Post by Cowboy Camper on Dec 8, 2012 14:18:17 GMT -6
For Hunting of course. I just have a small 410/22 Over/Under that only fires one round at a time. So if I want to go small game hunting with that thing, I'd better be a good shot! I guess if I slow a rabbit down with a botched shot of the 410, I could make the actual kill with a 22 shot to the head.
That actually reminds me of a funny story I have. Forgive me if that 22 shot to the head sounds a bit cruel, but it's actually much better than what really happened years ago when I went shotgun hunting for rabbits with a friend of mine years ago. He had lent me one of his larger shotguns (12 or 20 gauge, I don't recall) and I took aim at a rabbit. I got him!! But... it wasn't dead and I didn't have my pistols on me at the time. But it was suffering and very hurt, so how to make the kill and put it out of misery?
Well, I did have one of my hunting/survival knives on me and I figured the quickest and most merciful kill would be to cut it's throat. Uh huh... Fail! Knife was way too dang dull and I only ended up torturing the poor thing a LOT more than intended. (Remember, I'm Hunting and the goal here is to consume my rabbit!) So what else could we do here to finish it off? He also had a knife, but it was no better than mine, and another shotgun blast would be way too much of an overkill that would render the rabbit un eatable, so I had to come up with Something!
In hindsight, I have to admit that here is the rather funny and sad part of the whole ordeal. Funny for us, but pretty sad for the evening supper. But I had no other options for a merciful kill. So... I ended up holding on to it's wounded rear quarter (thanks to my slightly off shot with the larger shotgun) and bashing it's head against the nearest tree a few times in attempt to either break it's skull or it's neck for a swift kill. Funny at the time, and kinda funny to tell that story again, but real hindsight tells me there was a better way to finish off the rabbit more humanely.
Needless to say, that was my last hunting trip, 22 years ago. I did end up taking the rabbit home, cleaned it and prepared it for supper. Unfortunately, the best meat on any small game is in the hind quarters and since I botched my kill shot, I was constantly picking out or spitting out the buckshot within the meat. All in all it was a fairly embarrassing Fail as my first hunt and I suppose that's a big part of why I'm not an avid hunter today. Perhaps things would have turned out better had my dad taught me to hunt when he was into it when I was a kid, but that just didn't happen.
That actually reminds me of a funny story I have. Forgive me if that 22 shot to the head sounds a bit cruel, but it's actually much better than what really happened years ago when I went shotgun hunting for rabbits with a friend of mine years ago. He had lent me one of his larger shotguns (12 or 20 gauge, I don't recall) and I took aim at a rabbit. I got him!! But... it wasn't dead and I didn't have my pistols on me at the time. But it was suffering and very hurt, so how to make the kill and put it out of misery?
Well, I did have one of my hunting/survival knives on me and I figured the quickest and most merciful kill would be to cut it's throat. Uh huh... Fail! Knife was way too dang dull and I only ended up torturing the poor thing a LOT more than intended. (Remember, I'm Hunting and the goal here is to consume my rabbit!) So what else could we do here to finish it off? He also had a knife, but it was no better than mine, and another shotgun blast would be way too much of an overkill that would render the rabbit un eatable, so I had to come up with Something!
In hindsight, I have to admit that here is the rather funny and sad part of the whole ordeal. Funny for us, but pretty sad for the evening supper. But I had no other options for a merciful kill. So... I ended up holding on to it's wounded rear quarter (thanks to my slightly off shot with the larger shotgun) and bashing it's head against the nearest tree a few times in attempt to either break it's skull or it's neck for a swift kill. Funny at the time, and kinda funny to tell that story again, but real hindsight tells me there was a better way to finish off the rabbit more humanely.
Needless to say, that was my last hunting trip, 22 years ago. I did end up taking the rabbit home, cleaned it and prepared it for supper. Unfortunately, the best meat on any small game is in the hind quarters and since I botched my kill shot, I was constantly picking out or spitting out the buckshot within the meat. All in all it was a fairly embarrassing Fail as my first hunt and I suppose that's a big part of why I'm not an avid hunter today. Perhaps things would have turned out better had my dad taught me to hunt when he was into it when I was a kid, but that just didn't happen.