JohnMacca
Bronze Member
You are probably aware that the gun control laws in Australia are a lot tougher, and as a result there is a lot less gun ownership and therefore a lot less awareness / knowledge about guns and what they can do.
(I have been a shooter most of my life and a target shooter for the last 40 years - 308s out to 1000 yards, what I think is called Palma Style in the US).
My local gun club was used as a site to do the shooting bits of a documentary on the 1880s bushranger Ned Kelly. (You will find plenty of stuff about him using Google. One man's police-murdering-outlaw is another man's cruelly-oppressed-freedom-fighter)! Anyway, he is famous for his suit of armour made out of plough shears and his "last stand" where he and the police shot it out.
They had some re-enactment guys blast away at a replica armour with a shotgun, a 45 black powder pistol and black powder breech loading 45/70 ? rifle. Apart from these "expert shots" having trouble hitting it from 50 yards, they only put a couple of minor dents in the plate.
The director of this documentary wanted to find out how Ned's armour would go against a modern weapon. The feeling around the crew (mainly city people) seemed to be that a modern bullet would knock him over like a big hammer blow.
Anyway they set up a 18" X 18" piece of 3/8 mild steel and asked me to hit it from 50 yards. They seemed to think that it would be bounced backward downrange. I told them 50 yards was too close because of possible splash back and went back to 100 yards.
They found it hard to believe something that small could be hit from that far back!! (I had more trouble trying to work out a sight setting to hit something that close)!
Anyway, when I fired, there was a cloud of dust and the plate didn't move an inch. Most of them thought I had missed it. Of course it had drilled a neat hole through the mild steel and definitely would have given poor old Ned a bad case of indigestion.
The general public, here anyway, simply have no idea of the power of a modern centrefire firearm.
(I have been a shooter most of my life and a target shooter for the last 40 years - 308s out to 1000 yards, what I think is called Palma Style in the US).
My local gun club was used as a site to do the shooting bits of a documentary on the 1880s bushranger Ned Kelly. (You will find plenty of stuff about him using Google. One man's police-murdering-outlaw is another man's cruelly-oppressed-freedom-fighter)! Anyway, he is famous for his suit of armour made out of plough shears and his "last stand" where he and the police shot it out.
They had some re-enactment guys blast away at a replica armour with a shotgun, a 45 black powder pistol and black powder breech loading 45/70 ? rifle. Apart from these "expert shots" having trouble hitting it from 50 yards, they only put a couple of minor dents in the plate.
The director of this documentary wanted to find out how Ned's armour would go against a modern weapon. The feeling around the crew (mainly city people) seemed to be that a modern bullet would knock him over like a big hammer blow.
Anyway they set up a 18" X 18" piece of 3/8 mild steel and asked me to hit it from 50 yards. They seemed to think that it would be bounced backward downrange. I told them 50 yards was too close because of possible splash back and went back to 100 yards.
They found it hard to believe something that small could be hit from that far back!! (I had more trouble trying to work out a sight setting to hit something that close)!
Anyway, when I fired, there was a cloud of dust and the plate didn't move an inch. Most of them thought I had missed it. Of course it had drilled a neat hole through the mild steel and definitely would have given poor old Ned a bad case of indigestion.
The general public, here anyway, simply have no idea of the power of a modern centrefire firearm.
