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 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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.