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.
“I assume, discarding it would be part of the plan to escape. To carry a long rifle. It surprises me the person abandoned it,” Chittum said. “It certainly makes it easier. It’ll have biological evidence and the trace itself will produce leads.”
I’d be shocked if this wasn’t:
recently picked up at a gun show
paid for in cash
ammo paid for in cash, or self-manufactured somewhere nowhere close to the incident
thoroughly cleaned
never handled by the marksman with hands uncovered
The plan was always to leave the gun. That’s just good opsec in this situation.
Even if the ammo wasn’t paid in cash… It wouldn’t matter in most states. 30-06 is flying off the shelves this time of year, because season opener is coming.
“Yeah, let’s trawl through 30,000 purchasers of 30-06 this past week…”
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 that’s pretty high levels of ‘guns are my autistic hyperfocus’ right there… not too many people actually go to all that trouble.
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, a Mauser K98k rechambered/rebarrelled to 30.06 … 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.
At the range to the building where the dude was seen on the roof?
You are going to want a scope.
You’re pretty much going to need one to make a shot as accurate and precise as the one we saw.
Keeping a 70+ yo scope in working order is an even more ridiculous idea than a 70 yo rifle… they tend to be very fragile, and of considerably worse quality lenses, have worse magnification, than decent scopes we have these days.
Mounting a scope to a b. a. rifle, back before everything went Picatinny rails… meant that basically every rifle had to have a more or less custom, bespoke, way of handling a mounting bracket, or some other wierd solution, usually only compatible with a small number of actual scopes, or just having the rifle with one built into it that cannot be easily swapped out.
I… really doubt that shot was made by ‘an older Mauser in 30.06’.
Something is wrong here.
EDIT:
Ok, here is the image going around, apparently from the New York Post, apparently of the rifle.
That is not an ‘older Mauser’.
Sure, it roughly resembles the style of bolt that a Mauser has, basically a 90 degree turn, L shape… but that is a modern polymer stock and housing for the weapon, and that is certainly a more modern scope.
As to it being 30.06… I cannot tell just from looking at it exactly what caliber that is, but I would guess it is probably a smaller caliber than that, such as .270… but it could be 30.06… I can’t eyeball that with confidence.
My guess would be that that is a Remington 700, one of the most popular hunting rifles in the US, or at least something from the 7xx family of rifles.
The image quality is not great, and neither are my eyes without glasses, but that does not appear to be a Picatinniy rail… and poylmer stocks/housing has been available on the Rem 7xx series since the 80s…Pic rails seem to have started widely becoming popular (on Remington hunting rifles) roughly in the 00’s, later Remington just started actually selling them with Pic rails.
So… yeah, rough guess, but I am going with some kind of Remington 700 or 7xx probably from roughly the 90s or early 00s, again, I honestly can’t really tell the precise caliber from this image, Remington makes these kinds of rifles in a wide array of calibers, but it almost certainly is some kind of ‘high powered’ hunting rifle round.
Possibly a more seasoned hunter/rifleman than myself, or someone better versed in the smaller details could nail it down a bit more accurately… like uh, perhaps based on exactly how much of a cut out exists for the bold handle by what year, how flush it makes the whole rifle, or other details, maybe the trigger guard notably changed in shape at some year, or then sling mount points got moved or something.
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)
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.
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.
Nah. That’s usually a “break action” rather than a “bolt action”. Bolt action will still likely have a magazine where you load a few rounds and need to “work” the bolt to discharge spent casings and load the next round.
Uhh what? No, soft tip hunting rounds deform basically instantly when hitting soft tissue. The wound channel is designed to create maximum damage so that the animal they’re used against are dead pretty much immediately.
Did you see the footage ? Yes a hollowpoint / soft tip round is intended to open up, but if a 30-06 hollowpoint had hit his neck, half of it would be gone, which it wasn’t.
It was probably 30 cal (entry hole looked too big for .223) but something with a lot less oomph than a 30-06, and probably not an expanding round either, even from something with less punch.
If the data leaks are accurate it was a .30-06 mauser. Which would explain the instant severed spine and gush of blood from the footage. 5.56 just isn’t that large of a round and likely would never be able to make that type of wound with one round.
Hmm, wasn’t trying to suggest a 308 wasn’t a capable rifle. It very much is, excellent all rounder.
Even the significantly lighter again .223/5.56 will drop medium sized deer (although I personally think it’s a bit small for the job, to much risk of wounding without a clean kill).
I was just responding to the note above which implied it would be even messier if they used 308 rather than 30-06 - when the 30-06 is the heavier harder hitting round
Do they know what caliber it is? They don’t seem to share it in the article…
This is most likely a standard deer rifle.
.30-06 Mauser rifle
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/09/11/fbi-recovers-bolt-action-rifle-used-in-shooting-of-charlie-kirk/86093324007/
I’d be shocked if this wasn’t:
The plan was always to leave the gun. That’s just good opsec in this situation.
Even if the ammo wasn’t paid in cash… It wouldn’t matter in most states. 30-06 is flying off the shelves this time of year, because season opener is coming.
“Yeah, let’s trawl through 30,000 purchasers of 30-06 this past week…”
Hegseth sweats nervously
If the shooter did good opsec, then Hegseth certainly wasn’t the shooter.
It’s not that he’s nervous - he’s got the shakes because he misplaced his nips
Did they find any Italian pastries?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_the_Gun,_Take_the_Cannoli
That’ll narrow it down. I would bet there’s more bolt action Mausers in the US than AR’s.
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 that’s pretty high levels of ‘guns are my autistic hyperfocus’ right there… not too many people actually go to all that trouble.
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, a Mauser K98k rechambered/rebarrelled to 30.06 … 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
…
Right, also:
At the range to the building where the dude was seen on the roof?
You are going to want a scope.
You’re pretty much going to need one to make a shot as accurate and precise as the one we saw.
Keeping a 70+ yo scope in working order is an even more ridiculous idea than a 70 yo rifle… they tend to be very fragile, and of considerably worse quality lenses, have worse magnification, than decent scopes we have these days.
Mounting a scope to a b. a. rifle, back before everything went Picatinny rails… meant that basically every rifle had to have a more or less custom, bespoke, way of handling a mounting bracket, or some other wierd solution, usually only compatible with a small number of actual scopes, or just having the rifle with one built into it that cannot be easily swapped out.
I… really doubt that shot was made by ‘an older Mauser in 30.06’.
Something is wrong here.
EDIT:
Ok, here is the image going around, apparently from the New York Post, apparently of the rifle.
That is not an ‘older Mauser’.
Sure, it roughly resembles the style of bolt that a Mauser has, basically a 90 degree turn, L shape… but that is a modern polymer stock and housing for the weapon, and that is certainly a more modern scope.
As to it being 30.06… I cannot tell just from looking at it exactly what caliber that is, but I would guess it is probably a smaller caliber than that, such as .270… but it could be 30.06… I can’t eyeball that with confidence.
My guess would be that that is a Remington 700, one of the most popular hunting rifles in the US, or at least something from the 7xx family of rifles.
The image quality is not great, and neither are my eyes without glasses, but that does not appear to be a Picatinniy rail… and poylmer stocks/housing has been available on the Rem 7xx series since the 80s…Pic rails seem to have started widely becoming popular (on Remington hunting rifles) roughly in the 00’s, later Remington just started actually selling them with Pic rails.
So… yeah, rough guess, but I am going with some kind of Remington 700 or 7xx probably from roughly the 90s or early 00s, again, I honestly can’t really tell the precise caliber from this image, Remington makes these kinds of rifles in a wide array of calibers, but it almost certainly is some kind of ‘high powered’ hunting rifle round.
Possibly a more seasoned hunter/rifleman than myself, or someone better versed in the smaller details could nail it down a bit more accurately… like uh, perhaps based on exactly how much of a cut out exists for the bold handle by what year, how flush it makes the whole rifle, or other details, maybe the trigger guard notably changed in shape at some year, or then sling mount points got moved or something.
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
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.
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
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.
I don’t even know nuthin’ 'bout no guns and my brain still filled in the phrase “thirty aught six” when I read that link.
I read it’s one where you have to load each round separately, I guess the hunter was sure of his shot. EDIT: thanks for the corrective info, dudes.
Charlie did have a certain deer-in-the-headlights face. Maybe he should have been wearing a red vest.
You can have a magazine on a bolt action rifle, you just have to manually run the bolt for each round.
Nah. That’s usually a “break action” rather than a “bolt action”. Bolt action will still likely have a magazine where you load a few rounds and need to “work” the bolt to discharge spent casings and load the next round.
Mausers have a internal magazine that can hold five rounds.
I doubt that. There are a LOT of ARs.
Though I would imagine a lot of those would be gun show specials.
The fuck ? There is absolutely no way that shot was taken with a 30-06.
The slug would have continued on into a bystander. There’s no way it would have stopped like that.
Uhh what? No, soft tip hunting rounds deform basically instantly when hitting soft tissue. The wound channel is designed to create maximum damage so that the animal they’re used against are dead pretty much immediately.
Did you see the footage ? Yes a hollowpoint / soft tip round is intended to open up, but if a 30-06 hollowpoint had hit his neck, half of it would be gone, which it wasn’t.
It was probably 30 cal (entry hole looked too big for .223) but something with a lot less oomph than a 30-06, and probably not an expanding round either, even from something with less punch.
If the data leaks are accurate it was a .30-06 mauser. Which would explain the instant severed spine and gush of blood from the footage. 5.56 just isn’t that large of a round and likely would never be able to make that type of wound with one round.
Guess it’s a good thing they didn’t use 308.
308 has less kinetic energy than 30-06
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-06_Springfield
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.308_Winchester
308 is 2500-2800 ft/lb 30-06 is 2800 - 3000
I’ve dropped a deer about the same distance this shot occurs with 30-06 and it dropped instantly as well.
Hmm, wasn’t trying to suggest a 308 wasn’t a capable rifle. It very much is, excellent all rounder.
Even the significantly lighter again .223/5.56 will drop medium sized deer (although I personally think it’s a bit small for the job, to much risk of wounding without a clean kill).
I was just responding to the note above which implied it would be even messier if they used 308 rather than 30-06 - when the 30-06 is the heavier harder hitting round
Yeah, I was wondering/thinking the same thing. It’s probably just a Remington 700 chambered in .270
Mannlicher- Carcanno. But you can’t say mannlicher in 2025.