tv thing bullets boots and bombs I think

[the running man]

Did anyone see this program, I recorded it a ways back,I don't think it was a series but the program was great,this was all about kit! And how we got it and diffrent rifles including a hex barrel with hex bullet that was ball breakingly accurate! Think it was called a wilkins or simpkins something like that,Some was filmed on short siberia. It also featured a crater that went up in 1944 in staffordshire it was the largest non nuclear explosion in history and they could feel it in rome! Good stuff,is it availible on dvd?

[Sim G]

The Whitworth rifle.

[the running man]

That was it,ide never seen that before........truly amazing piece of work........

[Watcher]

There were three in the series. Discussing the importance of logistics for military operations. A good series on a neglected area (which I work in!). Remember: 'Amateurs talk tactics; professionals talk logistics'

[ovenpaa]

It also featured a crater that went up in 1944 in staffordshire it was the largest non nuclear explosion in history and they could feel it in rome!

I had not heard of this before.

Fauld crater
This crater, some 300-400 foot deep and up to half a mile across is the result of the explosion of 3,500-4,000 tons of munitions stored in the old gypsum mines under this spot. The explosion on 27/11/1944 is reckoned to be the largest non-nuclear explosion in either World War.

[dromia]

I've got an hexagonal barrelled Parker Hale Whitworth repro along with brass mould the origin of which I have yet to find out.

Interestingly the hexagonal rifling shoots standard round diameter bullets very accurately as well.

[the running man]

Big crater! It killed 70 people,and there's still 40k tons of ordanace down there somewhere as well as the remains of about 40 peoiple I think he said........very educational! Bit like that ship ladened with explosives in the thames estury! That mite explode at anytime!

[Tower75]

Never heard of the '44 explosion before. Scary stuff. Interesting though, in a sort of morbid way.

Heard of the Whitworth, though. The Confederates in the US-CW bought a few as contempory marksmen rifles. Bloody expensive in the day though.

I "think", but I could be wrong, the famous shooting of the US general - the one who said "why are you boys hiding?, they couldn't hit an elephant from this dist-" was shot with a Whitworth.

[Sandgroper]

I "think", but I could be wrong, the famous shooting of the US general - the one who said "why are you boys hiding?, they couldn't hit an elephant from this dist-" was shot with a Whitworth.

http://www.civilwarhome.com/sedgwickdeath.htm

Gen John Sedgwick

I gave the necessary order to move the troops to the right, and as they rose to execute the movement the enemy opened a sprinkling fire, partly from sharp-shooters. As the bullets whistled by, some of the men dodged. The general said laughingly, " What! what! men, dodging this way for single bullets! What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." A few seconds after, a man who had been separated from his regiment passed directly in front of the general, and at the same moment a sharp-shooter's bullet passed with a long shrill whistle very close, and the soldier, who was then just in front of the general, dodged to the ground. The general touched him gently with his foot, and said, " Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way," and repeated the remark, " They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." The man rose and saluted and said good-naturedly, " General, I dodged a shell once, and if I hadn't, it would have taken my head off. I believe in dodging." The general laughed and replied, "All right, my man; go to your place."
For a third time the same shrill whistle, closing with a dull, heavy stroke, interrupted our talk; when, as I was about to resume, the general's face turned slowly to me, the blood spurting from his left cheek under the eye im a steady stream. He fell in my direction ; I was so close to him that my effort to support him failed, and I fell with him.

Nothing to say it was a Whitworth, then again nothing to say it wasn't either.
http://www.cfspress.com/sharpshooters/arms.html

Although some claims of its accuracy are no doubt exaggerated, the fact remains that the Whitworth could and did strike at a thousand yards and beyond. "The claim of 'fatal results at 1,500 yards,'" concluded one modern expert, "was no foolish boast." Overall, it was a deadly weapon that, in the right hands, repaid its high cost many times over. "I do not believe a harder-shooting, harder-kicking, longer-range gun was ever made than the Whitworth rifle," asserted sharpshooter veteran Isaac Shannon.