I agree. The Manlicher Carcano is a horrible bolt-action rifle, even when it was new. This one was old and the scope was improperly zeroed as well. Nevertheless, a good rifleman can compensate for this if he's has practiced with the piece. The Warren Commission and later CBS News replicated the shot and the moving target exactly and had three expert marksmen duplicate the shooting using Oswalts rifle (Warren Commission) or another Manlicher Carcano (CBS). Two of the three snipers scored hits and one marksman scored three hits with three shots in both exercises. Interestingly, that marksman was Howard Donahue, who is the ballistics expert that believes the trajectory of the kill shot came from another direction--right over the Secret Service car. Oswald was a trained Marine rifleman. He could have done it and probably did . . . but was he the only sniper?
I saw a documentary recently that proved that the "magic bullet" was possible. They used a rifle that had a barrel rifled to the exact pattern as the one oswald used. They used bullets from the same batch as those used by Oswald an fired the gun from all sorts of angles. Their conclusion was that a lead bullet could make the loops and turns.
Every time I see a new post on this thread, I just keep thinking one of you brain surgeons has solved the mystery. Thanks for the disappointment.
they had a crew on discovery who reenacted the event to the tee with the same model rifle with an expert sharpshooter. they had the height of building and angles exact as well as the speed of the vehicle, etc. the marksman was able to fire within the allotted time rather easily all things considered yet at times the rifle would jam. i used to think my m16 was bad but this thing took the cake. however, he was able to get the shots off in time which makes the event quite plausible though it doesn't make sense why he'd choose such an archaic weapon, even for those times. the bigger issue was the time he had to make it back to where he was later found which made it much harder to fathom since he was believed to be walking as to not to draw attention. as long as its possible to get the shots off in time, I can buy it til something much more credible comes along.
Didn't he mailorder it ? Maybe he was a little light on dough. At the time, every sports magazine had dozens of ads for military surplus firearms. Probably didn't pay more than $15 for it. Here's a "small world" story about the JFK assassination. One day in the late80s, I was waiting out the weather in the airport bar in Lincoln, NE drinking beer with a longtime friend of mine from Oklahoma. This guy was a Washington, D.C. cop in 1963 and had spent 25 years researching the killing of the President. This was before the internet. This guy would take vacations and travel to libraries to do research. He interviewed all sorts of people, even those remotely associated with the subject. He must have read every book, magazine article, newspaper story ever written on the subject. Anyway, so I'm asking him, "after all these years, after spending half your life searching for satisfaction, what's your conclusion ?" He thought a minute and finally told me he was absolutely sure about a conspiracy when he started out. Over the years, he wasn't so certain anymore. He told me that there was always this one investigator who he wanted to interview but could never find. When he mentioned the name, I just about spit my beer. The man had been in my house on the previous Sunday afternoon. When I told him, he just stared. I offered to set up a meeting. He declined telling me, I've put 25 years in on this and have no feel for the truth. Said he was going to spend the rest of his research time on his family tree. Small world.
