Andy McNab Saw British Sniper Hit Moving Target From 1600m Away

Former SAS soldier and writer Andy McNab has spoken about seeing a British Army soldier shoot dead a walking target, at a distance of nearly one mile.

McNab had something of an eventful military career himself, including spending some time being tortured and interrogated in captivity in Iraq, and leading the famous 'Bravo Two Zero' mission, about which he then wrote a successful book.

However, one moment stood out to McNab as he sat down to have a chat with The Daily Star in the lead up to Armed Forces Day this Saturday.

The 59-year-old ex-soldier explained: "For the Ministry of Defence in the Iraq and Afghanistan war you would make visits to both of the countries to be with some infantry soldiers, to do some advisory stuff.

"I met a lad there, he was about 19 and he was in the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (PWRR), it was an infantry battalion.

"He was an infantry soldier and he took a shot with a 0.50 sniper rifle, which is quite a heavy calibre sniper rifle, and he dropped a walking target at 1,600 metres (one mile) which is amazing, absolutely amazing.

"That's really, really hard."

Yeah, it sounds it.

McNab said that he witnessed this stupendous feat of marksmanship while touring Afghanistan in 2010.

The soldier in question - and we'll have to take McNab's word for it on this one - would have had to have been aiming for the 'centre mass' of the target in order to have any chance of hitting.

However, if you do hit the intended spot with that sort of bullet, you're going to kill them.

McNab continued: "It probably hit the Taliban target in the chest or stomach area.

"It was a walking target and certainly at that distance, you know it's even hard if the target was just static and standing there - but a walking target at that distance is incredible.

"But you know, he had done all his calculations and he took the shot and he hit him. Amazing."

Yep, that'll do it.

He went on to describe the shot again as 'incredible'.

For sure, if you're into that sort of thing.

McNab is currently promoting a new children's book that he has written alongside co-author Phil Earle.

Get Me Out of Here! and is available in book stores and online now.

Let's hope they've kept the amount of fatal sniper chat to a minimum if it's a book for kids.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Interesting

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a freelance journalist and LADbible contributor. He graduated from University of London with a BA in Philosophy before studying for a Masters in Journalism at the University of Salford. He has previously written for the M.E.N Group as well as working for several top professional sports clubs. Contact him on [email protected]

@TPWagwim