BP Ballistics ("Castle" tv episode)

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4thPointOfContact

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So I was laying back watching Castle on TV (S03E04 "Punked" for the curious) and one of the plot points was that two steampunkists had a duel with black powder dueling pistols.
Not to give away too much, but the defining clue was that the ballistics on the fatal ball didn't match the ballistics of either pistol.

Q. Will a cloth patched ball in a pistol have repeatable ballistic markers, or was it just more 'tv writer's logic'? (From the 25yd lack of accuracy, it would appear they were smooth bore.)
 
4thPointOfContact said:
So I was laying back watching Castle on TV (S03E04 "Punked" for the curious) and one of the plot points was that two steampunkists had a duel with black powder dueling pistols.
Not to give away too much, but the defining clue was that the ballistics on the fatal ball didn't match the ballistics of either pistol.

Q. Will a cloth patched ball in a pistol have repeatable ballistic markers, or was it just more 'tv writer's logic'? (From the 25yd lack of accuracy, it would appear they were smooth bore.)
Click to expand...

What is meant by "ballistics?" It seems to me from your description that three pistols were involved; the two held by the duelists, and a third used by the third actual murderer.
What if the 3rd pistol was a different caliber? That is a dead giveaway that neither duelists' pistol could have fired the fatal round.
Do you mean a third gun charged with a different amount of powder? I'm not sure how you would really determine this without having all three guns and running some very intricate tests and even those might not help.

I have recovered modern .38SP wadcutters that were all fired into a similar backstop from the same distance .... and some were near pristine while others were badly mushroomed.
A bullet that hits a person and hits bone might wind up in worse condition than one that only penetrated soft tissue. In the Civil War, soft lead balls would often shatter upon hitting bone, shatter the bone as well, and cause horrific wounds.

I think your TV sleuth over-analyzed the situation, but without more knowledge from the TV show I can't really say .... but I will say one thing;
If you're watching TV, suspend your disbelief, sit back and enjoy the ride, if you're not enjoying the ride, change the channels, if there's nothing there, turn off the TV and read a good book. Good books are easier to find than good TV shows.;)
 
I know the episode of which you speak and, like so many firearms related on tv "clues", they were more fictional than factual.
And, regarding "inaccuracy" of smoothbores, I've got about 75 pounds of fresh venison in the freezer courtesy of my smoothbore flintlock fowler.
 
Shanghai McCoy said:
I know the episode of which you speak and, like so many firearms related on tv "clues", they were more fictional than factual.
And, regarding "inaccuracy" of smoothbores, I've got about 75 pounds of fresh venison in the freezer courtesy of my smoothbore flintlock fowler.
Click to expand...
+1

This is a group I shot last weekend with my smoothbore .54 caliber horse pistol:

trfghj.jpg

Minus a couple of fliers (my fault), the gun put about a dozen balls into a 2 1/2" wide group at 10 yards away. I was shooting standing, with one hand, with a 6 o'clock hold on the target. So, even with this group, you could theoretically put all shots fired into a pattern not much larger than 6 inches at 25 yards away. Considering the average human torso is about 16" wide, that is still plenty of accuracy to achieve a lethal center of mass hit in the heart/lung area. Besides, with dueling, most would have been far more comfortable with a shot that nicks the opponent than outright kills them! Dueling wasn't about killing someone (usually), it had more to do with honor and bravery, and putting someone six feet under was rarely the ultimate goal, as strange as that may sound.

Smoothbores might not inherently be as accurate as rifled guns, but as Shangai and myself show, they can be very effective and more than accurate enough weather it's shooting paper or putting meat in the freezer. :cool:
 
Oh but y'all missed the best part:

The eventual Bad Guy had "modified his father's shotgun" to shoot
the same .45 cal round ball... from across the park at the same
time as the guys with the two smoothbore dueling pistols.

Yeeeeah.
 
Yeah, well I knew that part couldn't be true; I mean, c'mon, no way a shotgun was gonna fire a pistol bullet.
 
MEHavey said:
Oh but y'all missed the best part:

The eventual Bad Guy had "modified his father's shotgun" to shoot
the same .45 cal round ball... from across the park at the same
time as the guys with the two smoothbore dueling pistols.

Yeeeeah.
Click to expand...
Well, if it was a 410 shotgun you could shoot a 45cal patched round ball from it.
 
Easy enough wit any shotgun just sabotage the round properly granted that's modding the round not the gun but there are kits out there to turn your 870/500 into a 50 cal inline with just a barrel swap so the idea isn't so farfetched
 
That episode was still a lot of fun.

It is TV, we watch it for fun when we wants fun and educational when we want educating.

I watch Castle to see an old Brown Coat cutting the fool.

Some times there are posters on THR that are about as good as the BP pistols on that police range on that show and I usually just smile and keep on trucking.....or write up half a page on it with some "Band Camp" story tacked on for good measure.

-kBob
 
From a backstage brat

A close family member would likely be name recognized by most of this crew. I was as a child a 'backstage brat' and have gotten to hang out on a movie set as a young adult.

It's hard to understand how completely clue less most 'movie' or 'hollywood' people are, and after doing a broadcast radio show for about a year most 'media' people are on general firearms knowledge.

Often non-shooting members of the genpop are better informed, ironically 'training by hollywood'. So not only are the media people clueless, they don't even pick up the small bit of truth that media hands out in sensationalizing guns IN GENERAL.

Heck, when the media covers actual events they 'get it wrong' all the time so why would we expect accuracy from a fiction? Because hope springs eternal that's why.
 
I'm old enough to remember when, before he was Castle, he commanded a space ship and carried a B/p revolver in a cowboy rig.
 
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