Posted on 12/20/2011 9:38:28 AM PST by TSgt
FREDERICKSBURG, Ohio -- An Ohio sheriff says a man cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle accidentally shot and killed a 15-year-old Amish girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away.
Holmes County Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly said Tuesday that the accident occurred Thursday night when a man fired his loaded rifle to clean it. He says the victim, Rachel Yoder of Fredericksburg, was nearly 1.5 miles away when she was shot in the head.
No charges have been filed.
Yoder was shot while traveling to her home in adjacent Wayne County, between Columbus and Akron. She was riding alone after attending a Christmas party for employees, most under 18 years old, who work at an Amish produce farm.
True, but that was an aimed shot. This was an idiot pointing his gun up in the air and pulling the trigger. With that higher trajectory the round will have no problem traveling a further distance.
I am obsessive/compulsive about knowing where my bullets are going. I could never forgive myself if I accidentally shot someone. I’ve often thought that if I accidentally discharged a weapon say at a 45 degree angle up what would be the chances of hitting someone out in the woods or rural area. The odds of this happening have to be astronomical. Of course in a suburb or city it would be much more likely.
Holmes County Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly said Tuesday that the accident occurred Thursday night when a man fired his loaded rifle to clean it. He says the victim, Rachel Yoder of Fredericksburg, was nearly 1.5 miles away when she was shot in the head.
I'm dubious. Projectiles from a black powder muzzle loader are big, and slow.
Very difficult buy this story. If the shooter was 1.5 miles away, how could he even know that he’d shot somebody?
Moreover, if he didn’t turn himself in to the authorities, how could the cops have traced the projectile to his rifle?
I hear you! I grew up on a creek, and one of the first things Dad taught me was how bullets ricochet off the surface of water. I wish more fathers taught their kids this stuff nowadays.
However, I’m learning massive amounts from this thread alone. The info condensed in this one lone discussion is mind-boggling.
Of course I did. Just keep saying that to yourself...
Perhaps the good Dr. J. K. Sinha can settle this for us? See: http://forensicfirearmidentification.com/clch.html
I grew up in a smallish town in Mississippi and we lived more or less on the edge of town. I remember once when I was a young boy of about nine or ten, I was playing outside when I heard a shot pretty far away. About that same time, I heard a loud buzzing object pass directly overhead maybe 10-15 feet up. Only after I thought about it years later did I realize how much danger I was in. Then many years after that was when I realized this bullet was tumbling end over end and that is what caused the buzzing sound. It must have been a ricocheted bullet. I could never join them, but I respect the Amish. I pray for this girl’s family and now I will remember her and this horrible incident forever since I came within about 3-4 meters to this fate myself.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention fingerprints on the bullit, ya shyster.
Too, too sad.
Condolences to her family.
>>Very difficult buy this story. If the shooter was 1.5 miles away, how could he even know that he’d shot somebody?
Moreover, if he didn’t turn himself in to the authorities, how could the cops have traced the projectile to his rifle?<<
He probably had no idea he’s shot someone. But in farm country, a circle of 2-mile radius might only contain five to ten people, and more than likely only one or two owners of muzzleloaders. The neighbors probably could have guessed who it was if told it was a muzzleloader and an accident.
“Oh, yeah, that must have been Luke over yonder; he’s a little slow and has one of those muzzleloaders, I hear.”
Not quite the same as tracking down the shooter in a city.
By the way, another explanation for the 1.5 miles (a distance which I find hard to believe) is that he could 1.5 miles away down the road, but just over the hill and only about X yards as the crow flies. Around here, a house can be a few hundred yards from another house, but still two or three miles down the road to get to it. Just a suggestion as to another possibility...
"....use the 250-grain Partition-HG in an inline muzzleloader capable of handling three 50-grain Pyrodex Pellets. Some time back I tried that combination, and it averaged just over 2100 fps for 2475 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle".
A pointed nose 250 gr bullet (enclosed in a sabot) at 2100 fps vs a round nosed 30/30 170 gr bullet at 2200 fps, my guess is the maximum range would be about the same. I looked at a box of 30/30 rounds, but a maximum range warning was not printed on the box.
A few years ago I did see on a box of 140 gr 7mm Remington Magnum rounds a warning of a maximum range of 3 1/2 miles.
50 years ago the 22 Long Rifle rimfire warned of a maximum range of 1 mile. Today 22 Long Rifle boxes say: Dangerous to 1 1/2 miles.
Perhaps someone knows or has seen accurate information as to the maximum range of a modern muzzle loader, I have not.
Not really, I have been using one for about 15 years. Even the “smooth bores” have imperfections that can be used to make identifications.
not
A MUZZLE loader?
Over a mile away?
Someone help me here.
Those numbers don’t sound right.
See post 114
Amish - so it's a small rural community. Something this horrific and inexplicable is immediately the only news in the area, and people are doing nothing but talking about it, thinking about it, and trying to figure out what happened.
So, some guy who knows he's a mile and a half away from where it happened remembered he fired his rifle right at th time the girl was calculated to have been shot. Or - someone knew he fired it because they saw him or heard the shot. In any event, very quickly it's known who fired the rifle.
Doesn’t the wadding prevent actual contact with the rifling?
If it was a sabot round, how do you ballistically fingerprint it? The rifling marks would be in the discarded sabot. You could match powder residue, but considering there’s probably very few brands of black powder, that may not mean much.
This story may get very interesting.
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