[oldasrocks]

180 yards? I’ve dropped deer farther away with a 30-30 and open sights.

[Robert357]

You might be able to bag a deer at 180 yards, but this is a situation in a populated area. I have a Marlin 336 in 30-30, but the ballistics at 180 yards drop quite a bit. My Marlin is sighted in at 100 yards. I have shot at 200 yard targets, and my memory of doing that with open sites is that the entire large black bulls eye is pretty well obscured by the sights.

I thought I read that the cop had an AR red dot sight. If so they are commonly 3,5,6 or 8 MOA dots. At 200 yards a 5 MOA dot would cover about a 10 inch circle. Considering wind and a whole host of things, it would not be unthinkable that that AR might have “missed” the target depending on how the criminal was standing, as a sideways center of mass would not be all that big.

In your deer example if you missed the bullet would probably go quite a ways beyond the target into woods. In an urban setting, if the cop missed, the bullet would continue quite a ways but there could be people and houses behind the criminal.

My point was that this seemed like a bit risky in an urban setting. Again, I am glad things turned out the way they did and I hope that the officer is cleared in any use of deadly force internal investigation.

[Silentgypsy]

I’ve dropped deer farther away with a 30-30 and open sights.

However, the deer couldn't shoot back at you.