Investigators obtained clues including a palm print, a shoe impression and a high-powered hunting rifle found in a wooded area along the path the shooter fled. But they had yet to name a suspect or cite a motive in the killing.
At least not in the required condition to be able to reliably pull off that shot, in a single shot, and with a 30.06 round.
…
By, ‘an older Mauser in 30.06’, I assume they mean a K98k…
… but,
Most K98k’s are chambered in 7.92 x 57mm …
30.06 is 7.62 x 63mm, in metric notation.
Totally different caliber.
There are not too many ‘older Mausers’ in 30.06.
There is a Norwegian variant that… I think in the 1950s, Norway took a bunch of K98k’s and rebarrelled them into 30.06… and some enthusiast K98k owners in the US will do or have this process done themselves, or have managed to import one of these Norweigan ones…
But anyway, any bolt action Mauser is gonna be like … 70 years old. It actually takes a fair bit of proper maintenance and storage to keep such an old rifle in good, reliable, working condition.
Go look on gunbroker or w/e and you can find many K98k’s that just look rusted and busted.
…
So… either the details we have here are wrong in some way… and its a more common, German chambered Mauser in 7.92 x 57 …
Or this guy pulled off an extremely high profile assasination with a fairly rare rifle, which would thus be relatively easy to trace back to a purchaser/owner/armorer…
Or its not even actually a Mauser, and is just… some, old, 30.06 bolt action rifle.
Sorry to link to the bad site, but here’s an even bigger breakdown of actual Mausers.
Current model Rem 700s and Ruger Americans (which was my first thought) both have the bolt arm bent at about 15-25 from perpendicular rather than the 90 degrees of that pic.
However teh R700s have a screw off bolt handle so that is changeable (I think the american does too)
I inherited a Remington 721 .30-06 from my grandfather and took it to a gunsmith to get it checked out. Turned out, that model has a flawed triggering system than can cause it to fire without even touching the trigger(!)
Rem 700 is a good guess, my thought was Ruger American - it doesn’t match the current model of either perfectly but as you say a 20 or 30 year old model will often be different, and yes no piccatinny rail in that pic.
Based on the exit wound shown in the video I doubt it’s 30-06 to be honest - I think your guess of a .270, or maybe .243 would be my guess, particularly given how popular those two were 30 years ago for hunting. I guess could be .308 but as per other post in the thread the sort of damage I’d see on a pig or deer just doesn’t line up with what I’d expect a 30-06 to do and still light even for 308.
I myself have a … moderate amount of range time / time in the field, probably, by the standards of most actual hunters…
I’ve never actually shot a living creature, just like to go to the range occasionally to pop at targets, get that whole breathing zen thing going on.
But I do have a probably uncommon amount of gun related autism in terms of trying to accurately model and simulate and represent firearms in mods for video games and such, the engineering, the history of em, the wierd little nuances of shooting as a human experience that most video games dramatically oversimplify.
Anyway… yeah, glad you agree that is probably not an ‘older Mauser’, and I’m gonna go with you probably know better an estimate of the actual caliber, and yeah, could be a Ruger American from about 20 to 30 years ago too.
FYI the reddit thread seems to think it’s a mauser 98 in an aftermarket polymer stock. The potato quality photo makes it too hard for me to work it - dunno if they’ve found a better photo
The stock/grip housing is not Kar98k style, it has a bit of a pistol grip -ish form factor, like more modern, basic, out of the box US hunting rifles…
I guess that doesn’t disprove it could be a completely rehoused K98k, but it doesn’t prove it either…
And… the likelihood it is some kind of completely rehoused K98k is really low, in comparison to it just being the shooter’s dad’s Remington or Ruger or something like that.
Can you link me this?
Do they actually have some specifc, unique detail that would be an unfalseifiable indicator of it being a K98k?
This is the reddit gun community here, I am guessing they are mostly try hard wehraboos, you know, Nazi enthusiasts, very rational and clearheaded, unbiased thinkers.
Not sure how he would have even kept it hidden. The quality of the image is shitty, but it seems like it would be pretty difficult to hide it in a pants leg or something.
Not sure if it could be partially disassembled and hidden in a normal backpack? It looks like he might be wearing one in the other photo
These were apparently taken in the stairwell before the shooting, and the independent reported he jumped from the roof to another building before apparently jumping from that building and leaving the campus by foot… Apparently while holding that rifle?? Idk this just keeps getting weirder.
Yeah probably not, no.
At least not in the required condition to be able to reliably pull off that shot, in a single shot, and with a 30.06 round.
…
By, ‘an older Mauser in 30.06’, I assume they mean a K98k…
… but,
Most K98k’s are chambered in 7.92 x 57mm …
30.06 is 7.62 x 63mm, in metric notation.
Totally different caliber.
There are not too many ‘older Mausers’ in 30.06.
There is a Norwegian variant that… I think in the 1950s, Norway took a bunch of K98k’s and rebarrelled them into 30.06… and some enthusiast K98k owners in the US will do or have this process done themselves, or have managed to import one of these Norweigan ones…
But anyway, any bolt action Mauser is gonna be like … 70 years old. It actually takes a fair bit of proper maintenance and storage to keep such an old rifle in good, reliable, working condition.
Go look on gunbroker or w/e and you can find many K98k’s that just look rusted and busted.
…
So… either the details we have here are wrong in some way… and its a more common, German chambered Mauser in 7.92 x 57 …
Or this guy pulled off an extremely high profile assasination with a fairly rare rifle, which would thus be relatively easy to trace back to a purchaser/owner/armorer…
Or its not even actually a Mauser, and is just… some, old, 30.06 bolt action rifle.
Sorry to link to the bad site, but here’s an even bigger breakdown of actual Mausers.
https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/17y2dk/a_short_actually_kinda_long_guide_to_mausers_now/
Current model Rem 700s and Ruger Americans (which was my first thought) both have the bolt arm bent at about 15-25 from perpendicular rather than the 90 degrees of that pic.
However teh R700s have a screw off bolt handle so that is changeable (I think the american does too)
https://www.remarms.com/rifles/bolt-action/model-700/
https://ruger.com/products/americanRifle/overview.html?n=all
Although the r700 alpha hunter in those pics has a straight bolt arm.
Plausible it’s an older model 700
I inherited a Remington 721 .30-06 from my grandfather and took it to a gunsmith to get it checked out. Turned out, that model has a flawed triggering system than can cause it to fire without even touching the trigger(!)
They fixed it, but man…
https://youtu.be/NlzoMqtDUxs#t=3m56s
Did you know that you can carry that rifle safely when fully unloaded?
Only way to carry it safely, apparently. :)
Well said
Normally I would wink and make finger guns at you as a way of saying ‘hey thanks!’…
But that seems like a bad idea right now.
Lol, yeah I’m getting cautious how I word things to avoid misinterpretation all of a sudden too
I have updated my original comment with more of my best attempt at an analysis, now that there is apparently an image of the actual rifle.
Rem 700 is a good guess, my thought was Ruger American - it doesn’t match the current model of either perfectly but as you say a 20 or 30 year old model will often be different, and yes no piccatinny rail in that pic.
Based on the exit wound shown in the video I doubt it’s 30-06 to be honest - I think your guess of a .270, or maybe .243 would be my guess, particularly given how popular those two were 30 years ago for hunting. I guess could be .308 but as per other post in the thread the sort of damage I’d see on a pig or deer just doesn’t line up with what I’d expect a 30-06 to do and still light even for 308.
Appreciate the extra detail.
I myself have a … moderate amount of range time / time in the field, probably, by the standards of most actual hunters…
I’ve never actually shot a living creature, just like to go to the range occasionally to pop at targets, get that whole breathing zen thing going on.
But I do have a probably uncommon amount of gun related autism in terms of trying to accurately model and simulate and represent firearms in mods for video games and such, the engineering, the history of em, the wierd little nuances of shooting as a human experience that most video games dramatically oversimplify.
Anyway… yeah, glad you agree that is probably not an ‘older Mauser’, and I’m gonna go with you probably know better an estimate of the actual caliber, and yeah, could be a Ruger American from about 20 to 30 years ago too.
FYI the reddit thread seems to think it’s a mauser 98 in an aftermarket polymer stock. The potato quality photo makes it too hard for me to work it - dunno if they’ve found a better photo
… Wha?
Based on what?
The stock/grip housing is not Kar98k style, it has a bit of a pistol grip -ish form factor, like more modern, basic, out of the box US hunting rifles…
I guess that doesn’t disprove it could be a completely rehoused K98k, but it doesn’t prove it either…
And… the likelihood it is some kind of completely rehoused K98k is really low, in comparison to it just being the shooter’s dad’s Remington or Ruger or something like that.
Can you link me this?
Do they actually have some specifc, unique detail that would be an unfalseifiable indicator of it being a K98k?
This is the reddit gun community here, I am guessing they are mostly try hard wehraboos, you know, Nazi enthusiasts, very rational and clearheaded, unbiased thinkers.
… fuck.
Not sure how he would have even kept it hidden. The quality of the image is shitty, but it seems like it would be pretty difficult to hide it in a pants leg or something.
Not sure if it could be partially disassembled and hidden in a normal backpack? It looks like he might be wearing one in the other photo
These were apparently taken in the stairwell before the shooting, and the independent reported he jumped from the roof to another building before apparently jumping from that building and leaving the campus by foot… Apparently while holding that rifle?? Idk this just keeps getting weirder.
Was he jumping across rooftops carrying the rifle only to ditch it in the woods later? Why not ditch it on the roof?
Going up stairs with a rifle barrel down your pants leg would be challenging.
If that were him, then I suppose he could have stowed a gun in his perch at an earlier time when there was less scrutiny?
Or he could have been some sort of accomplice or witness.