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The Carlos Hathcock Method of Sighting in a Rifle.

101K views 133 replies 121 participants last post by  wjhpilot 
#1 ·
As mentioned before, I was a very young Marine Sergeant when I came up to THE Marine Corps Rifle Team the first time as the junior Armorer.

I didn't grow up using high power rifles. We used shotguns to hunt quail, rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, ducks and geese. I used a Mark I Ruger Target .22 pistol for racoon hunting and used a Model 74 Winchester .22 to really learn the basics of rifle marksmanship. My introduction to both high power shooting and long range shooting was in Marine Corps Boot Camp. On Qual Day in Boot Camp, I ran 7 consecutive bullseye's from the offhand position at 200 yards. The 8th round was a pinwheel bullseye, but it was on the target next to mine, so I got a maggie's drawers. Knee High wind got me after that and I fell apart and only shot Sharpshooter in boot camp.

I bought a sporterized Mauser in .308 with a scope on it from a fellow Marine during the time I was going through the Armorer's OJT program on Camp Pendleton. I used that for ground squirrel hunting, but was never really satisfied with my zero on the rifle. So after I came up on "The Big Team," I asked the second senior Armorer - Ted Hollabaugh, if he could show me how to REALLY sight in a rifle with a scope. He said sure and he would do it, but since we had all the talent in the world at MTU, why didn't I ask one of the shooters? Well, I was a young kid and I didn't know any of the shooters that well - most of them were much older than I. That's when he suggested I ask Carlos Hathcock for some help. I didn't know Carlos then and did not know of his exploits in NM and Sniper shooting. Ted talked to Carlos about it and Carlos stopped by the shop later that afternoon.

Carlos looked at me and said, "So you want to sight in your rifle, eh? OK, thoroughly clean the bore and chamber. Dry the bore out with patches just before you come down to Range 4 tomorrow at noon on the 200 yard line. Have the sling on the rifle that you are going to use in hunting." Then he went on about his business.

When I got to Range 4 the next day, he had a target in the air ready for me. He told me to get down in the best prone position I had. He checked me and adjusted my position just a bit. Then he said, "Before you shoot. The MOST important thing I want you to do is take your time and make it the best shot possible. It doesn't matter how long you take, just make it a good shot. ALSO, and this is as important, make sure you give me an accurate call on where you think the bullet hit the target." After I broke the shot, I told him where I thought the bullet had hit. He checked it by using a spotting scope when the target came back up. He grinned just slightly and said, "not a bad call." He then took a screwdriver and adjusted my scope a bit. He had me record everything possible about the shot and weather, humidity, temperature, wind, how I felt when the shot went off, what kind of ammo I was using, the date, and virtually everything about the conditions on the range that day. I had never seen such a complete and precise recording of such things in a log book. He told me that if a fly had gone by the rifle and farted while I was shooting, to make sure I recorded that. Then he told me to thoroughly clean the bore and chamber, and have it dry when I came back at 12 noon the next day. I was kind of surprised he only had me shoot once, but when you are getting free lessons - you don't question or argue.

The next day, he told me the same thing. I called the shot and it was closer to the center of the bullseye. He made another slight adjustment and told me to clean the bore and chamber, dry the bore thoroughly and come back the next day at noon. Then we recorded everything possible about that day. The following day, the shot was darn near exactly centered on the bullseye. Then he told me to clean and dry the bore before coming back the next day. Then we recorded everything about that day.

About a week into the process, Ted asked me how it was going. I said it was going really well, but we were only shooting one shot a day. Ted grinned and said, "How many shots do you think you are going to get at a deer? Don't you think you had better make the first one count?" There was a level of knowledge and wisdom there that I immediately appreciated, though I came to appreciate it even more as time went on.

We continued this process with the sitting position at 200 yards, then prone and sitting at 300 yards and 400 yards. Then we went down to 100 yards and included offhand in the mix. Each day and each shot we recorded everything possible in the book and that included the sight settings for each positon at each yard line. We also marked the scope adjustment settings with different color nail polish for each yard line.

When that was over after a few weeks, I thought I had a super good zero on the rifle. But no, not according to Carlos. He started calling me up on mornings it was foggy, rainy, windy, high or low humidity, etc., etc. and we fired a single shot and recorded the sight settings and everything else about the day. (I actually used four or five log books by the time we were through and put that info all into one ring binder.) I almost had an encyclopedia on that rifle. Grin.

Well, after a few months, we had shot a single round in most every kind of condition there was. Then about the 12th of December, it was REALLY cold and it seemed like an artic wind was blowing, there was about four inches of snow on the ground and freezing rain was falling. He called me up and told me to meet him at Range 4 at noon. I had gotten to know him well enough to joke, "Do you really want to watch me shoot in this kind of weather? He chuckled and said, "Well, are you ever going to hunt in this kind of weather?" I sighed and said, "See you at noon."

By the next spring, I had records for sight settings for the first shot out of a "cold" barrel for almost any weather, position and range I would use and temperature/wind/humidity condition imagineable. He had informed me months before that was bascially how he wanted all Marine Snipers to sight in their rifles as only the first shot counts, though of course they would do it out to 700 yards on a walking target and further on a stationary target. They also practiced follow up shots, of course and we did some of that as well. It gave me great confidence that I could dial in my scope for anything I would come across.

Some years later in the late 90's or realy early this century, I was talking to a Police Sniper and he was really impressed I knew Carlos. I told him about the way Carlos had me sight in my rifle and suggested he do the same thing as he was a sniper for the Henrico Country SWAT team. He had never heard of that and took it to heart. About two and a half years later, he got called to a domestic situation where a husband had a handgun to his wife's head and was going to kill her. After the Sergeant in charge and the Pysch guy determined the husband was really going to do it, the Police Officer was asked if he could hit the guy at just over 200 yards and not hit the wife. He said he knew he could (because he had followed Carlo's method), so they told him to take the shot. One shot and the perp's head exploded. The wife was scared crapless, but unharmed. When he told me about it about when I saw him the first time a week after the incident, the first thing I asked him if he was OK about taking the shot. He understood I was talking about the pyschological aspects and he really appreciated it. He said, it had bothered him a little that night until he remembered that if he had not taken the shot, the wife would have died. I checked back with him and he really was OK with having taken the shot. I've checked back every gun show I see him at and I know he is doing fine about it.
 
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#114 ·
Thank you kindly for that marvelous account - I deeply envy you your association with the legendary Master Sniper, Carlos Hathcock; aka, "White Feather", a Man Among Men and a true giant of long-range precision shooting.

I'm sure many if not all who come to this Forum are aware, but it's still worth mentioning that, in most important respects, the character named Bob Lee Swagger in several books by Stephen Hunter (and a film, starring Mark Wahlberg, made from one of the books) was created as a composite of sniper personality and skills with Carlos Hathcock forming its major part, its core.
 
#115 ·
Thank you for this post, it took me way back to my Marine Corps days and I too had the chance to meet the Gunny. I was in FAST Company when I was sent to Marksmanship Instructor school. The commencement speaker was Gunny Hathcock and let me tell you you could have heard a pin drop in that classroom! I had the unusual opportunity to have an ice cream sandwich with the man. Anyway he was good enough to sign my diploma and pose for a picture with me, which is pretty darn cool to those of us who know who he is. SEMPER FI!
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#116 ·
I met Carlos at Camp Perry years ago. Very sharp man! During my years as a sniper/observer for the Illinois Dept of Corrections, we stressed the clean and dry bore and the importance of the one round, cold bore shot. If you are needing more than one shot on the bad guy, you are doing something wrong. Learn your craft.
 
#118 ·
Gus I just want to thank you for sharing your stories with us. I got to talk to Carlos one afternoon at a gun show here in Tidewater Va. and he left a lasting impression on me. He was a good and honorable man that I will never forget. I feel honored to have been able to have gotten to talk to him.
 
#130 ·
The 'Hathcock method' is fine for situations that require 1st shot accuracy in various conditions and distances. But if you are shooting for group size, or in competitions that involve a series of shots in some time limit, then you'd get better results by doing the zeroing to match the number of shots that will be fired 'for record'.

It's not unusual for the 1st freshly-cleaned-cold-bore shot to be outside of the group of later shots. Hopefully the amount of sight adjustment for later shots can be learned and remembered, and not have to be re-found each time.

I like Hathcock's method for its intended use, but it's not the only way for every situation.

Jay
 
#131 · (Edited)
Hi,
I'm no "Sniper" by any means, but even I can understand Carlos Hathcock's INTENTION"S....

As he showed his young friend how to use his own friends, "set up" for a "one shot", "one kill", at various ranges and conditions!

Thank you!
 
#133 ·
I shot on the Quantico shooting team in ‘85 and remember Carlos came to WTB one day. Everyone acted so respectfully around him and I have to say I didn’t know much about his exploits yet. Interesting was I had just completed TBS a few months earlier. SgtMaj Sommers was our company SgtMaj and he would sometimes drill us 2nd Lts as we were becoming more “proficient”. Anyway, he went on to be the SgtMaj of the Marine Corps but while in Vietnam he worked with Carlos Hathcock. Not sure he was a spotter but maybe. He was a Gunny at the time.
 
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