become a moose hunter
and dog breeder in the wake of the second world war. He lived a long life, far beyond the typical
expectancy of a sniper, only dying recently in 2002 at the age of 96. Thanks for watching! Click here
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