That third shot *spoiler alert* - Shooter (2016) Discussion

[–] coyote_hater 8 years ago

I would say an over pressure compressed load, or the bullet was slightly larger than the bore & lodged in the barrel. Either, along with a couple other things could cause the receiver to explode.

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[–] duce076 8 years ago

At first I was wondering the same thing, then driving to work I was thinking about it and I would have to agree, over pressured the load and the bullet itself was slightly larger then the bore. in very basic terms it created a pipe bomb in the rifle.

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[–] tominsc 8 years ago

That was my thought as well, although a slightly larger bullet wouldn't chamber well, if at all. However, I believe the shell was slightly shorter than the rest allowing a larger bullet to be chambered.

It's likely that the receiver would explode in that situation, but I think they tried to imply that the bolt blew back and made a large hole in his face.

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[–] digitalWarp 8 years ago

The bullet used should have been one that Lon Scott fired with his rifle that Swagger found and had been carrying around. Because of how it was made it didn't deform or shatter. Basically, the bullet used was made for Lon Scott's rifle, and had been previously fired from his rifle. I could be wrong, but I do believe it is the bullet he found that had killed the Ukrainian president.

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[–] ltpk3 8 years ago

I don't get the logic behind replacing the 3rd bullet and risk being killed on the first 2 shots. If he were to put it in the first slot, it would have been exploded and gave the same result

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[–] apontep 8 years ago

It was the third shot because he also sabotaged his scope. If his scope was dead on, Scott would have dropped him with that first shot.

After dude had his face blown off, you can see a short scene where Swagger had messed with his yardage and windage before Scott ever went down to his office. After the sabotage he knew Scott would burn through rounds to get back his zero. That's why it was the 3rd round.

He used the guys own arrogance and obsession to defeat him.

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[–] pinoko 8 years ago

I don't think that he deliberately wanted it to be the third shot. He was just in a hurry. Anyways I liked the scene for its grotesque irony. Visually it was like a scene from Terminator which is cool. They did a great job with the effects.

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[–] tominsc 8 years ago

I think it was the 3rd of 5 shots, so that it would be in the middle whether Lon started from the front or the back. Messing up the zero on the scope made it so that Lon likely wouldn't be able to hit anything, but it was still risky.

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[–] dsatchmo 8 years ago

Read some if these answers, I'll give my .02 since I reload for years with mainly rifle .308.

The round used would have had a primer (cap which is seated at the end of the case, with the hole larger) the powder used wouldn't have been rifle (smokeless) i.e. Varget IMR or similar, but probably an accelerant powder (power pustol or greet dot or black powder, along with overcharging the case 700 grains..naybe, and finally seating the round which would have to be same size or it would not fit the action in rifle...but difference would be a very hard crimped round and then factory crimping the round right at the neck to lock it in. There could be many other solutions to get the desired results but an overcharged round with acceleration ingredient with wrong powder hard seated would blow the case up

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[–] dsatchmo 8 years ago

....also the first shot is also called a "cold bore shot" and is not as effective, the 2nd would have been the bullseye..but he was a Doosh so he got the pie in the eye.

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[–] MovieGrunt 8 years ago

I am a reloader as well and no doubt it was a really hot load that caused that "kaboom" as it's called. I think Lon's Black King rifle was chambered in .338 Lapua which is a really big caliber and uses a lot of slow burning (relatively speaking) powder. In one brief scene they showed Swagger loading a similar round, ostensibly for his rifle. But no doubt it is then that he sabotaged Lon's round. I would guess an overcharge of much faster burning powder -- maybe even a really fast pistol powder which would cause a tremendous catastrophe.

However, would it have been enough of a kaboom to blow up such a heavily built rifle? Maybe. Probably. Sure wouldn't want to be the one pulling the trigger.

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