Post by gobrien on Aug 2, 2014 13:45:57 GMT
Unfortunately I can't find the clip online, but in the 1968 Western movie Firecreek, as a practical joke a cowboy (played by Gary Lockwood I think) fires his revolver pistol (which must be a Colt 45) at a church-bell, so that the ricochet makes it ring out, and a nearby startled horse rears up and unseats its rider.
In truth though wouldn't the mere bang from the gun of that cowboy (who is mere yards away from the horse) be enough to make the horse rear up, rather than the resulting clang from the far off church-bell in the tower when the bullet hits it?
The gunshot would be louder surely?
As I say, I haven't a clip, so you can't see the distances and placings etc - but I think the horse is actually between Lockwood and the church-bell, he fires from the ground over the horse, and the horse is nearer to him than to the bell too.
Surely the bang itself would startle the horse more - the bell noise (distinguishable as the startling factor because it is heard slightly later due to the ricochet sound travelling back towards the horse after the gunshot) is irrelevant?
(Lockwood is standing in the open and church-bell is partially covered by the struts and wooden church roof etc - which would compress/amplify some of the sound - but I don't think by much. I'm fairly certain that loudness and not pitch of sound is what upsets the horse. The horse is moving in the very small time gap between the gunshot and ricochet sound but isn't galloping - in fact it doesn't seem to move closer to the gun or bell at all in that small time but is moving parallel to them. The church-bell is simply atop a small wooden church typical of that Western era - but is certainly much higher up than the cowboy or horse which are both on the ground)
So which is louder, an actual gunshot or the resulting bullet hitting a church-bell?
The movie says that the church-bell ricochet is louder and is what startles the horse, but in reality I think a (Colt 45) gun-shot would be louder?
Movie Myth Busted I'd say.
A cowboy would have be much further away from the horse, and on the opposite side of the church-bell to the horse in fact, for the bell-sound to be considered louder by the horse from where it is.