[Sca-cooks] OT Hunting was Re: deer and turkeys

[Lisa]

*snip*
I'm the daughter of an ex-cop who is also a hunter. Factoids I picked up
from Dad include the fact that the range of a .22 centerfire rifle is a
mile, and could still kill at the limits of its range. A 30-06 Springfield
may travel even farther with lethal force. Most rifles used for deer hunting
are high-powered ones, in that they are deadly at 1,000 yards. Hunters want
something that will drop a deer quickly; Dad preferred the 30-06 when he
hunted. My dad also preferred to use a scope when he hunted. But he was a
damn good shot, with a lot of time at the range, and hunting since the time
he was 14. For every hunter like him, though, there were at least three or
four who did not have the training or the skills, firing away at the deer
like Dirty Harry, not waiting for the sure shot.
>
> We lived in an extremely crowded suburb, and I found my dad prone on the
back porch in shooting position one summer day with his .22. I was shocked;
but he was determined to get the squirrel who had been denuding our
miniature peach trees. I watched him from the back door; 45 minutes later, I
heard the rifle crack and saw the squirrel drop from the tree, a bullet in
his little tiny head. My dad could do that stuff. But he knew his guns, knew
his skills, and had made the cartridges himself; he covered notebook pages
with calculations related to cartidge loading. Later on that summer he got
the woodchuck, too.
>
> It takes more skills than usual to hunt safely in the suburbs. Hunters who
are used to hunting in rural areas usually don't know or understand what's
needed. When Princeton, N.J., had deer trouble, they didn't authorize a deer
hunt. They hired a company with sharpshooters to come in there and pick off
the deer with precision.
>
> Gianotta
*snip*

Ok unlurking here, I grew up in the country, with 2 brothers and a dad who
hunt regularly.  My dad's favorite quote is that he seasons meat when he
cooks it.  Yes, this means that my dad hunts out of season at times.. You do
what you gotta do to feed your family.  The thing is though, my dad was
brought up during the depression.  When he went hunting, he'd better have a
dead animal for each shot he fired.  He raised me and my brothers the same
way.  If we don't have a sure shot, we don't pull the trigger.
Unfortunately, that attitude is not very common.  I know ranchers who must
pen up in a barn their animals during deer season.  If they do not, they
lose cattle and horses, even in a pen, to idiots who shoot at anything that
moves.  There are also idiots who don't even wait to see something, they
shoot when they hear a sound.  Unfortunately, that sound could easily be
another hunter, which is why there are so many hunting accidents.  As
Gianotta said, in the city they have to hire sharpshooters... but in the
country, where it can easily be just as bad, it's left up to hunters who
often don't use plain common sense.

Elizabeta of Rundel