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.
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.
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