ardly:
I really cannot figure out how he managed to do that.
Sadly, stupidity and firearms too often go hand-in-hand...
I was traveling with a buddy one fine fall day. We pulled off onto a dirt road to take a break from driving. While standing around sipping Mt. Dew he leaned towards me and whispered, "I have to show you something." I was, as expected, a bit apprehensive. He led me to the trunk. Just before turning the key he whispered again, "You're going to love this." I quickly considered my escape routes.
Laying in the trunk was a sawed-off-double-barreled-shotgun. I was actually relieved.
We lined up some bottles. He loaded the weapon. Took aim. BANG! Completely missed. Lesson #1: Sawed-off-shotguns are amazingly inaccurate. There is a reason shotguns have a barrel longer than 12 inches.
After considering the high-left trajectory he tried again. Perfect shot. That did not shatter the bottle. We investigated. Lesson #2: Sawed-off-shotguns expel the shot in such a wide pattern and with such a loss of energy that a glass bottle beyond 40 feet suffers very minimal damage.
We took turns shooting at bottles. At successively closer distances.
After about 20 minutes we decided break time was over; time to get back on the road. For no apparent my buddy decided to fire the last shot straight into the air. I looked at him and exclaimed, "Why the eff did you do that?"
"Don't worry. They won't have much energy when the come down." That, from someone about to graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering.
"They're going to have the same amount of energy coming down as going up minus a bit for wind resistance."
"Oh eff."
We had no idea what to do. Given the incredibly wide pattern and the horrible inaccuracy the shot could, quite literally, come down anywhere. We stood motionless.
Plink. Plink. Then the sound of pouring rain. The vast majority of the shot came down on his beautiful '67 Mustang. We each got pelted a few times but there was not enough energy to even break the skin.
Lesson #3: No movie producer ever has touched an actual sawed-off-shotgun. They are quite useless. (Beyond making a great deal of noise.)
Lesson #4: Stupidity and firearms too often go hand-in-hand.
(Despite the detour, it was a very fun trip.)