Carlos Hathcock's Winchester 70
Yo....from Sunny Florida [8D],
I just got reading a little more on the legendary Marine sniper Carlo Hathcock. If anyone reading this hasn't heard of him you need to check out his exploits!!
My questions are: Is Carlos' actual rifle owned by someone or on display among other famous firearms?
Second question: Can someone give me me the specifics about Carlos' Winchester 70 and the Unertl 8 power scope? I'd like to think about making a "copy" just for old time sake and to see if I can hit a barn after zeroing it in to 700 yards!
Thanks for your help.
Jim
GunHawke
"They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull a trigger. I won't!" J.B. Books
I just got reading a little more on the legendary Marine sniper Carlo Hathcock. If anyone reading this hasn't heard of him you need to check out his exploits!!
My questions are: Is Carlos' actual rifle owned by someone or on display among other famous firearms?
Second question: Can someone give me me the specifics about Carlos' Winchester 70 and the Unertl 8 power scope? I'd like to think about making a "copy" just for old time sake and to see if I can hit a barn after zeroing it in to 700 yards!
Thanks for your help.
Jim
GunHawke
"They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull a trigger. I won't!" J.B. Books
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I cannot answere the majority or your questions, but I do know that when Plaster and Hathcock were getting the ball rolling again on the sniper squads, they were forced to buy off the shelf actions and scopes, normally at the PX in Okinawa or othersuch places. Kinda' makes you wonder just how talented Hathcock and Mawhinney (Sp?)had to be as they seemed to be their own armorors at that juncture in time. I believe Mawhinneys' rifle is on display at the Ordnance Museum,. but as I recall Hathcocks gun is "whereabouts unknown". I've also heard that Hathcock put together an accurized M2HB that would hold 2 foot groups at 1000 yds...almost undoubtedly an exageration, but with that kind of trigger discipline, who knows!
I surely wish more people knew about the sacrifice Hathcock made towards the end of his combat time...there are a few guys that were in an M113 that can attest to what a real, genuine hero he was. Pulling wounded comrades from a burning APC ((made of aluminum and fueled by GAS, not Diesel!) and recieving the wounds he did from repeated trips into the vehicle is something most of us can barely concieve of. He and Chuck Mawhinney both suffered emotional scars that I'm sure never healed, and the debt freedom loving people the world over owe them and their brothers in arms is beyond our capacity to understand.
Thanks, Long Trang, the nation misses thier soft spoken Arkansas Patriot.
"When I cease learning...I'm dead"(Me)
"When I was 14 I used to marvel at how ignorant my old man was...by the time I was 21 I was truelly amazed at how much the old bugger had learned in the intervening 7 years!" Samuel Clemens
"History is written by winners"(Patton)
"You get a lot farther with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone!"(Al Capone)
"There is nothing lower than the human race...except the French" (Samuel Clemens)0 -
I hope you find the specs you need to build a copy of the M70. If you do, please get with one or more of the rifle mags and get them to do a write up on it and he who used it when. I agree that more folks should know just what kind of heros they were. Also the rifle mags are getting stuck in the ruts with their articals and it would be a good direction in their writtings for them to consider. 0 -
1KYDSTR, I thought I read somewhere that Hathcocks gun had been tracked down, put back into the configuration he used it in, and displayed somewhere. They also have the gun that the N.Vietnamese sniper had when Carlos shot him through the scope and in the eye.
GunHawke, if you are reading the same book I had, check towards the back of the book for a reference to it.
"Aim small, Miss small"0 -
I have the book here in my hand. I can't find it for sure, but I think it says his M70 is in the Marine Corp musuem in LaJuene(sp). But not sure. I have read this book at least a dozen times. Lets not forget. God Bless all our Vets on this Memorial Day. Mark Trudell 0 -
Actually, Carlos "Whitefeather" Hatchcock's rifle is in the possession of the Marine Corps Historical Center at the Washington Navy Yard along with both of the original Iwo Jima flags and numerous other historical USMC artifacts. It will most likely be relocated to Quantico when the new USMC Historical Center, currently under construction, is completed.
Gunny Hatchcock is buried about 3 miles from me in Virginia and I have visited his grave many times.
-Spider0 -
I had the honor of meeting Hathcock at a SHOT Show, I believe in '96.
He was at the White Feather Industries booth, where they had an autographed rifle of his displayed. If I remember correctly this was an M40 type rifle and it was to be sold or auctioned off with the proceeds going directly to Hathcock. They were also offering autographed leather slings. I'm not sure if this company (out of W. Va. I think) is still in business, but I know that at one time they were manufacturing these items.
By the time I met him he'd been ravaged by disease, confined to a wheelchair and speaking with great difficulty. I knew he'd conducted LEO marksman courses in his later years and I asked the company personnel how recently he'd been forced to give this up. To my surprise they told me he'd conducted a course just a few weeks prior. Upon speaking with him I found that physically he was in bad shape, but he still had that gleam in his eye and his mind was sharp as a tack. God, what a shame.0 -
From Florida...[8D],
Thanks folks!! All you have said and the honors that Carlos Hathcock deserves are well spoken by your responses!!!
I wasn't reading a book at this time, rather, I was reading the article in the NRA's America's First Freedom magazine. Carlos was actually "arrested" by his CO because the 5' 10" Marine was only 120 lbs. and wanted to go back out to do what he did best. The CO saw the picture of a man literally killing himself to stop other Marines from being killed............
Amazing story....thanks for your kind responses.
Jim
GunHawke
"They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull a trigger. I won't!" J.B. Books0 -
they said with how thin his skin was after the burns from at APC, when he would strap up in hi shooting coat for too long, blood would run out the sleeves and the CO would have to force him off the range.
I have pictures of a pard of mine and gunny Hathcock arm in arm,..wich I could have had that chance. He would have gone older just answering my questions.
why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
Got Balistics?0 -
Don't know personally. I can ask his son (also Carlos) if he knows.
Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun.0
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