It's cold and my reloading bench is being moved. I bored! My wife and I just watched another move where the machine guns have an endless supply of bullets and the sniper takes his scope, twist and it's perfectly mounted. Of course he makes a 1:1,000,000 shot. I was thinking what are your best and worst movie moments with rifles? Fact or fiction. I know this is a pistol thought but I did not know that nationally ranked guys will be hired to shoot for effect in movies. Tom Cruise in something. Anyway, if your interested have fun.
Fact or Fiction, The best and worst
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wally
Member
We just watched the last episode of "Designated Survivor" and Maggie Q's FBI agent character takes a shot across the congressional mall with a handgun to the 7th floor of the building across from it and apparently makes a sniper setup to kill the president miss. Dramatic ending, but absurd.
VoodooMountain
Member
Anything from the movie Shooter is pretty ridiculous.
Having watched and been a top ranked long range competitor, it's interesting to watch the best do their best shooting slung up in prone. Then on their second or third day on the same 1000-yard range, set their sight to range zero for the same rifle and ammo, dope the wind then do all the thinking and calculating to take their first shot on the same firing point they used the last two days. Then click the sight knobs again for a final correction, breathe deep a few times, cut the last breath off short, aim and hold as still as they can. Their point of aim bounces around in sort of a figure 8 pattern in an area on bullseye target center about 6 to 7 inches across. That's their pulse beat their heart makes pumping blood to their vital organs. One of those organs is their eyes. Eyes maintain clear vision for 15 to 20 seconds without fresh oxygenated blood. So, the rifleman needs to get his shot off while his eyes see clear enough to aim precisely. Finally the shot fires, he calls the shot then waits over a second for the bullet to strike the target.
Maybe 5% to 10% of the best will put that first shot within 6 or 7 inches of where it was called on target in ideal conditions. The rest will often miss call further. Maybe it was because they didn't notice a slight wind change of 1 or 2 mph that causes their bullet to strike horizontally to the side 15 to 20 inches. Maybe they misjudged the wind forgetting that winds at the highest point of the trajectory often are 50% faster than in the line of sight. Maybe his position holding the rifle was not 100% the same as the average that let him shoot to point of aim; happens 90% of the time for most people.
It all boils down to the fact that while his rifle and ammo well tested kept 20 to 30 shots inside 6 inches at 1000 yards, hand held rifles fired off ones shoulder slung up in prone on add 1.5 to 2 MOA to the area bullets go into for the best of them on average. So keeping all fired shots inside 20 inches 3600 feet down range is seldom done. 25 inches is a lot more common and 30 is close to an overall average.
Watching the movie "Quigley Down Under" watching Tom Selleck showed the bad rancher his 900 yard target with a dozen or so bullet holes covering his palm to prove his skills for the job he was after made me quietly chuckle. The best 45 caliber black powder rifles in that late 1890's era used in long range competition would keep 15 shots inside about 18 inches that far down range; about 2 MOA.
Maybe 5% to 10% of the best will put that first shot within 6 or 7 inches of where it was called on target in ideal conditions. The rest will often miss call further. Maybe it was because they didn't notice a slight wind change of 1 or 2 mph that causes their bullet to strike horizontally to the side 15 to 20 inches. Maybe they misjudged the wind forgetting that winds at the highest point of the trajectory often are 50% faster than in the line of sight. Maybe his position holding the rifle was not 100% the same as the average that let him shoot to point of aim; happens 90% of the time for most people.
It all boils down to the fact that while his rifle and ammo well tested kept 20 to 30 shots inside 6 inches at 1000 yards, hand held rifles fired off ones shoulder slung up in prone on add 1.5 to 2 MOA to the area bullets go into for the best of them on average. So keeping all fired shots inside 20 inches 3600 feet down range is seldom done. 25 inches is a lot more common and 30 is close to an overall average.
Watching the movie "Quigley Down Under" watching Tom Selleck showed the bad rancher his 900 yard target with a dozen or so bullet holes covering his palm to prove his skills for the job he was after made me quietly chuckle. The best 45 caliber black powder rifles in that late 1890's era used in long range competition would keep 15 shots inside about 18 inches that far down range; about 2 MOA.
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Phaedrus/69
Member
Still loved Quigley Down Under!
Swampman
Old Fart
It's not the worst ever, but it is fairly fresh in my memory.
I love it when the Irish sniper in Siege of Jadotville sees a high value target (in a white suit no less) several hundred yards away and puts down his scoped Enfield No. 4 Mk. I (T) Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle so that he can take the shot with an iron sighted, single loaded Bren LMG firing from an open bolt.
Even better, the sniper is a lefty but the offset sights of the Bren forced him to shoot it right handed.
It almost seems like he's doing everything in his power to miss the guy!
I love it when the Irish sniper in Siege of Jadotville sees a high value target (in a white suit no less) several hundred yards away and puts down his scoped Enfield No. 4 Mk. I (T) Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle so that he can take the shot with an iron sighted, single loaded Bren LMG firing from an open bolt.
Even better, the sniper is a lefty but the offset sights of the Bren forced him to shoot it right handed.
It almost seems like he's doing everything in his power to miss the guy!
Bart B., very articulate description of laying on the firing line at sniper school in the early '70's; a slopily spray painted stock Model 70 .308 with Burris? (can't remember) 4 x12 glass. For me (and I was an average shot - there were much better in school than me), a well placed shot was being able to get in the zone - training your mind to coordinate all of the variables you described - again for me, it was sometimes very hard to do. I watch the movie shots and just think that kind of shooting would be hard for me to do (especially now at my older age). Some make it look easy but I never thought it was; any crosswind greater than 15 mph and 70 degrees to shot plane always dealt me a fit - always messed with my mind. Anyway, great description.
If you're good enough certainly possible. A 2" snubbie at 200 yards.
And a 44 mag at 600 yards. Sorry, I can't find a version in English
https://video.search.yahoo.com/sear...5ae95b98cb33c65084f73dca1c9c750b&action=click
Captcurt
Member
The new Magnificent Seven movie is probably one of the most unbelievable for me. Those guys shot up several semi-trailer loads of ammo and could shoot attackers on horseback at a full run at ranges that would have been a stretch for the calibers that they had in that day. Pure BS.
I didn't catch the title of one movie that I surfed through, but it was the old sniper senario. The shooter has the crosshairs on Mr. Bad Guy and his spotter says 1500 yards, gives him the windage and elevation and Bang. Got him. The rifle didn't look like a Barrett or a Lapua. Called BS on this one too.
I asked an assistant movie director why sparks came off of everything during a shooting scene. I told him that I had shot walls and cars and never saw a spark. When he asked why I was shooting a car I told him that I was running a ballistic's test.
I didn't catch the title of one movie that I surfed through, but it was the old sniper senario. The shooter has the crosshairs on Mr. Bad Guy and his spotter says 1500 yards, gives him the windage and elevation and Bang. Got him. The rifle didn't look like a Barrett or a Lapua. Called BS on this one too.
I asked an assistant movie director why sparks came off of everything during a shooting scene. I told him that I had shot walls and cars and never saw a spark. When he asked why I was shooting a car I told him that I was running a ballistic's test.
Captcurt
Member
True, but the father of a friend landed at Normandy and his description of the landing mirrored the opening of the movie. It was a turkey shoot for the Germans for quite a while.
Driftertank
Member
Somebody mentioned the Magnificent Seven....had to pipe in with my favorite moment from the original.
They ambush the bandit scouts, and one of them gets on his horse to escape. Britt carefully lines up his shot, fires, and the bandit falls from his horse.
Chico says, "That was the greatest shot I've ever seen!"
Britt replies, "The worst! I was aiming for the horse."
They ambush the bandit scouts, and one of them gets on his horse to escape. Britt carefully lines up his shot, fires, and the bandit falls from his horse.
Chico says, "That was the greatest shot I've ever seen!"
Britt replies, "The worst! I was aiming for the horse."
I enjoyed the film "American Sniper" but that first-round head shot to dispatch Mustafa with a .308 Win at 800 yards plus with a significant cross wind and no correction for it was a stupid error in an otherwise decent film.
I've met Craig Harrison three times now and was impressed on our first meeting when he made it perfectly clear that his two consecutive hits on two insurgents at 2,707 yards were the culmination of many, many shots and a huge amount of luck.
I've met Craig Harrison three times now and was impressed on our first meeting when he made it perfectly clear that his two consecutive hits on two insurgents at 2,707 yards were the culmination of many, many shots and a huge amount of luck.
Arkansas Paul
Member
The stuff in The Quick and the Dead was pretty crazy and unrealistic, but I don't mind that so much in movies. Movies are not reality and of course the stuff will be embellished to the point of absurdity.
What snaps my cap is when they get basic facts blatantly wrong.
For instance I was going to start watching the series Longmire. I had heard lots of bragging about it and started the first episode on Netflix.
Someone gets shot and they determine that it was a .45-70 that killed him. They did not find the brass if I'm remembering correctly, just the slug.
So the main character, Longmire, goes on to tell everyone that .45-70s are antique and rare and that they are looking for someone with an antique single shot rifle. Yeah, because no one makes .45-70s these days and they're all single shots.
As soon as he said it, I turned it off and haven't even tried to watch it again.
My wife thinks I'm crazy but I just can't do it.
What snaps my cap is when they get basic facts blatantly wrong.
For instance I was going to start watching the series Longmire. I had heard lots of bragging about it and started the first episode on Netflix.
Someone gets shot and they determine that it was a .45-70 that killed him. They did not find the brass if I'm remembering correctly, just the slug.
So the main character, Longmire, goes on to tell everyone that .45-70s are antique and rare and that they are looking for someone with an antique single shot rifle. Yeah, because no one makes .45-70s these days and they're all single shots.
As soon as he said it, I turned it off and haven't even tried to watch it again.
My wife thinks I'm crazy but I just can't do it.
Sunray
Member
"...nationally ranked guys will be hired to shoot for effect in movies..." Um, what? Nationally ranked in what and by whom? No live ammo gets anywhere near any movie or TV set. Blanks in the hands of actors are dangerous enough.
"... machine guns have an endless supply of bullets..." A belt fed MG can. No big deal to connect belts. No big deal for a water cooled MG to continuously fire either.
"...A 2" snubbie at 200 yards...." Kojak did that all the time. Guy on a 6 plus story roof away down the street. No sweat.
"...For such a big production..." Movies are not historically accurate nor even close to it. How many times have Lee-Enfields or Mausers been used in place of Arisakas?
"... machine guns have an endless supply of bullets..." A belt fed MG can. No big deal to connect belts. No big deal for a water cooled MG to continuously fire either.
"...A 2" snubbie at 200 yards...." Kojak did that all the time. Guy on a 6 plus story roof away down the street. No sweat.
"...For such a big production..." Movies are not historically accurate nor even close to it. How many times have Lee-Enfields or Mausers been used in place of Arisakas?
Corn-Picker
Member
Mini-14s aren't the world's most accurate rifle, but they're a fair bit better than the A-team would lead you to believe.
For me it would have to be:
1. People firing handguns inside a car or a hallway, and then carrying on a conversation as if their hearing is unaffected.
2. Concealment (drywall, plywood, a car door) behaving as cover.
3. How quickly/often people shot with handguns die.
4. How slowly people shot with rifles die.
5. People being thrown back five feet by a bullet.
morcey2
Member
The ones that drive me nuts aren't the movies, but educational programs that get things wrong. Like showing the entire cartridge going down-range in an animation. Or doing a re-creation of a scene from WWI and the British soldiers all have a mixture of SMLE (good) and Garands (bad). Or when they say "This is the Colt Single Action Army, also know as the Peacemaker" while showing a picture of a cap-and-ball revolver. Or in one case where they bought into the current black-rifle hatred where one narrator talked about how much more powerful and deadly that the round fired by an M-16 is than anything that was previously available to the standard infantryman. 
Matt
Matt
Nature Boy
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This is what ruins it for me. Did these guys sleep through physics class?
We're in bed too much watching old Sons of Anarchy. For a gun run'n club... well I don't think they know the first thing about guns. Really bothering be now is what they call the caliber of something that doesn't exist. RPG's at 30' ... well that's got to be realistic!
Grumulkin
Member
Then there was the supposed to be gun knowledgeable guy on an episode of Top Shot who spoke of loading a gun with "bullets" and no, it wasn't a muzzleloader.
Oh, and the game warden in Maine who told a guy that the reason an animal escaped after being shot by an arrow was that he was too close to the animal and the arrow didn't have time to accelerate.
Oh, and the game warden in Maine who told a guy that the reason an animal escaped after being shot by an arrow was that he was too close to the animal and the arrow didn't have time to accelerate.
Schwing
Member
LOL. Actually, I don't remember anyone actually being shot on the A-Team. A lot of rounds sure got fired though!
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