Starting from South America, speeding through the world

Chapter 323 Kyiv
The sun hung on the horizon, shining through the half-collapsed roof and onto the abandoned factory.

A few crows landed near a distant chimney, made a slight noise, and then flapped their wings and flew away in fright.

Jim put down the bulky rangefinder in his hand and sighed helplessly.

"This thing is older than me."

"A reading off by five meters is considered normal performance."

Zhou Yi took it and examined it carefully.

The rubber sleeve has turned white, and the buttons are extremely loose.

Scratches are still faintly visible on the lens.

He adjusted the parallax before putting it back on the tripod.

"You expect Vectronix quality for something that costs eighty dollars?"

Jim shrugged. "This is one of the few times I've missed Range 37."

The ground was covered with gravel and rusty iron.

Eight hundred meters away, a wrecked truck lay across the edge of the open space, barely serving as a target.

Jim dragged the sniper case to a slightly cleaner spot and unfastened the clasp.

The AWM lay quietly on the black foam.

The barrel gleamed, and the Schmidt & Bender PM II was mounted on the rail.

"Look at this, it's a piece of good stuff that's worth almost six figures on the black market."

Zhou Yi pulled back the bolt to confirm that the chamber was empty, and then gently pushed it back in.

Jim pushed a box of .338 Lapua over.

The military green tin box had a faded NATO batch label on it.

The bullet was loaded into the magazine with a click, and the muzzle was aimed at the wrecked truck.

Adjust the multiplier to sixteen.

"distance?"

“Eight hundred exactly,” Jim said. “Wind speed of two meters, from the nine o’clock direction.”

"Temperature 14, density 700."

"Dial 6.5 micrometers, wind correction 0.35, left to right."

Zhou Yi stopped speaking, pressed his shoulder against his chin, and gradually tightened the trigger.

boom--!
Gunshots rang out, and dust flew everywhere.

The metal door of the car suddenly shook.

Jim squinted as he observed, then looked down and wrote the corrections into the DOPE form.

"Twenty-five centimeters too low, and twenty centimeters to the left. Let's try again."

The second bullet was chambered.

Zhou Yi made minor adjustments to the pitch and regained his footing.

boom--!
This time the hit was closer to the center.

Jim nodded and noted down the new data.

"Eight hundred are finished, next group, one thousand two."

They quickly packed their things and moved to the higher ground on the other side.

Jim first lifted the rangefinder to confirm the position before starting to count:
"1200 meters, due north."

"The wind is level three to five, coming from the 10 o'clock direction, and it's even more chaotic in the far reaches."

"Environment unchanged, temperature 14, DA 700."

"The meter measures 9.8 micrometers, and the wind correction is 0.6 micrometers."

He paused for a moment, then continued:

"Right-handed rotation drift 0.2, Coriolis 0.1."

Zhou Yi adjusted the magnification to eighteen times and pressed the crosshair onto the iron bucket.

boom--!
The bullet left the barrel, and it took nearly two seconds for a dull metallic clang to be heard.

"Forty-five meters lower, half a meter to the right," Jim reported.

Zhou Yi adjusted his aim and fired again.

The second shot hit the center of the barrel.

Jim picked up a pen and wrote the correction on the waterproof card:

——1200m | 14C DA700
——W 3-5 L>R
——UP 9.8 | W 0.6L
——SD 0.2R | COR 0.1R
——LOT: NS
"Alright, next one."

The afternoon sunlight seemed to have lost its color, and the sky grew increasingly gray.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, deserted, and filled with ruins from the Soviet era.

Jim raised his binoculars and scanned the distance.

"Sixteen hundred, that scrapped bus."

Zhou Yi immediately adjusted the multiplier to twenty.

"Wind speeds of four to six, with gusts of eight from the ten o'clock direction in the distance."

"Temperature 14, DA 700."

"Dial size 14.2 micrometers, wind correction 1.0."

"Right-handed rotation drift 0.3, Coriolis 0.2."

The first bullet flew out. Jim tracked its trajectory and saw it hit the roof of the car.

"Eighty meters lower, one meter to the right."

Then, the pencil marks it down:
——1600m | 14C DA700
——W 4-6 L>R G8
——UP 14.2 | W 1.0L
——SD 0.3R | COR 0.2R
——LOT: NS
The second shot was fired.

This time, we hit the pre-marked location.

The car window shattered and crashed to the ground.

“That’s about enough,” Jim said in a low voice. “Two more to confirm.”

Two more shots were fired, landing almost simultaneously.

Zhou Yi let out a long sigh and stood up straight.

"Do we even need to test it for two kilometers?"

Jim took off his earmuffs, lit a cigarette for himself, and handed the lighter to Zhou Yi.

"This is a rare opportunity; there's not a soul around for over ten kilometers."

"The goals are all set; are you really willing to let this opportunity pass without doing a complete calibration?"

Zhou Yi took the items and casually stuffed them into his pocket.

He thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and raised his binoculars to look into the distance.

The white stone stood there, a natural target.

The wind swept by, and the ruins creaked and groaned, but there was not a soul in sight.

The smoke swirled and was quickly dispersed by the wind.

Zhou Yi flicked off the ash from his cigarette and finally nodded.

"Alright, once you've rested enough, let's go to the furthest point and calibrate the two-kilometer mark."

Seeing that he had agreed, Jim said no more and turned to pack his equipment.

Zhou Yi followed behind, carrying the gun case.

The two walked along the scree slope to the very edge of the wasteland.

The wind blew harder and harder in the open area.

The view here is better than on the previous high ground, covering the scenery for several kilometers.

Jim pressed the tripod to the ground, adjusted the angle, and then focused.

"Two thousand away."

"Winds of 5 to 7, with gusts of 8 from the 2 o'clock direction in the distance."

"Unchanged environment, meter reading 19.6, wind speed 1.5 right."

“Spin drift 0.4 right mil, Coriolis right modification 0.2”

Zhou Yi laid the box flat and took out the AWM from it.

He pressed his tripod into the rubble and then pressed his body against it.

When the magnification is set to 25, the white stones in the picture appear to tremble as if they are seen through a water mist.

He took a deep breath, checked the position of his chin rest again, and slowly tightened his grip.

boom--!
Gunshots rang out across the wasteland, their echoes lingering for a long time.

Three seconds later, a cloud of dust rose up near the white stone.

Jim pressed his face against the lens, and after a long pause, he finally spoke:
"It's 1.2 meters to the left and half a meter too low."

He coughed lightly and wrote the correction into DOPE:

——2000m | 14C DA700
——W 5–7 R>L G8
——UP 19.6 | W 1.5R
——SD 0.4R | COR 0.2R
——LOT: NS
Zhou Yi pulled the bolt and fired the second shot.

boom--!
“Closer, 20 centimeters lower,” Jim reported. “Upgrade by 0.1.”

The knob made a "click" sound.

At this distance, 0.1 mil means 20 centimeters.

That's enough to determine whether a bullet hits a rock or whizzes past it.

Soon, the third shot was fired from the chamber.

boom--!
A few seconds later, a muffled thud, hitting the bullseye.

Jim breathed a sigh of relief only after confirming that the debris had exploded from the front of the target.

"Done, all done." He said, using a pencil to mark the final corrections in bold.

Zhou Yi pushed the bolt away, letting the empty casing tumble and fall onto the gravel with a crisp sound.

The next second, the phone on my chest vibrated twice.

He tapped the screen, unlocked it, looked at it for a few seconds, and then turned to look at Jim.

"Guess what?" The voice carried a hint of delight.

Jim was drinking water when he saw this and raised his hand to signal him to speak quickly.

"She's here; her plane landed yesterday."

"In Kyiv?"

"In Kyiv."

Jim paused for half a second, then grinned.

"Then what are we waiting for? Pack your things and leave."
-
Are people interested in this kind of more specialized stuff?

If the response is positive, the author may write more similar stories in the future, not just limited to sniping/gun-calibrating.

(End of this chapter)