Gun Myth: Cutting the Hangman’s Rope with a Bullet

Remember watching the old western movies that has the good guy cutting a rope with a gun, resulting in saving an innocent bystander and the day? Can the good guys really do that? Well, Jerry Miculek Youtuber set out for this task to see if its a myth or facts.

In the video Jerry talks about using the pistol, rifle and the rope to mimic the time frame from these western movies, here’s what he used:

-Used Sisal 3/4 inch rope as this was the norm back in the old western days.
-This rope is placed on a manniquin with 200 pound of weight at the bottom to maintain tension.
-Colt single action .45 pistol. Fired at the rope and did not cut the rope.
-Bring in a bigger gun, 74 Shadow Sharps 4570 rifle which shoots a 500 grain round nose (smokeless load).

Results
-With the .45 pistol, it only scratched the rope and did not cut it.
-With the Shadows rifle 500 grain no problem cutting the rope in half and saving the manniquin.
As an extra bonus Jerry decides to pull out a .50 Cal BMG to represent the present day hombre and proceeds to cut the rope in half. However, the shot was a little off to the side and there was not enough tension on the rope. Ending story mannequin was laid to rest.

Sources: Jerry Miculek Youtube, Spaghetti Western Movie Wikipedia

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