Poetic explorations & more musings on optimal gun kits
PS: added by edit: This is long and wanders off into philosophy, even if 336 lays at the core. I'm a writer in part professionally, and I like to write essays. But I won't take offense if members skip it for now or even forever. If you're just here looking for 336 ammo advice, feel free to just skip this one.
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I'm laughing at myself a bit after reading my post above from last night.
Clearly, I was in poetry mode: late night near the end of a long day. Read one too many posts in L&P (
I really just need to stay out of L&P; just gets me agitated around issues of RKBA/2A ...).
Add to that I've been thinking a LOT about my tool kit lately, pleased with the way that it's shaped up, happy with 4 of 5 (I want my 4" 686 to magically turn into a 3" 686; other than that, no changes except modifications).
The evolution of my "optimal toolkit" is something that I can talk write about for hours. Don't get me started ...
(Well, that'll be a fun post to write in the future; I'd love to bounce my reasoning for the development of this particular kit off of you folks...)
Where as I don't think there's any such thing as the optimal gun (e.g., one gun for every need), I do think that optimal gun kits are possible (i.e., a
minimal set of guns meeting all the needs of an individual/group, especially those that need to be semi-nomadic, defined uniquely for each individual/group and capable of evolving over time).
In putting together this "kit" over the last two years, I've done a TON of reading on THR, including strategies and tactics and L&P, and have learned 10X more in those two years about guns, gun safety, legal issues, ethical issues ... than I learned in the last 48 years (since purchase of my first BB gun at age 8).
I've also reflected a LOT on issues of responsibility, safety, security, social context, the times we live in, my motivations for owning weapons (equal split between hunting & SD) ...
Sometimes, I find, it helps me to wax "poetic" (free verse) on such matters, to explore those uncomfortable waters on the edge between hunting (which I've done since I was kid, and enjoy ... no, revere the privilege) and using a gun in self-defense (which I truly hope I never have to do).
I've never served in the military, and am not LEO or anything. (Biologist with an artist's inclination and - sometimes - an
indie rock musician's attitude.)
So, the sobering reality that I may someday need to use a weapon to take another person's life is ... well, grounding. I wrestle with the mind set necessary for such an unpleasant task.
Being a biologist with a strong appreciation for life, I find it challenging enough sometimes to pull the trigger on a squirrel (as delicious as they are, I confess I do find them "cute"). I've never killed a deer ... yet. (Motivation for reacquainting with a 336 ... I hope to change that this year...)
But the thought of taking a human life, whether with a .30-30, .357M or 12 ga ... well, that's just beyond my experience. I reflect on it often; not obsessively by any stretch, but I think in a healthy way.
Writing helps that.
And writing in a thread like this where we're mostly discussing a "deer rifle" as opposed to writing about it in some thread about AKs for HD, or over in shotguns in a ninja-pg-shotgun-for-zombies thread ... well, it's just a different experience for me. It allows me to reveal more of my mental meanderings to 336 club mates, and invite feedback about those issues from their perspective.
So what am I trying to say here? What's my point? Hmm, good question.
Sum it up: it's interesting that we've got 469 posts in 19 pages in one of the most viewed threads in rifle country currently, and we haven't discussed the issue of 336 used as SD. (Unless I missed a post somewhere.)
It seems to me that there's an underlying assumption that a thread about 336 is going to be about a hunting rifle. And indeed, it mostly should be. What's the statistic: more deer taken with .30-30 than any other (???) or all others combined or something. Yeah, the 336 has hunting deer written all over it.
But I rarely see discussions of its use for HD/SD. I don't think I've ever read a story about a human being shot (other than hunting accident) with one.
And I've even wondered recently: how many soldiers from any country in some war some where have carried a 336 or related rifle in battle?
So, such questions and musings are behind long, reflection essays like last night's, and even longer rambling musings about them on the following day.
I'd enjoy reading some thoughts on these issues by others.
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Thanks for hanging out here. Already feels like a bunch of friends, even if we've never met. (Maybe that'll change someday at some club shoot ... )
I'm betting we're all over the map in terms of politics, lifestyle, philosophy, spiritual perspectives, professional lives, etc. But I think it's totally cool how a great rifle - and assorted other guns - can bring such a diverse group of people that might argue like cats and dogs about other issues together as friends.
OK, now I
really gotta go to work.
Nem
