Top Sniper in the Korean War

Zhang Taofang is both the most famous sniper of the Korean War and a record holder for the most effective solo volunteer sniper. He was awarded the Volunteers Principle Hero, the Two Heroes Title, and the People's Republic Flag medal.

His story begins on January 11, 1953 when he spotted enemies at his position on Triangle Hill (4km north of Kimhwa) and began to fire multiple shots, missing all 12. This failled attack alerted every soldier nearby to his position as each shot a sniper takes makes it easier to find him and nearly gets himself killed. Afterwards he wisely decides to troubleshoot what he did wrong. He chose to remove the PU scope from his Mosin-Nagant and improve his accuracy by going iron sites only, this appeared to be the right strategy on Feburary 15 where he went 7/9 when shooting enemy soldiers. His most famous moment, however, was the 3 month period where it's claimed that he earned up to 241 confirmed kills with about ~325 bullets. The lowest estimation is ~70 confirmed kills. Charles Stronge, author of "Kill Shot", suggests that this was accomplished with exemplarly terrain knowledge and target stalking.

A documentary was released about Zhang Taofang, it's available on youtube in full but it is not subtitled.

Sources/Further Reading:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/video/2008-02/13/content_7595235.htm

Kevin Dockery (2007) "Stalkers and Shooters: A History of Snipers"

Charles Stronge (2011) "Kill Shot: The 15 Deadliest Snipers of All time"