https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Jackal#Custom-Made_Sniper_Rifle

The bolt appears to be for rimfire (as opposed to centerfire) cartridges, so probably a modified .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR). Rimfire means that the primer compound that ignites the propellant is embedded in the rim of the cartridge base, not in a separate primer seated in a pocket in the base. The .22 Hornet–another possible candidate–is a centerfire cartridge. The Hornet also has a bottleneck (tapered) cartridge case, unlike the cartridges shown in the movie.

If I recall correctly, the explosive bullets the Jackal used were drilled out with a narrow channel and filled with mercury. I don’t know whether an explosive .22 WMR round would have shredded an entire watermelon, but it certainly would have blown a chunk out of it.

The movie also features lots of French military firearms from that period, if one is a fan of French military firearms. The definitive book on those is Ian McCollum’s “Chassepot to FAMAS” (https://www.headstamppublishing.com/purchase/p/chassepot-3rd-standard?rq=chassepot).

Finally, here’s a video by a guy who recreated the custom rifle using a Savage Rascal in .22 Long Rifle (.22 LR):

https://www.firearmstalk.com/threads/the-day-of-the-jackal-rifle-starring-savage-rascal.147982/

Hi Neo, Just because a fictional plot can come up with a plausible sounding explanation for some anomaly, doesn’t make it any more physically possible. Hollywood enhances things for dramatic effect. That’s what they do.

Everything TommyJay said is right, including that the size of the cartridge loaded into that rifle was not sufficient to impart the damage portrayed in the movie.

I’ve been a shooter all my life. I grew up with a rifle in my hands. I’m an NRA and 4H rifle, pistol and shotgun instructor and shot with the US Navy marksmanship team for three years.

I’m not a sniper. Nor do I have combat experience. But I do have plenty of experience with rifles of all calibers up to and including .50 BMG. Some of my favorite “reactive” targets are watermelon and cantaloupe and I’ve shot probably thousands of them over my 50 years or so of shooting experience.

Yes, you can make a watermelon explode like that…but not with a cartridge that small, no matter how “custom made” the weapon is. That was Hollywood special effects.

This is not to say that a head shot with a 5.56 x 45mm at 130 yards wouldn’t be devastating. It would be, but that watermelon image was a bit overboard with what would actually happen.

For comparison, the most common loading for the AR-15 (5.56 x 45mm) is a 55 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of about 3200 feet per second resulting in a muzzle energy of 1282 pound feet.

The “standard” loading for the rifle used in the Kennedy Assassination (6.5 x 52mm) was a 160 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of about 2400 feet per second resulting in a muzzle energy of 2046 pound feet.

The damage done to Kennedy was pretty dramatic, but it didn’t compare to the watermelon in that video just blowing apart…and that was done with a significantly more powerful cartridge than depicted in that movie or the shooter on Saturday used.

BTW, the 6.5 Carcano (Kennedy assassination rifle) is not a particularly powerful rifle. It would be adequate for deer sized game. The 5.56 (Trump attempt rifle) is not powerful enough for that. Not to say you couldn’t kill a deer with a 5.56 – you could, but it’s not powerful enough to be reasonably sure of a quick, humane kill.

He showed that same speed and awareness one he felt that bullet passing by his ear. He got down before USSS reacted.

My thoughts based on the fumbling response of his protective detail is that Trump’s main protection is his supporters. His supporters spotted the threat . They notified police. If his supporter were armed , they probably would have acted. Of course I understand allowing armed attendees is asking for trouble.

As to Stephanie’s emotional reaction that is also instinctive. Men are protectors. Women want that. Many women have had to assume that role themselves for lack of a male protector or to save themselves and their children. Women can be very fierce protectors.

The obvious issue of the short woman trying to interpose her body to protect Trump was laudable ,but comical. I expect she was the temporary USSS agent assigned and what a bad day for her. The other women fumbling to holster the weapon is a lack of muscle memory. They need training. At least they tried. However the problem of Trump’s size is on that has to be acknowledged and accounted for in his detail.

See also VDH:
Assassination Porn and the Sickness on the Left

Thanks for linking your post. The discussions there are always interesting, and mirror somewhat the conversations here (I wonder why that could be??)

In particular, this theory is gaining credence in both places; see Neo’s post on Why was Trump still on the stage?

Xennady
July 15, 2024 at 9:10 pm
This was an op.

The most charitable interpretation is that the Deep State arranged for incompetent security with a fond hope that some nutter would show up and solve their Trump problem for them. In that case I’d bet that security for many other Trump events was equally as bad, only no shooter bothered to turn up. Worse, perhaps this particular shooter was groomed by the Deep State with deliberate intent, only missing due to bad luck or the wind.

I sense a pattern. “Lone gunman” kills inconvenient political figure or commits a massacre, thus giving the Deep State a more pliable politician an office they might not have achieved on the own or an excuse to implement a policy that otherwise would not have been politically viable.

How many times does this have to happen before people stop accepting the oopsie theory of assassinations?

Let me recap. We had the murder of John F. Kennedy, which led to decades of questions about what actually happened. We had the killing of his brother, the killing of Martin Luther King, a near miss with Ronald Reagan, and every “five eyes” country had mass murders which led to gun-bans everywhere except the United States.

Something is quite fishy, in my view.

Although your following comment was not directed specifically at Xennady, this did have some relevance, IMO:

David Foster
July 15, 2024 at 10:26 pm
Someone at Instapundit, where this post was just linked, remembered something Charles Schumer said: “You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you, so even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman [like Trump], he’s being really dumb to do this.”