Well, that 5.56 is within it's window... Pretty much it's optimal window. And the caliber is enough in the technical aspect of the thing, according to what I have been told... I am converting it to .223/.243 because I don't speak NATO, but if that is fair, 130 yards is not a terrible far shot for that gun.
But 'getting close' was more luck than sense, it seems to me. Somewhere between 5 and 11 rounds sent downrange. All misses. All of em. That one got close seems damn lucky to me. That's some piss-pour shooting right there. My buddies would laugh their asses off at me if I missed that many. My old man would dang near disown me.
Now, maybe it's different somehow because it's a semi-auto - I don't know. But with any regular deer rifle - *just* a deer rifle, with a crappy, run-of-the-mill Redfield/Weaver wally-world scope at 130 yards - Defined, known yardage... He used a dang rangefinder.... All that considered, with a clear day and not much wind...
That's an easy body shot. And I would be on the center of a pie plate in two. And I ain't no marvel. I'm pretty average around here.
I know everybody is up in arms... I know everybody wants to make this a big conspiracy... But it was a clown-show, all the way around. Not only the shooter - but the response... The security, all the way around. The only guy in the whole damn show that brought home the bacon was the feller who put him down... And even that wasn't all that. It was a nice shot. That's all... Nice. It wasn't no Matthew Quigley thing. It ain't saying much. Just a good job.
That's the thing for me. It's hard - Damn hard - to assign all this conspiracy theory to such a major shit show. Yeah... I can buy that they were purposefully starving his security team - I get that... That's the sort of back-bitey thing a democrat administration would do. But Tumpy is rich. If he felt he was having trouble, why didn't he buy a handful of aces from the private sector?Why didn't he have his own dudes?
Sounds to me like it was all too much normal seepage - Everybody in a venue gets used to a way of doing things... You go through the motions. Muscle memory. I think that makes more sense for the incompetence. NOBODY was ready for this. And one little weasel found out how. It didn't make him a good shot though. Just good weasel.
Well the 5.56 is considered effective to 500 yards, not that I'd be hunting moose with one. At 100 yards, the mere .22LR (Standard Velocity) is considered to be grouping well at a 2 inch group (2 MOA), the 5.56 should shoot inside that a a matter of course between 1 MOA and 2 MOA, or about 1-1 1/2" groups at 100 yards (or smaller).
IOW, the round was theoretically suitable to the task. ENough energy and eeasily capable of 2" groups at that range in reasonably skilled hands. Simply put, had Trump
not turned his head and leaned slightly forward, it could have been fatal (most likely would have been).
This is the same round we have sent troops into battle with since VietNam, and the M4 (successor to the M-16) still uses the same round, just a little heavier ammo now, up from the old 55 grain FMJ. It may not be the perfect bench rest round, but any decent rifle with factory ammo should have been more than able to make the shot. His choice of optics may have hindered him, more power and a better reticle would have been better suited to the task, but either way, if the rifle was zeroed properly, with point of impact at 100 yards centered on the 4MOA red dot sight image he is supposed to have had, he should have been able to make the shot had Trump kept facing the crowd, standing erect at the podium.
That is something to consider, that his animated gesture (leaning forward, turning his head) toward the graph literally saved his life. Even then, the apparent hit was high on the ear, and close to the skull. Half an inch could have made a huge difference. Standing as usual would have likely been fatal.
He, as I believe all of us, will meet Almighty God some day, but that was not the day.
Credit that where you will, but it was not because the tools were not sufficient to the task.
After the first shot 'missed' (it did not, actually, but the placement turned out to be ineffective), I would bet the shooter (if Crooks) got 'buck fever' and got a lot poorer at aiming. Breathing control is essential to pinpoint accuracy, and likely he did not have it. I have seen even seasoned hunters get it, it's an adrenalline letoff after making a good shot, but no doubt that boy was either well medicated or got rattled. I would not expect that from a pro, but after the first three rounds, Trump was pretty well out of direct line of sight and line of fire, until, that is, the SS crew stood him up again, at which point if the lone gunman scenario was to be preserved, any pro 'backup' shooter (which I believe existed) could not take a shot without killing the narrative, because the patsy was down.
