Firing Squads

On many of the British Firing Squads there rifles were loaded then passed to the man taking part. some guns would have blanks in them and others live rounds so that they would never know if it was them who fired the fatal shot.
 
LeEnfield said:
On many of the British Firing Squads there rifles were loaded then passed to the man taking part. some guns would have blanks in them and others live rounds so that they would never know if it was them who fired the fatal shot.
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The thing is, the soldiers would know who had blanks and who had live ammunition, because of the lack of recoil with blanks.
 
The old .303 blank still had quite a kick to it although the noise was slightly different, still with all the other guns going off would you really have noticed and it would leave the firing squad hoping it wasn't them that had live rounds.
 
In a fairly dated (late 1970's/early 1980's) British made documentary, which is still sometimes used by the Australian Army in the training of its recruits at Kapooka (where all Aussie soldiers train) - titled "Recruit" - there is mention of firing squads for desertion and it was members of the soldier's own unit/platoon that carried out the execution.
 
The reason for a blank in the firing squad could have been sociological for the soldiers in the squad. Maybe to get them to aim straight thinking they might be the one with the blank.

Another alternative would be to relieve the men of the possiblity of being charged with murder, should the firing squad been found not legal for some reason. Then the all firing squad members could claim to have fired the blank.

It is clear that the soldier who had the blank would know but who could prove it.

Just for clarity blanks do have some recoil. The blank has to have enough back pressure to allow for an explosive bang. In semiautomatic rifles the pressure has to be enough to cycle the rifle. Most people here are aware that blanks can kill. The recoil difference would be obvious to the shooter but no one else.
 
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Chukpike said:
Another alternative would be to relieve the men of the possibility of being charged with murder, should the firing squad been found not legal for some reason. Then the all firing squad members could claim to have fired the blank.

It is clear that the soldier who had the blank would know but who could prove it.
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My info may be wrong, but I was always led to believe that the blank round was for the above reason, as there was always an element of doubt.

In the British system, as far as i know there have been no deaths by firing squad since the introduction of semi auto weapons, so the issue of cycling the action does not come into it. The selected weapons were tested and loaded by another person and stacked prior to the squad taking them up, after use they were returned and unloaded by an unrelated person (possibly the person who loaded them, the company or unit armourer)

As for knowing whether your rifle had a blank or not, I think you will find that the members of the firing squad would be so traumatised by the event as to not even realise whether their weapon recoiled as usual or not.

I would say that most shooters who do any amount of shooting are not aware of their weapon's recoil anyway. If you are, you are obviously frightened of it, and will never shoot well anyway.

I also believe that a similar method is used in the US for Judicial Death by Firing squad. Bolt action weapons, pre loaded, and only cleared by the loader. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/descriptions-execution-methods
 
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Agreed if they used a semi auto, it does not change the fact that blanks develop pressure and recoil. That it is less than a normal round does not change the fact that the only person to know it was a blank would be the shooter, and only after he fired.
 
LeEnfield said:
The old .303 blank still had quite a kick to it although the noise was slightly different, still with all the other guns going off would you really have noticed and it would leave the firing squad hoping it wasn't them that had live rounds.
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I have never found recoil in a rifle such as a Lee Enfield while firing blanks. A 303 live cartridge produces approximately 18.5 tons +/- of (proof) pressure at the breech, firing a 174 grain bullet Mk7 at 2450 fps results in 2376 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle.

The 174 grain bullet produces considerable resistance to the expanding gasses as it passes along the barrel, hence the recoil. Felt recoil is directly linked to bullet weight, velocity, rate of burn of the propellent and of course the weight of the firearm. For example, a 125 grain full blown 357 Magnum round is going to have far more felt recoil then a 158 grain 38 Special round fired in the same revolver. A blank would have very little if no resistance, unless the case was packed with a crap load of filler or wads and packed to the crimped case mouth with a very fast burning propellent.

I did however, get my hands on a 303 cartridge with a wooden bullet, something I have never seen before.
 
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