Mile and a half? Sorry...do not believe this....manslaughter or negligible homicide or something similar should be what happens.
I once saw an article in a gun magazine on maximum range of bullets. The only one I remember was the .22LR would not quite make a mile despite the warnings on the box, also that most pistol bullets had a very short maximum range.
I am pretty sure tho that some of the big heavy lead bullets had a surprisingly long range. I don’t doubt that the story is correct. A lot of things affect range such as wind direction and speed.
It may be a dumb accident but he still killed the girl through his reckless conduct.
He needs to be held accountable in some way.
This is a “depraved-heart murder” due to his gross negligence.
I am obsessive/compulsive about knowing where my bullets are going. I could never forgive myself if I accidentally shot someone. I’ve often thought that if I accidentally discharged a weapon say at a 45 degree angle up what would be the chances of hitting someone out in the woods or rural area. The odds of this happening have to be astronomical. Of course in a suburb or city it would be much more likely.
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.
I'm dubious. Projectiles from a black powder muzzle loader are big, and slow.
Very difficult buy this story. If the shooter was 1.5 miles away, how could he even know that he’d shot somebody?
Moreover, if he didn’t turn himself in to the authorities, how could the cops have traced the projectile to his rifle?
I grew up in a smallish town in Mississippi and we lived more or less on the edge of town. I remember once when I was a young boy of about nine or ten, I was playing outside when I heard a shot pretty far away. About that same time, I heard a loud buzzing object pass directly overhead maybe 10-15 feet up. Only after I thought about it years later did I realize how much danger I was in. Then many years after that was when I realized this bullet was tumbling end over end and that is what caused the buzzing sound. It must have been a ricocheted bullet. I could never join them, but I respect the Amish. I pray for this girl’s family and now I will remember her and this horrible incident forever since I came within about 3-4 meters to this fate myself.
Too, too sad.
Condolences to her family.
A MUZZLE loader?
Over a mile away?
Someone help me here.
Those numbers don’t sound right.
Violation of the ten commandments of gun saftey.
Know what your backstop is. Never shoot an unaimed shot.
Mile and a half? That seems to be a stretch.
website on max range of firearms.
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/DomnaAntoniadis.shtml
looks like around 5 miles for a 30-06
A cleaning method I was not aware of.
I suspect the term should have been "clear it."
One of the most popular NRA events is the long distance black powder competition at 800, 900 and 1,000 yards. Very accurate shooting at those distances using .45-70s and 50-80s and some other rounds.
Another competition was so tough that they moved the targets out to 1238 yards. A woman won the competition.
Black powder rifles are very capable.
The odds of this happening must be massive.
You’ve got the 360 degree horizon to match up to the point you’re having to hit something on the order of 0.00002% of a single degree.
As for elevation, the same type of dynamic comes into play.
Then you’ve got a non-rifling bore with the ball moving like a knuckle ball, varying winds on the trajectory, humidity, earth rotation, you’re wife’s current cycle... well okay that last one is iffy, but this was an unbelievable series of things that had to be just right for this guy to have hit that girl from 1.5 miles away with that sort of gun.
1.5 miles for a muzzle loader? That ain’t our great grandaddies’ muzzle loader for sure.
Judging by many of the comments here,the perfect world they wish for will likely remove the word “accident” from the English language.........
Every time I see one of these stories, I think “you can’t clean a loaded gun”....he was either incompetent (where I wish he’d just shot himself), or he was playing around....either way, he wasn’t cleaning a gun.
How did they figure this out?
If the weapon was a flintlock, I wonder if he thought it was unloaded and was flashing the pan for some reason. That could explain why he wouldn’t be aware of the muzzle direction - though it doesn’t excuse it.