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Errant Bullet Travels 1.5 Miles, Kills Amish Girl
WLWT ^ | 12:01 pm EST December 20, 2011 | WLWT

Posted on 12/20/2011 9:38:28 AM PST by TSgt

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To: Stonewall Jackson; mamelukesabre; Eric in the Ozarks
Don’t forget that buffalo hunter William Dixon killed a Comanche warrior at 1,500 yards with an aimed shot during the Second Battle of Adobe Walls while using a black powder Sharps buffalo rifle.

I wasn't aware that a Sharps Rifle was a Muzzle-loader, I thought it was a breech-loading black powder cartridge rifle. If that's the case, then I'd say we're still dealing with apples and oranges here.

61 posted on 12/20/2011 10:17:38 AM PST by Avalon Hussar
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To: PowderMonkey

Someone brought me a pistol that had sat for years loaded. I made a grease fitting with the same threads as the nipple and shoved the load out with a grease gun.


62 posted on 12/20/2011 10:18:14 AM PST by CrazyIvan (Obama's birth certificate was found stapled to Soros's receipt.)
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To: IamConservative

this is a black powder firearm. If it is a brown bess firing a 3/4” lead ball, it is probably lethal in freefall. If it is a ten gauge black powder shotgun firing a .775” diameter lead ball, it is probably lethal in freefall.


63 posted on 12/20/2011 10:19:04 AM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: mamelukesabre

My friends who play with front stuffers (flint lock Hawkens guns) don’t use plastic sabots (they’re purists).


64 posted on 12/20/2011 10:20:14 AM PST by PowderMonkey (WILL WORK FOR AMMO)
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To: Fantasywriter

Some of the worst offenders of gun basics that I have seen are Cops.

Its amazing that some people can be so stupid.
I saw one ahole shooting in the river with a rifle upsream toward a bridge.
I called him on it and he declared he was a Cop and he knew what he was doing “I’m shooting the water, not the bridge!”
I said have you ever skipped a stone numbnuts?


65 posted on 12/20/2011 10:20:42 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: CrazyIvan

Hydraulics! Smart!


66 posted on 12/20/2011 10:21:57 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

I agree. I don’t think it would be able to travel that far. It seems it would arc and lose a great deal of power before going that far.
I find this unbelievable.


67 posted on 12/20/2011 10:22:35 AM PST by Mortrey (Impeach President Soros)
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To: PowderMonkey

then they use a cloth patch.

same difference.


68 posted on 12/20/2011 10:23:05 AM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: PowderMonkey
People who use black powder "front stuffers" (muzzle loaders) used to have only one way to clear the weapon if loaded: firing it.

And if you forget to put a powder charge in behind your ball?

There has always been a way to unload a muzzle loader without firing. It's called a worm. It screws onto the end of your ramrod and you use it to pull the ball.


69 posted on 12/20/2011 10:24:41 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius; mamelukesabre

A patched round ball does not have rifling marks - the marks are on the patch that drops off a short distance in front o the rifle.

A saboted round also does not have rifling marks - marks are on the sabot just like the patched round ball.

A slug round operates on the minnie ball principle and will have the rifling marks.


70 posted on 12/20/2011 10:28:18 AM PST by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: Retired COB

Uhhh... All bullets drop with the same acceleration (9.8m/s^2). In fact, neglecting air resistance, if you fired a bullet horizontally and dropped another simultaneously, they would hit the ground at the same time. If your rifle is about 4’10” off the ground and horizontal (1.5 meters), ANY bullet you fire will hit the ground about .55s after it is fired (once again neglecting air resistance, sloped ground, etc.). The primary difference in their ballistic performance, aside from air resistance, is the horizontal speed (which determines how far they get in that .55s).

Now, obviously, we can’t ignore air resistance. But when you consider that (just doing the math) a muzzle-loader with a muzzle velocity of about 420 m/s held at 45 degrees from horizontal has a theoretical maximum range of ~57,500 ft (or 10.8 miles), even if we divide that distance by 4 or 5 to account for air resistance, we can still get 1.5 miles pretty easily...


71 posted on 12/20/2011 10:28:31 AM PST by Charles H. (The_r0nin) (Hwaet! Lar bith maest hord, sothlice!)
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To: Stonewall Jackson

Yes, who could forget that!

(At least I know what the battle of Adobe Walls was, where and who.)


72 posted on 12/20/2011 10:30:25 AM PST by SuzyQue (Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.)
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To: Cicero

I found myself wondering if a jilted teenage “suitor” had been riding along...got out...shot her...and walked away.

The suspicious mind does wander...

=8-|


73 posted on 12/20/2011 10:30:38 AM PST by =8 mrrabbit 8=
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To: TSgt

Mile and a half? Sorry...do not believe this....manslaughter or negligible homicide or something similar should be what happens.


74 posted on 12/20/2011 10:30:52 AM PST by Ecliptic
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To: Yo-Yo; PowderMonkey

This is a patch puller not a ball puller.

75 posted on 12/20/2011 10:31:10 AM PST by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 119:174 I long for Your salvation, YHvH, Your law is my delight.)
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To: verga
There’s no way to know the shot came from THAT firearm. Someone needs to watch an episode or two of CSI

And as someone who has shot firearms all my life, I am telling you that CSI is BULLSH*T if they portray "bullet-matching" techniques as applicable to muzzle-loading arms. It is hard enough to get a bullet fragment from a rifle to match the barrel; usually the only recourse is neutron activation or other mass spectrographic technique.

Furthermore: I doubt most people on FR even realize that black powder arms ARE NOT FIREARMS, at least by the FedGov's definition.

76 posted on 12/20/2011 10:31:10 AM PST by backwoods-engineer (Any politician who holds that the state accords rights is an oathbreaker and an "enemy... domestic.")
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
"Who in the Hell "cleans" a gun by firing it?"

Only people who shoot black powder firearms.

The gun MUST be fired before the bore can be cleaned...a messy operation.

77 posted on 12/20/2011 10:31:37 AM PST by diogenes ghost
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To: IamConservative

NRA did a much more exhaustive study during WWII. Bullets fired straight up,, something like 80% tumble and fall presenting very little hazard. The other 20% maintain their spin and return to earth base first,, still spinning,, and are deadly.

And anything fired from around 45 degrees angle,, returns to earth at etreme range, very close to muzzle velocity.


78 posted on 12/20/2011 10:32:44 AM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: Yo-Yo

The worm is used for cleaning - and retrieving lost patches - not for bullet pulling.

Here is the screw.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/115714/cva-black-powder-bullet-puller-50-caliber


79 posted on 12/20/2011 10:33:06 AM PST by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: TSgt

I once saw an article in a gun magazine on maximum range of bullets. The only one I remember was the .22LR would not quite make a mile despite the warnings on the box, also that most pistol bullets had a very short maximum range.

I am pretty sure tho that some of the big heavy lead bullets had a surprisingly long range. I don’t doubt that the story is correct. A lot of things affect range such as wind direction and speed.


80 posted on 12/20/2011 10:34:01 AM PST by yarddog
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