"tower sniper"Remington

oldscot3

New member
I noticed Charles Whitman's rifle was in the news this past week. It appears to be a varmint barrel BDL, can anyone tell from the pictures?
 
I don't think it was a Varmint model, but it was a 6mm Remington M700. If you click on the link to the story you'll find some pictures you can open up. One of the pictures is a close up of the rifle and it shows the front sight holes, I don't think Remington ever put front sights on the varmint models.

Pictures of Whitman rifle
 
Yes, I saw the pic of the muzzle end with screw holes. That's the source of my curiosity because in the other pictures it appeared to have a heavy barrel. I have a 6mm ADL of approximately the same vintage and it has a standard sporter barrel which looks smaller to me.

I expect we'll be seeing more pictures soon. Hopefully some will be higher resolution.

BTW the scope on it is a Leupold not a k4 as stated jn another thread. Wonder if a swap was made sometime?
 
I'm rusty about details after 48 years, but I vaguely recall initial reports about the scope being a K-4. 4X, anyhow.

In the photo of the tower, I doubt that it's smoke from Whitman's rifle. More likely it's dust from the impact of somebody's rifle bullet, shooting back at Whitman.
 
The original article I read was expressing the point of view that the Crime Museum was doing something horribly immoral by buying and displaying the rifle. Apparently they believe that rifle is inherently evil. Possessed by a demon I guess.

Ignorance is stunning sometimes; they have no comprehension of what constitutes a historic artifact. A Remington 700 is just one of thousands, but that Remington is a tangible object connected to an event that fundamentally changed our history. Nothing morbid about being interested in seeing that in a museum.

I digress, the rifle on display has a Leupold in Weaver rings.
 
I'm almost positive that the rifle is a sporter weight barrel. For two reasons.

I have a 6mm BDL varmint special from the early 70's. The barrel is much bigger than the one in the picture, and the muzzle on mine is more squared off than the rounded one in the pic.

Also I believe the heavy barrel version known as the BDL varmint special was introduced in 1967.
 
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