One shot with a Luger

[unspellable]

One of the two most satisfying shots of my career. We were shooting cans at a dump site when one of the guys spotted a pheasant sitting some distance away. They proceeeded to empty a Ruger Blackhawk, a Super Blackhawk, a couple of cap and ball revolvers, and 22 revolver at it, all without effect. (One presumes the pheasant sat tight in shell shock at all the noise.) Then I pulled out my 7.65 Luger and nailed it with one shot. A single shot doesn't really say much about accuracy, but I wasn't complaining.

[unspellable]

Moderator, please delete this thread. It's an oopsie, it was supposed to be a reply to another thread.

[lugerholsterrepair]

One of the two most satisfying shots of my career. We were shooting cans at a dump site when one of the guys spotted a pheasant sitting some distance away. They proceeeded to empty a Ruger Blackhawk, a Super Blackhawk, a couple of cap and ball revolvers, and 22 revolver at it, all without effect. (One presumes the pheasant sat tight in shell shock at all the noise.) Then I pulled out my 7.65 Luger and nailed it with one shot. A single shot doesn't really say much about accuracy, but I wasn't complaining.




Noel, Sounds like mob mentality. Shooting at a grounded game bird out of season. It's actually mating season. Perhaps she was a sitting hen and would not leave her nest. I can only hope you did not waste the meat by letting it lay and rot. While demonstrating the accuracy of your pistol is admirable I have to question your shooting ethics. I am not a moralist but the behavior of shooters at ranges and in the field has brought undo attention for antics just such as this. Frankly I am saddened to hear of a member who would do this. Jerry Burney

[Steinar]

I totaly agree with Jerry on this.. My respect for those who disrespect nature is very limited. I hunt birds myself, but only within season and whatever I shoot.. always end up as dinner! Not to rotten on a junk yard..
It's more a story of bad moral than accuracy.

[unspellable]

This was in a time and place where pheasants were in season, nesting wasn't. (Snow on the ground, nobody said it was a hen either.) It was also legal in that place to take one with a pistol, and no, it didn't go to waste.

On the other hand, it was long ago in my youth, and yes, there was a certain element of mob mentality involved. On the other hand, if I had walked it up with a shot gun , no one would think a thing of it.

So would I do it again? Probably not, at least in those circumstances. There are those who would view shooting a pheasant with a pistol as "unsporting", but on average it's a lot easier to get a pheasnt with a shot gun than with a pistol. I'm not at all sure I would view deliberately setting out pheasnat hunting with a hand gun as "unsporting". You would have to shoot them on the ground for safety reasons.

Some things are goofy if you stop to think about them. Where I live now, it's illegal to shoot a deer with a centerfire rifle because it has too much range. But a deer generally has a hill or thick brush behind it. On the other hand it's legal to shoot a squirrel with that center fire rifle, a thing I would not contemplate for obvious reasons. But I never heard of a deer in a tree. I'd like to hunt squirrels with a 22LR but I'm afraid to shoot up into a tree with one.

[Ron Smith]

We all do things in our youth that we re-think as we get older. We have Seagulls that will fly in during coastal storms. We're about 60 miles from the ocean.

When we were about 14 a bunch of us were walking across a mostly drained reservoir. Going on a plinking session with our .22s. A Seagull came in on a strafing run toward us, probably looking for a hand out. One of my friends just raised his Remington Mod. 12 and fired from the hip. He hit the Seagull dead center.

We all went into shock, and quickly hid the dead Gull. The shooters father was the Fire Chief and Head Constable of the small community , and did not tolerate any type of legal violation. At that time there was a $1000 fine for harming any type of Sea bird.

Here in Western Oregon, the only way to hunt Grouse and Quail is with a .22 rifle or pistol. They will come out of the timber under brush to pick gravel from the road. If you had to wing shoot them with a shotgun, you would never get one except in an ideal situation, and even then they are usually too close and you shread them.

We practice by setting up soda / pop bottles and try to shoot the cap off at 25-30 yards. Accurate .22s are a cherished commodity in this part of the country.

We all have done regrettable things in our youth. Inadvertent or otherwise. Guilty as Charged yer Honor.

[policeluger]

Ron, truer words were never spoken.....mine was a raven, how high up he was I'll never know, but it was a beautiful shot, my buddy came screaming down the road before a feather even reached the ground, tossed me in the truck and gave me the what for.....and he was a cop.....I didn't know you couldn't shoot ravens, just never cared to try until then, the high shot made it challenging......to be young again.

[unspellable]

Once in Arizona I was sitting up on a ridge with binoculars and waiting to see if any deer came in sight. A coyote came along at the foot of it. The slope was steep so the coyote was not more than 50 yards away. Not knowing I was there, he stopped and squatted to do what canines do when they squat. I was thinking I could lob one off over his head and give him a real fright. But, on reflection, I decided not to. There are times when we all deserve a little peace and quiet.

[Ron Smith]

"There are times when we all deserve a little peace and quiet."

Noel,

Ain't it the truth...

I'm a dog lover. A Coyote is after all is said and done, just a dog. As long as they are just trying to earn a living, and aren't posing a threat to anything other than their intended prey, I leave them alone. I have also been known to shoot over their heads to let them know that we are a danger to them and to keep their distance.

Ron

[azlaw]

Best shot I ever made was when I was a kid - about 75 yards with a Sheridan pellet gun - the target was a tiny bird smaller than a golf ball sitting on a telephone line, I could barely even see it. Took his head clean off. My pals were real impressed. Also once shot a bumble bee out of mid air with the same gun.

Funny how this stuff stands out in my memory more than the deer kills on the run, or the elk across a valley.

H

[Hugh]

When I was much, much younger I had a Ruger Single Six and a quick draw holster. I was a pretty good shot and liked to Squirrel hunt with it, and had also been practicing my "quick draw". One day a buddy and I were walking along a drainage ditch looking for targets of opportunity. He yelled "theres a snake" and before I even thought, I had drawn and shot it in the head at about 5 yds away. It surprised me more than my buddy, but I acted like it was just the natural thing to do.

[Hugh]

Henry,

The last time I shot at anything on a wire was when I was about 12. I was riding my horse and decided to shoot a Black Bird off a telephone line with my 22 rifle. I missed the bird but hit the line dead center and it parted. Needless to say I got the hell out of Dodge in a hurry!

[Steinar]

I was a bit harsh in my post above, I by this want to apologize to Unspellable for making a judgment not knowing all the facts.

We have all been young, and I for one, has done a lot of silly things!

I was about 8 when I shot my first bird. One shot and one very dead raven outside my bedroom window. I had been 'hunting' it for several days, I remember that each time I had it close to sight with my .22 biathlon rifle, it flew away.
Got this bad feeling inside afterwards, started thinking that it might be as old as 60 years..

Anyway, it didn't stop me from starting hunting I'm trying to make room for four weeks of it every year. I get more of a 'bad feeling' by purchasing chickens, brew up to grow as fast as possible without seeing daylight.

[Edward Tinker]

sometimes not playing moderater and letting a post run its path is enlighteing for all

[Steinar]

You are right Ed.

I was a bit grumpy when I first saw the post.
If I remember right, it was shortly after I saw some 'hunting' videos on Youtube. Some guys where bragging about shooting deer at 1100 yards.
I did some calculations about it, and with their ammunition BC .644 leaving the muzzle at 3938 f/sec. If there was only 6.5 f/s sidewind, the impact would be 1.8 feet off target. And if they was 100feet off when estimating the range, they would be missing the target by 9". Even even if they got the perfect 'set up', there is the human factor and the fact that is was living target.
I'm no 'animals rights'-activist, but playing with such is not my cup of

[Ron Smith]

Steinar,

After spending a good portion of my life hanging around gun shops. I've heard some stories that just make you lose faith in the human race.

The "I killed me a deer a 900 yds with my 30-30". Or the guys that come in looking for a .338 Winchester magnum because they are going to be making 1000 yd shots at Elk. I like to ask them if they think they could even see an Elk at 1000 yds, let alone hit one?

I was raised in an area where hunting is a part of life. I was always taught that you get as close as possible and make damned sure that you place your shot properly. You never, never carelessly wound an animal. And if you should wound it, you track it down and finish it. I once tracked a wounded Blacktail Buck until nearly 5 AM backtracking and searching. I finally found it and a finishing shot was not required. It had been dead for several hours, but I didn't give up, although I thought about it several times.

The rules are:

"Always respect the animal."

" Take it as humainly as possible."

" Always place your shot"

"If you can't follow the rules, then don't hunt."

Ron

[thegundude]

Yes, this is a good thread...

My only regrettable killing was my first. It was a bunny rabbit and I had just bought my first .22 rifle. I sighted in on it without even thinking and only wounded it. I walked up to it and finished it off but it left a sick feeling in my stomach that persists to this day.

Now I'm very careful of what I'm shooting and why. If I have no plans to eating it, I don't shoot it.

Well, there was one exception to that rule. The year before last, Mal*Wart was razing an old factory to make way for one of their wonderful shopping boutiques. The factory had been abandoned for many years and a multitude of furry mammals had made their homes there.

The new construction had left all of these animals homeless. This included bears, beavers and, as it would happen, many, many rats, some of which found my yard to be a suitable replacement for their old home.

WELL, I located the patriarch of the group, a rat of impressive proportion, and pumped him full of .22 Aquila Super Colibri (575 fps). He ran away and I thought I'd missed him somehow or that the ammo was too wimpy. I found him the next day with three nicely placed holes in his side, dead as a doornail (whatever that means). That was one animal I had no qualms about killing in cold blood.

[Hugh]

Steve,
I've often wondered why doornails aren't "deader" than other objects!!!! Just how dead does a doornail get anyway? For that matter what the hell is a doornail????

[Steinar]

My dictionary came up with this;
"Noun 1. doornail - a nail with a large head; formerly used to decorate doors".
But the software 'Clue', brings up "the pin wich the doorhammer stikes".

Why it's more dead than other objects? ..does any of the dictionarys actually know what it is, or are they just guessing? ..and what is a doorhammer??
This might be one of the most complex questions in mankind, so it will be interesting to see if anyone here 'nails' it

[Vlim]

Some reference I found, although I don't support the conclusion.

They originally were large hammered nails used to mount the door panels to the (usual) Z-frame of the door. When using a door, the Z-frame and the panels will always develop some friction, the nails being worked loose, the door sagging and sticking in the doorframe. The solution would be to hammer the doornails senseless again, and again until they were really finished.

I think that is the origin of the phrase, simply having to whack these nails again and again to keep the door in shape until the nails finally broke off.

The reference:

This is old - at least 14th century. There's a reference to it in print in 1350:

"For but ich haue bote of mi bale I am ded as dorenail."

Shakespeare used it in King Henry VI, 1590:

CADE:

Brave thee! ay, by the best blood that ever was
broached, and beard thee too. Look on me well: I
have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and
thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead
as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.

As 'X' as 'Y' similes refer to some property and then give an example of something well-known as exhibiting that property, e.g. 'as white as snow'. Why door-nails are cited as a particular example of deadness isn't clear. Door-nails are the large-headed studs that were used in earlier times for strength and more recently as decoration. The practice was to hammer the nail through and then bend over the protruding end to secure it. This process, similar to riveting, was called clenching. This may be the source of the 'deadness', as such a nail would be unusable afterwards.