Art Pottery, Politics and Food
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
 

Lucky Lauren Burke of the AP snapped the first picture of a fuddish (as in Elmer) and guilt-stricken, or is that a plea for mercy, Richard Bruce Cheney stalking the corridors of Capitol Hill yesterday.
Still, the Whittington plot thickens as details emerge through the thin tissue of official prevarications made even more serious by the administration's reported efforts to quash any Congressional investigation of the Domestic Wiretapping Scandal.
Cheney’s bejeweled and smoking Perazzi Brescia most likely had a factory installed “straight rifled choke” to ensure lethality.
According to an item description of a “rifled choke tube” from OutdoorSuperstore .com:

If you are looking for improved accuracy from a smooth bore barrel, these fine choke tubes will improve your groups.

According to the excellent information at Answer.com “straight rifled chokes”:

Reduce the spin of the shot column and produce better patterns.

AlphaRubicon.com, with his penchant for upper case, says:

Shotgun barrels are CHOKED, or constricted at the end. This CHOKE determines whether the pattern or spread of the shot is wide or tight…[A] Full [choke]. Very tight choke for producing tight patterns. Very good for duck, goose, or turkey hunting…ANY shotgun can be made to accept interchangeable choke TUBES, thereby creating essentially a whole arsenal of different shotguns with only ONE gun and ONE barrel. By simply changing choke tubes, you can make the shotgun MISSION SPECIFIC.

A “pattern” is the mark left on the target by the metal bearings that were packed into and exploded out of a shotgun shell casing.
The ideal or best shot “pattern” would be all balls within a 30” diameter circle when fired from different positions and distances.
An average full choke, according to Answers.com, normally achieves 70% of its pattern in a 30” circle at 40 yards.
The Vice President’s custom, hand-made Italian rifle would have fired a consistent compact and deadly “pattern”.
As far as birdshot is concerned, according to AlphaRubicon, “the LARGER the #, the smaller the size of the shot. Effective range is USUALLY no more than 40 yards...depending on choke.”
The Game Warden’s report on SmokingGun.com says, “Cheney was using a 28 gauge shotgun loaded with 7 ½ shot.”
This 7-½ birdshot, according to this chart, would be between .10 and .09 inches in diameter and, normally, comprised of lead.
It would seem that Mr. Whittington, immediately following the shooting, would have evidenced the bloody signs of a compact high-velocity "pattern" and consequently a very serious medical condition.

Image: Associated Press, TheSmokingGun.com
- posted by Sean @ 10:34 AM
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