Posted on 10/24/2002 4:13:49 PM PDT by Earl B.
The DC sniper was supposedly using a "Bushmaster" rifle, but I have seen very little info describing what a Bushmaster rifle is.
Is this it:
To me, it looks like a rather "normal" military-type rifle, of the type that an infantryman might carry in the field. To my untrained eye, it doesn't look like a specialized "sniper" rifle.
More information can be found at this web page.
Note that it does fire the .223 caliber round. Anyone else want to expand on this?
Well, I know that the distance these shots were taken at are perfectly reasonable distances for just about ANY .223 rifle ever made.
While I have no way to know if THIS is in face THE rifle used, there's no need to expect to see something special. These shots were nothing that anyone couldn't make with 15 minutes of training
They have many models, in a number of different configurations. There are a wide variety of after-market accessories to customize the rifle.
The main thing to note is that it looks like an "assault weapon", although every new rifle sold to consumers by Bushmaster (and others) do not meet that legal criteria in federal law. However, if a flash suppressor was added (as has been reported), that may tip it into violating that law.
It IS NOT a sniper rifle by most definitions. Its ideal range is within 300 meters, although it will certainly kill out to 800 in skilled hands. But most military sniper rifles are larger in caliber (and higher-powered) because heavier bullets tend to retain more of their energy further downrange than lighter (62-gr in most military issue these days, 55-gr originally, and that's still the most popular civilian distribution) bullets.
The model pictured has a rather large scope and a bipod, which put it in a longer-range configuration in terms of target acquisition but it doesn't shoot any further or any more accurately because of that. Personally I don't see a bipod on a rifle like that because of weight and I don't use a scope that large because lower-power scopes are faster in acquisition and perfectly adequate for normal engagement ranges for that caliber. Just IMHO. The Bushmaster's a fine piece but it ain't no Buck Rogers deathray.
But you can already see the way the presstitutes are going to play this. It won't be an anti-social Farrakhan supporting extreme muslim who cheered September 11. It's going to be a crazed Persian Gulf veteran who got his hands on a military assault rifle because of those dastardly Republicans blocking gun control.
After all, a poor black muslim man, likely a fairy, with mental problems caused by his military service in the EVIL Gulf War who was shooting other people of color out of hate for them, simply couldn't be responsible for the murders. It was the EVIL gun that killed these people. His illegal alien underage friend simply couldn't be involved, either. It was the gun that did it!! And, we have to do something about such guns so this never happens again!!
Could the media or leftists ever have envisioned a worse possible killer? They wanted, they expected, they required a white, Christian, right-wing killer who belonged to the Republican party and the NRA and had a swastika tatooed on one shoulder and "God bless Ronald Reagan" on the other. How can they live with this? How can they continue to cover what they have so long avoided? Black perps are seldom covered. Fairy perps, never. Jamaicans? Hell, they are all down in Florida voting for democrats. Illegal Jamaicans are never covered. No, it was the EVIL gun!!
If that page was an advertisement for what the "sniper" did then every article related to the accuracy of a firearm must be an advertisement to go out and commit mass murder.
Btw, you could most likely make all the shots the sniper made with a civil war musket.
Don't the Demonscraft wish!
55 in Senate and and 223 in the house! Go "Pubs"!!!
The media is beginning to talk about how the car was specially fitted out so the sniper could lie prone with the trunk lid shut and fire through a hole in the metal of the car.
It has been a while since I fired an M-1, but it just seems to me that a round fired in such a confined space would cause an awful lot of noise, shock and recoil.
Any comments? Is such a set up plausable?
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