About fifty years ago when I was a young whippersnapper with womb juice still behind my ears, my wife and I lived only a block away from a gun store located on the west side of Cleveland. The proprietor was not only a gunsmith but he had several safaris to Africa under his belt and had numerous heads of game from the Dark Continent on the walls of his establishment to accent his trips.
I had an early fifties Remington Model 760 rifle, chambered in .30-06, at the time that I had gotten from my grandfather. Though I had killed five whitetails in Michigan by then (circa 1974), I had an itch to have the rifle re-chambered to .35 Whelen (no real good reason; like I said I was young at the time). So, on my way to work, I stopped by the shop just to ask the owner/gunsmith how much such a job would cost me.
When I entered the store, I noticed several patrons sitting around gabbing and being social. I came up to the counter and asked the owner about having my Model 760 re-chambered. He seemed "ready for the moment" and asked my why I wanted my rifle changed from a .30-06 to a .35 Whelen. I wasn't prepared for the question (and really had no "logical" answer) but I tried to explain that I thought a bigger hole would cause a bigger blood trail and that if I happened to have the misfortune of hitting a running deer in the wrong place (two of my deer kills at the time were shot running), the more powerful cartridge would stand a better chance of anchoring a wounded deer (again, like I said, I was young at the time).
So the owner/gunsmith seized the moment to embarrass me in front of his adoring audience and said (paraphrasing; it's been a half century since), "I mean no offense son, but you would never be welcome in my camp. You should always wait for game to stay in place; to shoot at a running animal and risk wounding it is not how a sportsman should behave. As you get older, I hope you will remember and act on the advice I'm giving you" (or words to that effect).
I was shocked that he would belittle me (a longtime customer, no less), especially in front of others but I managed to counter, "So that means you shoot your ducks on the water? You shoot your pheasants while they're roosting? You shoot your grouse on the ground?" He sputtered, "I was talking about
animals, not birds." One of the gentlemen in the gabfest countered, "Well, last time I checked, ducks are still considered to be animals."
The owner (I can't remember his name now) wanted to continue the "discussion" but I told him I was already late for work and had to leave. My Remington Model 760 rifle, equipped with a Williams "FoolProof" receiver sight, is still chambered in .30-06 Springfield.
