...@Hueristic:
I originally said "good shot" about the 200m strike to the neck, assuming the assassin being not being a well trained shooter.
There are a few points i'd like ask you as a Marine, though:
1. Police special forces snipers (in my home country) are trained to aim for the small brain, because it takes down the victim without twitching a muscle, in case he/she is holding a gun or bomb trigger. That might be different in military tactics, where this is quite pointless.
2. How much does wind play into the precision of a 500 yard shot? How do you correct for it? Especially the direction. I assume that headwind and tailwind also have a slight effect on how much the projectile "falls" in a certain range, but that might be Millimeters. I also think that it depends a lot on the characteristics of the bullet and load/energy of the shell/powder used (speed and rotation of the projectile).
1) Sounds plausible, most cops would be taking the shot at very close range with a scope, a long gun and in the prone position not to mention the fact there are multiples of them firing at the same time.
2) We literally call that setting the windage and it helps to know it or to be able to take a test shot and then adjust of course the closer you are the less its a factor and at 200 yards its not very relevant.
AFA elevation you have a chart for your ammo/rifle range and you take that into account you also take into account if your elevation is higher or lower.
IIRC it takes about 2 weeks for a marine to learn the basics and then he is either a marksman or he is doing those 2 weeks again or going home a failure.