The scope would be legitimate, as you are trying to hold on a target area that may be only a few square inches at a distance of ten yards or so. (Effective range of a Crosman 1322 air pistol is 25 meters.) Standard pistol shooting accuracy is not good enough for an assassination attempt.
The dart would be aerodynamically stabilized; no spinning (standard for air pistols). The weapon would be a smoothbore air pistol and the dart could be accelerated by a cup (sabot) that would be shed once out of the muzzle.
Not silly at all. The hand must be supported, and standard shooting stances are two-handed. If you have the jitters when shooting, you shouldn't be shooting.
Ice at below freezing does not melt too quickly. A gelatine layer might insulate somewhat. Latex gloves are an old, old standby.
Who said battery operated? Probably driven by a CO2 cartridge and the line you see coming around to the breach is probably a gas tube. At, say, 100+ meters/second, a blunt nail would penetrate skin and flesh, so an ice dart would simply go in.
The article says the gun was a modified Colt model 1911, but there is no basis for that statement. Various details of the pistol shown are incommensurate with the Colt 1911 (slide shape, barrel arrangement sans recoil spring and plunger, different trigger and trigger guard, different grip shape, completely different breech design).
No more so than a shooter aiming a pistol. (If you are squinting, it's not the scope for you.)
Stabilizing fins can be molded into the ice. The nose needs only to be pointy, not needle-like. In fact, you would like the ice "needle" to be moderately teardrop in shape. This is where a sabot would be highly useful.
The trials and tribulations of an assassin.
I was responding to the comment, but, yes, the headline was a jump to a conclusion.
Model 1911: The dart pistol was in no way compatible with the frame and slide of a 1911. Such an idea is sheer distraction. There is no reason to develop an air pistol that has the mechanics of a delayed-recoil semiautomatic pistol.
There's enough ignorance to go around. I was browsing in a gun store years ago and some customer was asking the clerk whether 7.62 mm Luger pistol ammunition was the same as 7.62 mm Mauser pistol ammunition. The clerk assured him that it was. (Those who know how much of a blooper this was will probably upbraid me for not saying anything to correct the mistake. The answer is that my Spidey Senses went off, but I wasn't that familiar with ammunition at that time in my life to barge into the discussion.)
Give it up. A conical projectile would be too skimpy for the diameter it would have to be (much less mass than a corresponding rod or needle of the same diameter). There is no advantage to imparting spin, when the angular momentum would be vanishingly small, and "spiral dents" would only impair the physical integrity of the projectile (ice). Flechette rounds have been shot from guns for decades, and an ice flechette would be straightforward.
Here's a fairly complete article on the subject. https://allthatsinteresting.com/heart-attack-gun I disagree with the dismissal of the concept.
The dart would be aerodynamically stabilized; no spinning (standard for air pistols). The weapon would be a smoothbore air pistol and the dart could be accelerated by a cup (sabot) that would be shed once out of the muzzle.
Not silly at all. The hand must be supported, and standard shooting stances are two-handed. If you have the jitters when shooting, you shouldn't be shooting.
Ice at below freezing does not melt too quickly. A gelatine layer might insulate somewhat. Latex gloves are an old, old standby.
Who said battery operated? Probably driven by a CO2 cartridge and the line you see coming around to the breach is probably a gas tube. At, say, 100+ meters/second, a blunt nail would penetrate skin and flesh, so an ice dart would simply go in.
The article says the gun was a modified Colt model 1911, but there is no basis for that statement. Various details of the pistol shown are incommensurate with the Colt 1911 (slide shape, barrel arrangement sans recoil spring and plunger, different trigger and trigger guard, different grip shape, completely different breech design).
Stabilizing fins can be molded into the ice. The nose needs only to be pointy, not needle-like. In fact, you would like the ice "needle" to be moderately teardrop in shape. This is where a sabot would be highly useful.
The trials and tribulations of an assassin.
I was responding to the comment, but, yes, the headline was a jump to a conclusion.
Model 1911: The dart pistol was in no way compatible with the frame and slide of a 1911. Such an idea is sheer distraction. There is no reason to develop an air pistol that has the mechanics of a delayed-recoil semiautomatic pistol.
There's enough ignorance to go around. I was browsing in a gun store years ago and some customer was asking the clerk whether 7.62 mm Luger pistol ammunition was the same as 7.62 mm Mauser pistol ammunition. The clerk assured him that it was. (Those who know how much of a blooper this was will probably upbraid me for not saying anything to correct the mistake. The answer is that my Spidey Senses went off, but I wasn't that familiar with ammunition at that time in my life to barge into the discussion.)
Give it up. A conical projectile would be too skimpy for the diameter it would have to be (much less mass than a corresponding rod or needle of the same diameter). There is no advantage to imparting spin, when the angular momentum would be vanishingly small, and "spiral dents" would only impair the physical integrity of the projectile (ice). Flechette rounds have been shot from guns for decades, and an ice flechette would be straightforward.