Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors open sights

My father learned his trade working on Liberators and Flying Fortresses during WWII in the 8th Air Force. I grew up on stories about those bombers. Tail gunners did not have a high life expectancy in combat as they were often the first target of an attack from the rear.

Sportsdad, That is awesome. I toured a B-17 that belonged to the Confederate Air Force a number of years ago but they weren't letting people go back to the tail gunner's position. I wrote an article on my Dad's experiences that appears in the April 2016 issue of Military Magazine. The article left out some details. If Sportsdad and anyone else would like to read my draft of the article PM me an email address or use my email address that's posted below. I don't think it is appropriate to clutter up the forum with the article and I probably couldn't figure out how to post it any way. David

Tail gunner's postion was a lonely place to be, at 25,000 feet. I crawled back there from my waist position while joy riding in a B-25 last fall, and thought about how cramped and isolated I was.

My childhood best friend's father was a tail gunner in a B-24, "Witchcraft" (considered to be one of the "lucky" bombers in the bomb group), and he had an official certificate framed on the living room wall conferring upon him the title of "Ace" for having shot down five German fighter planes.

Personally, I think I would've taken my chances in a frozen fox hole rather than court death at 30,000 feet.

Rocky to Bullwinkle, while riding in a bathtub blown sky high: "Aren't you scared to be 10,000 feet up, Bullwinkle?" Bullwinkle: "Why no, Rock, it's the 10,000 feet down that scares me."

The 8th Air Force alone suffered more casualties in their 1942-45 heavy bombing campaign over Europe than did the Marine Corp in the Pacific.

Funny how my post about shooting some old rifles with open sights turned in to a post about the 8th Air Force. I'm in the Air Force by the way.

You're not a tail-gunner by chance...

And I guess you came by the "off topic" honestly. Thank you for tolerating our "flights of fancy."

nothing that exciting. Intelligence Analyst and powerpoint ranger

Sorry, I started the hijack. I thought my Father's apparent ability to shoot instinctively was pertinent. There is a book about the 8th Air Force called "Masters of the Air" by Donald Miller is an interesting read. David

I shoot my absolute best with a peep and a blade held at 6 o'clock. However they are not condusive to twilight or low light shooting.