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 just read about tho in our local paper.It s very sad but I am relieved to hear it was an accident and not someone targeting a buggy like thy wondered at first.
Terrible.
When I read about this this morning they hadn’t determined the source of the projectile.
This is stupid on the part of the shooter. Firing a weapon without having a clue where that projectile is going is inexcusable to me.
Let’s try that again....I just read about this in our local paper.It is very sad but I am relieved to hear it was an accident and not someone targeting a buggy like they wondered about at first.
Sad, and stupid.
As an aside, I never thought of muzzle loaders as being able to fire that far.
The Arabs do it all the time in the Middle East. That’s how they celebrate.
sorry, not buying it.
There’s no way to know the shot came from THAT firearm.
Basic rule of firearms safety. Know where the damn round is going.
This MORON ought to be barred from ever owning another firearm. He VIOLATED one of the cardinal rules by firing into the air with NO idea where the projectile would land. Geezz...Tragic!
Make sure of your backstop. Some guy in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn was shooting at sharks, using the Belt Parkway as a backstop and the inevitable happened.
I remember seeing a story on City Confidential (iirc) where a young man was killed by a shot “out of nowhere”. Turned out some idiot was playing Rambo at a nearby shooting range and fire wildly over the backstop and killed the poor guy.
BTW, I am not sure that it was an accident, he might have been tempted to see if he could hit a moving target a mile and a half away. Who in the Hell “cleans” a gun by firing it?
She'd have probably been safer if he had been aiming at her ...
Some of those discarding sabot loads will go a long,long way.
They didn’t charge him because they expect him to take the fall.
And TWA Flight 800 was an explosion (of convenience)
Why would you try to clean it while it’s loaded? I think the author of this article knows little about how to clean a gun. Something is amiss here. This sad story makes little sense. Think of all of the mathetmatical possibilities that would have to coincide for this tragedy to occur.
If I was the local constabulary I'd be seriously looking into it.
As an aside, I've seen a lot of Amish people over the years, but have not ever seen a buggy being driven by one of their females....just sayin'.
Want to think that one through again?
Time line!
And how, pray tell, can you make that determination?
My .50 cal round ball rifle won’t approach 1,500 feet, let along 5,280.
Yes there is. They have the bullet, they have the gun. Ballistics fingerprinting would be quite simple.
Ping, because you might be interested.
Tragic, terrible story. Prayers for the family.
I clear my gun by firing it into a target. Or a deer. Or, if none are available, I will dump water down the barrel of my muzzleloader with a turkey baster until it comes out the nipple in a black slushy ooze.......firing it over the trees is reprehensible and preventable. He should be charged with manslaughter.
How else does one unload a muzzle loader?
Still, not to be certain of your backstop is negligent.
Same here, perhaps it was a sabot load in a magnum in-line.
To fire a rifle into the air,,,,, stupid and irresponsible.
Well let me see if you have your rifle pointing up in the air at the right angle it is possible to travel a ways. Shooting straight at a target at a range would be different.
no it wouldn’t. there’s no rifling marks on a black powder slug
This is an inexcusable violation of firearms safety rules and the shooter should pay a hefty price.
In a non life threatening situation, it is criminal to purposely discharge a firearm without knowing trajectory and backstop.
black powder firarms don’t leave rifling marks on the projectile.
Jeez, when it’s your time, it’s your time...just wow.
Someone needs to watch an episode or two of CSI
want to think yours through again?
someone is ignorant of black powder
Call me skeptical, but I'm not convinced that a black powder rifle could do this.
I agree. I have a hard time believing that a black powder rifle can reach that far, even under perfect conditions.
With muzzle velocity in the neighborhood of, what... 1500 fps or so? At 200 yards it’s likely shed about half of it’s energy and it’s going down quick. Fired at a 45 degree angle, I doubt it would reach beyond 800 yards, and at any rate at that point it is merely falling with gravity with little if any momentum left. A falling bullet is orders of magnitude less lethal.
I suspect that there’s something not reported here, or misreported. In any case, I suppose, it’s a bizarre and wildly unlikely circumstance and very sad indeed for the girl.
Uh, they do if it’s a rifle, and the first line says “a muzzle-loading rifle”. A smooth bore you would be right, but muzzle loading rifles sure do leave rifling marks.
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.
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