Shots That Changed the World

[Adam Striegel]

I started watching Top Shot for the first time. I really like the challenges they do, but all the high school drama queen stuff gets old.

Anyways, at the beginning of the show they always say "there have been shots that changed the world." Can anyone come up with some good examples of this? Presidential assassinations are really the only thing that come to my mind right away, and thought it would be fun to see what anyone else can think of without Googling it up.

 

[DoctorJJ]

The shot heard round the world? Which originally described the first shot of the American Revolution but has gone on to be also known as the shot that killed archduke Franz Ferdinand that subsequently started WW1.

 

[ummm]

the shot that killed archduke Franz Ferdinand that subsequently started WW1.

First thing that came to my mind, too

Also, the shots that killed Abe Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and JFK.

Obviously the shots that killed Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr

 

[Adam Striegel]

What about the sniper rumors of shooting an opposing sniper through his scope. I remember myth busters "busting" it, but it seems like that was a real deal and was a very impressive shot.

 

[Jefpainthorse]

Myth busters is right up there with Wikipedia some times.
I'd swear Sgt Carlos Hathcock had a confirmed kill " through the scope"

 

[Wall]

Myth busters is right up there with Wikipedia some times.
I'd swear Sgt Carlos Hathcock had a confirmed kill " through the scope"

The shot he made on the enemy sniper (The Cobra) was through the scope.
But scope technology of the time was much different than it is today.

 

[Jackary]

They tested this on one of the military channel specials and used a scope similar to what the shot would have been made through and it was confirmed.

 

[DoctorJJ]

As much of a badass as Carlos Hathcock was, and I really mean no disrespect, I believe some of his stories have been embellished.

 

[dennishoddy]

His kills were confirmed though.
He was not the most proficient sniper in nam.
I am proud to be a classmate and friend of Joe Day. Sniper in VN.
He was awarded the silver star for taking out a battalion commander addressing his troops with one shot to the head, At close to 1000yds.
He used a rem 700 off the shelf rifle. I can't say what scope he used. I'll ask when I see him next.

 

[KurtM]

Shots that changed the world??? I would have to say most the ones done By Ulysses S. Grant, and the ones done by Joseph Stalin. Although one was partial to Whiskey and the other Vodka. One help re-establish a strong union, and the other did the same thing....only from opposite ends of the spectrum.

The only other one that comes to mind was the "shot" that fired a hollow bullet of U235 onto a cylinder shaped receptical in the Little Boy bomb dropped by The Enola Gay over Hiroshima (Fat boy, dropped by Bock'scar over Nagasaki, was an implosion type device. Little Boy was basically a projectile device where a hollow cylinder of U235 was shot down a barrel onto a solid cylinder receptical of U235 to reach critical mass.)

 

[shootingbuff]

As much of a badass as Carlos Hathcock was, and I really mean no disrespect, I believe some of his stories have been embellished.

not only tsk tsk, but how dare you

 

[shootingbuff]

His kills were confirmed though.
He was not the most proficient sniper in nam.
I am proud to be a classmate and friend of Joe Day. Sniper in VN.
He was awarded the silver star for taking out a battalion commander addressing his troops with one shot to the head, At close to 1000yds.
He used a rem 700 off the shelf rifle. I can't say what scope he used. I'll ask when I see him next.

Before my homey is better than your homey can we say that both accomplished much and Carlos gave his livelihood for those he didn't even know and still shot better than most in pain that ensued from his burns.

Billy Dixon's shot comes to mind. May not had been heard around the world but was a hell of a feat.
Does the torpedo was it that jammed the Bismark's rudder count?
The shot that struck President Regan.
Each one that killed The Duke in the movies.

 

[Jefpainthorse]

The shot he made on the enemy sniper (The Cobra) was through the scope.
But scope technology of the time was much different than it is today.

yes it was... rifles were tuned (a little bit) Winchester 70 and Remington 700's... the glass was straight out "Feild and Stream" (hunting glass)...amazing what a man can do with initiative and a little talent.

 

[Adam Striegel]

That makes sense. The scopes they were running on Mythbusters were modern scopes that had something crazy like 6-8 lenses in them. If the scopes they had in the good old days only had a couple lenses it would be easier to shoot through. Hell of a shot.

 

[NL7CO]

Does the first bomb (topedo?) at Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 41 count? Prior to that, we had no overwhelming reason to be a direct participant in the conflict. And if the US had not declared (recognized?) that we were at war with Japan on 8 Dec 41, Hitler would not have declared war on us on 10 Dec 41.

Surely, that shot was heard around the world.

 

[Corey]

A jet would be the projectile but 9/11 comes to mind as well as Toby Keith's song ...we'll put a foot in your a$$.

 

[michaelclm]

The first and last shots at Trenton on December 26, 1776.

Had they never been fired, the New Year's Day enlistment expirations may have ended the struggle for independence. As it was, the victory gave morale a huge shot in the arm and turned the opinions of quite a few colonists back to the effort. At the time, Howe had offered an olive branch that any subject could sign a statement of allegiance with the crown and they would live out the war unmolested. Colonists had begun turning out in droves to sign the decrees before Christmas. After the victory at Trenton support for the cause began to swell again.