"Targets," by Basilisk

New Story from Basilisk on TA.  pl

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/05/targets.html#more

 

Comments

[The Twisted Genius]

You two old coots still have steady hands and keen eyes. Maybe you ought to invest in a Whitworth rifle replica and bullet mold... especially the man with the deer hunting rifle.

I couldn't shoot anything other than paper either. Recently my wife and I were talking with one of her mother's old friends. She casually told us a story of shooting thirteen squirrels who were trying to get her last peach out of the tree. She wanted that peach for herself. My wife and I were both surprised this sweet old woman would drop thirteen squirrels out her back door. I couldn't do that. The most I can do is bean an aggressive squirrel with a peanut if he doesn't share with the other squirrels in my backyard.

[turcopolier]

TTG

"First you hate the 'whistle pigs,' then you hate the gun, then you hate yourself..." Unknown Confederate soldier quoted in TBC. pl

[Basilisk]

TTG,
Any resemblance of those two characters to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

[turcopolier]

TTG

Yeah! So there! The Whitworth replica thing is interesting. We three could form a Rebel sniper team and see if we could do the Sedgewick shot. pl

[Basilisk]

Hey,
I would like that. I have stood where Sedgwick was and looked up that way where the shooter must have been. It looks imminently doable to make the shot with a modern rifle.

I still suspect that the Whitworth rifle's drop over 500 yards would mean lofting the round in on Uncle John. I just can't imagine the scope you see in pictures has enough elevation adjustment. On the other hand, not all Whitworths had scopes and the rifle is credited with 1500 yards range.

I can see us now, the most decrepit sniper team ever seen in the CSA.

[turcopolier]

Casilisk

I would rather do it with a Vernier sight as on a sharp's rifle. I had one of those on my first Krag when I was 14. pl

[The Twisted Genius]

PL,

"I would rather do it with a Vernier sight as on a sharp's rifle."

Then you'll love this site. http://www.shilohrifle.com/ I found it this morning. This company handcrafts both 1863 and 1874 varieties of the Sharps from start to finish. They look like works of art. Looks like there's a dedicated community of owners/shooters, too. I have a feeling in my bones that there might be one in your future.

[The Twisted Genius]

Basilisk,

Hey, we wouldn't be that decrepit. OK, old Stonewall's foot calvary would probably leave us in the dust. We'd just have to set out earlier in the morning and arrive at supper late... unless we can scrounge up a horse and buggy along the way.

[Basilisk]

TTG,
A horse-mobile sniper team, eh? Are you sure there's not some way we can use an F-15E and a GBU-12 laser bomb for this?