My father, may he rest in piece with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, just as he lived, did not grow up a sport hunter. Being born in 1917 the eldest son who could put meat on the table, he hunted and trapped as a means of helping to feed a family with 14 head of kids!!
Today, very few of us hunt to eat. Many of us can't wait for hunting season to roll around, so we can again get into the woods and hunt our game of choice. We are forced to live much of our lives during long months when no hunting seasons are open and we become haunters of the firing ranges and readers of the periodical gun magazines.
I can't even begin to name all the "new and improved" cartridges introduced by firearms manufacturers over the last 50 years or so. Too many, in my opinion. However, why do they continue to arrive as the new firearms offerings at the big box stores?
In part, I believe we see new cartridges hit the marketplace because we humans crave new and better things to buy and enjoy, even if some of us never even use those items. And, even if our current battery of rifles has the slot into which the "new and improved" cartridge rifle combination should fit, filled by older and reliable cartridges and rifles that do the job and really cannot be improved upon.
I am as guilty of this as are many others. When I came home from the Army in 1964, I bought a rifle in 30-06 with which to slay deer in Maryland. Later in 1968, I got a rifle in 243Win. to better kill ground hogs at longer range. I could have stopped there, but I read too much.
As a result, I ended up owning and hunting with a lot of different rifles and calibers. *ALL* of them did the job handily. The deer and other game never noticed the difference in the ballistics that I had carefully studied. A dead game animal is just as dead if the equipment used is up to the job, which most all centerfire rifles and cartridges are!
So, why did I go through so many rifles and cartridges in the over 60 years that I have been hunting? Much of it was to own and use something "different" and some of it was the result of having the disposable income and fantasizing over what that next rifle and/or caliber was going to do for me!
All of it was fun. I would not change any of it. Even though we know that Old Jack O'Connor was right when he said, "Beware the man who only owns one rifle. He can probably use it."
There is no criticism here. I merely smile at the folly of modern man!
What do you think about the subject?
Best,
Steven
Today, very few of us hunt to eat. Many of us can't wait for hunting season to roll around, so we can again get into the woods and hunt our game of choice. We are forced to live much of our lives during long months when no hunting seasons are open and we become haunters of the firing ranges and readers of the periodical gun magazines.
I can't even begin to name all the "new and improved" cartridges introduced by firearms manufacturers over the last 50 years or so. Too many, in my opinion. However, why do they continue to arrive as the new firearms offerings at the big box stores?
In part, I believe we see new cartridges hit the marketplace because we humans crave new and better things to buy and enjoy, even if some of us never even use those items. And, even if our current battery of rifles has the slot into which the "new and improved" cartridge rifle combination should fit, filled by older and reliable cartridges and rifles that do the job and really cannot be improved upon.
I am as guilty of this as are many others. When I came home from the Army in 1964, I bought a rifle in 30-06 with which to slay deer in Maryland. Later in 1968, I got a rifle in 243Win. to better kill ground hogs at longer range. I could have stopped there, but I read too much.
As a result, I ended up owning and hunting with a lot of different rifles and calibers. *ALL* of them did the job handily. The deer and other game never noticed the difference in the ballistics that I had carefully studied. A dead game animal is just as dead if the equipment used is up to the job, which most all centerfire rifles and cartridges are!
So, why did I go through so many rifles and cartridges in the over 60 years that I have been hunting? Much of it was to own and use something "different" and some of it was the result of having the disposable income and fantasizing over what that next rifle and/or caliber was going to do for me!
All of it was fun. I would not change any of it. Even though we know that Old Jack O'Connor was right when he said, "Beware the man who only owns one rifle. He can probably use it."
There is no criticism here. I merely smile at the folly of modern man!
What do you think about the subject?
Best,
Steven
