->''There, you see, is a man who could hunt flies with a rifle, and command a ducal salary in a Wild West show to-day if we had him back with us.''\\
-- '''MarkTwain''', on James Fenimore Cooper's character Natty Bumppo

If a hero picks up a sword, he will instantly gain ImplausibleFencingPowers... and, similarly, if he picks up a gun, bow, crossbow, throwing-knife, shuriken, or other long-range weapon, he'll instead gain ImprobableAimingSkills.

Basically, it's the natural flip-side to the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy -- while villainous Mooks are terrible at aiming, heroes are inversely superb at it. This enables such feats as BlastingItOutOfTheirHands or the Offhand Backshot, the firearm-based answer to the OffhandBackhand, and is in no way dependent on the factual accuracy of the weapons in question... a frequent user of this trope is TheWestern, where the heroes are often using guns that were, in real life, notoriously inaccurate at anything other than point-blank range -- for feats that would make a modern-day Sniper with a top-tuned high-tech rifle turn [[GreenEyedMonster green with envy]].

Is sometimes parodied by implying that the shooter meant to do something entirely different and [[AccidentalAimingSkills messed up in a spectacularly lucky way]].

The AchillesHeel to someone with this ability is someone who can DodgeTheBullet. They tend to have little problem with HumanShield situations.

Almost always used by TheGunslinger (or, in fantasy settings, any [[StraightArrow archer character]]). Contrast with ATeamFiring, MoreDakka (which emphasizes quantity over quality), ShootTheRope and the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy.

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[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''[[JoJosBizarreAdventure Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' has Hol Horse, whose Stand basically grants him ImprobableAimingSkills as he can control where the bullet goes ''after'' he's fired it.
** Even further along the timeline is Guido Mista, who's Sex Pistols Stand kicks the bullets he fires out of a gun. Subverted in the sense that if he doesn't feed them first they won't work and also will sometimes beat each other up.
* Mana Tatsumiya in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' could ricochet her bullets and hit her targets with a sniper rifle, even when she ''couldn't see the target'' and was firing impact-fused bullets which should have detonated instead of bouncing. Similarly Gandolfini, one of the mage-teachers, was capable of [[ShootTheBullet intercepting an incoming bullet and hitting it head-on with one of his own]].
* The king of Improbable Marksmanship, however, is probably Vash the Stampede from ''{{Trigun}}''. Capable of putting a bullet down the barrel of a sniper's {{BFG}} from a kilometer or so away. Earlier in the series, he attends a quick-draw contest, and is able to ensure that every hit is non-lethal by ''flicking pebbles at the bullets in-flight and altering their course.''
** Vash aims, mind you, with a gun ''that has its sights off''. Incredible. [[strike:Oh, and apparently either the writer forgot or Wolfwood is supernaturally good to be able to adapt to that when he briefly used Vash's gun and Vash remarks how good of a shot Wolfwood is.]] Luckily he left his gun with a ''master gunsmith'' in one episode, the same episode we discover that his gun's sights are off by two inches after five feet. Presumably a master gunsmith would fix that.
** That's not even counting the time he managed to defeat a foe by shooting off the straps of his battle armor ''all so fast nobody noticed'' AND ''without the gunfire making a sound''. It was more than enough to destroy this editor's willing suspension of disbelief into 1000 tiny shards, then set those shards on fire.
***I think you're referring to the battle with E.G. Mine? The firing of the spikes (and then the breaking windows, to speak of 'shards') were pretty loud. Not to mention that the battle was so short that it really made no difference whether or not E.G. Mine would've heard the gun or not.
***And Vash has been known to fire his shots with precise timing before. It's not that unbelievable for Vash.
** Nicholas D. Wolfwood from the same series was also quite good, but he naturally pales against Vash.
* This editor believes that Vash lost the title to Rushuna Tendo, the main character of ''{{Grenadier}}''. Also a peace-loving, gun toting blond in a red jacket, she at one point stopped a massive barrage of bullets by firing a single bullet, that caused a chain reaction where each bullet deflected the next bullet down the line until the final bullet destroying the machine gun firing said bullets (To be fair, the gun in question was firing them in a ''very'' tight spiral (kind of like an inverted [[GatlingGood gatling gun]]), but it's impressive nonetheless).
** ''This'' editor would also like to point out the final battle in the series, in which Rushuna faces off against her EvilCounterpart: 80% of the bullets they fired would hit each other exactly between them. In one case, rapid-fired while jumping away from each other.
*** The improbably aiming with these two starts well before a shot is even fired: to load their guns, they literally thrust their chests in the direction that allows the bullets stored in their cleavage to leap right into the loading chambers.
* Train of ''BlackCat'' pulls many stunts similar to Vash, including shooting down both barrels of a DualWielding opponent and shooting other people's bullets out of the air (after a few seconds talking about how [[TalkingisaFreeAction their shots would be ineffective anyway]]). Maybe most improbable is when he shoots a can off a stump, then shoots it five more times while in the air, aiming at the same spot where he shot it the first time. He only hits three, gets annoyed, and is later spotted next to a pile of similar cans having wasted a lot of bullets. One can only assume he got it right at some point.
** Because he was transformed into a child at the time (and therefore couldn't handle the recoil of his gun), it's implied that he ''always'' gets it right in normal circumstances, and was frustrated by his inability to do so.
* The vampire leads of ''{{Hellsing}}'' are extremely good (though not infallible) shots due to a sort of "third eye" superpower they have. Even more impressive is the manga's Rip van Winkle, whose magical rifle fires bullets that change course mid-flight to such a degree that they can hit multiple targets and blow up helicopters.
** The fully human Integra Hellsing (in the first TV series at least). She is shown as capable of shooting the ''exact'' same spot on a target repeatedly (creating a single hole in it) and rapidly shooting the shape of a cross into the face of a vampire (take into account the gun's recoil and the fact that the vampire would stagger back after each shot).
* Amazing shooting skills are a key characteristic of the female assassins in the anime ''{{Noir}}''. Among other things, one of the characters—on two separate occasions—is capable of shooting the blade off a knife being swung at her partner. She does this with a handgun at up to fifty feet away.
** Then again, Kirika was also [[{{Tykebomb}} raised from earliest childhood]] to be the perfect assassin, so it's reasonable to assume that her training included lots and lots and LOTS of firearms practice.
* This editor is appalled that no mention of ''GunsmithCats'' has been made. The entire series revolves around high-octane gunning and driving around the streets of Chicago -- and the main character's trademarked ability to shoot her opponents' '''trigger finger''' off at a generous distance. (Hence her nickname, "Thumb-Snap Rally".) She's also hit an oncoming RPG dead-center to detonate it before it reached her; and when asked at gunpoint to disarm, she let her clip fall on her foot, whereupon she kicked it back into place and shot her assailant (who was understandably dumbstruck at the maneuver).
** This is partially averted in that she normally uses an early version of the Czech CZ75 pistol to pull off these maneuvers. Later versions of that pistol (as well as other types of pistols) don't have the same accuracy and she can't pull the shots off.
* Seto Kaiba from ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!'', who on more than one occasion knocks something out of someone's hand with a ''piece of cardboard''.
** Before him, there was the Agent S5, who used poker cards as projectiles.
* Usopp from ''OnePiece'' is such a good shot with just about anything that he often surprises even himself. Not only that, his weapon of choice is a ''slingshot'', and he can still out-snipe riflemen.
** There are two other characters in the series, who, at least at the time of their introduction, actually outclassed Usopp in ImprobableAimingSkills. These are Yasopp, Usopp's father, who has claimed to be able to hit an ant between its eyes. The other is Van Auger, who has demonstrated lethal accuracy from so far away the main characters can't even see the island he's shooting from, yet. It is unclear whether or not Usopp has surpassed either yet, though it seems almost inevitable that he ultimately will.
*** This troper remembers it as Yasopp claimed to shoot off an ant's leg from a few km away.
**** Though it would also be wise to remember Yasopp is related to Usopp, so if it sounds like an over-exaggeration, it probably is one. But then again, he IS in Shank's crew...
* Riza Hawkeye from ''FullmetalAlchemist''. Her idea of disciplining a puppy is to empty a pistol's magazine around it, without even grazing the puppy. Not to mention that she can face even the most menacing monster calmly, only to lose it when she thought her [[BodyguardCrush beloved boss]] was dead.
* Akane from ''[=~Ranma ½~=]'' usually prefers to use her fists, feet, or the random blunt object (mallets, bamboo swords, the nearby smokestack...) but when she picks up bow and arrow, she's ''deadly''.
** Ranma also exhibits some aiming skills, as he was once able to flick a stub-sized pencil from across the classroom, ''while jumping'', and stick it point-first into the hole of the fifty-yen coin in his teacher's hand. He was also able to jam a polearm weapon ''perfectly'' into the key-like slot on a statue, while falling from several hundred feet in the air.
* In ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Kai'', Kasai manages to snipe out all four tires of a van (think of the angles!) in under 7 seconds from a great distance. This apparently requires no resighting, reloading, or any movement on the part of the shooter.
** There are modern rifles that redirect the recoil of the rifle into a mechanism that loads the next bullet in the magazine, though, which would solve the first two problems.
** If [[HashiriyaR32 this troper]] remembers correctly, Kasai was using a Dragunov SVD, which was a SEMI-AUTOMATIC, designated marksman rifle.
* In ''{{Rose of Versailles}}'', Oscar is a legend with a sword, so when someone challenges her to a pistol duel, everyone thinks that she's ****ed. However, one RetCon later, she's also been practicing with guns her whole life. Who knew?
* Kurz Weber of ''FullMetalPanic!'' is apparently one of the most naturally talented marksmen in the world, and generally handles sniping duties for his unit. This includes, at one point, making a shot from the back of a moving truck that goes straight into a HumongousMecha's machinegun, disabling the weapon -- using an ordinary sniper rifle.
** Compared to Kurz, Sōsuke's marksmanship is merely normal, but he still nails a watermelon from something like fifty paces, blindfolded, during a game of crack-the-watermelon in ''FullMetalPanic? Fumoffu''.
*** Well, he ''was'' using a pump-gauge shotgun. The lack of collateral damage was rather amazing, though, this being Sōsuke and all.
*** He's a real military guy, not some idiot gun-nut wannabe. What would you expect?
* The Major from ''{{Ghost in the Shell}}'' once shot a fleeing perp ''in the ankle, as he was landing from a jump, at what could have been no less than a hundred meters''. Justified somewhat with the Major being a full cyborg capable of acting with literally mechanical precision and has targeting software capable of calculating all aspects of the shot.
** More justified in season 2, where they establish that she actually uses a specialized program loaded into her cybernetics just for shooting at specific ranges.
** Specifically, she has a program capable of [[ShootTheBullet shooting down]] sniper rifle bullets with a P90 at close range.
* In the ''{{Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex}} 2nd GIG'' episode "Poker Face", the Major and Saito face off. It becomes a game of IKnowYouKnowIKnow when [[spoiler: Saito is viewing the skills of The Major and realizes she does not have the software for midrange sniping skills. He attempts to shoot her before she can download the software. The Major had been fooling Saito into thinking that she couldn't shoot down his bullets midflight the whole time and shoots him in the eye.]] [[MindScrew Maybe]].
* Vice of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', who managed to snipe the head of a [[HollywoodCyborg Combat Cyborg]] who was attacking an ally, with said ally being in the way of his line of sight, through a building window, from a moving helicopter that couldn't be seen from said building. And he did this while said cyborg had previously been playing possum, so he only had a split second to react and perform the shot.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in a flashback by the same character. A gunman is [[HumanShield holding a little girl hostage]]. He takes the shot [[spoiler: and hits her in [[EyeScream the EYE!!!]] She gets better due the [[AbnormalAmmo ammo]] using [[StunGuns Magical Damage]], but it still caused a lot of guilt for him]].
** Near the beginning of A's, Nanoha, while training, uses a guided magical bullet to hit a juice can 100 times in midair, and is slightly disappointed when the can doesn't fall into the trash bin after the final strike.
* ''{{Golgo 13}}'' beats all of the above. In the movie ''The Professional'', he killed a man by aiming ''through'' the skyscraper between them. Not enough for you? The pinnacle of improbable aim comes from the chapter "Hollywood Cinderella", where he aimed at a target ''by watching them on TV''. He could probably shoot you from another continent given the right gun.
* ''{{Gundam 00}}'''s Lockon Stratos is recruited for the PMC Celestial Being because of his ability to, with the aid of his Dynames Gundam, shoot a satellite out of orbit ''from the ground''.
The ships supercomputer was handling the actual calculations behind the shot, and the mobile suit's support robot took care of physically, aligning the shot. His only job was to pull the trigger. Notice, that his aim was significantly impaired once their faction had been cut off from the main computer.
** Impaired my butt, during the siege on the Ptolemaios, the Gundam was not calibrated and he ignored Haro's request to tune the gun and instead programmed it to manually target or else he would have been inactive for a good 10 minutes. That and he also has skill with a real life sniper rifle.
* In ''SamuraiDeeperKyo'', Basara, who is a member of the Junishinsho, is able to fire countless arrows at incredible speed, and almost never miss, even when he is aiming at such tiny points like eyes or in peoples' mouths. And as if that weren't badass enough, his specialty is firing his arrows in the air so that they will come down around him at the exact moment his enemies close in for the attack. It's implied that Basara is such a strategic genius that he can predict when his enemy will close in, but it seems more like a supernatural ability than anything else.
* In the manga ''Gun Blaze West'', "Target" Kevin is a sharpshooter... with a double-barrelled sawed-off shotgun. Yeah. He's also got a '''''twelve''''' barrelled number for special occasions, but still seems to think of himself as an ace marksman even though it would take more effort ''not'' to hit something with that monster.
* Parodied in ''NininGaShinobuden'', where a squad of Ninja pin all of Miyabi's rogue summoning scrolls to the wall with shuriken. Then they all start expressing their surprise, as none of them had ever used a shuriken before.
* Almost everyone in ''[[Manga/AngelHeart Angel Heart]]'' and ''CityHunter'' is crack shooter, but the most egregorious example is Umibozu, who retain his aiming skill ''[[HandicappedBadAss even after got blinded]]''. Really.
* Let's not forget Jigen from ''LupinIII''.
* While training, Itachi of ''{{Naruto}}'' leaps into the air and, while upside-down, hits eight targets with his kunai, and strikes two of them in midair in such a way to divert their course to hit two targets behind a rock, while still getting those two to their targets. In an early episode, Zabuza throws some shuriken at Naruto, but Haku, who is standing between the two and off to the side, out of the way of the shuriken's flight path, throws needles at them and knocks them out of the air.
* {{Madlax}}, who can kill anyone not protected by PlotArmor with a single shot regardless or whether or not she's running, jumping, or hanging upside down. Half the time she doesn't even aim.
*Taken up to major proportions in ''[[TengenToppaGurrenLagann Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ]]''has Yoko in the Final Episode when she snipes the [[spoiler:Anti-Spiral's Homeworld]]. Note that although it seemed like an easy hit, take into account that the fight had the Grand Zamboa and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann moving faster than the speed of light. And Yoko STILL manages to hit her target even through a ''[[BeamSpam hail of laser fire]]'' while her target was moving at the speed of light. It's a ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome CMoA]]'' for Yoko cause is just shows that she has some SERIOUS Sniper skills.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* While all The Minutemen from ''OneHundredBullets'' wield handguns with deadly accuracy; Minuteman [[spoiler:Willie Tymes]] never misses. His fellow agents gave him a nickname "My first shot is my last."
* ''LuckyLuke'' is the quintessential [[TheWildWest Wild West]] example. He can shoot off the firing pin of a derringer tinier than a pinky -- and do so faster than his shadow. There are other occasions of improbable aiming in the comics -- in one instance, two Dalton brothers shoot two bullets at each other that collide ''with each other'' half-way between them.
** Note that Lucky Luke is a parody of Western heroes, so his speed and aim are meant to be impossibly amazing, just like the bad guys are meant to be improbably stupid.
*** Nevertheless, this is one of the most awesomely impossible shots ever made - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A38bLWvoXZY - at 3:05.
* Inverted by Bullseye from the MarvelUniverse -- the simple fact that he's got aim roughly on par with your average good-guy takes him from "villain" to "supervillain".
** Not just with guns either. He displays god-like accuracy with anything he picks up.
*** He's not even limited to accuracy. He has such an uncanny sense of ballistics and trajectory that he can aim in the opposite direction of his target and still score a direct hit. If he can shoot, throw or spit something, he can kill you with it.
** And not just with accuracy, but physics-defying force. No matter how perfect your aim is, it's highly improbable that someone can hurl many everyday objects hard enough to do any damage. If he had telekinesis, sure...
*** This was demonstrated to an absurd degree in his very first appearance: he threw a ''paper airplane'' through a closed window from several blocks away. And that was just to deliver a threatening message. He later killed the recipient of the threat by hitting his jugular with a ballpoint pen casually thrown across a room.
*** He also killed a lady with a toothpick from 100 yards.
** And to top that all off: he's not even a mutant.
* From both TheDCU and Marvel comics, [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower self-trained]] superhero archers GreenArrow and Hawkeye, and their families of characters, can ''ricochet'' arrows off walls and into targets. And that's not even getting into [[TrickArrow "boxing glove arrows", "bomb arrows", "net arrows" or "cat arrows"]] (don't ask). They have, at times, been depicted as so implausibly good, some people [[EpilepticTrees theorize]] that they actually have psychokinesis and are simply using it to show off by making it look like they're the world's greatest archers. The fact that the artists and writers of their titles usually [[DidNotDoTheResearch don't do very much research]] into how archers actually even ''hold'' their bows drives it home for a lot of people.
** In ''TheDarkKnightReturns'', Green Arrow has lost an arm and still manages to be a crackshot.
*** Green Arrow once lost ''both'' arms (he got better) and still managed to pull off a shot by bracing the bow with his feet and pulling the arrow back with his teeth.
**** Although, it must be remembered that the footbow does exist, and, indeed, the longest arrow flight world record was set in 1979 with a footbow -- 2009 yards and a bit. It is even possible to hit targets with some reliability with one.
** In Marvel's Ultimate universe, Hawkeye is an expert marksman who chooses to use a bow because of the challenge. He was shown to be deadly with anything he could throw, even killing a room full of armed guards while strapped down to a chair ''by flicking his fingernails.'' (He did mention at some point that it was not only practise, but that his vision was artificially enhanced.)
* In the ''SinCity'' story ''Hell and Back'', a sniper has a rifle with telescopic sights mounted on a tripod. He misses, the good guy, Wallace, returns fire, across a street, into a darkened building with a short-barreled revolver. His bullet goes ''[[ScopeSnipe down the telescopic sight and through the snipers eye into his brain.]]''
** Both ''Sin City'' and ''The Badger'' have featured a character throwing an object with such accuracy that it plugs the barrel of an enemy's gun. What wouldn't a darts player give to be able to throw like that?
*** Given that there are plenty of darts players who can repeatedly hit three triple 20s in a row, and given that Miho was considerably closer to Jackie Boy than the oche is to the board, this may not be that unlikely.
*** {{Daredevil}} has also done the plugging-a-gun (and surely Bullseye too, though I can't think of any specific examples). {{Frank Miller}} really likes these feats, doesn't he?
* Allan Quartermain gained access to ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' mostly by virtue of his ImprobableAimingSkills. At least he's got the good grace to use a ''rifle''.
* The Saint of Killers from ''{{Preacher}}'' has magical (they were made from the sword of the Angel of Death) revolvers that cannot miss, never run out of bullets, never jam, never inflict anything less than a fatal wound, and can be drawn faster than the eye can see. Given that he's also [[NighInvulnerability completely invulnerable]], getting on his bad side (or, for that matter, getting close to him) is [[TheJuggernaut not recommended]]. [[spoiler:In the final issue he ''kills God'' with his guns]]
* Lightly used in ''UsagiYojimbo'': at a carnival, samurai Usagi cannot hit a target while RichBitch turned DefrostingIceQueen Kiku gets a bull's eye on her first try. She explains that she "just aimed everywhere except the target."
* Deadshot, a gun-wielding assassin and sometime HeroicSociopath from {{the DCU}}, has a long-standing reputation for never missing his shot (unless he happens to be [[ContractualImmortality aiming at Batman]]). In a recent miniseries, he took out six targets scattered around a room ''while blindfolded''.
** Earlier in the same series, he failed to shoot a target in the bullseye while blindfolded...because Captain Boomerang Jr. had hit all his bullets in mid-air, using bent paperclips. (Admittedly using superspeed, but still.) In the ''Outsiders'', while in a prison riot, Captain Boomerang Jr. had grabbed and throw something, bouncing it off the walls, to hit and knock out a fellow prisoner.
* {{Superman}}, in one comic, pretends to be a villain named the [[SuperDickery Golden Dart]], kidnaps Lois Lane, and throws darts at her. His ImprobableAimingSkills allow him to keep himself from hitting Lois, instead missing her by "scant inches".
** To be fair, it's SUPERMAN... he could just put the darts there while we blink...
* Kid Twist, a particularly slimy individual from JossWhedon's run on ''{{Runaways}}'', has this as a power: once he sets eyes on a target, he never misses. This includes casually firing his gun behind him, and having the bullet ''turn corners''.
* In an early issue of ''Cable & Deadpool'', while Wade ({{Deadpool}}) is casually conversing with Nate (Cable) about how he no longer feels the urge to kill, he rolls a pebble around between his fingers. When Nate's not looking, he lets it fly and nails a dragonfly so that the pebble knocks the body dead-center, leaving the wings on either side. (Really.)
* StraightArrow Strongbow of ''{{ElfQuest}}'' '''never''' misses, to the point that when he does it's an obvious sign that he's in a bad way psychologically. And shortly after recovering from that, he gets the ability to hit a target without evening ''seeing'' it, though he's assumed to owe that to magical help.
* Since Cyclops of the ''{{X-Men}}'' is using EyeBeams, you'd expect him to have very little trouble hitting whatever he can see. That doesn't explain his ability to pull off such shots as precision-stunning Professor X after ricocheting the beam around three corners or destroying six fast-moving targets, at least two of them behind him, with a single shot.
** Actually [[WordOfGod it's been officially stated]] that Cyclops's mutant ability includes an intuitive knowledge of how to ricochet his own optic blasts.
* Kris de Valnor from ''{{Thorgal}}'' is reputed as a deadly archer and proves it many times through the series. However, Thorgal himself can top her feats when pressed. In one instance he won a DuelToTheDeath by firing two arrows at once. One of them hit the villain while the other collided with his crossbow bolt in mid-air.
* Arrowette of ''YoungJustice'', who is [[LukeYouAreMyFather probably not]] a member of the Green Arrow Clan, was once shown having a conversation with her mother (the [[LegacyCharacter first Arrowette]]) while playing darts. The camera pans back to show a line of darts driven into each other point to tail, RobinHood style, from the first, dead center on the target. The ladies decide they really need to find a different game to compete with.
* In a Donald Duck classic, one of the nephews manages to deflect Donald's golf ball into a hole-in-one by rapidly firing several shots at it. With a toy airgun. Which he just happened to have with him. To the golf course.
* Wolverine has demonstrated this by first throwing a dart, and hitting a perfect bullseye, turning away from the dartboard and sitting down at a table, throwing his remaining two darts behind his shoulder, where they both managed to hit the bullseye as well. When challenged to get 3 bullseyes again, he stood up and stacked the darts on each other. He has also thrown a katana with his left hand (he's right handed) at an attacking stuka plane, hit the pilot in his side, causing him to crash and burn. He has said that he can put six shots through a quarter, and still have change left for a gum machine.
* And, of course, there's CaptainAmerica's ability in throwing his shield to hit multiple targets by means of ricocheting, and [[BoomerangComeback still come back to his grasp]].
** Though, in early issues of the Avengers, the "coming back" part was explained by little magnets on the shield and on his gloves!
** This was later retconned into simply being the product of lots and lots of practice; when John Walker was brought in to replace him as Captain America, it took weeks of training with the Taskmaster for him to even be able to throw it reliably; he ''never'' figured out how to get it to ricochet and hit multiple targets or come back to him after being thrown.
* In the Great Ten, Celestial Archer is capable of freaking ridiculous with this. He can shoot out the sun and hit a target on the other side of the world.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the [[{{Horrible/Fanfic}} notorious badfic]] ''[[GonterVerse Sailor Moon: American Kitsune]]'', [[AuthorAvatar Davey]] [[GodModeSue Crockett]] manages to shoot and completely destroy a throne on the moon. From the Earth. With a sawed-off shotgun. And without hurting the person sitting in it. Don't think about it too hard, or [[YourHeadASplode your head will explode]].
* In ''LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami'', Dark buys a sniper rifle with which to assassinate Near, and aims at him from the top of the "Eyfal Tower." The implication is that he could have killed Near with a single bullet and didn't need to buy a box ... if Near hadn't used a '''Nerf gun''' to shoot out Dark's bullets and scope. Later, in what might be due to a typographical error, Dark manages to kill 1000000 (one million) Stormtroopers with 100000 (one hundred thousand) bullets, which requires killing on average, ten people with a single bullet, and only misses once.
* And then there's ''Haloid''. The Spartan soldier in that video is simply put, an insane marksman with just about ANYTHING. Ricochets from sniper fire hitting moving targets and ricoheting off of OTHER moving targets, insane levels of accuracy with rapid-fire weapons at a full run, THREE TON VEHICLES, SHOTGUN FU. Seriously. It's like watching every action movie hero's specialty with a weapon crammed into a can of complete fuckwin.
*''[[FanFic/TiberiumWars Tiberium Wars]]'' has a deliberate TakeThat directed at the official novelization, where a character gets a [[BoomHeadshot headshot]] on a target a hundred meters away with a pistol....except unlike in the official book, the one making this headshot is [[ColonelBadass Colonel]] [[BadassGrandpa Nick "Havoc" Parker]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films]]
* Pretty much any Hollywood depiction of RobinHood, ever. Robin was no doubt relatively handy with a bow, but in reality you can't shoot a hangman's rope with a longbow and wooden arrows from 50 metres away on demand (no, nor can they split an arrow every single time, sorry). The longbow was fearsome as a weapon of war because of its range and armour-penetration, not its accuracy -- for that, the English had ''tens of thousands'' of peasants shooting at ''armies'' of Frenchmen.
* John Woo's ''HardBoiled''.
* In the StarWars movies, Padme and Leia both apparently never miss their target. Definitely raises some questions regarding {{George Lucas}}' attitude towards women (not bad, though). Of course, Leia has the Force working for her, but that still doesn't explain her mom...
** Sure it does. Or did you forget? AuthorityEqualsAsskicking.
* Legolas also demonstrates a truly astounding aim with his longbow in ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}'' -- of course, improbable skill with a bow is a feature commonly credited to elves in most fantasy settings. However, since they usually [[WeAreAsMayflies live very old with aging not being (much of) a problem for them]], it usually makes some sense.
* There have been at least three cases (specifically ''TheMagnificentSeven'', ''BlakesSeven'' and ''{{Firefly}}'' -- the latter two are probably homages to the first) where are a character is commended for a good shot only for them to say they were aiming somewhere else.
** The MelBrooks send-up ''RobinHood: Men In Tights''. Robin has the noose around his neck, but gets saved when Achoo the Moor (Dave Chappelle) fires an arrow that slices the noose from the gallows, allowing him to escape. We later find out that the target was the hangman.
** In ''{{Farscape}}'', D'argo at one point throws his sword and impales a Peacekeeper mook through the heart at impressive range for using a heavy blade that was by no means designed for throwing. When complimented he replies that he was aiming for the Peacekeeper's head.
** On one episode of ''CriminalMinds'', while in a hostage crisis, Spencer Reid shoots the crook and mass murderer dead center of the forehead. Not only was he said to have failed his firearms qualification that the start of the episode, he claimed he'd been aiming for the guy's knee. At a distance of about six feet, that's a spectacularly bad shot.
*** This Troper is pretty sure he was trying to make a joke as the crook in question had an automatic weapon, so aiming for his knee would have been tantamount to suicide. Even a center of mass shot would have left the hostage taker able to get off several rounds before dying.
**** Don't forget that five minutes earleir, when Hotch had his Sig aimed at the guy's head, he warned that if he had "anything less than a headshot" that he would go down pulling the trigger. [[spoiler:In an ER room full of potential victems.]] So for a guy with an IQ near 190, this was a very stupid thing to do.
** Also seen in ''{{The Golden Voyage of Sinbad}}'', wherein the mostly useless comic relief stuns everybody by felling a threatening Bad Guy with a crossbow. Afterward admitting he did it by aiming "at everything else"!
** In the film ''Geronimo'', the titular character manages to shatter a jar of whiskey just as an opponent is taking a drink from several yards away. When he's commended for a good shot, Geronimo unabashedly admits, "Not so good. I was aiming for his head."
* Ridiculously fast and accurate shooting was one of the standard features of Spaghetti Westerns and one of the things that distinguished them from standard American films of any quality. Ironically, ClintEastwood's ability to fast-draw a handgun, shoot, and kill any number of men in any fight without missing a shot -- or being hit in return -- was seen by some critics as making his films ''more realistic'' ("gritty, rugged") than the plausible shooting skills of a JohnWayne, Glenn Ford, JimmyStewart, or Randolph Scott film.
** This was subverted in ''The Unforgiven'', where Gene Hackman's character explains that a true gunman must sacrifice speed for accuracy. In the end, Eastwood's character wins only by shooting carefully at close range.
** Parodied in ''BlazingSaddles'', when The Waco Kid shoots the guns out of the hands about ten {{Mooks}} in as many seconds.
* In ''{{Hitman}}'', the film of the game series, Agent 47 scores an impressive streak of headshots with his pistols during the hotel escape scene.
* Pick a sniper movie. ANY sniper movie. This troper still finds it unbelievable that one can find a target, adjust for physics, and the fire in less than a couple of seconds. At a distance of more than 1 km (Which is well out of the effective range of most sniper rifles to begin with).
** Generally averted in the film ''Shooter'' where the main character picks the site where he'd assassinate the president of the US (if he was intending to do that) based on criteria like distance, angle, local wind turbulence and line of sight. Later in the film, an observant FBI agent watching a recording of the shot realizes that the flags on the stage indicated there was no way a good sniper would have missed (as the shooter apparently did) in the way everyone believes he did, thus the "accidental" target was more likely the real one.
*** Used heavily elsewhere in the film, especially the helicopter scene. There are snipers good enough to find a target, adjust for wind and drop, and fire in less than a couple seconds, but there aren't any live ones that would try to hit the rotary blade on a helicopter.
** There's actually a (''really'' recent) sniper rifle that has an effective range of ''2 miles''. Of course, at that distance, a breeze would put you off your target by 10 feet or so.
*** The record for the longest kill shot with a sniper rifle currently stands at 2,430 metres, or about 1.5 miles, by a Canadian sniper in Afghanistan in 2002.
** ''The Day of the Jackal'' also averts this. [[spoiler: The "Jackal", despite being the one of the World's top assassins and having spent weeks preparing to sniper the French president, misses anyway when [=DeGaulle=] bends forward to kiss the cheek of the man he's presenting a medal to.]]
* ''ShootEmUp'' is basically an entire film dedicated to this trope.
* The {{Blaxploitation}} film ''Three The Hard Way'' has the heroes with glorified cap pistols defeating the {{Mooks}} who have fully automatic machine guns.
* The 2004 ''{{Dawn of the Dead}}'' remake offers a borderline example with the character of Andy, who proves to be very accurate with zombie-killing headshots. Of course, the man ''owns a gun store'', and is shooting from the safety of his roof using a high-powered rifle with a scope. And there's the fact that there are so many zombies, it's like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon...
** Averted in the original movie, where the two SWAT guys are accurate shooters whereas the civilian helicopter pilot is inaccurate and panicky, until he has time to practise under the tutelage of one of the SWAT men.
* Subverted in ''{{Shaun of the Dead}}'', where the gang has to team up in order to reliably use a rifle "that actually works". [[spoiler:The scene plays out exactly like the earlier one when Shaun and Ed are playing ''Timesplitters'' at home.]] Their aim does improve, though.
* No mention of ''Land of the Dead'' yet? Charlie, the mildly-retarded sidekick, has a "good eye," as he puts it. He can shoot a dwarf in the head behind cover from across a room in the middle of a riot. And he nails a zombie in the face by firing inches past a teammate's head, though he does complain that it was a little off-center. When offered an automatic weapon that can fire 14 rounds per second, he just says "I don't normally need that many."
* ''TheBourneSupremacy'' features [[spoiler: an instantly-fatal shot against a human target at around 200 metres. The target (Marie) is not only moving away, she's inside a car travelling at about 20 mph, the shot is through traffic and the sniper hits on ''his first shot'' from a ''standing position''.]]
** Of course, that's not the only thing wrong with that scene. [[spoiler: Like, maybe, killing off the female lead in the first five minutes because you don't know how to write for her any more. Not bitter at all, no sah.]]
*** [[spoiler:Marie wasn't the target. And that's not why they killed her. Nicky's hotter anyway.]]
* The ArnoldSchwarzenegger movie ''TrueLies'' is full of this trope and enemies who attended the {{Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy}} as well. One scene in particular stands out: Arnold's character is escaping down a snow covered hill by sliding down it on his back and using a pistol to take out pursuing enemies on skis, at night; the aforementioned enemy marksmanship can be seen here as well.
* In ''{{House of Flying Daggers}}'' Jin fires off four arrows in quick succession at the four soldiers attacking Xiao Mei. Not only does each of them hit the target, said target is a spot where the arrow will stick in their clothes without hurting them since the whole thing is a setup for him to earn Xiao Mei's trust.
** They also all manage to impact at about the same time, which is pretty unlikely.
** In this movie, anyone who throws the flying daggers never misses the mark. They even went through the trouble of using ''Wanted'' style improbable physics.
* ''{{Wanted}}''. It's not out yet, but the ads make it out to be ''ImprobableAimingSkills: TheMovie.'' How bad? ''Throwing a curveball with bullets,'' shooting the wings off of insects, shooting down an enemy's bullet ''intentionally,'' and on and on. The fact that the ads showcase this and tell nothing about the plot... well, be afraid. Be very afraid.
** It's out now, and it's worse than you feared. Bullets fired from guns don't need to go in straight lines. With a flick of the wrist, an assassin can get a bullet to swerve around an obstacle and hit a target directly behind said obstacle. Yes, that means they can shoot around corners without relying on ricochets to change the trajectory. The most egregious example, hands-down, comes in the climax. A member of the Fraternity (a secret society of assassins that decides who to kill by studying textiles) has [[spoiler: decided that the abilities wielded by the assassins are too dangerous in the hands of mortals. This rebellious member fires a single bullet that travels around the room in a circular path, killing most of the remaining members, and comes back around, hitting the person who fired the bullet]]. RuleOfCool and all that.
** In the original comic series, Wesley is an impossibly good shot beyond any rational measure (it's a superpower). In the first comic he is forced to shoot the wings off of flies, in the end he does so by closing his eyes and shooting wildly around the room. Needless to say he succeeds. His father is also murdered by an unseen gunman who shoots him from "two cities away". Like the movie the plot of the comics is based entirely on RuleOfCool.
** It's just because Timur Bekmambetov does what he wants. (If you're curious, he directed the movies ''NightWatch'' and ''Day Watch'', both of which were also largely funded on Rule of Cool.)
** This is taken to its logical extreme in the comic. Wesley and his father are ''literally perfect'' shots; [[spoiler: at the end of comic, Wesley's father forces him to execute him, because a few weeks ago he missed a target (with a pistol) at about ''half a mile,'' chalking it up to old age. He can't imagine being less than the absolute best.]]
* In ''Support Your Local Sheriff'' James Garner is asked to demonstrate his gun handling skills and manages to both subvert and play the trope straight. He begins by tossing a washer into the air and shooting at it with his pistol, then claiming the bullet went through the hole. The skeptical townsfolk ask him to repeat the stunt, although for the second shot a piece of tape is applied to the washer. Guess where the second bullet goes?
** Subverted all the way, actually. After they hand him the taped-up washer, but before he tosses & shoots for the second time, he draws the onlookers' attention to the hole in the ceiling, and expresses his distress about damaging it further. As they all look up, he has a perfect opportunity to poke a hole in the tape with some quick sleight-of-hand ...
*** It's unlikely this was the film's intention; later on he drives a nail into a board by ''shooting it''.
* Inverted in the ''Film/IronMan'' movie, where a mook in a tank picks off IronMan while he's engaged in a dogfight. The mooks with firearms are also pretty sharp, if only to [[FiveRoundsRapid demonstrate the imperviousness]] of Iron Man's phlebotinum suit.
* Played straight in ''{{Terminator}} 2: Judgment Day,'' in which Arnie manages to shoot every cop in the Cyberdyne parking lot... with a minigun... ''non-fatally''. After all, John Connor told him not to kill anyone.
** The Terminator '''''didn't hit any of the cops'''''. He shot ''around'' them, hitting their vehicles. How in the hell did you miss that?
** This was ironic, since in the original ''{{Terminator}}'' Arnie seemed to have ''flunked'' from the Imperial Stormtrooper Shooting Academy; he needed a taget-pistol with laser-sighting, just to hit someone at point-blank range; and he took out an entire bar-full of other people with his Uzi while missing his intended target, since his aim was so ''bad''. Of course it was a different timeline, so perhaps the Terminators became more accurate; but still he was exactly the same Terminator to all other appearances.
* Averted in the original ''{{RoboCop}}''. Robo can pull off all kinds of amazing feats of ballistics, including neutering a would-be rapist by ''shooting through his victim's skirt'', but it's all programming -- the original Murphy couldn't shoot for beans, and after a [[RestrainingBolt Directive 4]] malfunction takes his targeting systems offline, neither can Robo.
** In the third movie, [=RoboCop=] shoots the gun out of a villain's hands -- then continues to shoot it, and it bounces in the air for a few seconds [[SpecialEffectsFailure almost as if it were attached to a string]].
** In the TV series, he has a habit of using ricochets to hit people.
* Spoofed in the comedy ''{{Bullshot}}'' (1983). "By rapidly calculating the pigeon's angle of elevation in the reflection of your monocle, then subtracting the refractive index of its lens, I positioned myself at a complementary access... and fired. It was no challenge at all."
* Quigley from ''Quigley Down Under''. Partly justified by his being a marksman and his enemies being a little too into flashy quick draws and the like.
* Done [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely]] in ''KissKissBangBang''. In the climactic car-chase/shoot-out (which involves a coffin containing the body of the victim, a delivery truck, and an overpass), Harry, the coffin, and a revolver go skidding over the bridge: the coffin snags on the railings, partially open with the victim' hand hanging out; Harry manages to grab the corpse's hand and save himself, and then, with the other hand, plucks the gun out of midair and ''shoots the big bad right in the heart''. The bad guy's [[LampshadeHanging response]] is [[CrowningMomentOfFunny priceless]].
* ''LastOfTheMohicans'' does this near the end of the final battle. One of the hero's allies [[spoiler:charges into a small group of the enemy, shooting two Kentucky rifles simultaneously ''from the hip'' -- and hitting a separate enemy with each shot.]]
* Joked with in ''TreasurePlanet'', where Dr. Doppler (who doesn't appear to have held a gun before) manages to shoot and hit his mark exactly.
-->'''Captain Amelia:''' Did you actually aim for that?\\
'''Dr. Doppler:''' You know, actually, I did.
* HumphreyBogart reminds how ''flippin' awesome'' is to be an American in the wartime propaganda film ''Sahara'' were a German aircraft does two flybys of our heroes, and [[ImprerialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy is unable to hit the broad side of a tank in the middle of the desert]] while Bogie on the other hand, can shoot a single plane down, despite flying at high speeds at a great distance with just one shot of his sidearm. Wow.
* The Grammaton Clerics in ''{{Equilibrium}}'' are masters of "gun kata," which the film states is in part a mathematical system for determining aiming angles with the highest probability to hit. Cleric Preston displays this repeatedly, usually taking out a half-dozen or more opponents with robotic precision.
* In the [[InNameOnly movie version]] of ''I, Robot'', Bridget Moynahan shoots a robot attacking Will Smith ''with her eyes closed''. He's less than happy when he finds out... but, "it worked, didn't it?"
* ''EnemyAtTheGates'', though it's justified in that the whole movie is about two exceptional snipers. The [[ColdSniper Nazi major]] in particular has some insane skills, including the ability to ''shoot through a piece of string'' the hero is trying to use to retrieve his out-of-reach rifle.
*Subverted in IngloriousBasterds. One lone Jewish girl escapes the Nazi soldiers who kill her family and starts running towards the hills. Colonel Hans Landa sees her, and aims a small pistol at her. He carefully takes aim, even though by then she's much too far away for him to hit, and just before she runs over the hills and out of sight, he yells BANG!, and puts away his gun.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Classic examples include Wilhelm Tell and RobinHood, who make this OlderThanPrint. Natty Bumppo (as mentioned in the quote) was probably the first character to do this with guns, or at least to do it with guns and get ''famous''. Mark Twain ridiculed Bumppo's sharp-shooting in [[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Indians/offense.html this article]].
* Legolas in the ''LordOfTheRings'', though not as evident as in the film, he's never depicted as missing his target.
* In the novel ''[[TheDraka Drakon]]'', Gwen Ingolfsson intentionally shoots a running man in the knee, at long range, on the first shot, with an inaccurate handgun ''that she's never even seen before'' as she's just arrived on an AlternateEarth. Yes, she's a genetically-engineered superwoman, but that incredibly loud explosion was the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief undergoing spontaneous combustion.
** The same author's ''Dies the Fire'' series features a number of improbably good archers, though at least all of them are explicitly described as practicing constantly and having been at it since childhood.
* Parodied in the ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}''. The main character is on his final exam for his Assassination class and decides he can't kill the person sleeping in the bed, even if it means his teachers may kill him for disobeying. So he defiantly shoots his crossbow at the wall, and it happens to ricochet off several surfaces and into what turns out to be a dummy. He passes the final exam, but his instructor chides him for using showy, over-the-top methods in his assassination.
** And subverted in ''Guards! Guards!'' wherein Colon claims to amazing feats of archery (and possibly rightfully so in his youth, but still...) but actually can't hit the broad side of a dragon, let alone the AchillesHeel he was aiming for.
*** His skill or lack thereof had very little to do with it. His friends talked him into trying the shot while wearing a blindfold, standing on his head, and so on, in an attempt to get the shot to be ''exactly'' a MillionToOneChance... because million-to-one chances always work out, right?
**** They happen nine times out of ten, actually.
*** Considering both that in ''Discworld'' any attempt to purposely set up a MillionToOneChance will fall a little less than a thousand short thus not interesting The Lady [[spoiler:a.k.a. Lady Luck]] and that the "[[GroinAttack voonerables]]" they were aiming for were a bit harder to hit since the dragon was female.
*** Wouldn't make any difference on a reptile. What they should have been looking for, and that was probably the original idea, was an AchillesHeel in the lines of [[TheHobbit Smaug]].
* In the ''{{Halo}}'' Novel ''First Strike'', Master Chief is getting help in a battle from Linda, another SuperSoldier like him, armed with a sniper rifle. During the course of the fight, Linda makes a number of difficult shots, often shooting enemy pilots right out of their flyers while in flight (and in at least one case, using a ricochet to do it). When he finally grabs a flier of his own to go pick her up, he finds her hanging from a cord, and realizes she's been doing all that shooting ''one-handed''.
** To be fair, their Mark V armor responds to thoughts, not muscle movement, and being a half ton suit that equates to zero recoil and precision aim.
*** Which makes you wonder... in game, when the Chief uses an SMG, the recoil is horrendous. And he's in the half ton powered armour. The plain old marines should be having their arms torn off!
* HonorHarrington puts 4 rounds into a guy, straight up the center, within centimeters of each other, before he even falls down, ''from the hip'', before raising the gun and putting a fifth one between his eyes. From 40 meters away (over 120 feet, to us Americans not in the military). Over the span of about three seconds. [[{{JustifiedTrope}} Justified]] in that she has a cybernetic eye, and practiced [[{{CrazyPrepared}} like mad]].
* The ''{{Warhammer 40000}}: [[GauntsGhosts Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''Honour Guard'' includes a passage where the character Lijah Cuu effortlessly shoots tiny critters that even the titular regiment's marksman Larkin would hesitate about going after. Unfortunately, he's also the regiment's AxCrazy...
* Subverted in ''{{Flashman}}'' by {{George MacDonald Fraser}}, where the title character participates in a duel; because Flashman has rigged his opponent's gun, the opponent misses, and Flashman decides he will not shoot his opponent, instead firing a harmless shot into the air... which ends up blasting the top off of a bottle of alcohol some distance away. Everyone takes this as proof of incredible marksmanship, giving his reputation a major boost.
* Good old Sharpe has this a few times. Hagman, a former poacher, is an amazing shot, and proves it repeatedly by shooting Frenchmen at just the right moment. The only time he misses is the first time you see him... because he's trying to shoot a rabbit at 200 meters with a blackpowder rifle, without aiming. And he still ''almost'' hits.
* When he's not recovering from torture, Stephen Maturin of Patrick O'Brian's ''{{Aubrey-Maturin}}'' is a crack shot with a pistol, much to the shock of a few people around him.
* In Stephen King's "[[TheDarkTower The Dark Tower]]" series (whose first novel just happens to be called 'The Gunslinger') Roland of Gilead is the embodiment of this trope, with improbable aiming skills demonstrated any time he draws (which is generally done at lightning speed). In fact, Roland is so adept at reloading his revolver he describes it as his "..fingers doing their reloading trick," as if they aren't even under his control.
** The other three main characters (Eddie, Susannah, and eventually Jake) all may qualify - Eddie manages to pull off an impressive display of gunslinging with no significant experience...in the buff[[spoiler:...just after traveling from another dimension]]. Granted, may have had something to do with his BerserkButton being pressed.
* The villain too can have these skills, as seen in IanFleming's ''{{Goldfinger}}''.
-->"I have never needed more than one .25-calibre bullet to kill. I shoot at the right eye, Mr Bond. And I never miss."
* Considering everyone was forced to read this book in high school, how can we forget [[ToKillAMockingbird Atticus Finch]]?
** Its much easier to hit a target coming at you as it keeps getting ''bigger''.
* ''TheExecutioner''. ColdSniper and VigilanteMan Mack Bolan uses his marksman skills to psych out his Mafia enemies, on one occasion shooting [[CallingCard a perfect cross]] through drawn drapes while talking to a man inside the targeted room on the telephone. Another trick when sniping at long-range is to predict where the target is going to run to once his comrades start dying and fire a bullet into that space. Subverted on one occasion when Bolan realises he's missed because the man is actually ''crawling'' away, using a [[IdiotBall flimsy plastic sunning board for cover]]. As Bolan is firing a [[{{BFG}} .460 Magnum rifle]] this does him no good at all.
* Yasmini in S.M. Stirling's ''The Peshawar Lancers'' has [[PsychicPowers precognition]] which tells her the precise direction to point her gun and the exact moment to squeeze the trigger. She's got her eyes closed as she does.
* Catti-Brie in R. A. Salvatore's ''ForgottenRealms'' novels. She doesn't do anything very spectacular, but as soon as she happens to find a magic bow, the others can count on her sniping anyone from any distance, even though we've never seen her so much as practise shooting.
* Rama of the {{Ramayana}} has some insane shooting skills, even before the gods [[InstantExpert grant him expertise]] in every kind of weapon out there. At the beginning of the story, he launches a ''shield'' of arrows to repel a rain of stones that a demon throws at him. Seriously. That's the point where the {{MST3K Mantra}} comes in handy.
* Imperial Stormtroopers as written by Timothy Zahn, he of the WhiteAndGreyMorality where Imperials actually get to be competent. Most clearly seen in {{StarWars/Allegiance}}. HumanShield? Not a problem for a stormtrooper who's trained as a sniper. Just shoot past the hostage's ear.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* [[TwentyFour Jack Bauer]]... [[MemeticBadass because he's Jack Bauer]].
* [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Shooting the gun out of Bad Guy's hand]] was a routine shot in the kiddie TV Westerns of the 1950s. The title character in ''Annie Oakley'' never shot anyone in any other way. It made her even nicer as a heroine.
* In the ''RedDwarf'' episode "White Hole" Lister displays ImprobableAimingSkills when it comes to driving a planet into a white hole by stimulating a solar flare. While this sounds like a mindbogglingly complex procedure, it's basically the same as playing pool. Apparently. (He was even able to make it a trick shot!)
** Note that the actor who played him, Craig Charles, also has them, as he actually did make the pool shot.
** ImprobableAimingSkills are spoofed when the crew enters a Western VR environment in "Gunmen of the Apocalypse". Both the Cat (as The Riviera Kid, gunfighter) and Lister (as Brett Riverboat, knife-thrower) were able to do things that were clearly completely impossible... until the special skills were erased from the databank.
* In ''{{Lost}}'', Locke is scarily accurate with throwing knives, in one early episode planting a knife in a chair right next to Sawyer's head, from a good 15 feet away, just to make a point.
** Jack is also a good enough shot to [[ShootTheRope shoot a rope]], despite having no discernible experience with weapons.
** The Others are also excellent shots, the anti-stormtroopers.
** The mercenaries on the freighter in season 4 know their jobs (and guns) well, as shown in "The Shape of Things to Come" when they fire three instant death shots in a row. Then again, when the group turns their collective attention from [[RedShirt extras]] to Sawyer immediately afterward, they start to fail.
* Parodied/Subverted in the first episode of ''[[BuffytheVampireSlayer Buffy]]'' season 3. While trying to take down a vampire without the Slayer's help, Oz, Willow and Xander get beaten and the vampire starts running away. Oz stands dramatically with stake in hand, the music swells and he throws the stake only to have it clatter harmlessly off a nearby gravestone. He sighs and says "That never really works."
* In ''TheManFromUNCLE'' episode "The Never Never Affair", Napoleon Solo demonstrates ''extremely'' ImprobableAimingSkills when, bound to a chair, forced to hold a pistol with his hands tied behind his back pointing the pistol behind him, and while ''having to look into a mirror to see his target'', he nonetheless warns a THRUSH agent that any attempt to detonate an explosive booby trap in the face of other U.N.C.L.E. agents arriving at the scene would result in Solo shooting the THRUSH agent. The THRUSH baddie pooh poohs Solo's threat, and makes for the detonator, only to be shot by Solo. Solo then [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on it by looking surprised and muttering, "Well how about that!" when he sees the THRUSH agent go down.
* In ''{{Brimstone}}'', Detective Ezekiel Stone has no problem shooting out the eyes of the escaped souls.
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that in Brimstone, a soul escaped from hell gains supernatural powers related to the individual's history and/or mental condition. As a former cop, it's entirely conceivable that superhuman shooting accuracy is Stone's power (though this is never stated outright, as the series [[ScrewedByTheNetwork didn't last long enough to make a point of it]].)
* ''{{Firefly}}'' runs rampant with this. A lot of shots are pulled from the hip, but nonetheless hit targets quite precisely; Zoe even manages to shoot a man's gun out of his hands from a good fifty meters off in "Safe," and Mal's quick-draw shots are almost legendary.
** Also, River killing three of Niska's men with one shot each, while her eyes are closed, and the bad guys are hiding behind cover...Jayne's disbelief is understandable. So is his line, "She killed them with math, what else could it be?", heavy on the sarcasm.
*** In all fairness, River is psychic and she could probably pinpoint their location by their thoughts
** Early in ''Serenity'', Jayne gets hit with a harpoon fired by Reavers, and Mal shoots the rope to free him. But it takes him three tries.
* TheLoneRanger used this to avoid ever having to kill an opponent.
* Arguably, the Fourth Doctor displays this in [[DoctorWho "State Of Decay"]]. He learns the only way to kill the Great Vampire is with [[spoiler:a "mighty bolt of steel". He doesn't have one of these laying around the TARDIS, but does have access to a dart-shaped shuttlecraft that has barely enough fuel to lift off. He programs it to take off, go as high as it can, then flip nose-down with the final drops of fuel. Gravity sends the shuttle dead-center into the Great Vampire's heart.]] OK, so it was still coming out of torpor at the time, but still....
* TheComicStripPresents spoofed this in ''Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown''. A detective from the gun-toting cop shows of TheSeventies shoots at a Nineties-era suspect at a hundred yards and misses, because reality has now taken over the genre.
* {{Charmed}} has a few instances of this, but many may be justified by the fact that they're witches. However, in the eighth season, Billie manages to throw a potion bottle in the partially-open mouth of a demon, while she's lying on her side after being thrown to the ground, about ten minutes after being beaten up by said demon. Since she doesn't seem to use her powers and is pretty much just winging it, I have to call it this trope.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* Zen Archery and Zen Marksmanship in ''{{GURPS}}'' divide range penalties by 3 when used successfully. The Precision Aiming technique is meant to be a more realistic version, taking much longer to do and requiring special equipment for a more modest gain.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Dante from the ''DevilMayCry'' series is a pretty damn good shot even in the game proper, but only demonstrates ''truly'' ridiculous levels of skill in the [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscenes]], such as as the intro of ''DevilMayCry 3'', where he -- among other things -- kills several {{Mooks}} with a single bullet by sending a bunch of billiard-balls into the air, and then shooting one of them in such a way that it starts a chain-reaction, sending the balls flying in all directions like gigantic, colorful buckshot. This is due to the fact that he's a human/demon hybrid using magical, demonic handguns.
** In ''DevilMayCry 4'', Dante puts a round through the MadScientist Agnus' papers. When Agnus picks one up to examine the damage, Dante puts another round through the exact same hole to kill him.
*** In the same game, in the boss encounters with Dante, he rarely uses his guns, unless of course Nero tries to shoot him, at which point Dante will begin to shoot the bullets out of the air.
*** Also in the same game, Dante manages to pull off "stacking" ''five'' bullets on the end of the handle of his sword (a la Robin Hood, just with bullets), stuck inside the BigBad, each landing perfectly behind the other, with the final one thrusting it into its core.
* Partially subverted in ''DeusEx''. Weapons in which you are untrained or only slightly trained have very bad aim. Although the player can start off with very good aim in one type of weapon or decent aim in several, they'll still have a few really inaccurate crappy ones for most of the game until enough skill points are gathered to push them to Advanced or Master training level.
** ''SystemShock 2'' works much the same way. Pick up a gun you don't know how to use, and not only will you not hit anything with it, [[BreakableWeapons the gun will break after five shots]].
* Revolver Ocelot from ''MetalGearSolid'' is another rare villainous example. Though wielding a revolver (and never, ever using his other hand to steady it), he's got unerring accuracy, on-par with even Sniper Wolf. He can even richochet bullets off of walls. When Cyborg {{Ninja}} cuts off his right hand, he just starts shooting with his left instead, without any perceptible drop in accuracy.
** This may be accounted for by the fact that Revolver Ocelot the son of a psychic. However, that doesn't explain how, in a NewGamePlus file, Snake can pull off the same stunts, shooting around walls and even aiming ''behind'' enemies and hitting them in the back.
** ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' subverts this; the future Big Boss, then known as Naked Snake, gave Ocelot the idea of using a revolver as his weapon of choice, after noticing that with his previous gun (a Makarov PM handgun), he twisted his elbow to absorb the recoil, which actually ''worsened'' his aim with it.
*** Later in the same game, Ocelot adds a stock to the revolver to steady his aim for a long-range shot. [[spoiler:And misses.]]
*** In ''[=MGS3=]'', the first time we see Ocelot, he displays XanatosRoulette [[ImprobableAimingSkills Aiming Skills]], managing to fire a bullet that ricochets multiple times before killing a {{Mook}}. When Snake later gets one of the revolvers, the bullets still ricochet, so he could concievably do the same if the player was good enough.
** Also subverted in ''The Twin Snakes'', where, during the torture scene, Ocelot is spinning his gun on his left hand and ''drops it'' by accident -- lending a bit of credibility that his left hand isn't quite as accurate as his right. He later goes on to [[spoiler:shoot the PAL key out of Snake's hand]] near the end of the game.
** Ironically, in ''Twin Snakes'', the legendary sniper villain character Sniper Wolf ''also'' subverts this trope by submitting to certain real-world sniping necessities of behavior: her accuracy suffers unless she's lying down, she takes an elevated position and plans ahead to hold that superior position throughout her battles. The irony comes from nearly every other villain in the game embodying a trope in order to make themselves unique, while Wolf's more conventional sniping ability is soundly trumped by Solid Snake's employment of ''two tropes multiplied together''. In the cutscene in which Wolf is defeated (following a player-controlled sniper-fight boss battle in an outdoor snowfield in Alaska, against an enemy wearing all white, ''in the midst of a blizzard''), [[spoiler: Snake is suddenly disarmed by Wolf [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shooting the PSG-1 sniper rifle from his grip]] and taking a bead on his forehead. She is undone, however, when Snake suddenly performs a perfect backflip, lands with his heel against the rifle's stock to propel it into the air, executes a full 360 turn to grab it, aims, and fires the killing shot straight into Wolf's lungs from more than a hundred yards distant. In Wolf's defense, she does recover from surprise in time to return fire simultaneously, but without the power of being the primary focus of the cutscene, her shot harmlessly misses.]] The combined power of ImprobableAimingSkills and CutscenePowerToTheMax has a resonance, it seems, rendering the protagonist briefly perfect.
*** Spoofed and taken to a ridiculous extreme in [[http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=267 this strip]] among others from ''TheLastDaysOfFoxhound''.
* Altaïr, the main character of ''AssassinsCreed'', also displays an unbelieveable level of accuracy with his throwing-knives. His knives always hit, even on a moving target that changes direction unexpectedly, and ALWAYS kills instantly, without even giving the victim a chance to cry out. Well, unless it's one of your 'Targets', in which case they just basically ignore the throwing-knives for no apparent reason.
* Gordon Freeman in ''HalfLife''. He's not shown to be supernaturally accurate, at least compared to other First Person Shooter heroes. However, unlike almost all other FPS heroes (who at least have some form of military background), he's a theoretical physicist who's ''never picked up a gun in his life'' prior to the events of the game. This makes incredibly impressive his ability to rapidly learn to use an assault rifle well enough to fight off both an alien invasion ''and'' a battalion of highly trained special forces soldiers.
** Well, except for the firing range in the hazard course which is apparently mandatory for all employees... Though, it's never clear how often they're required to run it.
** Lampshaded in the sequel, in which Breen, through his "Breencast" system, berates his mook army for being completely unable to impede Gordon's progress: "This is not some agent provocateur or highly trained assassin we are discussing. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist...The man you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards simply that—an ordinary man."
* The Lone Wanderer in ''{{Fallout}} 3'' takes this trope to ridiculous extremes, being able to shoot a switchblade out of someone's hand and follow it up with a perfect headhsot. From fifty metres away. With a sightless (I shit you not) hunting rifle. He can still miss with a shotgun at point-blank range, oddly enough.
** And that headshot doesn't even appear to be a true headshot. Instead the target is ''decapitated'' with a CleanCut, the seemingly undamaged head lying next to the corpse. This is particularly hilarious when considering that the ammo used by Sniper rifles and the [[InfinityPlusOneSword 'Infinity plus one rifle', Lincoln's Repeater]] (.308 and .44 Magnum, respectively) would have caused a lot of PinkMist to spurt from the headless body. Compare a point blank hit with a shotgun which [[LudicrousGibs blows the enemy into many bloody chunks]].
*** The sniper rifles and repeater are nice, but they just don't provide the satisfaction that decapitating someone with a BB gun does.
* ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' makes use of arc trajectory algorithms for Archers/Hunters/Snipers/Assasins with bows and line-of-sight algorithms for Gunners to see if a projectile would be obstructed by an obstacle or the terrain itself due to tiles with varying heights to make it seem more realistic... but this all goes out the window when you order your bowmen/gunslingers to use specials, which ignore those algorithms and just check to see if the target is within weapon range. This leads to cases where you can have an archer shoot at something that's pretty much 2 tiles away and 10 storeys above, or have a gunner SHOOT THROUGH A MOUNTAIN FACE AT POINT BLANK RANGE and hit the target on the other side, 7 panels away.
** It's amusing to think that a bullet backed up by Ultima Charge would behave this way.
* Compared to other AI allies throughout the series, Captain [=MacMillan=] from ''CallOfDuty4'' is a deadshot. Within a second of killing your first mook (as Lieutenant Price), his partner is killed by [=MacMillan=], ''regardless of who you choose''. Despite his skills, he's only there to supervise your preemptive assassination attempt on TheManBehindTheMan. During the hectic escape from the operation, you're hard pressed for cover and ammo while [=MacMillan=] patiently urges you on, and [[{{Badass}} turns his side of the field into a graveyard]].
** Technically, you're both there to kill your target. Snipers rotate rifle duty and spotter duty regularly, in order to avoid eye strain and tunnel vision (among other things). Price just happens to be the man on the rifle when the target shows up. And lest we forget, that particular shot was a little over a ''mile'' distant. Granted, the M82A1 used for the shot has a maximum range of ''two'' miles, and realistic problems, such as slight wind causing the bullet to miss by four or five feet and the Coriolis effect (needing to correct for the ''curvature of the Earth''), are present and compensated for.
* At the start of a round of ''War Rock'' on Conturas (a very large map), this troper's rifle went off accidentally. Several seconds later, it was announced that I had killed an enemy soldier with a headshot. Evidently, my stray bullet arced into the enemy airfield and into the skull of an enemy soldier as he was running towards a plane. It was a {{Crowning Moment Of Awesome}} for me.
** This troper's brother performed a similar feat on Call of Duty: World at War. He was on Airfield with a sniper rifle, got spooked by an enemy and let off a shot without aiming. The enemy got killed by a teammate but he was intrigued by the two head-shot kills. Upon inquiry, the two are on the other side of the map.
** [[http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27070 This guy]] pulled off a similar feat in ''CallOfDuty: Modern Warfare 2''. ''With a knife.''
** This troper was very bad with Counter Strike (rarely gets any kills). In one match (dune), this troper was hit by a flash-bang and just spray fire into the room. 5 head shot kills, with a SMG.
* Sometimes a common occurence in [=FPSes=], especially if {{The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard}}, but played straight in Timesplitters, as the Phlebitonium for much of the game, and in fact the concept itself, is plain and simply RuleOfCool. Of special note is that the computer tends to be completely suck with normal shotguns at long ranges, but does quite a few headshots with the BLUNDERBUSS. Speculation has it that this is due to a couple of the set patterns of blunderbuss firing arcs, and the height at which the computer naturally aims. If you require evidence, use all zombie characters, while playing one yourself, and take note of the amount of headless people running around in some all blundie games.
** Also see: any oldschool 2d sprite FPS, where so long as you can see the creature in the distance, if he has a bullet-type attack which deals instantaneous damage, he can hit you very easily, even if he's a few pixels high. Averted with the Spider Mastermind in ''Doom'' due to the chaingun's naturally random 'spray'.
* The assault rifle in ''Left 4 Dead'' has laser-like accuracy that gives it essentially infinite range. This can be a bit annoying when playing as the infected on versus, as Survivors will be able to spray bullets at you from halfway across the map and still get a headshot.
* Arcade Light-Gun shooters take this to a ridiculous extreme, for both you and your opponents. [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy Not while using their guns, though, oh no]]. This trope is only invoked when your enemies ''[[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throw something at you]]''. Whenever anything is thrown at you, from a knife to a 55-gallon drum, it ''will'' hit you with 100% accuracy. Yes, for some reason a thrown baseball is more likely to kill you than an assault rifle in these sorts of games. For your part, however, you're quick enough on the draw to ''shoot whatever's coming at you out of the air with a single shot''.
Here are a few highlights of the genre:
** ''Area51'': You can shoot grenades, oil drums, and ''RPGs'' out of the air with one shot from a pistol.
** ''Target: Terror'': You can shoot groups of dynamite ([[CartoonBomb complete with timer]]) out of the air with a single pistol shot. Apparently they must have set said timers for 4 seconds, as they will explode the instant they hit you. Not only that, but one of the bonus levels involves you doing this while terrorists throw ''a non-stop string of dynamite bombs attached to frozen turkeys at you!''
** ''{{The House of the Dead}}'': Zombies will throw axes at you. [[OurZombiesAreDifferent This in itself is amazing]], but they will always hit unless you [[OverlyLongGag shoot them out of the air with a single shot]]. Always. Even when the zombie throwing it is ''fifty feet away, TEN FEET BELOW YOU, '''AND DECAPITATED!''' ''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/08/27/episode-591-hypothetically-speaking-again/ A comic]] of ''[=~8-Bit Theater~=]'' had Black Mage and Red Mage discussing on [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny who'd win in a fight]]: Bullseye and Green Arrow, based on either's Improbable Aiming Skills. RM then said Green Arrow could shoot several arrows precisely at once. BM argued -- and was pinned to a tree by such an attack...
* Parodied in [[http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=267 this strip]] of ''{{The Last Days of Foxhound}}'' with a shooting contest between Sniper Wolf and Revolver Ocelot.
* In a recent ''BetterDays'' strip, the main character manages to shoot two men directly in the head while holding an obese man still with ''one arm.''
** [[GodModeSue Of course he can.]]
* Janet of ''GunnerkriggCourt'' can [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=615 nail an arrow mid-flight]].
* ''DrMcNinja'': [[http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=8&issue=10 The Flying Shooting Juan]] takes this BeyondTheImpossible.
* One of the characters of GoneWithTheBlastwave can headshot a plane pilot with a sniper rifle... at the moment that leads the now-unpiloted plane to crash into an allied tank.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* A ''{{Survival of the Fittest}}'' example is Trish [=McCarroll=]. Using an AK (notorious for recoil) that she'd never fired before (or any guns for that matter), she managed to hit [[spoiler:Sloan Henriksen]] ''four times'' in the heart in a single burst of fire. It's put down to luck, but still, for somebody who has never used a gun it was an incredible feat. Amusingly, given that SOTF is a [[PlayByPostGames play by post game]], it was actually [[spoiler:Sloan's]] handler that caused the ImprobableAimingSkills. (by mentioning which places the characters was hit in the death post)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The Yuyan Archers from ''{{Avatar the Last Airbender}}'' can ''literally'' shoot the wings off a fly (or at least pin it to a tree from a hundred paces away -- without killing it), or at least that's what Zhao said. Though this was most likely hyperbole, they are able to [[KnifeOutline pin Aang to a log by his shirt]] and nail someone hiding behind a human shield in the head.
** That "without killing it" bit is more likely because [[NeverSayDie you aren't even allowed to kill an imaginary fly offscreen in cartoons]]. It's a good thing they evacuated!
** Mai has also demonstrated impeccable and deadly accurate knife-throwing skills. Although sometimes it's shuriken. She keeps several dozen in the sleeves of her robe.
* The ARC Troopers from ''StarWarsCloneWars'' possess impressive powers of accuracy, almost every shot blasts a droid's head off and a single trooper takes out a Trade Federation armored tank in less than 5 seconds by running up the side of it, blasting the top off, shooting several shots from the inside of the machine and running like hell.
* Averted in ''CodeLyoko'', where Odd and Yumi miss quite frequently, especially when the shot would be difficult in real life (i.e. shooting at a moving target). Then again, since often the enemies simply dodge, and Odd's arrows are often shown moving as fast as a real arrow, this might be a case of TheComputerIsACheatingBastard. Played relatively straight with Aelita (after she gains her Energy Field in season 3), who only misses when she's distressed.
** The [[EnergyBall Energy Fields]] have the added advantage of being deadly wherever they touch the monster, with no need to [[AttackItsWeakPoint aim at their weak spots]].
* Played with in ''SouthPark'': Butters hits his target every time, without looking -- but only in the guy's crotch.
* In ''{{King of the Hill}}'', Bobby has very few talents but at a carnival after picking up a bb gun at a shooting gallery finds out he's an excellent shot, later when taken to a shooting range he shoots off his rounds pretty quickly and Hank is disappointed that he didn't listen to him only to discover all of his shots hit the target dead center.
* Used in {{MASK}} episode ''The Golden Goddess'' to a ridiculous degree. Alex Sector (never previously known for his aiming skills) disables an elephant with laser cannons without harming it. He fires the cannons the elephant's feet such that the elephant steps/falls into the blast craters... which are the size of its feet. Alex accomplishes this feat:
-->¤From above and behind
-->¤While parachuting from a plane in a semi truck
-->¤With the '''giant laser cannons''' mounted distally on the truck
-->¤Hitting beneath '''all four''' feet on both sides of the elephant, without hitting the elephant
-->¤Missing only one set of three paired shots
-->¤With the "camera" noticeably rocking to convey how unsteady a platform he's shooting from
-->¤This just after commenting "... if I can just keep this blasted truck steady enough."

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Real World Examples: A number of competition and professional shooters, over a number of decades, have performed incredible feats of gunplay. These include going from a standing rest position to drawing and firing an killing headshot in 0.26 timed seconds -- and being even faster than that, being able to throw a handful of ''eight'' clay pigeons behind them and promptly shoot all of them in the air with a shotgun, setting up two targets and using a sword in between and in front of them to cut the bullet and strike both targets accurately, being able to fire sixty rounds from ten revolvers and put every shot into a four inch circle in 17 seconds—picking up and putting down each revolver in succession, firing eight rounds from a revolver in 1.00 timed seconds (480rpm—matching a machinegun's rate of fire!) with all rounds hitting the target, and many, many more. It should also be pointed out that these shooters practice daily, going through tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition per year, and are the absolute top masters of their respective field at an Olympic level of skill. Look up folks like Bill Munden, Ed Cantrell, Elmer Keith, Jerry Miculek, or Rob Leatham for starts...or, for that matter, Annie Oakley.
** The Discovery Channel series ''Time Warp'' aired an episode titled "Sharpshooter", which featured (among others) super-slow motion photography of a professional rifle shot shooting at and hitting an ordinary playing card ''edge on''! Granted, it took him a couple shots before he hit the card, but the feat seems to be at least in the running for being a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_McGivern Ed McGivern]] was the living embodiment of this trope. In addition to five shots at five yards into a silver dollar in 45/100ths of a second (with a stock DA revolver), he could shoot six hand-thrown clays, centerpunch washers, fire revolvers akimbo at separate targets with equal effectiveness, and score hits at 600 yards (again, with a stock revolver). In one chapter of his book, he says (paraphrased), "anyone can do this. I pulled it off by standing in a field in Montana and burning up 30,000 rounds to master this one trick (shooting aerial targets)."
* Getting away from handguns and shotguns, three notable sniper shots: the legendary Carlos Hathcock, 2,286 meters, the current record set by Rob Furlong, 2,430 meters. The difficulty of these long ranges is pointed out by the facts like Furlong's shot, at a moving target, took 4 seconds to go from the gun and had a bullet drop of about 146 feet. Beating even that was Royal Marine Matt Hughes. Although his shot at an Iraqi sentry was a relatively short 860 meters, the gale-force crosswind meant his bullet curved 56 feet ''sideways''.
** [[http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hayha Simo Häyhä.]] Of particular note is that Häyhä did all of his work ''without a scope''. Yeah. The greatest sniper in history used only ''iron sights''. He may not have matched other snipers in sheer range, but you have got to respect a sniper so skilled he hunted with only a pair of very fine-tuned bits of metal telling him where his shots were going to go.
** Rifleman Thomas Plunket. In 1809, using a black powder rifle over an open sight, he shot a French general dead at a range of 500 meters. Then he shot the first man to come to the general's aid, just to prove it wasn't a lucky shot.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_%22Billy%22_Dixon Billy Dixon.]] He and a group of Bison hunters were defending the settlement of Adobe Walls from Comanches. Dixon, armed with a Sharps rifle, knocked a Comanche off his horse at a surveyed range of 1,538 yards.
** Military snipers in general. US Army snipers average one ''confirmed'' kill for every 1.78 bullets fired. Add in the ''probable'' kills, and the accuracy goes up to one kill for every 1.32 bullets fired.
* Not that shooting guns [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu3pGYwb__0&feature=related out of people's hands]] can be done, but it's just too {{awesome but impractical}} to use.
** The comment of the guy who'd just had the gun shot out of his hand as the police wrestled him to the ground? [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "That was a great shot!"]]
* An old man, who's name escapes this troper, has actually imitated Robin Hood's arrow splitting shot almost to a tee, the only difference being that the arrow that was being targeted was pushed through the bull's-eye instead of split in twain. WAS IT MENTIONED THAT THE GUY IS ELDERLY?
** This happens all the time in competitive archery. It's considered good form to pay for someone's arrow if you hit it end on (known as "Robin Hooding", of course).
** This troper's brother was in competitive archery. Another term for it is "telescoping". Since modern arrow are mostly either carbon fiber or aluminum tubes, a "Robin Hood" shot will make the second arrow "telescope" into the first.
* During an eight hour battle between US Marines and Taliban fighters, a Marine marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn't miss any shots, despite the enemies' rounds [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy impacting within a foot]] of his fighting position.
* The memoir ''Sniper One'' tells of the exploits of a UK sniper platoon in Al-Amarah, one of the most dangerous, and least-known, battlefield cities in the Iraq War. They have a number of feats such as these. Expecially when they get their hands, briefly, on a .50 calibre anti-tank rifle.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ieWrWLjii0 The Beanshooter Man.]] That is all.

[[/folder]]

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