I do it all the time... 
using my 1928 Thompson!
Don't you believe him. He uses 'toon bullets! Now I... 
on the other hand, use a real tommygun.
Posted on 02/11/2008 6:30:41 AM PST by Vor Lady
All of you FR shootists, I have a question for you: Would it be possible/likely to INTENTIONALLY graze a man's head without killing him, shooting at night in a wind, with no scope using an 1870's rifle? Supposedly the person making this shot was a Civil War trained sharp shooter. The target is moving into the light of a wind blown campfire when he is shot. I say this is hard to believe. Can any of you shooters give me your two cents? Oh, this is fiction for a western someone is writing.
You are right; thanks!
I didn't mean to imply that Hathcock was not telling the whole truth, but there can be and often are many a slip between the cup and lip to quote an old adage, and sometimes war stories become exaggerated over time through no fault of the original storyteller. In any case, it is an amazing story if all the details are correct.
Plug in ‘Adobe Walls’ into Google and check out the story of a buffalo hunter named Dixon.
He took out an indian at somewhere around 1500yds.
He was using a buffalo rifle, possibly a Sharps 50-90.
It broke a siege of the trading post at Adobe Walls, Tx.
Dixon claimed it was a lucky shot but he won accolades.
I’m hoping to visit the spot this year. Don’t ask me why, there’s nothing there but a marker but I’m fascinated with the story.
Found it on Google Earth and have it plugged into my GPS. Ready to go!
http://www.oldwestlibrary.com/OWL/adobewalls.htm
Back to your question.
The bullet would have to hit within about 1/4 inch laterally.
That distance one way would be a miss, the other way crushed skull.
Very, very unlikely. Not believable IMHO.
I do it all the time... using my 1928 Thompson!
Don't you believe him. He uses 'toon bullets! Now I... on the other hand, use a real tommygun.
LOL! Great profile page.
With an 1874 Sharps and a rear tang and a leveler on the front sight, it’s possible but not probable. The Sharps is accurate out to 1000 yards on a clear day with minimal wind.
At night by a fire, better put up a paper dummy; a real person would be, well, a real dummy!
I imagine they have MPs trained as snipers, the Air Force has such Security Police Snipers. MP is not considered a combat position, even though it is.
Of course things get morphed in the transmission. "Sniper" could have actually been "Marksman", "Sharpshooter", or "Expert" shooter. For the Army and Marines, Marksman is the lowest shooting qualification, Sharpshooter is in the middle and Expert is the highest.
I tend to believe Dixon and the hunters who were with him because a Sharps Big Fifty was certainly capable of making the shot, a man size target is visible to the naked eye at that range, and buffalo hunters had to be expert shots or they didn't last long at the job. But I guess nobody will ever know for certain either way now that all the people involved have been dead for over 3/4 of a century or more. I am going to go on believing Billy Dixon did what he said he did until somebody proves him wrong.
you are back here for Wench Kissin' Night!
I’ll write that in my planner. LOL!
I didn’t realize there was a controversy about the incident.
Still want to check the place out.
BTW, I witnessed a very lucky shot one time.
Me and several friends were in the Everglades w/ .22’s.
One friend took a shot at a flying bird, holding the rifle down at his waist. The bird was at least 100yds. away.
He hit it!
Wow, your buddy was either very good or very lucky. If he was shooting from the hip I have to believe it was mostly luck.
I also made a very, very lucky shot once when I took a rifle shot at a flying red shouldered hawk. I was hunting rabbits in SW Florida near the eastern Myakka State Park boundary line quite a few years ago with my grandfather's single shot bolt action .22 when I heard a hawk screeching and saw him about 50 or 60 yards away diving down fast toward a deep ditch where I guess he saw a frog or something else he wanted to eat. Without hardly thinking about what I was doing, which was and still is a federal crime, I threw up the little rifle like I was mounting a shotgun and led him like I was shooting a dove with a shotgun. To my utter surprise he folded up and fell like a rock.
I became afraid then that I might get caught with the dead hawk so I threw him into a high palmetto patch and went on with the rabbit hunt. I knew none of my shooting buddies would believe me, but another guy who was with me but had been hunting a little further down the road heard the rifle shot and just managed to look around in time to see the hawk falling. Back at the office the next day he swore to everybody that what I told them was true. I bet I couldn't do that again in a hundred years, but by gollygosh I did it once and it had to be just sheer luck because I'm just an average wingshot with a shotgun.
Hmmmm, I hope the statute of limitations has expired on that federal crime or else I may get a visit from the feds.
Where is Myakka SP? I used to hunt off Jane’s Scenic Drive. A little fishing around Everglades City, Sailing around Cape Sable and Nest Key. A lot of sailing in the Upper Keys.
Folks who wear a Bull Shirt are widely known show the greatest skill in whatever endeavor, regardless of their ineptitude when otherwise attired.
When I'm wearing my Bull Shirt, I routinely catch 30lb bluegills in even the smallest stream!
It's all Bull Shirt.
LOL! I’ll mention that to the other writer, maybe she will add that in...;)
Female Army sniper? No, but designated marksman, possibly.
Intentional graze at any range would be highly unlikely even with todays greater technologies.
Wind, target movement, heat/light mirage, innate accuracy of a combat weapon of that era, sight error (sights tend to shoot toward the light source due to reflective phenomenon) with varying light conditions would make it likley impossible. In fact, if the shooter was in near total darkness, he would not likley even be able to make out his sights unless very close to the source. A graze that was intended to hit, yes, happens all the time, but the scenario you describe is rather implausable.
Let’s take it one step futher-using todays M24 Sniper weapon of the US Army- shooter can usually hold to 1 minute of angle (1 inch per hundred yards range), the rifle can hold approx 1 minute, match/sniper ammo can do about 1 minute, so at say, 200 yards you would expect a shot to be somewhere within 2-3 inchs of the desired impact point (root sum of sqaure errors). Clearly greater than 75% probability of a “kill”, assuming a “hit” .5” into the target would be lethal, vice less than 25% likelyhood of a miss(.15” or 1/2 a bullet diameter, assumming a .30 cal, to “graze”).
Remember, fiction has to make sense, whereas reality does not....
I have hunted deer down in Big Cypress Swamp back in the 1960s. I saw some decent size bucks but never got a chance for a good shot at anything but a spike buck, and I didn't want to fill my ticket with him.
I also saw bear sign on the cabbage palms in that swamp, and I heard a panther scream not too far away several times late one night while I was camped down in that area. That's a blood curdling sound when you're sleeping out in the open at 2 AM, and something you never forget!
On purpose? No.
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