Hathcock shot, sorta

Dogleg

Dogleg

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In the name of pure scientific research, brought on by finding an old scope in the corner of the basement, I decided to try the Hathcock shot. It almost worked, in the front lens and breaking the back lens before the 80 grain Berger ate itself. The temptation to shoot it again was strong, but I fought it off.
As it stands, the official stance is that if someone shoots your objective with a 22/243 Middlested you're going to get a face full of glass. If he has a little more bullet or maybe just a little less velocity you're gonna get yourself dead. More research is needed, so if you all want to send your Nightforces and Mark 4s along I would sure appreciate it.


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The question I have is did you have mounted to something to simulate being on a rifle... if it was by itself, it wouldn't accurately simulate the weight and resistance of being held in place (I assume that scope went flying...) because I am pretty sure the bullet would have traveled the whole length of the scope.
 
Bullets wont break up near so easily after they have slowed to a terminal velocity such as in Hathcock's legendary shot.

I believe Mythbusters neglected that minor point. ;)
 
I shot it at exactly 100 yards, after I taped it to a 2 X4 upright with 3 wraps of scientific orange duct tape. We found it 15 or 20 feet back.
I saw that Myth-busters before. The thing about that is they must assume that Hathcock's National Match BTHP bullet is going to act the same at 700 yards as it did at powder burn ranges, then jump from there to an AP round. I have no problem believeing that most any boreing hunting rifle with sturdy bullets would have went right through, since my souped up .22 with frangible target bullets almost did.

If I had more junk scopes I'd try it. Anyone close by have any junk they want to perforate?
 
A 200gr accubond from a 300rum (3240fps at muzzle) will go through a cheap simmons 3-9 at 100 yards. I did it about a year ago after watching mythbusters re-runs, and I happened to get a crap scope as part of a trade. I taped the simmons to a fake rifle (aka a 2x4 about 3 feet long) and placed it on a log just over 100m out. The 2x4 moved about 2 feet back, and all the glass was reduced to a fine grey powder.
 
When Carlos shot the NVA sniper I doubt it was from particularly long range, despite his 700 yard zero. Those guys had been stalking each other for quite some time before Carlos got his shot at the sun glinting from the objective of what is a very small and very short 3X Chicom scope. These things are probably little more than 6" long and the objective diameter is little more than 1" in diameter. Whether it is as likely to stop a heavy bullet from a .30/06 as effectively as a modern scope is a point of conjecture. Carlos never claimed the shot was anything more than a fluke, and unlike Myth Busters, who as often as not come up with an incorrect conclusion from a test plagued with unrealistic parameters; whether they are blasting concrete from inside a mixer truck, shooting a bullet into the cylinder of a revolver, or shooting through a scope, I won't bring Hathcock's honesty into question over a one a million chance shot, made during a dangerous confrontation, under combat conditions, in which he prevailed. It doesn't have to work every time, it just had to work the time he did it.
 
Hathcock carried the M-72 round, which was the military's match ammo with a 173 gr spitzer boat-tail bullet. That was what his rifle was sighted with and it seems unlikely he would have gone into the field with anything else. He certainly wouldn't have had cause to carry AP rounds in the field as his targets would have typically been non-armored. According to Bill Brophy, Hathcock's M-70 grouped 2 MOA. He didn't go into detail about how many rounds this entailed, perhaps 20, although it would be reasonable to assume the cold bore shot was always to point of aim.
 
Hmmmm I have a POS Tasco sitting around that I despise. Closest I could come is a 150 grain SMK out of a .280 Remington. I don't think I could reliably hit it at 100 yards with a 174 grain FMJ out of a No 5 Enfield.
 
Not that it would prove/disprove anything, but I've got a POS Tasco rimfire scope and a VERY accurate Savage in .17HMR. Might take it to the range with me tomorrow and see what happens when you mix it all together at 50m.
Cheers!!
 
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