Authorities finally released more details about attempted Donald Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Routh’s firearm (why do all assassins or wannabe assassins go by three names?) and all that can be said is it is clear the man knew about as much on guns as a CNN reporter. For a crazy man, it was a fitting and crazy setup he toted and that doomed his faulty plan from the start. Even if he had gotten off a shot, it is unlikely he would’ve struck anything he was intentionally shooting at.

The SKS rifle, first announced by media to be an AK-47, is similar to an AK in only that it shoots the same round—7.62×39 caliber—and their designs both originated from Russia. While the AK-47 is designed to accept detachable magazines, an SKS typically has an integral magazine that accepts 10-rounds. According to court records filed in support of Routh’s pretrial detention, the rifle found by FBI agents after Routh was shot at by a Secret Service agent, had an extended, detachable magazine installed. The gun had been modified.

“Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) agents searched the area where ROUTH had been hiding in the tree line. FBI agents located an SKS semiautomatic 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope attached and an extended magazine. The rifle was loaded with a total of 11 rounds and had a round in the chamber. The serial number on the rifle was obliterated and unreadable. The agents also found a digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag hanging from the chain link fence, as shown in the photo below:” read the report filed by U.S. Attorney Markenzy LaPointe and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Mark D. Dispoto.

Ryan Wesley Routh’s makeshift hide outside the sixth hole of Trump International Golf Club.

“The backpack and shopping bag both contained plates. Subsequent preliminary ballistics testing showed the plates were capable of stopping small arms fire,” the report goes on to explain. “The photograph below shows the obliterated serial number:”

The serial number on Ryan Wesley Routh’s SKS had been ground off

Additional details on the incident and firearm can be found in the criminal complaint filed with the court.

Looking at the full image of the gun, the magazine and the round that was apparently in the chamber of the rifle, there is more—much more—going on with this firearm than an obliterated serial number and a rough mag modification. Oddly, an SKS already accepts 10 rounds in the fixed box magazine it is designed with so why someone would modify one to accept a detachable mag and only use 10 rounds plus one in the chamber doesn’t make much sense. Of course, the gun was likely modified when Routh obtained it from who knows where. That information has not yet been disclosed or determined.

But looking at the rifle, anyone who has ever shot a scoped rifle more than once is going to shake their heads.

First off, the SKS was built with iron sights and was never designed or intended to have a scope mounted on it. According to the website Scopes Field, “The SKS is not an optic-friendly rifle.” To install a scope, as Routh’s rifle was scoped, more modifications must be made.

And “made” Routh or somebody he got the rifle from did. However they mounted the scope to the rifle, it appears in the photo that they used electrical tape or some type of thick, black rubber bands to actually hold the scope to the gun. It’s difficult to tell exactly what is going on there, but one thing is certain: good luck holding a zero on scope/rifle combination. Anybody who has ever sighted in a rifle only to discover their mount or rings were loose, knows no two shots are going to hit anywhere close to each other for a decent group, much less hit where you are aiming.

“Anybody who could make a 400 meter hit with that piece of shit deserves a pardon,” read one poster on a hilarious Reddit thread about the Routh’s rifle. “Is than an eye relief soda can with rubber band scope mount?”

Another poster wrote: “Robert Evans said on Twitter it’s got enough minutes of angle to watch the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy.”

In addition to the odd way the scope was attached, it also looks like Routh taped some sort of makeshift sunshade on the wrong end of the scope or maybe it was a self-created device to aid his eye relief when looking through the optic. It looks like it’s made from the bottom of a Banana Boat Sport spray sunscreen canister or a can from an energy drink or seltzer beverage that college girls like to drink.

Either way, it’s clear he never fired any practice rounds from that setup before his attempt to take out Donald Trump. Had he, that whatever he has mounted where his eye relief should be would’ve centerpunched his face in a most epic scope bite that would’ve left him looking like Bullseye, the Target stores mascot. 

He would’ve also realized the futility of hitting any target beyond point-blank range and given up his foolish attempt before it started. But then, looking at the man’s history, he’s clearly mentally unstable, so probably not.

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53 COMMENTS

  2. “The rifle was loaded with a total of 11 rounds and had a round in the chamber“

    These are actually quite reliable when using the fixed 10 round or 20 round magazine.
    The crappy 30 round magazine with the front extension is what the shooter used to attack the Clinton White House, but I think he fired 28 rounds.

    Why only 11 rounds? Maybe that’s all they gave him, they didn’t want him to actually hit anything, they just needed the ‘attempt’.

    “it’s clear he never fired any practice rounds from that setup before“

    Correct, perhaps he is a Patsy sent on his way as a false flag attack on Donald Trump to gin up more campaign support.

    • Just another dupe of the fascist left. Spun up to hate Trump.

      As for routh I have no idea what his motives were. He probably doesn’t know either.

    • minor49iq…It was a spur of the moment thing and that’s why he had a selection of stolen license plates, packed a large lunch and waited half a day for POTUS DJT to get close enough for a kill shot. You take a long look at that pos and enjoy the fact you and your trash talking media own him lock, stock and barrel.

      • “Sandusky Army vet says he knows man accused of Trump assassination attempt
        About Ryan Routh: ‘Every conversation was about Donald Trump. Every conversation was about how he was upset that Biden had won.’

        By: Jonathan Walsh
        Posted 5:18 PM, Sep 17, 2024 and last updated 8:10 AM, Sep 18, 2024
        SANDUSKY, Ohio — An Army veteran from Sandusky said he had interactions in Ukraine with the man who’s now accused of plotting to kill former President T b rump.

        “Every conversation was about Donald Trump. Every conversation was about how he was upset that Biden had won,” said Burton about Routh. “He mentioned January 6th. He wished that he would have been a part of that. That was a new American Revolution.”

        • By David Propper
          Published Sep. 15, 2024, 9:47 p.m. ET

          The son of the alleged gunman who targeted former President Donald Trump on his Florida golf course Sunday said his dad hates Trump like “every reasonable person does” — but claimed he’s not a violent person, according to a report.

          Oran Routh told the Daily Mail that his father, Ryan Routh, who was arrested in the alleged assassination attempt, isn’t a fan of the Republican nominee.

          “I don’t like Trump either,” he added.

          He supposedly voted for Trump in 2016. Then he turned into a big Biden Harris fan. The constant media propaganda for Ukraine probably broke his brain.

            • Yes. A charge where the evidence is easily planted, and everyone is so disgusted by its nature they don’t think twice about convicting the bastard.

              Not saying it’s false but I’m not saying it’s true either. No one involved is trustworthy.

        • At the end of the day all the evidense shows beyond a shadow of a doubt the perp is a deranged dumbazz demoRat just like you and your ilk…Man up and accept the fact his actions soeak much louder than your words. Once again…You and your ilk own him lock, stock and barrel. To bark at that fact is sleazy to say the least.

      • But Miner admitted in a previous post that the perp currently in prison never “attacked the Clinton White House “, and never even got close enough to it for his bullets to hit it, instead firing at a group of tourists, one of whom resembled the Philanderer in Chief…
        you need to start keeping a journal of your lies and misdirects, Minor Irritant

        • “never even got close enough to it for his bullets to hit it“

          I would point out, many posts on this very article discussed the fact the SKS has an effective range in excess of 300m

          It is probably too much for me to expect someone not out of middle school to be aware of the attack on the Clinton White House, here’s the details:

          “Gunman Fires on White House : Shooting: President is not harmed in assault-rifle attack. Passersby on Pennsylvania Avenue tackle suspect, identified as a Colorado man. It is the second breach of security in as many months.

          By ROBERT L. JACKSON
          Oct. 30, 1994 12 AM PT
          WASHINGTON — A Colorado man standing among tourists in front of the White House pulled a Chinese-made assault rifle from beneath his trench coat Saturday and fired 20 to 30 shots at the mansion and the West Wing, where President Clinton has his office.”

          • Right. Trump standing at a podium and getting shot is exactly the same as a dude opening fire on a building that had clinton in it.

            When you made the decision to become a troll you had to swear off all pride, honor and dignity didn’t you.

            • “exactly the same as a dude opening fire on a building that had clinton in it“

              Hilarious, you were so lazy you couldn’t take the time to actually research your opinion before posting.

              “Duran approached the fence overlooking the north lawn of the White House and fired a 7.62×39mm SKS semi-automatic rifle (Chinese-made copy Type 56)[4] at a group of men wearing dark business suits on the White House lawn“.

              Or, you’re willing to intentionally obscure the facts of the situation, hard to tell with you people.

    • It’s pretty clear that something fishy was going on. This is reminiscent of the opening chapters of Enemies: Foreign and Domestic, where ATF was up to shenanigans to gin up support for all-encompassing AW bans.

    • So, “THEY” set up a fake attempt on Trump, but then gave the patsy this abomination of a rifle and only 11 rounds, raising suspicions? A good conspiracy should answer more plot holes than it creates.

      • Similar plot hole if “THEY” were Clinton/Harris/Obama. Why forego the opportunity to get another AR-15 in the news?

    • Doesn’t matter because that was not the gun used to kill Kennedy. The CIA did it from another position with a more reliable weapon.

        • Careful watching of the Zapruder film clearly shows Mrs. Kennedy chasing a black object across the trunk of the presidential limousine. That object was the back of Kennedy’s skull blown off by a high velocity impact to the front of his head.

    • All of you folks are wrong about the JFK assassination, Donald Trump said it was Ted Cruz‘s father and Donald Trump never lies, right?

      “Trump accuses Cruz’s father of helping JFK’s assassin
      By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL 05/03/2016 07:36 AM EDT

      “His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said Tuesday during a phone interview with Fox News. “What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it.”

      “I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?” Trump continued. “It’s horrible.”

      • I will explain it to you in simple form as you seem to be unable to understand reason.

        All you hyperbole about Trump means nothing. I will vote for him simply because he will do less damage to my nation than harris will. Period. Full stop.

        I don’t like him. But what choice do I have?

        • Minor Intellect’s obsession with Trump indicates he has a major crush on him, it’s like the boy who teases a girl in school.

  5. Some epic 3rd world kit for a 1st world hit.
    I’m surprised he wasn’t high on meth and wearing a wedding dress Chuck Taylor style.

    • Shire-man,

      There is a very simple and plausible explanation that everyone has missed thus far: the would-be assassin is absolutely ignorant with respect to firearms and figured that all you have to do is attach a scope to a rifle and you are all set–the bullets will hit where the crosshairs are. In other words he had no idea that you must have a rock-solid mount and you have to sight-in the rifle and optic combination. And he figured that the “scary appearance” of the SKS rifle somehow meant that it would be decisively fatal at several hundred yards. There really are people who are that dumb.

      Note: I was dumb enough as a teen to think that a .38 Special revolver with a 3-inch barrel and loaded with whatever random cartridges my father happened to have was somehow a serious platform for hunting white-tailed deer. An even less intelligent and significantly less-informed person could easily think that a “scary rifle” with a scope was a guaranteed kick-ass death-ray.

    • For a more detailed look go see James Reeves on what ever Firearm Blog page he was on(although this is ok).Oh & whomever Oc Mayhem is they generally post full names to avoid implicating similarly named folks. Duh🙄

  8. That poor rifle. That in and of itself should be a crime.

    Best Marlon Brando impersonation: “Look how they massacred my boy.”

  9. From what I recall about my time with SKS rifles it appears some genius took a folding bayonet version SKS and turned it into a turd. I cannot determine if its multple zip ties used to secure the dust cover attached scope or what.

    I used a similar polymer stock on a Chinese SKS that was made to accept AK mags. To steel bed it I welded lugs on the receiver and trigger group and modified the mag well for positive mag changes. The polymer stock handled well and is heavier than the weird wood Chinese stock which I still have somewhere in the original box.

    • This is what happens when the world’s supply of Lithium is used up in the manufacturing of batteries for the Left’s EVs – the shortage drives up the prices of Lithium that is used to treat a plethora of psychiatric ills and the patients go “off meds”

  12. Its got a older first model original ‘Combat Exchange’ Monte Carlo stock on it, maybe used. They haven’t made that particular model stock for a while now, maybe 10 years or longer. The second rendition of the stock had some more info on it and under the ‘Combat Exchange’ name with a phone number ‘919-259-7300’ and a pat pend stamp above that and the name ‘Leo W. Livingston’ above the phone number, and the original first model just had ‘Combat Exchange’ like the one in the close up picture.

    Leo W. Livingston got very rich off that stock, Advanced Technologies incorporated later bought ‘Combat Exchange’ and the newer versions of the stock after that were stamped ‘MIDWEST ORDNANCE DET, MI PAT PEND’

    So the stock on the rifle is a very first version.

    So its possible this rifle was modified a long time ago with that stock.

    Just a spit ball guess for origin of the original SKS before it was modified: Judging from where the serial number was obliterated and the space taken up in doing that … The serial number on the china military surplus model had extra Chinese characters that took up more space and was located in that spot, so obliterating the serial number would have obliterated a longer space like in the pic and the space is at the place a china model would occupy for serial number on the original military surplus models that were imported from China. So i’m guessing this was possibly imported into the U.S. either by China Jin An, an importer that was in the Southfield suburb of Detroit or maybe an importer called Import Arms Company (IACO) in Sacramento, California – both of those were the main importers of the Chinese military surplus model SKS that China dumped on the market.

    • The extra Chinese characters were Chinese ideograph markings. They indicate the rifle was built completely with china manufacture parts from 1961 on-wards and they have various meanings. But the one in the pic has a bayonet lug design that China stopped using in 1966 and didn’t do any more of that particular bayonet lug so I’m guessing this SKS was made in the 1961 – 1966 time frame. The Sino-Soviet split had happened and they could not get Russian parts any longer so in 1961 they started using parts made in China and from 1961 on-wards the China SKS was completely made of all China made parts and fully Chinese built. The China SKS before 1961 were Soviet Sino Guns.

    • The older first model original (and later) ‘Combat Exchange’ Monte Carlo stock on it allowed for a modification so it could accept standard AK removable magazines. Took a little work, but the modification was easy. A later version by MIDWEST ORDNANCE after Advanced Technologies incorporated bought ‘Combat Exchange’ had it built in. But the rifle in the close up has the older first model original ‘Combat Exchange’ Monte Carlo stock on it and although it allowed for the modification you had to do it your self if you could get the parts together and they were available and do the small amount of fitting filing/cuts needed depending on which kit you got for the modification.

      Just spit ball guessing but it looks to me to be a China military surplus SKS, manufactured possibly 1961 – 1966 time frame (posted above in the comments), and the China military surplus SKS only had a serial number in one place right where its shown the serial number is obliterated. So that may be why they can’t find a serial number on it in the usual places where other SKS have them (the serial number is in multiple places on most SKS).

  14. Golly miss Molly, the totality of errors in this article abound.
    1. The SKS came stock with a 10 round box magazine intended to be stripper clip loaded from the top. However it may also be loaded by opening the magazine and turning the rifle upside-down. To remove the box magazine simply requires separating the receiver from the furniture. Then reassemble the rifle and insert any aftermarket “duckbill” magazine such as the Tapco 20 round. I really don’t consider this to be a “modification”. Duckbill SKS’s may be modified to accept AK magazines and some later variants were manufactured for AK mags. Duckbill aftermarket mags are a bit sketchy to install and lock, but with practice it’s not really an issue. With aftermarket magazines however, the BCG will not lock open on last round. Thus it must be manually locked prior to replacing the mag. There is a modification to correct this as well.
    2. The serial number on a standard SKS is stamped in the receiver (as shown obliterated), the BCG, box magazine, the barrel and oft the bottom of the trigger guard. Hence the term “numbers matching”.
    3. True most SKS’s are not designed to be scoped, however variants were manufactured with a receiver side mounted (drilled and tapped) low power scope. This is the only accurate way to mount a scope on the SKS. All other methods will not establish and hold zero. All that said though, I see absolutely no reason to ever put a scope on a well zeroed SKS. Consistent shots out to 200 meters are not that difficult and the rear ramp is technically graduated in 100 meter increments to 1000.

  15. a moment of silence please
    for that poor rifle
    its going to spend all of eternity
    being teased mercilessly by the other rifles
    in a federal evidence locker
    LOOKING JUST LIKE THAT

    • I can hear the gossip and snickers in that locker already, like the AR whispering to the HK91, “what a loser and embarrassment, he should be in his own locker and not in general population”
      “yeah, we should shank him”

  16. Kameltoe Harris has recently claimed during an interview on the Oprah Winfee show that she owns a gun for protection. Harris has also claimed that if anyone broke into her home, she’d use her gun to shoot them

    Of course enquiring minds want to know: is this Kameltoe Harris’ rifle and why did she give it to the would be assassin?

  18. I’ve been just as amused by this photo as anyone else. However; we need to consider the possibility that we’re being pranked or mislead by the FBI. There are credible scope mounts for the SKS on the market. Presume that this guy had one. Also understand that the FBI, Secret Service, the Biden administration and their followers have an overwhelming motive to minimize the threat posed to Trump.

    What better way to minimize the potential political benefit to Trump than to denigrate the threat. All the FBI would need to do is wrap some electrical tape around the scope mounts and tape that stupid can on the wrong end of the scope to create the illusion of a total FUBAR. This is called tampering with evidence, but this is normal for the FBI.

    • So somebody did that tampering within minutes of the event and prior to the pictures being taken?

      If you are interesting in .GOV involvement maybe it makes better use of your time to find out how the guy had a 100+ criminal charges in N.C. without doing any jail time.

  19. Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald who was a communist.

    So far the Baseball field shooter and both Trump assassin’s are all hard core Leftist.
    Three of the four previous president assassin’s were all so.c-iali.st. Booth was just your average racist.

    The only difference between a Leftist and a Liberal, is the Liberal doesn’t like getting their hands dirty.

  20. How the hell was that thing supposed to eject shells? I reason one shot (all someone needs) would be all it was capable of and that thing would jam right up with the empty case wedged tightly between the scope and the receiver.

    …. and those zip ties “securing” (LOL) the scope … if anyone dared to check the lot number they’d find they were delivered to a U.S three-letter agency.

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