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Oswald originally qualified as a sharpshooter in boot camp and later as a marksman. In those days all qualifications were done with iron sights at stationary targets. He would have fired a M1 Garand semi automatic rifle. And the rifle he used on JFK had optical sights and was bolt action.
I'm not interested in the gun part and would he/could he, and when the Warren Report came out I believe it just like everyone else. It wasn't until a few years later when other people started tearing it apart that I started thinking about it. A quick cover up job.
I have read a few of the best books on the subject but I am not a conspiracy theorist. Most conspiracies are made up and people have fun believing them. This is one that I don't even want to believe. I would much rather just go along with what we were told to believe, Oswald did it alone.
It's harder to discuss this topic now that so many years have passed. I barely remember the names and the events and would have to look things up. I do know that when one of the Kennedy men said a few years ago that he believes it was a conspiracy, that really hit home. He won't name names because of possible repercussions, but why would he even say that? I'm a born skeptic but I don't drink the kool aid on this one.
I don't want to argue the same topic for the upteenth time but...
It seems that you do.
One of the biggest draws to alternate stories...
is the depth of commitment that always (ALWAYS!) pops right up in opposition.
It's as though they truly believe no other possibility should even be considered.
Calling the others the conspiracy nuts is high irony.
Oswald wasn't a very good shot. He just barely managed to qualify with a rifle in the Marines (I believe it was by one point). There is no evidence that he ever practiced shooting a rifle in the 4 years between his discharge from the Marine Corps and the assassination. (Actually, there is a book that describes the times that Oswald and Jack Ruby practiced together at a shooting range, but few in the research community give it any credence.) His Carcano was so badly out of alignment that the FBI had to install shims before they could test it. Yes, the 3 shots in 5.6 seconds have been done in reenactment tests. Now, let's find a guy that could barely qualify, hasn't shot a rifle for 4 years, has a badly misaligned rifle, and is under extreme stress, and see if he can do it.
A few things on the Carcano that one would ever know unless one OWNS a Carcano - A Carcano doesn't take a scope, most military weapons from WW2 don't. Oswald bought one modified with a cheap japanese scope drilled in as a side mount. The key is the side mount feature - you can still use the iron sights. In fact, the distance was so close I am pretty sure he simply ignored the scope and used the iron sights. No doubt a drilled scope can get out of alignment by mishandling perhaps after the shooting, but it very well might be irrelevant.
Lots of people today say Carcano's are crap, like the other poster. Carcano's take a clip. Nowadays people use aftermarket clips and modern ammo designed by modern manufacturers to replicate the original (very expensive by the way), or they reload. The problem is these clips are only designed to be used once and the ammo might not be to exact original specs. If a person now shoots the Carcano with modern ammo or modern clips, he is going to have problems unless the clips are carefully prepared. Oswald used surplus WW2 ammo, original clips, he would not have a problem. This again - you would have to own a Carcano to understand. I own lots of military weapons from WW2. I like the Carcano - it's a carbine, highly compact, light weight, and easy to handle.
Now about Oswald - "barely qualify" by marine standards means highly qualified by civilian standards. There is evidence he practiced - The warren report mentions him using it on a hunting trip with his brother and report also of witnesses seeing him at a rifle range (at least 3 different time). Oswald naturally would know how to zero in the rifle - both the irons and the scope (if he choose to use the scope). Also the timeline is misstated, today's analysts say it was more like 8 seconds between 1st and last shot.
And of course, what everyone seems to forget - Oswald used this rifle to try to assassinate Edwin Walker months before the JFK assassination.
One of the biggest draws to alternate stories...
is the depth of commitment that always (ALWAYS!) pops right up in opposition.
It's as though they truly believe no other possibility should even be considered.
Calling the others the conspiracy nuts is high irony.
I don't mind explaining the details of the Carcano rifle. Collecting military surplus weapons is my hobby, get me started and I can talk all day about them.
No one called you a conspiracy nut dude. Relax.
But you didn't answer my question - do you own a Carcano? have you ever visited the Texas School Book Depository?
These threads are a hoot. The originator needs to peel the onion a bit more. All the "facts" listed by the OP in reality amount to a combination of:
- government propaganda/limited hangouts/disinformation
- manufactured fake news for profit
- fictions repeated ad nauseam by an uninformed/gullible public -- fictions that, over time, manifest as truth
If you want a straightforward and palatable answer to the JFK murder then Warner, Von Pein, and Bugliosi will help you sleep at night. These "experts" are also wrong.
Serious researchers of this case know that is a 100 percent certainty that Kennedy was killed in a high-level domestic conspiracy with a subsequent cover-up in play, one that continues to this day. The primary disagreement amongst researchers is who led the conspiracy. My money is on H. L. Hunt.
FWIW, Oswald did not fire a shot that day. And yes, Kennedy was hit in the head at least twice. First from behind. A fraction of a second later, he was hit from the front by a shot fired from the junction of the triple overpass and grassy knoll.
I don't know for sure what happened that day, but I'm just going to pipe in to say one thing; These hits were not in any way impossible, no matter what any tests try to prove. Of course it's possible to get off 3 shots in 8 seconds with this rifle; the clip holds 6 rounds, all you need to do between firing a shot is pull the bolt back and slam it forwards. There's no question it would have been difficult to hit the moving target 2/3 times at that distance and I'm sure some luck played into it, but anyone who says these shots weren't possible in that timeframe is full of SH$T.
The guy in this video fires off 3 rounds in 10 seconds and he wasn't even trying hard for speed (1:33-1:43). Watching him take the first 3 shots, seems to me 8 seconds is just about right for a guy trying to make hits as fast as possible while still having time to take good aim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZLbaC3Gp-8
I don't know for sure what happened that day, but I'm just going to pipe in to say one thing; These hits were not in any way impossible, no matter what any tests try to prove. Of course it's possible to get off 3 shots in 8 seconds with this rifle; the clip holds 6 rounds, all you need to do between firing a shot is pull the bolt back and slam it forwards. There's no question it would have been difficult to hit the moving target 2/3 times at that distance and I'm sure some luck played into it, but anyone who says these shots weren't possible in that timeframe is full of SH$T.
The guy in this video fires off 3 rounds in 10 seconds and he wasn't even trying hard for speed (1:33-1:43). Watching him take the first 3 shots, seems to me 8 seconds is just about right for a guy trying to make hits as fast as possible while still having time to take good aim.
Yes. Actually the guy could do better, he was lifting his head off of each shot. He didn't have to do that, you can cycle the bolt and keep your eye and sights on the target. Also he had a box of original ammo but was using reloads and I think an aftermarket clip. With original ammo and clips he would be even smoother.
Getting back to the Carcano (sorry guys, I told you once you start me on a milsurp question I can't stop) is it fires a 6.5x52mm cartridge. Why is that important? One again you have to actually fire the weapon and compare it to other bolt actions to know, you don't learn this from reading conspiracy blogs - RECOIL. It makes it much easier to recover from firing a round, staying on target, cycling the bolt, and getting off another round quickly and accurately without losing the target. In WW2 all the other main powers used a larger bore round, believing the stopping power and range would be more successful (an exception is Japan and the Arisaka rifle..by the way Japan also imported Carcanos). M1 Garand, what Oswald was trained on, uses a 7.62 metric equivalent, same with the Mosin Nagant. I own and fired them all. The bolt action Mosin will pretty much take off your shoulder after 20 or so rounds. The M1 Garand, a marvel of technology at the time, yet heavy and cumbersome and uncontrollable at high rate of fire (as they found out when they created an automatic version of the same). There is a reason US stayed with bolt action for it's sniper rifles.
Oswald chose the weapon because it was cheap surplus, not knowing himself perhaps that he selected the perfect weapon for short/intermediate range sniper work.
Should CD have a separate forum for outlandish conspiracy theories ?
They tend to infest a few forums. History is one of them. And the Space forum has more than its share of THE MOON LANDING WAS FAKED! and THE GOVERNMENT IS HIDING EVIDENCE OF ALIENS! types.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dd714
I don't mind explaining the details of the Carcano rifle. Collecting military surplus weapons is my hobby, get me started and I can talk all day about them.
No one called you a conspiracy nut dude. Relax.
But you didn't answer my question - do you own a Carcano? have you ever visited the Texas School Book Depository?
His post was designed to 1) ignore the points you made, and 2) try and steer the conversation away from actual evidence and toward you. Conspiracy 101, really.
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