I've seen a few sources that said the rifle wasn't as bad as people are led to think. It wasn't in the same class as a Garand, but it certainly wasn't as bad as many others out there. If he had a good one, and actually spent time to learn it, and had a good day, it would have been a snap.

I went to the range with my dad one time not too long ago. A friend of his was up there with a 45-70 that had a weak hammer spring. Sometimes it wouldn't go off, and the recoil would shift the rear sight over every shot, so it had to be placed back to the center point by hand. This was an old design called a 'falling block' action. It's been around since the late 1800's. I fired 40 rounds that day. (He was fire forming the brass for reloading so they just needed to to go off. It was busy work.) Someone had taped a baseball bat to the target frame 100 yards away so I took a few shots at it. I was having a very good day. Open sights with an unfamiliar rifle with a high recoil that may or may not go off when you fire it and I hit the baseball bat about 50% of the time eventually breaking off everything but the handle which was split in half with the last shot.

If Oswald had had that kind of day, there would have only been a need for one shot from any rifle that was accepted into military service. I've never had a day like that before, or since.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

Tog-My father was the most phenominal shot I've ever seen. He was farm-raised in the Oregon desert. While his brothers were fighting WWII and his dad worked the farm he spent his preteen and early teen years supplimenting the family income by shooting rabbits for the meat.

Since the terrain is so flat the rabbits can see you coming a long way off so most shots were made at 100 yards plus. Had two Borzoi as retrievers and personal security. He said he needed 100 hits per 100 shots to make enough money to buy another box of ammo, give his mother two dollars and have some for the movies on Saturday. (He got 3 cents apiece for them)

So instead of the Xbox or Playstation he spent his youth becoming a really good shot. I've seen him take his Ruger 10/22, (now my oldest daughter's), throw a spent shotgun shell into the air, and keep it aloft until all ten rounds were gone. Firing from the hip. Totally amazed me everytime he did that. Another good one was when he would take the Ruger and fire over his shoulder (using his thumb) while looking at the target through a handmirror.

And I don't even want to tell you what happened the time he was teaching me to shoot when I was about 15 and I blew down the barrel of a .45 auto "just like in the movies". That was the very last time I did that. "You do realize you just pointed a loaded gun at your own head?" Was about the only thing he said during the next few minutes that I can print here. And Dad wasn't a swearing or yelling type of guy.

I miss him.

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

Yeah cowboys didn't use semi-autos.

Right, it obviously wasn't all that bad given what Oswald managed with it. I should have said something like not top of the line.

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

I'm sure you do, BigDon - sounds like the kind of Dad every kid should have. My Dad blew his stack only once, but boy, I sure knew when I disappointed him.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that.

I am human. Fully human.

Mine grew up in the mining towns in Idaho. He wasn't ever an amazing shot like what you describe, but he's always really lucky when ne needs to be. He's also really good about knowing when he just got really lucky and stopping and acting like it was planned. People that know him will just roll their eyes, but those that just see him test fire a pistol and unscrew the cap off a milk jug at 20 feet by grazing the cap, then saying, "Eh seems to go where I point it", walk away stunned.

On the whole, he's a really good shot. The guy that ran the custom gunsmith shop next to his old range would bring thing to my dad to test fire as the final step before deciding to send them on.

I've mentioned some of the arguments on this thread and other JFK threads to him and his view is that there was never any question the shots were possible for Oswald. It would have been easier than than hitting a running rabbit.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

Is it too late to reply to this thread again?

I finally got around to putting a scope on my 6.5mm Carcano. It is still a piece of crap rifle. But it is nearly identical to the one Oswald used. It has a 4 power scope like his, but the tube is 25 mm not 18mm. The scope mount is also sturdier. I'm sure my barrel is much more worn out than his was. Mine is so worn and pitted that ammo that should clock 2100 fps only moves 1860 fps. I bumped up the powder charge by 10% to achieve 2000 fps.

Out at the range, it groups about 4 inches at 100 yards, not so good. But the bolt operates quickly as long as it has a bit of oil on the rails. I can shoot it three times in under 4 seconds, it takes me a bit under six seconds to put three rounds into an eight inch target, shooting left handed. It is a bit harder left handed as I have to move my face away from the scope more to cycle the bolt, but it is not difficult to hit the target quickly three times.

Ranb

Well, the rules changed since this was posted. The CT forum only allows space/astronomy related threads now. So most likely this will be locked.

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Yes, they are evil... but they're not roots, they are tubers.
TUBERcolosis kills millions each year. If I had my way, they'd all fry

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No longer an appropriate topic for this forum - thread closed.

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