For most soldiers, combat means bullets whizzing
past as they battle to survive in a firefight against enemy forces. But for an elite group, combat is very different. It’s slower, and every bullet counts. These skilled fighters lie in wait, hidden
and watching until their target comes into view. And then they strike. A good sniper can turn the tide of a war with
just one shot - and some have racked up shocking body counts. These are the ten most lethal snipers in history. #10. Chuck Mawhinney Growing up in the mountains of Oregon, Chuck
Mawhinney was always destined for military success. Not only was he the son of a World War II
Marine, but from an early age he was out there in the woods practicing his aim with a rifle
on the local deer. By the time he graduated high school in 1967,
he was an expert marksman and wasted no time enlisting in the US Marines just like his
father. The Vietnam war was ramping up, so it wasn’t
long before he was shipped off to southeast Asia. And it didn’t take his instructors long
to see they had a talent on their hands. He was quickly sent to Scout Sniper School,
and spent sixteen months in Vietnam. He soon became known as one of the best snipers
in Marine Corps history, setting a then-record of 103 kills - although many people say he
may have taken out upwards of three hundred enemy soldiers. Regarded for his accuracy, the only miss he’s
known to have made is shortly after his trusty rifle was serviced. After he was sent home, he kept his accomplishments
secret and didn’t tell anyone about his time as a sniper - until a fellow serviceman
wrote about his exploits in a Vietnam memoir. Now known as one of the all-time great snipers,
Mawhinney still speaks to new classes at sniper school more than sixty years after his time
in the war. #9. Henry Norwest Many of the best snipers come from isolated
locations where they have time to practice their trade in the wild. That was also the case with Henry Norwest,
the most feared sniper to come out of Canada in World War I. The son of indiginous Metis parents, he worked
as a ranch hand, a rodeo cowboy, and even a Mounted Policeman before joining the Canadian
military in 1915. But it wasn’t a smooth ride - he was kicked
out of the military for drunken fighting before re-enlisting under another name. This one would stick - and he would soon become
one of Canada’s greatest military heroes. Norwest grew up hunting in rural Alberta,
and that made him a deadly sniper. He knew camouflage and could use the natural
terrain to hide, and moved stealthily as he stalked his enemy and got the drop on them. That allowed him to rack up a shocking 115
kills witnessed by other soldiers, and he soon became the military’s go-to man for
reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines. He earned the Military Medal in 1917, but
the legendary sniper wasn’t invincible. On August 18th, 1918 a German sniper was just
a little bit faster, and Henry Norwest became one of Canada’s many WWI casualties. The next WWI hero came from all the way across
the world. #8. Billy Sing Born in Queensland, Australia to a Chinese
father and English mother, Billy Sing grew up on a farm. But things weren’t easy for a mixed-race
boy - there was a lot of anti-Chinese racism in Australia, and Sing learned skills to help
him defend himself. He worked as a timber-hauler and joined local
shooting clubs, winning prizes for marksmanship as a teenager. At just 18, he answered the call after war
was declared and joined the Australian Imperial Force - impressing a recruiter who disregarded
the rule that only white Australians were eligible to enlist. It would be the smartest decision that recruiter
ever made. Sing was deployed in the Gallipoli campaign
in modern day Turkey. The mountainous regions were ideal for snipers,
and Sing’s expert marksmanship led to him becoming notorious among the Turkish enemy
forces. A famous sniper nicknamed Abdul the Terrible
was sent out to hunt Sing, but Sing outdueled him in a sniper battle and shot him dead. While Sing was injured several times and sickened
by poison gas, he fought in the war until 1918 and racked up at least 150 kills - but
historians say he may have sniped as many as 300. His injuries in the war led to his retirement,
and in the aftermath of the war he lived a quiet life until his death in 1943. #7. Chris Kyle Growing up in Texas, Chris Kyle learned to
hunt at the age of eight and spent his childhood shooting deer and birds. He worked briefly as a professional rodeo
rider before enlisting in the elite Navy SEALS, graduating in March 2001 - only six months
before the world would change leading to the United States entering two wars in the Middle
East. Kyle was assigned to Seal Team-3, where he
would become an elite sniper. But in the Iraq War, he would frequently face
gut-wrenching choices - often having to decide whether to shoot someone who looked like a
civilian but could actually be a suicide bombing in disguise. The war took its toll - but it couldn’t
slow him down. Over his four tours in Iraq, Chris Kyle would
rack up a shocking 160 kills, a confirmed record for a US military member. He received a Silver Star and multiple Bronze
Stars for his valor, and was discharged honorably in 2009. He would go on to write an autobiography,
American Sniper, where he talked frankly about the impact of the war. He also worked with other veterans with post-traumatic
stress disorder, something that would eventually lead to his own death, when he was fatally
shot by a disturbed veteran in 2013. A year later, a film based on his life was
released and went on to become the top-grossing film of the year. #6. Vasily Zaitsev The Russian front was one of the most brutal
locations of World War II, a notorious killing field that spelled the end for countless Russian
soldiers and invading Germans alike. But in Stalingrad, one Russian soldier would
become a legend. Vasily Zaitsev grew up in a family of peasant
farmers and was shooting deer and wolves from a young age. His initial work in the military was anything
but glamorous as he worked as a clerk, but this humble clerk would soon turn out to be
a deadly shot. Zaitsev volunteered to be transferred to the
front lines, and was assigned to a rifle regiment. The army soon discovered that he could shoot
from locations that seemed impossible. He would be stationed under rubble or even
in water pipes, sniping German troops before they even knew he was there. Prior to the Battle of Stalingrad, he had
only been credited with 25 kills, but during the battle he killed a stunning 225 enemy
soldiers until a mortar injured his eyes. His eyesight was saved by a talented Russian
eye surgeon, and Zaitsev returned to the front and retired with the rank of Captain. After the war, he would briefly be imprisoned
as a suspected spy in 1951 under Stalin - a shocking fate for a war hero - but he was
eventually cleared and lived until 1991, dying only eleven days before the fall of the Soviet
Union. He wasn’t the only famous Russian sniper
- but this next one had something different. #5. Lyudmila Pavilchenko Women weren’t a common sight on the front
lines in World War II, but the invasions into Russian meant that all option were now on
the table - and one Soviet woman became a legend of war. Pavilchenko was a tomboy who grew up in Kiev,
and just like many of the men on this list, she showed talent with a rifle from an early
age. When Germany invaded, she quickly headed over
to the recruitment office - where they promptly tried to send her to the nurses’ division. It was only when she showed them her papers
from multiple shooting classes that they let her join the rifle division, and she became
one of 2,000 female snipers in the Red Army. In 1941 she picked up a fallen soldier’s
rifle and took her first enemy life, but it would be far from the last. The siege of Odessa was her finest hour, where
she killed 187 enemy soldiers. She would soon become a Lieutenant, marry
a fellow sniper, and eventually notch a kill count of 309 enemies - the highest number
ever recorded for a woman. After being injured in combat, she worked
as a propagandist and trainer and gained the nickname Lady Death. She would even visit the United States and
meet with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Although she would survive the war, her husband
fell in combat, something that haunted her until her death in 1974. #4. Abu Tahsin al-Salihi The man who would be known as the Sheik of
Snipers started out as a humble Iraqi shepherd who carried a rifle to protect himself. By 1973 he was an expert shot, and he would
put that to work when war broke out between Israel and the Arab States. The Yom Kippur War was one of the region’s
most brutal conflicts, and al-Salihi was stationed in the Golan Heights where he became a feared
sniper. He would next fight in the Second Kurdish-Iraqi
War only a year later, and then again in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. But he was far from done. Surviving all these wars, he would fight against
American forces in both the Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War. When Iraq fell into a civil war involving
the terrorist group ISIS, the now sixty-something Sheik of Snipers picked up his rifle yet again
- and in his finest hour, would rack up a stunning 384 confirmed kills of ISIS members. But his time as a member of the Popular Mobilization
Forces would eventually run out and so would his luck. In 2017, he was killed in action in the battle
of Hawija, bringing an end to almost fifty years of sniping. #3. Francis Pegahmagabow Born on a First Nation reserve in Ontario,
Francis lost his father at a young age and was later abandoned by his mother. Raised by a First Nation elder, he learned
traditional medicine and hunting as a boy - skills that would serve him well when he
volunteered for service in World War I. Those skills won over the recruiters and led
to him being admitted despite a policy that was in place that didn’t allow First Nations
members to serve. He became known for his tent being decorated
with traditional Native symbols - and for his scary accuracy with a rifle. But he would soon encounter one of the worst
horrors of the war. He fought on the Western Front, and was caught
in the middle when the Germans first deployed Chlorine gas. Despite being injured, he managed to take
out many German soldiers and was promoted. In addition to his work as a sniper, he made
several trips into no man’s land to retrieve ammunition, and by the time the war ended
in 1918, he had managed to take out 378 German soldiers - and assisted in capturing 300 more. Highly decorated after the war, he dedicated
the rest of his life to First Nations affairs and was highly regarded as an activist when
he died in 1952. #2. Fyodor Okhlopkov The Yakut people, a Turkic ethnic group in
Russia, mostly live in rural areas. Fyodor Okhlopkov grew up poor and was working
in mines and factories from the age of twelve. But it was his hobby of sharpshooting that
would pay off for him when he was drafted into the Red Army in 1941. His regiment was mostly composed of Siberians,
and he lost his brother early in the war. While he rose in the ranks, it wasn’t until
he was injured in combat that he found his true calling in war. While he was recovering, his unit lost most
of its men, and he was sent back to the front line as the new unit sniper. He would exact a terrible cost on the enemy. During the next two years, he racked up at
least 429 enemy kills, and would be nominated for the award of Hero of the Soviet Union. He barely survived a chest wound near the
end of the war, and by the time he had recovered the war was nearly over. He didn’t actually receive the award he
was nominated for until 1968, near the end of his life, but rose to prominent positions
in the Communist party all the same. While his military career didn’t continue
after his close call with death, he remains one of Russia’s greatest war heroes. But one sniper racked up an even higher kill
count. #1. Simo Hayha The Winter War was a little-known conflict
outside of the countries directly involved in it, since it was overshadowed by the growing
fronts of World War II. But the Soviet invasion of Finland led to
brutal fighting, and it was also the birthplace of the deadliest sniper of all time. Simo Hayha grew up in a small Finnish town
near the Russian border where he learned farming, hunting, and skiing. Only a teenager when he joined the volunteer
militia, he quickly racked up sharpshooting awards and was later drafted into the army. He displayed an amazing talent for accuracy,
once hitting a target sixteen times from 150 meters away in only a minute! The Soviets would soon find out about his
talents the hard way. Dressed entirely in white clothing that made
him blend into the frozen north, Hayha made short work of the invading Russian troops. Joseph Stalin had eliminated most of his military
experts in the 1930s, and Russian troops weren’t camouflaged, which made them easy targets
for the master shot. He became known as the White Death, an invisible
soldier who brought death from the snow. Propaganda was made about him, making him
seem like a mythical figure. But one thing was very real - his shocking
death toll of over five hundred Russian soldiers, the greatest confirmed kill count of all time. Although he was seriously wounded in battle,
he survived the war and went on to live a quiet life as a moose hunter and dog breeder. The man known as the White Death chose a very
different path after war and died peacefully over 60 years after he fought on the battlefields
in 2002 at the age of 96. For more on how to join their elite ranks,
check out “How To Become a US Army Sniper” or watch this video instead.
