Ring the New Year with a Bang

[pdentrem]

Went down to the indoor range last night and a buddy and I rang in the New Year. Used my WW2 1911A1 with its worn out barrel and had some FUN!

It is no race gun, but I am happy with the outcome. One of my best evenings in a long long time. Target number 2 has the result of Ruger MkII below the bull.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[Highpower]

Happy New Year to you as well! And thank you for the wisdom of doing so at a proper range. Which reminds me......

I need to go outside and check all my property for bullet holes. :angry::angry::angry:
I really hate to say it - but some of my fellow citizens....... nah, never mind.

 

[pdentrem]

New Years here was not too bad as the fireworks appeared to be legal ones.

It is too bad that people will continue to believe that shooting into the air is safe! It is not safe! Recently a girl was killed by a muzzleloader that had been fired about a mile away. The shooter was clearing his smokepole by shooting in the air instead of using his worm to remove the charge. Unfortunately the people that should read this will not see it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...uggy-in-ohio/2011/12/20/gIQABz7w6O_story.html

I am one of the range officers for our club and the rules are very simple. These are our top 3. There are more but these covers 99%.

1 Every gun is loaded unless proven so to all people there.

2 Do not point your gun at anything you wish to not shoot or kill.

3 Always point the barrel down range and not in any other direction.

 

[ScrapMetal]

I heard about that shooting. I have my doubts about a muzzleloader being lethal at a mile though. It would be nice to have a little more detail at least.

In any case, as has been said, it is never safe to "shoot up in the air".

-Ron

 

[pdentrem]

In Hatcher's Notebook, he wrote up an article about shooting into the air and what was the outcome. In testing 30-06 Springfield, which the US Army was using at the time, it was determined that the returning billets were moving about 300 fps which "could" be lethal but they were tumbling as well so it was difficult to prove for sure at the time. My box of 22 RF says dangerous to 1.5 miles. Legal speak?


All I know is that using indirect fire and beaten zone methods, long range plunging fire can be deadly. The police are testing the rifle so we will hear indue time if it was true or not. Still a sad story.

 

[Hawkeye]

Mythbusters did some testing that showed that shooting into the air was unlikely to be fatal because the fastest a bullet could be going was normal gravitational terminal velocity. In the case of a muzzleloader (my opinion, now), the calibre could be much larger than a standard hunting rifle - .50 to .75. A 3/4" chunk of lead falling at terminal velocity could do serious damage.

In the army, we were taught to clear any firearm handed to us (as were all of you). I was visiting some friends a few years ago and was given three firearms to look over and give an opinion. They had been my friend's dad's and my friend knew nothing about such things. A shotgun, a hunting rifle and a pistol. Shotgun - clear. Rifle - clear. Pistol - in a canvas holster, obviously WWII. A Luger! Cool. Pull back the linkage - loaded. You could check a thousand guns in a lifetime and never find a loaded one. That's why you always clear a firearm. Kids in the house, not locked up - recipe for disaster.

 

[ScrapMetal]

I agree Hawkeye and I saw that Mythbusters episode (one of my favorite shows). That's partially what I based my original doubts on even. Given that we don't know just what kind of muzzleloader we are talking about I can think of two different scenarios neither of which I think would result in a fatal incident. The first being the "traditional" muzzleloader with a cap (or flint) and ball, even if we maxed out the caliber at .75 (which is fairly unusual at least in this part of the woods) I'm doubtful that it could travel the distance we are told. Even if it did it's my "hunch" that at terminal velocity it would hurt something fierce if it whacked you but most likely wouldn't be fatal. The second scenario, on the other end of the scale, is the newer relatively high velocity muzzleloader with a sabot rifle round. It might go the distance but we are now talking about a basically standard jacketed rifle round with no more mass than the ones the Mythbusters tested and found to be non-lethal at terminal velocity.

I have no doubts that the poor girl was killed by a stray bullet and I would be surprised more than anyone if it turned out to be anything other than unintentional. What I do have a problem with is the details of the story which I believe were probably "tweaked" a bit to make it sound as if the shooter wasn't doing something really, really incredibly stupid. Say maybe shooting at a pigeon in a tree a couple of hundred yards from the road or something along those lines.

-Ron