Saved By The Pipe

[workman]

I've started listening to podcasts while I work, mainly stuff about history, philosophy, politics etc.
These last days I've listened to stories from the "Old West".
Here's a pipe related one:
The last bank robbery by the James-Younger gang was the failed attempt in Northfield, Minnesota, 1876.
The attempted robbery turned into a gunfight that left two robbers and 3-4 townsfolk dead. Six robbers escaped.
After a while they split up, Jesse and Frank James reached safety in Missouri where they had friends and family, but the other four, three Younger brothers and one Charlie Pitts were discovered and confronted by a posse and a gunfight followed. Pitts was killed, the Youngers captured, all wounded. In the gunfight, one of the Younger brothers shot the leader of the posse, an army captain named William Wallace Murphy in the chest at close range with a .44 or .45 revolver. The captain was knocked down by the shot and was sure he was badly wounded. He was not.
The bullet hit a briar pipe he had in his pocket and left him unharmed.
Saved by the pipe.

 

[RonB]

Nice story thanks.

 

[shanez]

Awesome!

But I'm still not building a thick layer of cake in my pipes no matter how many times I get shot at.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Lucky he wasn't smoking a clay.

 

[workman]

Lucky he wasn't smoking a clay.

Yes. Or a cigarette.

 

[AroEnglish]

Fun story! Is the podcast just called "Old West"?

 

[Servant King]

...and the bullet nicked the tip of his fishtail bit...and thus, the p-lip was born!

 

[Brendan]

Wow... wouldn't have guessed a piece of briar would stop a 44-45 calibre bullet to the extent of saving a life.
Not doubting the story, just impressed !
Thanks for sharing @workman !

 

[workman]

Fun story! Is the podcast just called "Old West"?

Legends of the old west.

 

[workman]

Wow... wouldn't have guessed a piece of briar would stop a 44-45 calibre bullet to the extent of saving a life.
Not doubting the story, just impressed !
Thanks for sharing @workman !

It's wild. One of the captured Youngers was shot in the face. Also at close range. The bullet lodged itself in the roof of his mouth, but he lived.
During his career, Jesse James was shot several times, at least twice in the chest. I don't know a lot about guns and ammo, but I assume the ammo wasn't as destructive back then as it is today, either due to less power or the material in the bullets. I'm only guessing.

 

[AroEnglish]

Legends of the old west.

Thanks; I'll check it out!

 

[anotherbob]

It's wild. One of the captured Youngers was shot in the face. Also at close range. The bullet lodged itself in the roof of his mouth, but he lived.
During his career, Jesse James was shot several times, at least twice in the chest. I don't know a lot about guns and ammo, but I assume the ammo wasn't as destructive back then as it is today, either due to less power or the material in the bullets. I'm only guessing.

it certainly wasn't. Or at least not as consistently. (bad Joke warning). That's why in old Westerns they'd always have to shoot people off of balconies it was the only way to kill someone quick with a gun back then.

 

[Servant King]

It's wild. One of the captured Youngers was shot in the face. Also at close range. The bullet lodged itself in the roof of his mouth, but he lived.
During his career, Jesse James was shot several times, at least twice in the chest. I don't know a lot about guns and ammo, but I assume the ammo wasn't as destructive back then as it is today, either due to less power or the material in the bullets. I'm only guessing.

The factor I find the most striking is the tremendous inaccuracy of firearms back then, not just pistols, but long guns too. Just as an example, one of the most popular gunfights of that era was the Gunfight at the OK Corral, circa 1880. Depending on the source, those guys were standing anywhere from 10 to 20 feet from each other...and at least half of all the shots fired missed! Probably the biggest improvement to accuracy in that era, other than the switch from ball & powder to fully contained cartridges, was the rifling of the gun barrels. By the time the turn of the century rolled around, infantrymen could generally hit the targets they aimed at!

But back to the Old West...my favorite part of the Northfield robbery was Henry Wheeler's role. Guy was like a 20 year old medical student staying at a nearby motel, and when he saw the gang trying to flee, he grabbed a rifle, ran up to the top floor, and picked off at least one of the robbers as they rode by. Can you imagine? Adrenaline pumping, yet calm enough to play the role of sniper for a brief minute, and do so accurately. Crazy stuff! And I can barely keep a bowl of 1Q lit with a steady hand. ?‍

 

[mso489]

If that experiment were run with a dummy, I'd expect the bullet to splinter the pipe and enter the chest, but maybe in fragments or on a crooked trajectory. To have it fully stopped would have involved a defective round, and that's a really good thing. The guy had on his bullet-proof luck.

 

[kcghost]

I wouldn't have guessed a pipe could stop a .44/.45 caliber bullet in its assigned task.

 

[verporchting]

Most likely the bullet was plain lead and not metal jacketed which makes a huge difference.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that most handguns are WAY more accurate than the person shooting them - especially in a stress situation. The books are replete with examples of law enforcement gun battles at ridiculously close range where people miss despite unloading the weapons in rapid fire. I recall a law enforcement statistic somewhere that the average distance of a gunfight is 42 INCHES and still people mostly miss.

I wouldn’t care to have stood in front of anyone with a .44 even back in the day and even if their aim sucked, but I would absolutely kick somebody’s ass if they shot my favorite pipe!??

 

[WVOldFart]

Loved the story. Thanks for sharing.