Civil War re-enactor shot.

[armedandsafe]

Pistol is not always a revolver. Even in the Civil War, there were a lot of single barreled pistols about. While .45 is a fairly small caliber for those, it is not that unusual.

How they know it was fired from a pistol, rather than a musket, is what I'm wondering.

Pops

 

[ProShooter]

Mabye it was one of the rebels with a grudge, there are alot in the south that still think the civil war is going on I think we need to march on Richmond and get Tim Kaine's unconditional surrender

Oh if only we could! The man did nothing for the city of Richmond, and now he's done even less for Virginia as a whole.

 

[griz]

How they know it was fired from a pistol, rather than a musket, is what I'm wondering.

I think they are basing it on the recovered ball. I don't know if all the long guns were of similar size, but I'm assuming they were bigger than the ball that came out of his shoulder.

 

[streakr]

Was a Revolutionary War reenactor many years ago and carried a .75caliber Brown Bess musket. In three years I never fired a live round through it. Much later I had the opportunity to shoot a BB with a "buck and ball" load; you can tell the difference. The shooter, albeit accidental, in this case would know he had a live load.

s

 

[misANTHrope]

What pond is that, Mis? The James River?

These men playing dress up are in Ol' Virginny, I say, I say.

For some reason, I read Isle of Wight as Isle of Man. I did think it was kind of nonstandard for the Limeys to be re-enacting the War of Northern Aggression.

de-de-deee

 

[jackdanson]

I'm wondering if he stored it loaded forgot about it and loaded a blank round over the ball.

Probably what happened.

 

[Loosedhorse]

I hope they catch the guilty party

I've never been to a re-enactment, but don't you have to check-in and have your weapons inspected, and get looked over yourself to make sure you don't accidently have bullets on you?

If that's NOT standard, clearly it needs to be. If it is standard, then there's more than one guilty party--whoever loaded the gun, and whoever looked it over and said it was safe.

 

[Eric F]

yup thought I knew this story!

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=395997

Any way the news here at noon yesterday again reported the bullet was a .22 not a .45 Also the local game wardens said there was no hunting in the area.

 

[Browning]

BobOfTheFuture : maybe someone had a ball stuck in a barrel (and didnt realize it)... and the blank let it fly.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Maybe someone just thought that they had some powder (which I'm guessing passes for a blank with BP guns) in the gun when in fact if was used on a previous hunting/shooting trip. Hell, maybe it was stored out somewhere and one of their kids decided to see if the ball would fit. They should've checked the gun to begin with and not to do so is extremely negligent, but I've heard of cases of negligence where people were alot more stupid than this (if indeed that's actually what happened).

I seriously doubt that it was intentional, most re-actors don't exactly strike me as the bloodthirsty type. Besides, what would the shooter have to gain by popping a round off at a semi-anonymous group of strangers? Unless they just wanted to see what it felt like to shoot someone (out of pure meaness) I can't think of any reason to do so.

 

[Claude Clay]

most, if not all, mark their rod so as to seat the bullet proper. ramming the patch even without the ball would have indicated something was in the bbl if the shooter was paying attention. can't use the word accident here--the shooter was negligent. and, fortunately, a bad shot.

 

[mp510]

First they say it was a musket ball. Then they say there were only three pistols. If it was a pistol...is a patch even used? I thought the ram cut a small ring of lead off the ball as it pushed the ball into the cylinder.Most of the pistols for civil war period were .44 cal...yes/no? Thought thats what I see in the catalogs.

Those .44 revolvers use a .451" non-patched round ball (or conical bullet) projectile.

 

[.38 Special]

Deleted on account of brain fade.

 

[makarovnik]

I suppose the documentary crew will be held somewhat responsible. They need to make sure all weapons are emptied before loading powder for the re-enactment. Is this covered under L&I? I hope they can find out which idiot had a ball loaded in his gun.