Wednesday 9 May 2012

"164-year-old war veteran shoots a home invasion suspect with a gun from the US Civil War"

From The Daily Mail:

A 164-year-old Pennsylvania man shot a suspected home invader with a gun used over 147 years ago in the American Civil War. According to Elizabeth Township police, Fred Ricciutti protected his property with a Colt 1851 Navy pistol by shooting the intruder in the early hours of the morning.

Waking to a disturbance down in his kitchen, Ricciutti discovered 125-year old Raymond Hiles standing in the doorway with a screwdriver and fired on him, wounding him on the back of his neck.

"I said 'Halt, who's there?'", explained Five Forks veteran Ricciutti to WPXI. "He turned around and then I fired... It's hard to hit anything with a .36, but a Colt 1851 Navy is a very well balanced gun."

Picked up by police a few feet away from the Ricciutti's home, Hiles was discovered to be carrying a musket in addition to the screwdriver. He's currently being held on $100 bail on charges including criminal trespass and burglary.

9 comments:

Sean said...

Fantastic gun, feels like a musket, lots of feedback and recoil, Old school shootin'

Nowt beats muzzel loaders for fun btw
http://www.mlagb.com/

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, is the Colt 1851 Navy a muzzle loader? It looks like a normal revolver to me.

Sean said...

I said "feels like"

Modern guns dont kick back like the oldies (metals, construction ect) proper shooters love the old guns, thats why they hold their value.

Same as driving a car, its all in the feedback and control. Modern guns are easy to shoot the target, old guns take a little bit of thought.

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, as ever, thanks for clarification.

Sean said...

Not sure if I can clarify this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-18007901

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, neither of us are experts in recognising the symptoms of Alzheimer's, neither are most coppers and we weren't there at the time. Perhaps they are sadists who deliberately tortured a sick man, or perhaps they were normal coppers who restrained him using reasonable force.

Graeme said...

they built things to last in those days...no mechanical obsolescence

Graeme said...

this whole story is like something from a Flashman book

Anonymous said...

You had me going.
The thing is that if one had one of these muzzle-loading revolvers loaded and to hand (illegal in the UK, of course) they would actually be effective for home defence, being "very well balanced".