If you need to catch up, click here. Read the comments.
I slapped it into Photoshop to try and make things a little clearer. There wasn't a lot to work with, this is as good as it gets at my skill level. I don't have that image processing software that CSI has...
Looks to me like the shadow of the magazine lines up with the shadow of the magazine well, suggesting that this magazine isn't clipped to another, as Cannonshop suggested.
Yet, something *no one* brought up yesterday, but I proved to myself last night - you can't insert a magazine backwards - not and make it stay - unless you *really* jam it in there. As in hard enough to gouge the aluminum of the magazine well and probably distorting the magazine.
Heh. An unintended "Whatzis!"
I suppose I should contact the PD in question and just ask, eh? Anybody down in the Austin-area of Texas wanna go find the officer and ask her?
2. The magazine is clearly inserted incorrectly.
3. The tilt of the cropping of the photo still leads the eye astray.
4. She has an unnatural "break" to her right wrist. Maybe because the butt stock isn't fully deployed and she has to compensate for the shortness of the carbine.
5. I still don't think she has the carbine seated correctly at her shoulder. Possibly interference from her vest.
6. She's definitely not squared off or correctly bladed. Something about her posture is still awkward... maybe I'm not just catching that because the photo angle is throwing me off.
7. Her right finger is indexed and she is using her right eye to sight...
9. I think they caught her in the upswing of bringing the weapon to bear. Her hips, shoulders, elbow, and wrist are all out of alignment.
Still doesn't excuse the magazine for being inserted backwards. Is there a possibility that maybe there is a "reverse" banana magazine available on the market? I know, dumb question, but what if that was the answer???
And what's worse is that somewhere there's an empty kitchen.
Are bullets bigger than their casings?
Nope, she's got that slam-jammed in tight, and that takes a *lot* of doing. Which leads me to believe she's not had much experience with a magazine-fed rifle.
*laughing*
Thank goodness it was dark or I'd still be living that one down.
Mind you, our M4-clone (Bushmaster O.R.C.) is a relatively new weapon (a thousand rounds through it, but still newish) and I wasn't going to push the issue!
Might be a derivation of the Czech AK mag developed in '88 for slipping into WarPac stores in the event their Fraternal Progressive Brothers decided to replay Prague Spring, though...
Well... I can't find it in a handy reference book just now, but I seem to recall hearing of a reverse-tapered cartridge. Must have been for a rifle that had the chamber in the front of the breechblock, rather than the back of the barrel.
Now I'm trying to figure out how you'd make an autoloader work with such a cartridge....
Pardon my poking my nose into your discussion, but I have a little information that might be interesting.
First I’ll say I’m not military, although my father did serve in the Coast Guard during WWII. My husband and I do serve as law-enforcement chaplains, and he’s a full-time sheriff’s deputy in the county due west of where this photo was taken.
Like all of y’all, when my husband saw the photo in your earlier thread, he could tell that the clip is in backward, but I confess that he had to practically use a Sharpie to outline the clip for me (I’m not a firearms expert, LOL).
Anyway, this afternoon when I saw the renewed discussion, I called the “River Cities Tribune” office and spoke to someone who told me “the rest of the story.”
The young lady pictured is a genuine Marble Falls, TX, peace officer.
The photo is genuine, not PhotoShopped. The story and photo were published in October of 2006.
The officer did insert the clip backward – but I didn’t ask how.
The officer did realize her mistake and correct it, but the photographer published the shot he took before the officer corrected her mistake.
The officer has taken more training and has remained with the department.
The “Tribune” has received multiple calls from law-enforcement agencies across the nation, requesting a copy of the article and photo to use in training sessions. The most recent call before mine was three months ago.
The “Tribune” will e-mail a copy of the article if you request it.
So now, as the great Paul Harvey might say, you know at least some of the rest of the story. I guess if you need to, you can contact MFPD to ask about any details.
Off topic:
Thank all of you so very much for your service and sacrifice to keep our country strong and free!
God bless you,
Chaplain C. Wolfe
At least early model of the Burnside carbine used a cartridge peculiar to the Burnside. It was widest where the bullet seated in the case, and tapered to about half that diameter at the far end.
Weird, but it worked, mostly.