I'm curious to know why a non-hunter would spend time reading and posting on a hunting forum. (This is REALLY a question, I'm not trying to indict anyone.)
John,
I was wondering the same thing for awhile now, most know I am a hog shooting nut.
So one day I check my email and in it is a few questions from one of the non-hunters here about what I was using in my SAR-1 for shooting hogs. Seems he wanted a very effective self defense load for his rifle in 7.62x39, and was wondering how I felt about various loads and how they performed, what my impressions where. I would assume that a huge number are here for that very fact, we involve ourselves in blood sport, which means we do in fact use our firearms to kill things.
I know my ammo performance on critters dictates what I use for self defense. My .357 mag doesn't carry 158gr hydra shoks anymore, I carry 158gr PMC softpoints, because the suckers are wicked on all manner of game, and I can hit stuff at long range with them, in case I don't have a rifle handy.
The Mag in my Ar is stoked with 3 types of ammo, The top five rds are Winchester 45gr HP stuff, it won't go through a coyote, but makes a nasty wound channel. The next 20rds are a stagger of Nosler Partitions and some handloaded SS109 bullets. The Noslers have proven their worth in the woods on some hogs, the SS109's do some impressive penetration, left ham and out the right from shoulder on a 130lb dressed weight hog(only hog I ever shot with that load), he didn't drop, but the penetration was impressive, that plus I blew holes through some old car doors here at the house. One of my spares is loaded with 62gr Samson factory stuff an SP, tried and true on deer and hogs so far. Another is straight 45gr Winchester HP stuff. The last straight SS109's. But I chose the stuff for one simple fact, I have seen what it does on living critters and that information is important to anyone who uses a firearm for self defense.
My shotgun is stoked with 2 3" mag OOO buck rds and the rest slugs. Because i've learned not to trust BS out to far on live critters.
That is the portion here for the scientific side of the hunting equation.
Some of the others are here simply to see what it is all about, we've been demonized in the press, celebrities say how horrible we are, PETA potrays us as inbred hillbilly trash who beat our wives and starve our kids. I had this driven home my last semester at college. I sat next to a local PETA member, sweet girl, just didn't like killing animals. I'm sorta a walking billboard for gun manufacturers, t-shirts and ball caps all the time. Well she finally after a few weeks broached the topic. I carried pics all the time and they aint all pretty sweet ones with perfectly pristine animals posed nicely. So I asked if she wanted to see them, we went after class I picked up the lunch bill and we talked hunting and why. I won't re=write what I told her, I spent about 4 hours with her. But we hit some rough spots and some spots where she was shocked. I donate a bunch of meat every month to a meat market that in turn sends it to some childrens homes(I pressed home the fact that I bet she didn't know anyone in her org that did things like that for children). I touched on my relationship with a young man with MS and the way we take him hunting every year here and how much it means to him and how it has so helped him in coping with the disease( I hammered home the fact that I bet nobody in her org took a week out of their schedule and paycheck to do anything with a kid with a disease like that) I talked about my little girl and how she wasn't devastated by seeing an animal dead or dying, how she understood life and death, probably better than most kids 3 times her age.
She walked away with a different perspective than the one modern culture had told her about hunters and shooters. She saw chivalry still exists and being a gentleman didn't go out with the advent of MTV. She I think realized that most of us are good hearted, caring, considerate folks, who go out of our way to help others. But at the same time I made no apologies about why I am out there, I didn't use the word harvest, or any PC titles assigned to our sport, I told her I killed things and I had no remorse about it. She never realized a man who can put a bullet through the heart of a cute little deer, is also the same type man who can cuddle with his 4yr old daughter and tell her, "I love you." She never realized the man who can take aim and shoot the head off a rabbit so as not to waste any meat, is the same man who holds the door open for her and says, "Howdy Mam." She never realized the same guy who shoots hogs in brutal fashion and has been known to do so by the truckloads is the same guy who gets tears in his eyes thinking about the kids eating what he killed. That the same man who will with no remorse squeeze the trigger and bleed life from a cuddly little fox is the same man who will go out of his way to put life into a kid sick with a bad disease.
People talk about stereo-types and how wrong they are, yet those that scream loudest about them are the ones who pigeonhole us with those very things. I think it is great that non-hunters come here, it gives them a chance to see the real side of us, the side many don't want to believe exists. I'm so proud to be known as a hunter and shooter I could just bust, because to me those men who carry those labels are some of the greatest folks on average I have ever known.
Steve
