Posted on 01/27/2017 6:49:02 AM PST by w1n1
Remember watching the old western movies that has the good guy cutting a rope with a gun, resulting in saving an innocent bystander and the day? Can the good guys really do that? Well, Jerry Miculek Youtuber set out for this task to see if its a myth or facts.
In the video Jerry talks about using the pistol, rifle and the rope to mimic the time frame from these western movies, here’s what he used:
-Used Sisal 3/4 inch rope as this was the norm back in the old western days. -This rope is placed on a manniquin with 200 pound of weight at the bottom to maintain tension. -Colt single action .45 pistol. Fired at the rope and did not cut the rope. -Bring in a bigger gun, 74 Shadow Sharps 4570 rifle which shoots a 500 grain round nose (smokeless load).
The Results
-With the .45 pistol, it only scratched the rope and did not cut it. -With the Shadows rifle 500 grain no problem cutting the rope in half and saving the manniquin. As an extra bonus Jerry decides to pull out a .50 Cal BMG to represent the present day hombre and proceeds to cut the rope in half. However, the shot was a little off to the side and there was not enough tension on the rope. Ending story mannequin was laid to rest. You still gotta see this gun myth in action here.
Nor does shooting at the E-stop on an Unstoppable locomotive. I thought they should have shot the fuel tanks instead.
Better to just shoot the hangman and then cut the rope with a knife.
Ah, there was a trick to the red dot cards though. If you try to cover the dot with holes it will never work, but if you shoot a circle of holes around the red dot, then you can win it.
In modern times, the effect is replicated in shotguns with the use of bolo shells, a pair of slugs connected by a strong wire. They are banned in several jurisdictions.
This suggests that if you want to split a rope, it might be done, but with a shotgun, not a rifle or pistol.
Un busted the myth, he cut the rope with a 45 70.
Two more Hollywood myths:
#1: The robber puts the strong box on the ground by his feet. Shoots the lock and it snaps open. WRONG! Many guns of that era used 100% pure SOFT lead. The projectile would splatter with fragments flying everywhere after hitting the lock, including the robber’s leg. The lock would most likely be damaged to the point of jamming up the internal works, thereby never opening again.
Even if the projectile were made of a harder alloy, the lock would likely still be damaged to the point of never opening & the projectile would ricochet.
#2: Two prisoners shackled together shoot the chain in two. Similar results as above.
I have a collection of pistols and rifles of that general era. For example, shooting a .44 cal pistol at a 1/4” steel plate does cause the round to splatter. It may leave a dent though, depending on the charge & range. A .58 cal leaves a huge dent, but still splatters.
Fun
In a range hanging, I guess it was typical to just hang on by the neck till he slowly strangled to death, but the perpetrator struggling would move the rope around making it a quite difficult feat of shooting. Execution hanging I do believe the goal was to drop the perpetrator quickly to the end of the rope and snapping the neck or in some cases of miscalculated drop distance vs the perpetrator’s weight decapitating the perp entirely. I the latter method shooting the rope would have to be done before the drop to save the perp, however in this case the rope is loose rather than taunt and would not have the weight factor to help separate the rope on bullet impact. The whole thing seems quite improbable in real vs static testing.
Total nonsense.....Gene Autry, Roy Rogers or Hopalong Cassidy would have done it with a six-shooter....from horseback, while moving!!!
...Over the shoulder, at 500 yards!!
Three things.
First, if the hanging is done correctly, by the time there is weight on the rope so you can shoot through it, it’s too late, the neck will snap immediately.
Second, In the movie “Quick and the Dead”, the protagonist as a young girl is handed a gun by the bad guy and told she can save her father by shooting through the hanging rope. She misses and shoots him in the head. Now that’s something that would hard to live with, I imagine.
Third, I would think it better to shoot the rope where it is wrapped around the post or limb, so it has a backing. That should work before the weight is applied. And the splintering wood might actually help with cutting the rope.
Now, now....you're exaggerating !!!
Youtuber?
Does this writer have any idea who Jerry Miculek is?
Does this writer have any idea who Jerry Miculek is?
LOL. I think that would be no, no he does not.
that is the trick. I did that once at a carnival in front of a bunch of Spanish gang bangers and left their mouths agape.Won a big stuffed dog.
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