omgb
12-01-2011, 01:10 AM
I was re-reading my early copy of Walter M Cline's "The Muzzle-loading Rifle, Then and Now" and for the first time noticed his obituary published in the back of the book. Cline died of a gunshot wound to the chest in April of 1941 when he was around 70 years of age. The papers at the time said it was an accident, that he loaded his gun prior to going to a match and forgot that the gun was capped. As he tamped down the load, the gun fired and shot him through the heart. I got to thinking about that and frankly, I don't buy it. Cline was an average sized man, if he were tamping a load the barrel would have been at shoulder height at least, not at heart level. Second, who loads a gun prior to going to a match? Third, could a man that experienced make such a rookie mistake? And finally, he wrote of failing health and depression (he called it a mental breakdown) just 4 weeks earlier. Others had noted his decline as well. For my money, I think he took his own life. Not that any of this matters except to show the lengths the papers USED to go to protect a man's image and reputation.