Whenever things like this come up I always wonder how many of the posters have actually used a firearm in a combat situation. Just a thought.
And you're going to be left wondering. Want a story about a bear? A wolf? Starving in the wilderness? Sure. There are good reasons why some things can't be discussed.
You can also read a man wrong. Take one of my closest friends. Knew him since the first grade. He was with the patrol boats on the Mekong. Afterwards, he traveled the world doing something for the government he never laid out in any specifics. He'd seen his share of shots exchanged in anger. Years later, he kept coming back to the first one. "It was so close I could feel the round go past my head. What did he have against me? I never did anything to him."
Yet, if you met him in a gun shop in his last days, you'd never imagine such an affable outgoing man, who always went out of his way to befriend a stranger could have such a background.
I talked to him often during that last period before Agent Orange claimed him. A particular conversation comes back. I'm on the tractor, deep winter, feeding round bales, and we're on the phone. I tell him, "Hold on, a coyote." The next thing he hears is a big boom from a single shot 45-70.
He asks, "Two-legged or four?"
"Does it amount to a damn?"
There weren't many laughs left. He didn't make it through the winter.
Any personal experience I have wouldn't have the necessary depth to support any kind of conclusion. Compared to some of the people here my experience is pretty thin, and the ideas I have come from reading and talking to people. The great thing about a place like this is that you can find out that you might be wrong about a few things and live to do better.
Whenever things like this come up I always wonder how many of the posters have actually used a firearm in a combat situation. Just a thought.