I looked through the article, and tried to find details elsewhere, and all I could see was that they found shell cases 'near a bush' (a bush that was almost certainly not there in 1918 by the size of it in pictures) that they felt was near the right part of the German line. I didnt see anything about primer indentations or matching the cartidges with the original rifle, only that the rifle cartidges and pistol cartridges were the correct calibre, although a .45 ACP round would be common to any US serviceman with a pistol, as would the 30.06 rifle cartridges be common to pretty much all infantrymen. There were likely hundreds of men in close proximity to the area during WWI, so picking up cartidges 100 years later is hardly a forensic approach as WWI battlefields are littered with such things. Indeed, I believe they still find about 30 tons of unexploded munitions each year on the Somme battlefield!Plain Old Dave wrote: ↑05 Oct 2018, 14:17It's in the Pagliano biography described at the Expedition website. They found well over 20 30-06s they determined to be from the same rifle (At locations York stated he fired in the report) due to primer indention and case resizing from firing. There are slight differences enough to keep fired cases from fitting even in different specimens of the same model of gun. That's why reloaders have to resize brass as part of the reloading process. You usually get away with neck sizing if the cases are going in the same gun, but you have to full length size to use brass in any gun in that caliber.Terry Duncan wrote: ↑05 Oct 2018, 13:14Plain Old Dave wrote: ↑05 Oct 2018, 13:00Primer indentations. Every firearm varies in this, there are even subtle differences between differing specimens of the same model.Code: Select all
There is simply no evidence they were from the exact same rifle.
I must agree with others here, you really need to provide some source for this claim. The forum rules do require you do so when asked, and if you cannot do so any information you can give would be useful.
Does York's rifle still exist and if so who keeps it?