May 20, 2004
That's why I say, "Hey man, nice shot."
I first heard about this on the local news today or yesterday, and through one of "small world" circuits I've gotten used to since I discovered the Internet in the late 1980's, my friend Steve Pegram forwards me the local news station's coverage of it, "Mountain Lion killed in Palo Alto neighborhood":
The media think this footage is graphic. The officer made a good shot. She used an M4 with an EoTech. Based on my limited knowledge of cat physiology (from reading hunt reports and watching OLN) it appears to be a lung shot. I surmise this from the cat's reaction based on known lung shots I've observed on hunting shows.Perhaps we should rename the 5.56 Poodle Shooter to Kitty Killer?
The video does go on to say that the shot was lung/heart/lung, which is almost as good as such a game shot can get (additionally breaking one or both scapulae to keep the cat from running would have been even better, and a brainstem shot would have rated "perfect".) The only thing that would have made this better is if the householder had dispatched the threat herself. By the way, I should mention that there have been several recent public accounts of mountain lion attacks on hikers in the nearby Stanford hills (The Farm really is farmland)... good riddance to bad cats.
Posted by Russell Whitaker at May 20, 2004 02:52 PM | TrackBackThat was a good shot, particularly considering all of the distractions that were probably going on right behind the officer. I do have one criticism, however: she has a RIFLE, but walks forward so that she can take the shot while standing. Why not remain farther back, use a car hood or roof as a rest, and make the shot easier? If the animal poses enough risk that it has to be shot, then why risk even the possibility of missing by taking a more difficult than necessary shot?
Posted by: Bob Tipton on May 20, 2004 08:57 PMBob, funny you should mention that: some buddies and I were discussing this ourselves in private email. It's likely she was setting herself up to pursue the cat if it fell and ran. The shooter would need to be ready to move fast to adjust for a followup shot on the cat, so a close offhand shot might be justified in such a situation.
Posted by: Russell Whitaker on May 20, 2004 09:08 PMI'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, if for no other reason than that she made a shot that was by no means a "gimme", under pressure, and with an audience of hysterical useless people (useless = unarmed when a big cat is running around).
Posted by: Bob Tipton on May 20, 2004 10:35 PMBlasted windows media player. Oh well, I can read you descriptions of it.
Curt-
Posted by: Curt Howland on May 21, 2004 06:01 AMI missed the commentary on the video about it being a lung shot. I didn't watch it all the way through. I couldn't handle the locals blathering about the poor little puddy tat.
In re offhand. Russ could be correct, she may have been staging for a follow-up. Or, perhaps, she hasn't been to school and it didn't occur to her to take a rest.
In a perfect world everyone would have a 270 class no later than freshman year of college.
Posted by: Steve Pegram on May 21, 2004 12:18 PM