Well observed Mr. Bagley. Of course feats of distance in movies, be it the leaps of the 'Six Million Dollar Man' or cars and motorcycles, are all enhanced by the distortion of the wide angle , long depth of field, lenses used to film them. It is the reverse of the effect used by photo journalists to obtain pictures of 'atrocities' when long lenses make, for instance, a police officer branishing a truncheon appear to be striking someone who is actauly ten feet further away from the camera and out of reach of the policeman.
In terms of possibility, the shot is entirely possible even then.In 1860, when, to inaugurate the first meeting of the N.R.A at Wimbeldon, Queen Victoria fired a Whitworth muzzle loading rifle, set in a machine rest, at a 400yd target, the bullet came within 1 1/4" of the centre. The Whitworth contonued in target use out to 1000yds well into the late 1880s.
As with modern products, taking the lead in sporting competition was a recipe for high sales of equipment and through the last 40 years of the 19th century Witworths, Metford, Henry, Rigby, Sharps, Remmington etc. competed with precission barrels and rifling designs. In 1865 Rigby muzzle loading rifles tested at Enfield grouped 20 shots in 1ft 11ins at 1000yds. By 1870 early tests of the Martini Henry produced a 100 shot group of 3ft 2 1/2inches, black powder, without cleaning the barrel.
A multitude of competitions at 600, 1000 and 1100yards were shot in England Ireland, America and the continent of Europe. The bullseyes were normaly 3ft. In the 1876 Creedmore competition the U.S. team were winners, the Irish close second, despite Mr. J.K. Milner,s (Ireland) scoring a highest possible 15 of 15 bullseyes at 1000yards. In 1886 Gibbs of Bristol put 48 of 50 consecutive shots from a .461 Metford, in the bull ( the other two were not far off). There are hundreds of remarkable scores on record and thousands of very creditable scores that passed unremarked.
Slightly off track; on Sept 13 1937, at Big Fork, Montana shooting an
8 3/4" barrel Smith & Wesson .357magnum with a plain flat peep rear sight and narrow post foresight, two handed from a prone position, one Waldo Vangsness put seven of 10 rounds on a man sized silhouette target at 600 yards. Of the other three, one was high to the left of the head, one just outside the right arm and one between the arm and the body. The one between the arm and the body
was part of a four shot, approx. 4" group, with two almost touching. Nobody suggested that this was more than a fluke...but it happened.
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