Life Magazine's Rifle Test
- Fred Litwin
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
During Life Magazine's investigation of the JFK assassination in 1966, Holland McCombs decided to do a test and see if it was possible to see smoke from a rifle on the grassy knoll.
Here is their report:
Here is the text:
Last week end we sent out a crew of four hunters to perform and witness. They were Carol and Roy Lutz, and Bill and Lucilla Dahnke. They carried to a nearby ranch a 32-20 rifle, a 30-30, an Army M-1, A Texas Ranger 38, a Beretta Automatic Pistol, a 22 Target. As one gunman at a time would fire, the other three witnesses stood from 9' to 15' from the muzzle and 25' to 50' from the muzzle to see if there were any discernible puffs of smoke visible against the green brushy backgrounds and a time among the brush and trees.
This crew fired all the above listed weapons several times each. Their consensus report is as follows:
Out in the open no smoke at all was visible during the firings but up against a green background before and among the brush and trees, we could see a wispy vapor for second or less but we really had to concentrate hard to see anything at all. As far as any "puff of smoke," there was no such thing. There was no hovering of either vapor or smoke. We could only see a barely wisp of vapor. And it was gone by the tie=me you could say second.
In addition to the above tests we have questioned police experts, firearms experts and other hunters and all agree that it would have to be old ammunition and old powder for Mr. Holland to have seen any hovering puff of smoke. However, most everyone seems to believe that it is quite possible that Mr. Davis' theory on the motorcycle exhumes as quite likely.
Unfortunately I don't have the end of this sentence...
Here was the response to the rifle test from Edward Kern:
Here is a paragraph from Stephen White's book, Should We Now Believe the Warre Report?: (page 67)
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