Can He Make That Shot?

Do you have a sharpshooter in your book or do you read about them? How far away can he, or she, accurately shoot? I thought I’d share a little of this scene from my book and my research process. I’m a non-shooter and know nothing about weapons.

In my WIP, along with the paranormal touch, I have a hit man. He’s a professional sharpshooter. I had him taking a shot at one of my heroines. She lives in a penthouse. He takes a shot from about two blocks away and shoots through a window.

Is this feasible? It needs to be, so off I go to do some research.

I’ve seen or heard about something similar on TV, maybe in military shows or some of the crime shows, or maybe another book, but will my reader buy into it. So I posted online and asked. I got a few comments on, good luck if it’s shot through glass. I gathered that tends to deflect the bullet and makes it more difficult to make an accurate shot. I had her going to the window to close the drapes. Now I’m thinking maybe the window could be open and she could be closing the window. However, she collects stray animals and has three dogs, two cats and a parrot, so probably the window wouldn’t be open. Could she have screen on the window in a penthouse?

The wind can also be a factor, which I hadn’t considered.

I also didn’t realize that a bullet doesn’t travel in a straight line. It drops slightly over distance, possibly as much as three inches if it’s from two blocks away. Who knew? Wikipedia has some resources on sniper rifles as well. Now I need to pick one that will work.

The actual shooting only takes a few lines but I need to make it as accurate as possible. I’m now rewriting the scene to make it more realistic. Anyone else want to share how they might do research for shooting scenes in their books?