Magnum Wheel Man
Member
Well I'm no where near the writer as certain other forum members are over here, but I typed this out for another forum for a thread about funny uses of too much gun, & thought I'd share it here as well...
I used to hunt many years ago, with my wifes dad ( an avid collector ), & his hunting buddy's... ( he claimed the wife of the people who owned the land we were hunting on, was his "faithfull hunting guide" )... as a party hunt, she shot usually 3/4 of the deer... most everyone used a 30-06, I used a 45-70 lever Marlin... her husband a 300 win mag ( which I thought my 45-70 might have been over kill )...
... but I've got A short story I'll share... kinda involves "too much gun" ... "too late"...
...well it was about mid week of hunting season, & Bobby ( father in laws faithful hunting guide ) had shot most of the deer, just like she usually did... I think there were a few doe permits left, & I hadn't shot a deer, for any of the 3-4 years I'd been going up there... we always filled out, but being one of the younger hunters, I took it upon my self to do a drive ( try to move the deer around out of the thick stuff ), usually about an hour before we went in at noon, & an hour before dusk... so consiquently, I hadn't ever had the oportunity to shoot one, & this year I was hunting hard... I really really wanted to shoot my 1st deer up there...
I was stand hunting, dressed in my blaze orange coveralls, cold weather boots ( there was 6-8 inches of snow on the ground ), & had my ( lucky ??? ) orange "Mad Bomber" hat on... I was trying a new doe in heat cover scent, & hadn't seen anything all morning... after going in for lunch, ( their house was just at the edge of this forest ), we headed back out about 1:00pm... an hour or so later... I was fighting the ZZZ's, while sitting in my stand... I was posted in a stand that like all the others, were built on the bull dozed fire break on the property lines, in this very large oak forest... I was munching away on an apple, trying to stay awake, like I often did, typically throwing out the apple cores to the large grey squirrels that seemed to follow me around annoying me... as I sat there in my quiet solitude, ( hadn't seen a squirrel at all this particular afternoon ) all of a sudden there was a huge ruckus... I looked down to the fire break, to see one lone grey squirrel, stopped dead in his tracks on the forest floor, in the middle of the fire break, looking up, right at me & chewing me out very loudly & with great passion... well I was annoyed at the intensity of his chatter, & began taking turns "scopeing" him out through the rifle scope... his rattlings seemed to go on for all of 10 minutes... by this time I'm thouroughly annoyed, when all of a sudden he jumps into the tree directly across from me on the fire break,, & rips up the trunk, dead level with me across the break... chattering away feverously, at again for what seemed like forever... at this point I'm serously thinking about popping him with a 45 caliber bullet... when he suddenly races to the top of the tree, jumps into the tree I'm in, & rips down the trunk of the tree towards me... well at this point... I'm in shock... the thing surely must be rabid... I'm standing there, I'm sure with my jaw agape, when I realize he's not going to stop... in a flash, my hand feels the familiar curves of my trusty GP-100 in the holster at my waist... the "mad squirrel" at this point is just a few feet above me, & the rifle is as useless as a tennis racket at that point... I pointed the revolver skyward, just as the squirrel leaps from the trunk of the tree towards my head... I squeezed the trigger just as the barrel hit the "little beast" in the chest, & a loud boom echoed forth... along with a huge cloud of "stuffins", spraying in all directions...
... as I sat there uncontrolably shaking, I couldn't believe what had just happened... I actually had to shoot something in self defense...I couldn't help but wonder why... maybe the doe in heat smell, made the "little guy" think that the grey patch of rabbit fur on the brim of my hat was a "stinky" little female??? maybe he thought it was another squirrel after his stash of nuts ??? maybe he really was rabid ???
... no matter what, I didn't want him on my head fighting or "loving up" my Mad Bomber hat...
... I learned something that day though... if you are hunting squirrels for anything other than tails... a 125 grain hydroshock hollow point out of a 357 mag at "that" close a range... it may be just maybe a bit too much gun...
I used to hunt many years ago, with my wifes dad ( an avid collector ), & his hunting buddy's... ( he claimed the wife of the people who owned the land we were hunting on, was his "faithfull hunting guide" )... as a party hunt, she shot usually 3/4 of the deer... most everyone used a 30-06, I used a 45-70 lever Marlin... her husband a 300 win mag ( which I thought my 45-70 might have been over kill )...
... but I've got A short story I'll share... kinda involves "too much gun" ... "too late"...
...well it was about mid week of hunting season, & Bobby ( father in laws faithful hunting guide ) had shot most of the deer, just like she usually did... I think there were a few doe permits left, & I hadn't shot a deer, for any of the 3-4 years I'd been going up there... we always filled out, but being one of the younger hunters, I took it upon my self to do a drive ( try to move the deer around out of the thick stuff ), usually about an hour before we went in at noon, & an hour before dusk... so consiquently, I hadn't ever had the oportunity to shoot one, & this year I was hunting hard... I really really wanted to shoot my 1st deer up there...
I was stand hunting, dressed in my blaze orange coveralls, cold weather boots ( there was 6-8 inches of snow on the ground ), & had my ( lucky ??? ) orange "Mad Bomber" hat on... I was trying a new doe in heat cover scent, & hadn't seen anything all morning... after going in for lunch, ( their house was just at the edge of this forest ), we headed back out about 1:00pm... an hour or so later... I was fighting the ZZZ's, while sitting in my stand... I was posted in a stand that like all the others, were built on the bull dozed fire break on the property lines, in this very large oak forest... I was munching away on an apple, trying to stay awake, like I often did, typically throwing out the apple cores to the large grey squirrels that seemed to follow me around annoying me... as I sat there in my quiet solitude, ( hadn't seen a squirrel at all this particular afternoon ) all of a sudden there was a huge ruckus... I looked down to the fire break, to see one lone grey squirrel, stopped dead in his tracks on the forest floor, in the middle of the fire break, looking up, right at me & chewing me out very loudly & with great passion... well I was annoyed at the intensity of his chatter, & began taking turns "scopeing" him out through the rifle scope... his rattlings seemed to go on for all of 10 minutes... by this time I'm thouroughly annoyed, when all of a sudden he jumps into the tree directly across from me on the fire break,, & rips up the trunk, dead level with me across the break... chattering away feverously, at again for what seemed like forever... at this point I'm serously thinking about popping him with a 45 caliber bullet... when he suddenly races to the top of the tree, jumps into the tree I'm in, & rips down the trunk of the tree towards me... well at this point... I'm in shock... the thing surely must be rabid... I'm standing there, I'm sure with my jaw agape, when I realize he's not going to stop... in a flash, my hand feels the familiar curves of my trusty GP-100 in the holster at my waist... the "mad squirrel" at this point is just a few feet above me, & the rifle is as useless as a tennis racket at that point... I pointed the revolver skyward, just as the squirrel leaps from the trunk of the tree towards my head... I squeezed the trigger just as the barrel hit the "little beast" in the chest, & a loud boom echoed forth... along with a huge cloud of "stuffins", spraying in all directions...
... as I sat there uncontrolably shaking, I couldn't believe what had just happened... I actually had to shoot something in self defense...I couldn't help but wonder why... maybe the doe in heat smell, made the "little guy" think that the grey patch of rabbit fur on the brim of my hat was a "stinky" little female??? maybe he thought it was another squirrel after his stash of nuts ??? maybe he really was rabid ???
... no matter what, I didn't want him on my head fighting or "loving up" my Mad Bomber hat...
... I learned something that day though... if you are hunting squirrels for anything other than tails... a 125 grain hydroshock hollow point out of a 357 mag at "that" close a range... it may be just maybe a bit too much gun...
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