How Are Snipers Trained? 5 Deadliest Shooters After Canadian Soldier Breaks Record

A Canadian sniper recently broke the world record for the longest-range kill in military history when he shot an ISIS militant in Iraq. The Joint Task Force 2 gun specialist took the 3,450-meter shot from a high-rise building — so far away it took a full 10 seconds to reach its target.

Read: Canadian Sniper Breaks World Record For Longest Shot, Kills ISIS Operative In Iraq

“The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [ISIS] attack on Iraqi security forces,” an anonymous source told Toronto’s Globe and Mail Wednesday. “Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far away, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening.”

How Snipers Are Trained

There are less than 300 active snipers in the United States Marine Corps, according to Business Insider, all of whom have been put through a grueling training process to get to where they are. Skills aren’t limited to shooting alone — snipers must learn how to stalk and infiltrate for miles to get to where they need to be. Other skills such as land navigation, map making, observation and patrolling need to be mastered before shooting, which only accounts for 20 percent of the curriculum in sniper school, according to Field and Stream.

“You don’t want to a real hot head to be a sniper,” Army Ranger Sniper reported. “Snipers need to be able to work on their own. You have to be independent, you know, so when you’re not with your unit you need to be able to make sound decisions on your own without having to call up, ‘What should I do here?’ or ‘Should I shoot this guy or what?’”

Read: 'Lady Death' And Other Female Snipers

There is a month of preparation before shooting training even begins, according to Business Insider. Snipers must also be trained in how to operate under exhaustion and stress, sprinting in full gear between shooting tests. Shooting tests challenge snipers to reach targets of 300, 500 and 1,000 yards.

Five Of The World’s Deadliest Snipers

Carlos Hathcock: Called the “American Sniper” of the Vietnam War, Hathcock set the world record for longest-range kill in 1968. His shot was taken from a distance of 2,460 yards, or almost a mile and a half away.

Arron Perry: Perry broke a 34-year-old record for the longest-range kill in history in 2002 during the Afghanistan war. The Canadian Forces Master Corporal shot from a range of 2,310 meters during the Afghanistan War, breaking the record set by Hathcock in 1968.

Rob Furlong: Furlong, a former Canadian Forces sniper, broke the world record when he shot from a distance of 2,430 meters in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda in 2002. At a speed of 2,700 feet per second, the shot reached his target a full four seconds after it was fired. At the time, Furlong surpassed the record set by Perry.

Nicholas Ranstad: Ranstad, a sergeant with the 1st Squadron 91st Cavalry Regiment, fired a shot at a distance of 2,288 yards during the Afghanistan War in 2008. The distance amounted to about 25 New York City blocks.

Chris Kyle: Better known as the “American Sniper” was reportedly the deadliest sniper in the United States military prior to his death, with a reported total of 160 kills at a distance of up to 2,100 yards as a Navy SEAL. Hathcock held the previous record, with 93 kills during the Vietnam War.