What weapon did Carlos Hathcock use to execute his infamous 2500 yard kill?

Answer 1

During the Vietnam War, the .50 caliber mg could be dismounted from the Patton or Sheridan tank, or M113 ACAV, and used on the ground. The tanker's normally didn't carry "tri-pods" for the fifties, but the M113 ACAVs often carried them. Those fifties, had to be adjusted often (called head space and timing); there was a timing /headspace gage to go with the mg. They could be timed to fire with a fast rate of fire, slow rate of fire, or single shot. The Marine probably used a fifty adjusted to single shot. That .50 is covered with glory and wannabes today (everybody has to have one...they think, until they have to carry it!). It is a good weapon, however, it is EXTREMELY heavy to man-handle in the field (day after day, week after week, month after month), and it takes an awful lot of experience to get it "timed and headspaced" properly, which involves much test firing. In Vietnam, we fired 300 round bursts (we used to lite our cigarettes from the white hot barrels), the barrels burned out, with tracers coming out of the muzzle like a shotgun. This required changing a fifty barrel; which in turn required RE-timing and headspacing & test firing to get it back into shape again.