May I intrude, please--I need an answer soonest

[still alive]

Hi, all! I'm on the last chapter of a novel, set in 1922, and I need to know if an M1911 could shoot out the tire of a 1917 Cadillac (34/5 x 4 1/2) if it were moving? Or would it have to be at a standstill?

The range would be about 60 ft. give or take.

I hope someone will be able to give me a quick but accurate answer! And you have my thanks.
Still Alive

[John]

Ohhh yes!!

[still alive]

While I very much appreciate your answering me, I'm afraid I don't understand the "yes."

Do you mean "yes" it can be used to shoot tire on a moving car--
Or "yes" the car must be at a standstill?

Still alive

[Dexter]

How about this...Ohhh yess!! and Ohhh yes!!

[NyteOwl]

Not only the tire, would probably make a nice ding in the wheel too :D

[John]

What they said.

[still alive]

Thank you, The Three Wise []Men. I think.

Still Alive

[Jim Watson]

It would certainly penetrate the tire and let the air out.

The gun is certainly capable of hitting within the width of a tire at that range.

Whether your character is a good enough shot to hit the tire on a moving vehicle is the question, a human factor, not ballistic. The great Ed McGivern did some tests of things like shooting out a tire, shooting from horseback, shooting an opponent in the arm or the gun out of his hand, etc. It is possible, but not easy. Perhaps your character might make the shot after several attempts within the seven round magazine capacity to add versimilitude.

[rekladan]

Shooting in an IPSC range, I recently got into an argument with a timing official thus:

I fired at a paper IPSC target which was partially obsured by a barrier. The barrier was a bunch of old car tyres, laying flat on top of each other. Half the target was visible, ABOVE the top-most tyre. The gun was a 9mm Glock and the distance was about 12-15 yards.

Being a rookie, I jerked the trigger and fired both shots in the tyres, BUT one of them actually went diagonally through the steel-belted side wall TWICE, i.e. it perforated it, and hit the target in an area that wasn't blacked out.

All this was quite visible, because it was early morning and I was the first to shoot at that target. The tyre was visibly deformed in both points and the targed had plenty of bits of rubber around the only hole on it.

Now - this was of course an un-inflated but steel-belted radial tyre. I believe the tyres in the 10s and 20s were made using much softer materials.

[Richard Weed]

It's easier for a bullet to penetrate an inflated tire than one that isn't. I used old tires as a backstop for my own range for many years. You can see the bullets stuck in the tread like studs on a snow tire but they didn't go all the way through. Someone put a bug in my ear about them being mosquito breeding areas due to them trapping and holding water so I had them covered over with a load of top soil.

[Duane Hansen]

Everyone has danced around your question. Yes, a .45 is capable of shooting through a tire on a Moving vehicle. And deflate the tire.