- Love it! Trekkies (and fed-up fliers) tell the TSA who’s boss. (H/T S.)
- For this couple, energy-efficiency has jumped the shark. At least they now understand and are willing to say what a pair of idiots they were to build such a house.
- Wow. That was some impressive pistol shot!
- Lyrics NSFW and hip-hop might not be to everybody’s taste. But Freedom Feen Neema Vedadi (with Mason Moore) has a way of putting freedom right in the face of a new generation: “See My Chains.” (Tip o’ hat to MD)
- If you’ve never been to the Buffalo Bill Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyoming, you might want to make a detour next time you visit Yellowstone. Unless you’re Ian McCollum, it’ll show you more than you ever wanted to know about guns and their history. I’m noting this here because the firearms museum now has its first female curator — and from her qualifications it’s clear she’s no affirmative action hire.
- Distracted and diverted from the police state. This one’s a couple of months old, but quite apropos.
- And this one’s right up to date: Christmas. Is it the most menacing time of years? Troy Senik says it is if you really listen to those song lyrics! 😉
I’m having a hard time believing the story about the guy shooting more than 300 feet on target… holding the reins of two horses, yet.
First, the story broke saying it was more than 400 YARDS, an impossible shot with most service type handguns. And I’ve read the story reporting a wild variety of distances since. I could ALMOST buy the 300 feet, except for the horses.
I’ve raised and trained horses, and never saw one that would tolerate such close association with that kind of noise. They would have ripped the reins out of his hands the instant he fired – which would do very little to keep his shot accurate, I’m thinking.
Just call me a skeptic… But if he did it, good on him.
I figured the story was true, but they were omitting the part about how actually hitting was just luck.
Aren’t cavalry horses trained to not react to gunfire?
And he shot the guy in the middle of the night!
“Aren’t cavalry horses trained to not react to gunfire?”
It depends on the training, what type of firearm the horse was trained to, and how unexpected the shot was.
I’ve raised and trained horses, and never saw one that would tolerate such close association with that kind of noise. They would have ripped the reins out of his hands the instant he fired – which would do very little to keep his shot accurate, I’m thinking.
As long as it was his first shot the bullet would be gone downrange before the horses could react.
I’d think police horses would be acclimated to shooting, like hunting dogs. At the range where I hoot deer will watch us from the 25-meter berm while we’re on the 7-yard range.
No Larry, I don’t care how you train horses, a GUN going off just a foot or so from their heads (not 25 meters) will make them insane with fear. Even if they had some sort of ear protection, that would be awful close for poor, dumb animals.
Why do we “follow through” with our guns when we shoot? When I fire the gun, the sound is effectively heard at that same instant. If I flinch then, I’m not going to hit what I’m aiming at. Terrified horses would be quite a flinch, I’d think.
Not saying it is impossible for him to have made that shot, but I have serious doubts. I’d love to see him do it again, but I wouldn’t want horses made crazy or deaf to do so.
I’ve seen police horses in noisy areas, and they had no reaction to any sound whatsoever. I kind of wonder if they choose horses that are deaf or hard of hearing to begin with?
Another thing to do at Cody, when it’s open, is to see the Old Trail Town. They found a bunch of authentic old Western buildings and set them up to show what an Old West town was like. They’ve also got the grave of Liver-Eating Johnson, the famous mountain man, and some other famous people there.
I’ve never been but I want to go.
[The purpose of a checkpoint isn’t to protect the public, but to teach them to submit to “authority.”]
Actually, the function of checkpoints is to attract incoming rounds when the revolution kicks off. See for example a favorite novel of mine (and highly recommended):
http://www.amazon.com/Neither-Predator-Prey-Mark-Spungin/dp/0615224091/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418004170&sr=8-1&keywords=neither+predator+nor+prey
[As long as it was his first shot the bullet would be gone downrange before the horses could react.]
LarryA has it right. If we take the muzzle velocity as 1200 fps (probably about right), that means the average velocity in the barrel (going from 0 to 1200) is 600 fps. That is 7200 inches per second. Assume the barrel is 5 inches long. That means the time the bullet is in the barrel is 5/7200 or 0.0007 seconds. This is far too short for horses to react before the bullet exits.
I assume follow-through is part of firearms training to prevent us from moving the sights off target *before* the sear is released, not after it – a psychological thing in a way.
As to that shot, I’m guessing a fair amount of luck was involved even if the shooter is quite good, at least shooting single handed as he did. He probably had to elevate his sights some, too. But it’s not THAT far, just over 100 yards. Hasn’t anyone else tried this? There are people who play with shooting from a standing, unsupported position, at 1000 yards – a series of stories in the old Precision Shooting magazine had someone doing it with a Freedom Arms revolver in .44 Magnum. I tried shooting a rock at 800 yards (in Worland) with a Linebaugh Ruger conversion once, it is gangs of fun because in a dusty place you can see where those big bullets hit, and they take a long time getting there.
About the Cody firearms museum, I left this comment:
—————
When the museum rescinds its “no firearms” policy (yeah, it’s as dumb as it sounds) I will visit the place. Otherwise it’s just another gun prohibitionist showplace: i.e., “guns belong only in museums”. Who needs that? This shameful policy is entirely at odds with the culture of Wyoming and with the right of self defense. Do you think Buffalo Bill would have approved?
—————
We’ll see if they print it…
Eric, I have seen that Old Trail Town. I think that was actually the original town site of Cody, when it was very small.
[Caught up in the uproar over this year’s latest hullabaloo—militarized police in Ferguson, tanks on Main Street and ISIS—Americans have not only largely forgotten last year’s hullabaloo over the NSA and government surveillance but are generally foggy about everything that has happened in between.]
You know, this kind of commentary makes me yawn. I have heard it over and over again, just another version of, “If you don’t adopt my preferred culture, it will be culture death.” Yeah, and I had to walk 5 miles to school in knee-deep snow when I was a kid, too. Sheesh!
The thing is, it took me something like 40 years to wake up. I’m not going to sneer at today’s teenagers, many of whom have already figured it out (they did have the help of the internet of course).
Off on a tangent (why can’t I go off on a cosine?), ArsTechnica on suppresors
Seems the same obvious benefit would apply to working horses, on the ranch, or elsewhere.
As I often have a complete lack of centripetal force, I found your article very interesting. Thanks, Jed. Florida happens to be one of the states where it’s legal to own but not legal to hunt with supressors. And I couldn’t find in the article that it was mentioned that the trade-off to applying for one includes giving the government permission to search for it without a warrant.
Paul, You are right about the bullet exiting the barrel too quickly for the horse to react. That occurred to me as soon as I read the first post. They did post your comment at the article about the Buffalo Bill Firearms Center curator. It generated no replies at that site, but it did generate an email from me to the museum. I asked them if it is true that somebody visiting their firearms museum was prohibited from lawfully carrying a concealed firearm, like they could almost anywhere else in the state of Wyoming. I await their reply. As far as shooting 100 yards, I do it sometimes with a 41 magnum with a 2.5″ barrel. When I am in practice I can hit a man-size target maybe 1/4 of the time. That is two-handed, without a rest. I obviously need more practice. I think God guided that man’s shot.
I got a response about the firearms policy from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (the firearms museum). It was:
Our policy is to have all firearms checked in at the security station inside the front doors of the museum. It has to do with a collections issue, not with a discussion over carry rights. Since we have an extensive collections of highly valuable firearms, we don’t want to have any confusion over who’s firearm is in your jacket. It’s actually the same as trying to carry a bronze or historical artifact into the building. We would have you check those as well.
I guess that makes sense, if they had a metal detector to detect concealed guns on the way out. They would need to sort out whether you were taking their gun out with you.