Hunting

“If I could only have one gun…” We’ve all asked this question. It’s a hypothetical doomsday scenario for most, but anyone hoping to carry a firearm on a backpacking trip has felt the reality of this dilemma. The happy medium between compact, lightweight, and versatile can be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

“And the hunt business we expect, based on our firearm policy, it’s going to continue to be challenged through the balance of the year,” said Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Edward Stack.

Kestrel weather meters are ubiquitous on the firing line at many matches and have become the gold standard by which every other weather meter is judged.  Recently I set my data cards down and I brought myself into the 21st century by getting a Kestrel 5700 Elite w/ LiNK.  The 5700 Elite raises the bar over anything else I’ve found on the market by providing a world-class weather meter combined with an integrated ballistic computer good for any caliber with a maximum range measured in miles.

When the 1873 came out it was a paradigm shift. A repeating rifle that was as reliable and capable as it was practical. However, it was still a pistol caliber carbine. For real rifle work, you had to go to something like an 1869 Sharps, a Ballard Perfection rifle, or a Remington Rolling Block. That’s what buffalo hunters used. What these long range, big game guns had in common was that they were all single shot firearms. The Winchester Model 1876 changed that forever.

 In simple terms, the laser rangefinder will emit an infrared beam towards a target while another sensor looks for the reflection coming back.  Once the sensor has detected that reflection it calculates the range based on the time it took to get back to the unit and displays it for the user. 

This week, I’ve played with a gun that is way outside the norm. From Chiappa, we are looking at what may be the smallest of the Italian shotguns. Ever. When this gun first came up for review, I had no idea what 9mm Flobert was, so don’t feel bad if you have never heard of it either. It is a very common European cartridge but is almost unheard of here in the U.S.A.

It doesn’t matter if you’re out hunting, on the range practicing, or driving down the highway, when chaos strikes, it strikes fast. One missed step along that ridge, a ricocheting bullet off a steel target, a distracted driver, a slip of a blade, and you can find yourself in a life and death situation. Beyond gun safety, first aid training is more useful than any other training you could attend, though most of us put it a ways down the list of our planned training.

For military and law enforcement the tripod is an essential piece of kit for situations where the shooter has to be up off the ground to gain a vantage point and yet still be stable enough to make an accurate shot.  For precision rifle competition there exists a similar need for a good, sturdy tripod but selecting the right tripod and attachment system can be overwhelming with so many options on the market now.

I have had some people ask me about my preferred setup for terminating whistle pigs, so today I am going to discuss just that.