[Tree of Liberty]

Clearly this guy has training

A few afternoons at the range, maybe. Shooting at 200yds. with iron sights is easily attainable and repeatable with a few sessions of target practice. Doing the same with a zeroed in scope is near childs play.

[Route66]

Even if we concede that these guys don't have to be professional marksmen, you've got to admit they seem to be awfully good at remaining invisible.

It looks like we now have 8 shootings with 7 victims over 2 days and we still have no solid leads or witnesses. There has been a great deal of speculation on this board about how these guys are accomplishing this (much of it excellent, I might add), but we still don't really know. They are very good or very lucky.

[OKSooner]

Hell, he's probably shooting prone off a rest from the back of that cargo truck. I can tell you that shooting something the size of a person at 100m is not difficult, at least when you're shooting at paper. The mechanics of the shot wouldn't be problematic.

Stable shooting position, and low profile. Probably has some kind of tarp or something lowered down to all but the lowest foot or two of the door to keep him concealed even when he's opened the door to shoot.

BTW, how difficult is it for the forensics lab to determine if an empty cartridge was fired from a self-loading gun or a bolt gun? Gas marks, extractor marks, chamber dimensions, etc? For example, I recall that certain HK rifles have fluted chambers and leave longitudinal lines on the cartridge. Do other types of rifles leave telltale signs of that kind?

[RISU]

I disagree with your notion that it could be "amateur". It takes a certain kind of detachment to line up five targets from widely seperated stances over a many hours period. Whoever is shooting has not only good skill with the weapon, but detachment that comes from training and a stance that is strucuture to avoid detection. I don't see this as a "let have some fun" type of crime. This one was planned, and is being well exceuted.