quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen

There are 2 parts of the Kennedy assassination that have never been plausible to me. That Oswald fired a bolt action rifle accurately 3 times in 4.8 seconds. I've seen experts work an identical Carcano on a stand without aiming and it is only just barely possible to fire 3 times. Add aiming to that and it is impossible.

Then there is the "miracle bullet." Supposedly a 6.5mm bullet from the Carcano hit Kennedy in the back of the neck, damaged a vertebra, exited the front of his neck, hit Connally in the back, exited his chest, went through his right wrist (shattering the bones of the wrist) and finally embedded itself in the Governor's thigh where it fell out onto his hospital gurney in pristine condition enabling it to be ballistically matched to Oswald's rifle. While I've never fired a 6.5mm rifle I've fired many hundreds of rounds through 7.65mm rifles and dug many of those rounds out of deer. In no case has a bullet that did more than nick a bone been in pristine condition and I've never seen a bullet pass through flesh that many times. The amount of energy that would need to be behind a bullet to go through a neck, a chest and a wrist and still be moving fast enough to break flesh is just ridiculous.

I don't know what really happened, and doubt we'll ever know, but I am sure Oswald did not fire all the shots.

quote:

ORIGINAL: TahoeSadist

quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen

There are 2 parts of the Kennedy assassination that have never been plausible to me. That Oswald fired a bolt action rifle accurately 3 times in 4.8 seconds. I've seen experts work an identical Carcano on a stand without aiming and it is only just barely possible to fire 3 times. Add aiming to that and it is impossible.

Then there is the "miracle bullet." Supposedly a 6.5mm bullet from the Carcano hit Kennedy in the back of the neck, damaged a vertebra, exited the front of his neck, hit Connally in the back, exited his chest, went through his right wrist (shattering the bones of the wrist) and finally embedded itself in the Governor's thigh where it fell out onto his hospital gurney in pristine condition enabling it to be ballistically matched to Oswald's rifle. While I've never fired a 6.5mm rifle I've fired many hundreds of rounds through 7.65mm rifles and dug many of those rounds out of deer. In no case has a bullet that did more than nick a bone been in pristine condition and I've never seen a bullet pass through flesh that many times. The amount of energy that would need to be behind a bullet to go through a neck, a chest and a wrist and still be moving fast enough to break flesh is just ridiculous.

I don't know what really happened, and doubt we'll ever know, but I am sure Oswald did not fire all the shots.

I'm not addressing the whole conspiracy thing, just wanted to point out a couple of things:

Firing a bolt action rifle in that time frame is not a particularly hard feat. Think about it: the first shot starts the "clock" so to speak, so in the next 4.8 seconds only two are fired, so almost 2 1/2 seconds per shot. Cycling the bolt takes at worst a half second per, and the Carcano is no harder to operate than any other. Firing from a stable position, a rifleman wouldn't have to move much. Now to score two hits out of three at a moving target (albeit not far away, and moving in a predictable direction and speed) does take some skill. For a comparison, in some rifle competitions, until recently one stage of fire consisted of this: the shooter is standing, holding his rifle; when the fire command is given, he has to sit down, get the rifle into position, and shoot 10 shots at a target 200 yards away in a total time of 60 seconds. Also even if the rifle is capable of holding all 10 rounds, each shooter must do a reload in that time. So fast accurate shooting is not uncommon.

As to the bullet, there is a world of difference in performance between a very heavy for caliber roundnose fully jacketed bullet, and a hunting bullet which is designed to expand on impact, so comparing them doesn't work. The FMJ bullet is designed to do two things: feed reliably, and penetrate, and the 6.5's are well known for this, regardless of whether it's from a Carcano or other rifle with that bore size.

TS

quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961
This defies human behavior. Having just committed a crime, one has tendency to flee the area, to the point of trying to get out of town. So was Oswald just abnormally stupid, or was he expecting someone to provide him a way out of Dallas?

quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961

According to Marine records, Oswald scored sharpshooter on a number of occasions, and his military records indicate that his firearm proficiency was higher than average.

The Carcano rifle was more than capable of making the shots, it was not awkward or hard to use.

Now a number of conspiracy theorists insist that with the effects of adrenalin he would have been feeling as he took the shots, he could not have made them in the time frame or with the accuracy he achieved.

As a combat vet and a trained sniper, I disagree. Adrenalin has little effect on a shooters accuracy unless he is snap shooting at multiple targets, considering the importance the marines put on firearms training, he was more than capable.

I am loath to admit it, but the marines do produce a remarkable number of highly qualified marksmen.