#265663 - 12/12/13 08:30 PM
Re: What Gun?
[Re: BobS]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 07/11/10
Posts: 1680
Loc: New Port Richey, Fla
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I'd like to add my pitch for handgun shooters to give the practical shooting sports like USPSA and 3 gun a try...an excellent way to work on practical skills, and meet a lot of good folks... it's been a 30 year sport for me... Les L747
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#265664 - 12/12/13 09:04 PM
Re: What Gun?
[Re: Pete]
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Geezer in Chief
Geezer
Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
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incidentally, just for historical purposes, could anybody back in 1873 actually see anything clearly at 600 yards. HAHAHA!!!
Spectacles were available then, if your eyesight was aging, and optics were in use. Custer had field glasses at the Little Big Horn. Air quality was probably better in many or most situations, compared to now. I am not sure about this, but weren't some telescopic sights employed by snipers in the later years of the Civil War?
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Geezer in Chief
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#265701 - 12/13/13 04:16 PM
Re: What Gun?
[Re: BobS]
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Veteran
Registered: 02/20/09
Posts: 1372
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well hikermor ... now you ARE giving me a history lesson. did they actually have telescopic sights during the Civil War?
Pete2
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#265702 - 12/13/13 04:52 PM
Re: What Gun?
[Re: Pete]
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Geezer in Chief
Geezer
Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
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"The first documented telescopic rifle sight was invented between 1835 and 1840." - from Wikipedia. Their article states that scopes were produced with magnifications ranging from 3X to 20X. I recall seeing a picture of a DY with such a scope, with a startlingly long tube.
The Civil War foreshadowed modern warfare in many respects - trench warfare,machine guns (Gatling), repeating rifles, metallic cartridges, and the aerial dimension (hot air observation balloons), among others.
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Geezer in Chief
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#265704 - 12/13/13 06:03 PM
Re: What Gun?
[Re: Pete]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/08/07
Posts: 2208
Loc: Beer&Cheese country
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well hikermor ... now you ARE giving me a history lesson. did they actually have telescopic sights during the Civil War?
Pete2 Well I know Doc Brown had a scoped rifle that could shoot the fleas off a dog's back at 300 yards, in Back To The Future III.
Edited by MDinana (12/13/13 06:03 PM)
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#265707 - 12/13/13 09:03 PM
Re: What Gun?
[Re: hikermor]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/03/07
Posts: 3078
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The Civil War rifles that are being refereed to, I think were imported Whitworth Rifle .45 Cal Hexagonal bore muzzle loaders with Parker Hale Davidson Scopes with an effective range of 800-1000 yards. According to popular accounts, on May 9, 1864, during the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Union General John Sedgwick was chiding some of his troops for lying down in a ditch to avoid Confederate sharpshooters at a range of around 800 to 1000 yards. Shots from Confederate Whitworth rifles, easily identifiable due to the shrill whistling noises their hexagonal bullets made in flight, caused members of his staff and artillerymen to duck for cover. Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he repeated, "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Just seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye. At least five Confederate soldiers would later claim that they had fired the fatal shot.
Edited by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor (12/13/13 09:03 PM)
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#265719 - 12/14/13 06:06 AM
Re: What Gun?
[Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
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Rapscallion
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 02/06/04
Posts: 4020
Loc: Anchorage AK
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Amazing how many commanders let their arrogance and ignorance get the better of them.
_________________________
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
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