IN FAYETTE COUNTY, THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE have charged a man with accidentally firing a 2-lb. cannonball through the wall of a neighbor’s home. 

William Edward Maser, 54, fired the cannon in his yard Wednesday evening.  It is a replica of a type of cannon used during the French and Indian war that Maser demonstrates at battle re-enactment programs.  When he fired the 80-pounder cannon Wednesday though, the 2-lb. lead ball struck a rock in the field causing it to ricochet and sent it into the neighboring house, going through a window, then an interior wall and landing in a clothes closet.

The police are classifying it as an accident, but they still charged Maser with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and disorderly conflict.  And they impounded his cannon to be held as evidence.

WPXI-TV Ch. 11 Pittsburgh has some video of the cannon and the damages:

The CIA “Deer Gun”

The curiously-named “Deer Gun” was manufactured in the early 1960’s as an updated version of the famous FP-45 Liberator pistols which were dropped behind enemy lines in WWII.  They were intended for use by resistance fighters in Europe.  Likewise, the Deer gun was designed to be dropped in Southeast Asia during the early stages of the Vietnam War before the United States was officially involved.  It would have been dropped in an unmarked polystyrene safety box that could also float if it landed in a rice paddy, along with drawings showing how to operate it.  It is a 9 mm single-shot pistol that is designed for close use.  The delivery pack included 3 rounds.

The frame is one piece cast aluminum with raised checkering on the grip area which was hollow to house a few extra rounds of ammunition. A groove runs down a ramp on top for sighting. The barrel unscrews for loading and removing the empty casing. A cocking knob was pulled until cocked. The aluminum trigger featured no trigger guard. There is no record of the gun having ever been made and the CIA denies that it even existed. None of them have any identifying marks or serial numbers.  It is generally accepted that 1,000 of them were made by the American Machine & Foundry Co. in 1964 at a cost of just under $4 each.  They weigh 12 oz. and are 5 inches in length.  The barrel is 1.875 inches.

The rumor floated by the government is that all of them were destroyed without ever having been deployed, yet they will still come up for sale on rare occasions.

One of those occasions will be this coming week on March 16 & 17 when the James D. Julia Auction firm in Fairfield, Maine, will be conducting a quality auction sale of over 100 rare firearms. From their catalogue of this sale they add:

Included with the Deer pistol are a set of original engineering drawings which may be orig. blueprints. Copies of the orig. instructions are also included, which show how to use the gun against enemy with a hammer and sickle on his sleeve. This is an extremely rare pistol that is a piece of the CIA’s Clandestine history and a “crown jewel” in any US Military collection.

PROVENANCE: Tom Clinton Collection. CONDITION: Fine. Bbl retains 99% orig bright blue. Aluminum frame is in near new condition with very little wear. The rubber butt cap which housed an ejector rod that fit into the hollow grip is missing, as is the “horse collar” safety device which was a separate piece that held back the firing knob. It is estimated to bring $10,000 to $15,000 at this upcoming sale.

This firearms auction has nearly 900 lots over these two days and is the first of three auctions dispersing three fine collections that are expected to bring $26 million in sales. 

You can read the online catalogue for this week’s sale, complete with pictures and including the Deer gun at Julia’s website HERE.

A CALIFORNIA WOMAN WHO HAS ONE SEVERAL OLYMPIC and World Cup medals for shooting over the past 18 years has been reunited with her competition shotgun.  The gun was stolen from her truck back on September 11 after she had made a promotional appearance in southern California.

Kim Rhode, 29, didn’t think that she would see the gun that is worth $35,000 again.  She is in the process of having a new one made, but it takes about nine months to get one.  She plans on competing on through the London Olympics in 2012.

The gun turned up in Riverside County when sheriffs were doing a routine probation search in a felon’s house and found the gun, still in its case, underneath the con’s bed.

ESPN OUTDOORS has a good write-up of the story HERE.

Kim Rhode displays her Perazzi 12-gauge shotgun
for the press Wednesday.
(Riverside County Sheriff photo)

IT WAS THIRTEEN MONTHS AGO that we reported (HERE) on a Virginia hunter who had bagged a 10-pt. piebald buck deer.

This year’s entry was forwarded to us by Firegeezer reader Darryl H.  The unidentified hunter in the photo brought home this 8-pointer from the Wisconsin woods recently.  Word has it that he sold the head and hide to a sporting supply firm for 5 figures.

Piebald animals are those whose coats are mostly devoid of their natural coloring, leaving large areas of white.  They are not to be confused with albinos that are genetic freaks with no coloring and pink eyes.

JEFFERY GODFREY OF CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA, was deer-hunting Wednesday when that moment-of-a-lifetime arrived.  He had already seen several deer that morning, but was waiting for “something special” at Fort Pickett.

And sure enough, his special target came out of the brush towards him….a nearly all-white deer.  It was not an albino, which is a genetic freak that is all white with pink eyes, but it was what is known as a “piebald.”  That is an animal that is mostly white with some patches of its natural coloring on it.

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But in this case, the only area with color is a small patch on the top of its head.  And to add to the trophy, it was a 10-point buck.  That’s one for the books.

Godfrey brought it down with one shot and he will definitely have the head mounted.

The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot has the full STORY.

FOR MANY YEARS THE NORWEGIAN RAILWAYS CARRIED RIFLES in the locomotive cabs.  Not to fend off Butch Cassidy, but to euthanize wild animals that had been struck by the train.  The locomotive drivers’ union has been protesting the removal of the rifles and now the railway has relented partly.

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Aftenposten (Oslo) is reporting:

Norwegian State Railways (NSB) and the Norwegian National Rail Administration (JBV) said that a range of other measures are also underway to reduce the number of accidents involving trains and wild animals, newspaper Nationen reports.

Several hundred animals have been left suffering along railway lines after engine drivers lost the right to have access to a weapon to shorten their agony.

Now the weapons are being replaced on two of the routes most exposed to this problem, but the rifles have had their bolts removed, which has not pleased drivers.

“Those drivers who want it can get the gun bolt before the journey begins,” said NSB information chief Åge-Christoffer Lundeby.

“This is the first step towards getting the old arrangement back. We want usable weapons, safely secured, on all trains,” said Øystein Aslaksen, head of the Norwegian Locomotive Workers Union.

HAS THE “ANIMAL FARM” REVOLUTION BEGUN?  Some people are wondering after a hunting dog shot it’s owner on the opening day of pheasant season in Iowa Saturday.

James Harris was hunting with a group when one of them downed a pheasant.  It fell on the other side of a fence and Harris went to retrieve it.  Before climbing the fence he laid the gun on the ground, neglecting to engage the safety. 

However the dogs followed him too closely, stepping on the gun’s trigger before he managed to get over the fence.  About 100 to 120 pellets of birdshot hit him square in the left calf at a distance of just three feet.

He’s reported to be in satisfactory condition in the hospital, but he will be very uncomfortable for a long time.  The dog was not injured.

The AP has a brief story HERE.

ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS POLICE HAVE BEEN permitted by a Superior Court judge to seize the stock of a gun shop.  The store in question has had a long-standing problem with security and dozens have been stolen.  They have been turning up on the person of several street criminals.

The neighbors are happy about it:   “It gives the tattoo parlor next door and all the other businesses in the area a bad image. It’s been a dump forever.”

Full story here.

LAST YEAR MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG got up on his nanny-state horse and dispatched undercover operatives to several Southern states to set up “sting” operations.  Forgetting that is was New Yorkers who were doing the killing up there, he tried to put legal gun dealers in other states out of business.

His antics were conceivably illegal and the Federal BATFE is investigating his actions.  Earlier this month Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell informed Bloomberg that a Virginia law that takes effect on July 1 will make his shopping trips illegal unless he coordinates them with the Virginia State Police. 

The squeals from NY City Hall were barely starting to die back down when last night a citizen group, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, held a public meeting dubbed “The Bloomberg Gun Giveaway.”  They gave away, by lot, two high-dollar guns, a pistol and a rifle each valued at about $1,000.  The squeals have returned.  D.C. channel 9 has a video report on the drawing last night.