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.
I am so sad. I pray for her faamily.
Female stole buggy, shot in self-defense and defense of property.
Amish cover up I say.
There seem to be unanswered questions here.
Most obviously, you would clear a gun by firing it into a backstop, not firing it into the air. Sure, that would be unlikely to hit anything in the country, but you still shouldn’t take the chance.
Second, is it possible for a muzzle loader to shoot more than a mile? It seems unlikely, but I don’t know for sure.
Third, have they done ballistic checks? Does the bullet match the muzzle loader?
Finally, we only have this guy’s word for where he fired from. I should think that, if the ballistics match, they should check that out, too. Did he fire it from where he said he fired it? Might he have fired it from somewhere closer? Does the wound, and its angle, suggest a spent bullet?
I like your answer..but could it have happened? Or is there something a-miss here?
The easiest way to remove the load is to fire it.
Otherwise you have to use a screw and try and screw it into to bullet and pull it out of the muzzle, or you can try and put an air hole on the nipple and try and blow it out.
You’re right.
And firing a rifle to clean it?
Maybe times have changed, but I was taught that firing a rifle requires it to be cleaned. To think of all that time I could have saved...
Sometimes the best plan is to say nothing.
Black powder? 1.5 mi?
Sounds unlikely
A muzzle loader going a mile and a half?
Hitting a girl in the head?
The odds are off the scale.
What gives it away, the fact that they're rebuking you by referencing a television show or the fact that they did so sincerely and fully believing that what they see on television is in any way, shape, form or fashion a reflection of the truth?
I learned quick, fast and in a hurry that TV programming only has a passing acquaintance with the Truth and then only enough to attempt to discredit it; the print media is even worse, especially those who claim to be "unbiased" and "factual".
Exactly.
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'm sure he knew that all guns are always loaded.
That did not help however.
Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to useNRA Gun Safety Rules will keep you safer :
Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction
no. There is a plastic sabot
The Mythbusters did an episode on free falling bullets. IIRC, they concluded that a bullet shot straight up would not be lethal on a free fall trajectory, but, I believe they did conclude that a bullet returning to the earth in a normal trajectory could be lethal. The primary difference being a free fall bullet would be tumbling and have less velocity where as a bullet returning on trajectory would likely still be spinning and have greater velocity.
Still, in this case, I suspect we may hear more to this story. It seems too improbable to me for a black powder projectile, even a sabot, to carry this far. Suppose the wind would need factored in, but still....
plastic sabots on the rifled ones.
Maybe times have changed, but I was taught that firing a rifle requires it to be cleaned. To think of all that time I could have saved...
You, like most of us, were taught how to clean a breach-loading rifle. Muzzleloaders are a whole different beast and can't be cleaned in the same way a breach-loader can be cleaned.
Believe me, I’m reading every single comment, trying to sort all this out. It’s amazing the level of expertise FReepers bring to such subjects.
I still find it hard to believe the guy fired in the air, or whatever, w’out knowing where the round might go. I was raised by a huge, massive, mega-gun loving/owning father, and he would have kicked this guy’s butt so bad he’d need pillows to sit down on for a month.
As always, a news article about a firearm is woefully lacking in information.
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