OT:Boiler Room Shooting.

S

shane justice

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May 12, 2003
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Here's another post I put on Sixgunner.com.....


My Step Dad..a WW2 veteran and a hell of a shooter...had a love for Colt Government Models...how he loved a fine .45 Auto...and he used one like a well oiled Swiss watch...from a Yaqui slide he could double tap flies off of phone poles...and yes he shot hardball ammo..exclusively.

He was a good man...but he always used to say something that puzzled me. He would look at his target and say..."That's the way to do it Shaner...shoot 'em in the boiler room and put the lights out!" And he would chuckle and give me an elbow...and maybe a wink...so I would chuckle back and nod...he he he...and maybe wring my hands and say..."Yup right in the boiler room!"

Over the years I would bring home various small game animals that had fallen prey to my predations...and I would present them for approval..and say..."I shot them in the boiler room!" and he would say..."that's the way to do...shoot them in the boiler room and turn their lights out!"

All through school..when us kids would talk big on the playground..about the deer we shot that season...when it came my turn to tell a tale..I would just say..."shot him in the boiler room and turned his lights out...he he he.."

It seemed that all the guys knew that this was a good thing...so I stuck with it...good line...everybody nodded...

One of my last hunts with my step dad...I can remebering him whispering in my ear..."ok..shaner...right in the boiler room..and lights out!" I aimed for where I began to suspect was the right place...and sure enough...everything went ok...

I never really knew why you shoot a guy in his boiler room...
or why you turned the lights out after you shot him down there...maybe it was so you don't see the mess...or so nobody saw you leave...

But I have spent a better part of my adult life...practicing shooting in the somewhere in the middle and then turning out the lights...the hardest part is not tripping over something on the way out... especially if the boiler room is down stairs...

and then I started reading the gun magazines...

I noticed ...all the experts recommend you carry a flashlight when you carry a gun...and then it dawned on me...they are boiler room shooters too! they know you are supposed to turn out the lights after you shoot a guy in his boiler room! so my step dad was right...shoot him in his boiler room and turn out the lights!

Maybe that is the problem we are having in Iraq? We are having a hard time finding the boiler rooms. I read a report that those bad guys go to ground when we are chasing them...which explains it...they are protecting their boiler rooms.

Maybe that is why Saddam had all them deep bunkers...trying to keep his boiler from from being shot...can you believe we made special bombs to shoot his boiler room? We missed...and now we are still trying to turn his lights out.

Which just goes to show...you gotta "hit 'em in the boiler room" BEFORE you turn the lights out..not after.

So there you go...

I did edit some from the original post..

I posted this story for John Shirley...God's speed John.

Shane
 
I too got the boiler room speech from my Mother's Father, him a blacksmith born in 1865 and in his 80's when he taught me how to hunt. At ten or so, I had no frame of reference regarding 'boiler rooms' and said so. He smiled and explained that the heart lay low in the chest, but that 'all the pipes to all the rooms in the building' ran above the heart. If your shot went a little low you got the heart, a little high got the spine, a little forward broke the shoulders, and a little far back got the lungs or liver. "Tuck 'em in tight behind the shoulder, Davey". I've never forgotten that conversation, and I thank you for dredging it back up for me. Bert died of a stroke during spring turkey season at the age of 94, just the way he wanted...no recriminations. I should be so lucky.....
 
At 14 or 15 I went to Bald Knob in W.Va., climbed to the top with some older scouts and camped for a couple days. Nearby, on a railroad trestle was a water tank for refilling the boilers on a steam engine, and our source for spring water. I walked out on to the trestle and was refilling my canteen, a 15 or 20 foot dropoff on either side, when a really good sized black bear broke out of the brush on the far side, ambled out onto the trestle about 5 feet away, and began drinking from the tank I was kneeling next to. The only thing within reach was an ancient ax handle with no head, leaning against the tank. My reaching for it alarmed the bear which stood on its hind legs snuffling furiously, and then froze, apparently looking me directly in the eyes for what seemed to be an eternity. Fifteen seconds, thirty, I really don't know, but with a loud "Whuff" he was gone, leaving me shaking like a leaf. Ever since I have felt a special facination (kinship?) with the bears. Grandfather Bert who claimed to be part Pawnee, solemnly told me the bear was my 'totem' and to respect and revere it as a protector.
 
I played the harmonica for a Black Bear once. It was a weird experience.

About boiler rooms....Jack O'Connor was responding yet again to the old query about big Bore vs his beloved 270. "I doubt a bullet between the ribs from either one would do a deer much good." I remember him saying.



munk
 
I'd always assumed that the "right in the boiler room" phrase had naval origins.

No pun intended. Well, maybe a little.
 
yep, think y'all is right, back in the war between the states, the durn'd yankee gunboats on the river would make mighty fine targets, if'n y'all hit em in the biler room they made a purdy banging noise & all, white smoke & nuthin much else left when it cleared. they started coating the little fellers in steel tho, buncha cheats, took all the fun out.
 
Makes sense to me..the Naval origin, that is. Grandpa Bert did not claim the 'boiler room' idea was his, only that shooting them tight behind the shoulder and about halfway up was better than a neck or center mass 'gut' shot.
 
See there...how you are...just a bunch opf boiler room shooters!

Dang..we should have a t-shirt made!

Exclusive club like kinda deal!

You ar eprolly right...that has some naval history there...never thought about it....

As a kid...it did not take long to learn that...shooting for the boiler room...was the way to go. ON deer it never failed me...or antelopes...
or anything else for that matter...there are stories...but they are best told over a round of beverages...

I Thank God I never had to put sights on a human body..and pray I never do...but I have no doubt the 'boiler room" shot would be effective.

I am just amazed...no let me do this right...(taking a firm stance..putting on my best Jeff Cooper face..)

"We are amazed that the current trend in marksmanship no longer deems the "boiler room" shot placement to be a viable alternative to the "spray and pray" technique of modern "gundom". We would also note that when delivered by a cartridge of sufficient weight and speed it has rarely taken follow up shot to conclude matters. In those rare occasions, we find bullet performance to be at issue, rather than bullet palcement."

How was that? Pretty good Cooper huh? I been practicing in front of the mirror!

Shane
 
shane justice said:
I Thank God I never had to put sights on a human body..and pray I never do...but I have no doubt the 'boiler room" shot would be effective.

Shane
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It pains me to relate this, but I have lost several friends over the years during the service of search warrants, all I believe to "boiler room" shots, and a few of those were wearing "bullet proof" vests. The one that comes immediately to mind from Detroit was as follows. Task force officer wearing a good quality vest ran down the basement steps with pistol extended before him in both hands. The defendant shot from 90 degrees starboard, bullet entered armpit 1/2 inch above vest traversing tops of both lungs. The officer got out "Tell my wife..." and died in my arms. The defendant threw his gun down, later pled quilty, and as far as I know is still eating your tax dollars. Before you start screaming, know this.....My job was not to kill 'em, but to bring them before the bar of Justice. I was very good at what I did, and I believe in the system...even when it hurts. :grumpy:
 
Another thought regarding human 'boiler room' shots....I know several officers shot thru one lung who survived due to immediate first aid for a 'sucking chest wound', also a couple who survived heart shots around the edges, actually penetrating the edge of the heart muscle and pericardium, but none, NONE that survived puncturing the plumbing immediately above the heart (aorta, pulmonary arteries and veins, carotids and jugulars, etc)...they just bleed out too fast to get them help. Gruesome...but that's my experience
 
Isn't it strange that the only animal that sometimes ought to be gut shot so it can suffer and reflect on past digresssions is our evil twins? :(

Even an ornery Wolverine deserves a clean boiler room shot or a clean shot to the head because his actions are just his nature and he doesn't know he is doing wrong, sometimes.
Sometimes they seem as smart and deserving as our evil twins as they do things in rapacity that it seems no animal should do.
 
Jurassic,

It pains me to hear your story. It is a tragedy to have brothers fall.

I have been held at gunpoint twice in my life. It is an experience that changes you.

I am sorry you had to do the job you did...but I am glad you were there doing it.

You're a better man than me.

Shane
 
shane justice said:
Jurassic,

I am sorry you had to do the job you did...but I am glad you were there doing it.

You're a better man than me.

Shane
Click to expand...

I doubt that seriously. There are no heros...just ordinary guys put into extrordinary circumstances...I'm a family man and a teacher, not a Seal ;)
 
jurassicnarc44 said:
The one that comes immediately to mind from Detroit was as follows.
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Was this just a few years ago? I remember hearing about this or a similar situation a while back. We get all of our news from Detroit, and some strange things happen there on a daily basis. The armpit seems to be the achilles heel on bullet proof vests. I'm sorry about your friend, what a shame.
 
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