New World Record Set for Farthest Long-Range Rifle Shot: 4.4 Miles

The long-range shooting world record was broken yet again when a team of spotters and a shooter hit a target at 4.4 miles (7,744 yards) in the Wyoming desert earlier this month. The marksmanship feat was orchestrated by Scott Austin and Shepard Humphries, who run Nomad Rifleman, a long-range shooting school out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Together with a group of friends they spent several hours launching bullets downrange before connecting on their 69th shot, according to a release on Nomad Rifleman’s website.

Making that many shot attempts isn’t unusual when trying to set records of this type. Humphries noted that the previous record, a four-mile shot made by Paul Phillips in 2019, required 69 attempts as well before the shooter connected.

The target they shot at was constructed of thin sheet metal and measured 10 feet wide by 7.6 feet tall. It was also placed at a steep angle so it would be more in line with the fall of the bullet as it came back to earth. The target’s dimensions (120 inches by 92 inches) made it 1.54 MOA wide and 1.18 MOA tall at 4.4 miles.

The rifle is a custom built 416 Barrett.  They sunk over 1,500 man hours into modifying everything, including the optic, to pull this off.

But they did.

It’s not a reasonable shot for the vast majority of people to take, but consider what it means for a person to be able to reach out and touch a target at what is typically air strike or artillery distances.