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The longest snipe was 2,430m by Master Corporal Arron Perry of the Canadian armed forces on a moving target (a moving target as well).

Note that, although that's an amazing feat in and of itself, it was Perry's second shot on the target. US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Carlos N. Hathcock's 2500 yard confirmed kill with a .50 caliber Browning rifle (the previous record holder) was made on the first shot.

Your post has some incorrect facts ...3) Snipers are capable of shooting up to 1500 meters away; the record for the longest kill is held by Carlos Hathcock from 2250 meters away (granted he was one of the best snipers around)

Sorry but the World's record for longest kill is held by a Canadian sniper Killing shot made in Afghanistan at distance of 2,430 metres[1 1/2 miles] using a Barrett Firearms .50 cal Model 82A1

Not only that, but after the first shot, someone walks out to within 20 or so feet of the sniper's position (to give the observers a rough idea of where the sniper is) and the sniper must fire the second shot without being detected.

They actually just fire blanks now and read numbers off cards that the graders are holding. I suppose the "metal plate" method had some drawbacks.

That said, I read a story on the net once where Charles Hathcock was at a test of a brand spanking new multi million dollar infra-red based sniper detection system. Some time during the demonstration, he snuck away and stalked toward the observers until he was 20 or so feet from them. He stood up and showed them what defeated their system - a $10 plastic umbrella.

Snipercountry has some excellent articles and some touch on Infra-Red detection.
http://snipercountry.com/Articles/IRDetection.asp

http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/KillingShot_ 2430Metres.asp

2,430 metres. Ok, so it's only been done once at that distance but think...

The distance away these bad guys that had the laser were was probably 10x what the sniper was. But the sniper shot a man. The laser only had to hit the cockpit which probably has 10x the cross section of a man. No difference there. Even so far.

The sniper had to worry about wind. Wind for over a miles distance, even if it's light at the near end, a breeze could be kicking up at the far end. Then there's the drop of the bullet from gravity over that distance. Lots of problems that all go away when you are talking about lasers, so the laser shot is a *LOT* easier.

The sniper had to hit the target with a (relatively) tiny .50 caliber bullet. The laser beam was probably very wide after traveling several miles. I dont' know what kind of laser was used, but one poster mentioned ' my 2.5' long argon tube beam ends up 1' or more wide at a distance of only 1000 feet or so.' The beam of whatever kind of laser it was could have been extremely wide after several miles. Much easier to hit the target.

The plane was moving, but at several miles away, if it was moving directly (or close to) at the laser, the number of arc seconds it would move relative to the bad guys would be very few in only 10 seconds or so. Somewhat harder to hit the target, but very doable.

Canadian Snipers = teh bomb. In international competitions of Sniper teams, the Canadian's nearly always place higher than the US.

http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/KillingShot_ 2430Metres.asp

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:MQ8qdygzuvYJ: www.stormpages.com/swellal/sof.html+canadian+snipe r+afghanistan&hl=en

Not forgetting...

Simo Hayha. Finland. 1939 - 1940. A member of the 34th Infantry Regiment and a farmer by trade, Simo Hayha became a most feared sniper during the 1939-40 (30 November 1939 14 March 1940) Winter invasion of Finland by the Soviet Union. Using nothing more than an iron sighted Mosin-Nagant Model 28, Simo is credited with killing 505 Russians during a nine month period - a feat still unmatched today by any sniper in any conflict.

snipercountry.com/sniphistory

This movie was based on the true story of one of the most well known Russian snipers of WWII. Sorry if you thought the love story was overblown, but it was part of the 'true story'! The duel is actually the most likely fictional portion of the story, more likely made up by Soviet Propadanda officers than anything else since there is no German or Russian military record of Koenig or Thorvald (as some accounts call him) ever showing up in Stalingrad or attempting to kill Zeitsev.

Zaitsev himself never confirmed or denied the story of the German sniper expert nor did he ever really talk about it.

The ending was the only thing that deviated much from the story as it is known historically... Zaitsev was actually blinded by a land mine and the girl thought he was dead and married another guy. They found each other again years later.

For more info Sniper Country's History entry

For the most part the movie was quite accurate as far as the depictions of the brutality of the battle. The attitude of the Soviet army and the people who were caught between Hitler and Stalin.

For more background on this, Law Buzz's Backgrounder

Yes Jon it is important that we escape from the jingoism of the standard American's in Battle style of war movie... but really 'why did the Russian people fight so hard and sacrifice so much'? Please, what the hell were they going to do? Just let Hitler slaughter them? Maybe they should have just emigrated en masse? Whatever...

Anyway I personally thought they could have added more of the cat and mouse element between the two snipers since that whole thing probably never happened anyway... might as well make it as interesting as possible. Annuad took some very interesting twists with this... making Zaitsev more vulnerable and human rather than the Rambo or John Wayne invincible type.

I would not call this a typical Hollywood was yarn... I would call it a rather realistic depiction of the suffering... the hopes and the sacrifices made by a people in between a rock and a hard place, who must find someway to hang on to their humanity in the face of complete uncertainty about when they will die.

Do your research Jon.....