The M1 model comes in .223, I'll let you go first...lol
Posted on 10/03/2002 11:45:15 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Though al-Qaida training videotapes and manuals captured in Afghanistan specifically show the planning of attacks on Americans in drive-by shootings, experts who have analyzed those materials are cautious about concluding the murder spree outside of Washington yesterday is connected in any way to terrorism.
The videotapes and training manuals, which show Osama lin Laden's terrorists have prepared to kill Americans with small-arms fire from trucks and vans, were first revealed in a WorldNetDaily report last month.
But John Holschen of Insights Training Center, who produced a report on the tape for military and law enforcement officials, said the rash of shootings in a small area of suburban Washington in a short period of time is unusual but not altogether unique.
"It's not inconceivable that this will turn out to be a terrorist attack," he said. However, he cautioned against jumping to any conclusions without more information.
The training video captured in Afghanistan shows al-Qaida operatives practicing the following kinds of assaults:
Skip Gouchenour, a licensed detective in Pennsylvania who has analyzed the videotape and other training materials and made a presentation on them for the Pennsylvania Detectives Association, agreed that the Maryland shooting and murder spree is very unusual.
"I'm not dismissing the possibility of a terrorist connection," he said. "It's strange, indeed."
Gouchenour specializes in investigating murder cases for district attorneys, defense attorneys, police agencies and private citizens. He says he has run across similar murder sprees in his career, but finds some of the details of this case unusual.
Police across the Washington area are searching for what they describe as "a skilled shooter" who killed five people in a random death spree beginning Wednesday night and continuing yesterday morning in Montgomery County, Md.
The shootings took place at two shopping centers, two gas stations and on the lawn outside an auto dealership along Rockville Pike. The victims were ordinary people doing ordinary things on a seemingly ordinary day.
As a result of the attacks, children were kept indoors at schools in the county.
"We do have someone that so far has been very accurate in what they are attempting to do, and so we probably have a skilled shooter," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose yesterday. Police said they are looking for a small, slightly damaged white truck that may have black lettering on the side. Witnesses to the shootings said they saw a truck matching that description leaving some of the crime scenes.
Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles said police suspect the shooter was armed with a rifle.
About 40 minutes before the first killing, a shot was fired through a window of a Michael's craft store in the 3800 block of Aspen Hill Road. No one was hurt, but Montgomery County police said they believe the incident may have been related to what followed.
The first fatal shooting occurred Wednesday night at 6 o'clock, when James Martin, 55, of Silver Spring was killed in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse at Randolph Road and Georgia Avenue in Wheaton. By yesterday morning, the stores in the area were open for business as usual. A security tape from a camera that monitors the lot had been turned over to police.
Then about 7:40 a.m., James Buchanan was pushing a lawn mower over a narrow strip of grass in front of the Fitzgerald Auto Mall on Rockville Pike when he was shot.
The next victim was Premkumar A. Walekar, a part-time cab driver. It was about 8:10 a.m., at a Mobil gas station on Aspen Hill Road at Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, when the killer struck and Walekar died pumping gas.
About 8:30 a.m., Sarah Ramos, 34, was sitting on a bench at the shopping center near the Leisure World retirement community off Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring when the killer next took aim and fired.
It was just before 10 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Kensington and Lori Lewis-Rivera, 25, was vacuuming her minivan. The station, at the corner of Knowles and Connecticut avenues in the heart of Kensington, is visible from all directions. But again the killer struck as if coming from nowhere.
Throughout the day the manhunt intensified, but as night fell there had been no arrests. Though authorities have downplayed the possibility of terrorism, the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Secret Service have all been involved in the investigation.
the info0warrior
I should note I dropped the 1/2 out of, E=1/2*m*V2 and my memory also turned what was supposed to be 5200ft/sec gas V into 3000. I think the flame temp. is ~3000o. So all the ft-lbs, except the loss of the 308 between 100 and 200 yds (32ft-lbs/10ft) should be 50% higher' or:
308 => 2708 ft-lbs
45ACP => 542 ft-lbs
22LR guess at 1gr powder => 60 ft-lbs
Since folks hear on a decibel scale though, the crack from a 308 is still of the same loudness as a 22 mblast at the same distance.
If the perp(s) is a pro, a "found" case could easily be a red herring. I think all we really know is "high-powered rifle" (possibly a TC; rifle round, at least) and five dead.
Fundamentally, we really know very, very little. Despite some excellent conjecture on the thread.
I could always tell the diff. My neighbors used to shoot along the front of my house. It's a narrow valley at that point. The rounds would pass within 16ft(8ft to the front door). I can imagine a hardwood dowl crack would be it from that distance. Even if I stood in the doorway(8ft) it still wasn't that loud, less than my daughter shooting her 22 with friends right in front.
That makes a lot of sense.
We were talking the sound of the bullets in flight as they pass nearby, not the initial muzzle sound. Shooter2.5 has experience with 223 & 308 rounds going by as a target tender.
The M1 model comes in .223, I'll let you go first...lol
I didn't realize Contenders could do 1/2 MOA - obviously they are accurate enough to do the job. That's better than most purpose built precision rifles. Maybe a T/C in 22-250? The short barrel would be exceptionally loud I would expect.
Silhouette is a game of stationary targets at known ranges, and while this guy might have used a rangefinder it's still a lot tougher to get precise hits on moving targets with a handgun than with a scoped long gun.
As you said, range finding is key, which is more of a problem for a sniper than a target shooter working on a known range. In my novel, the female shooter uses the T/C Contender in 5.56mm because it shoots flat and tends to cause people to look for a long rifle shooting man.
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