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Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 31 Location: Wisconsin

I was out to supper last night and waiting at the bar for a table to open up. I struck up a conversation with a guy I know when I see him but have had no real contact with. We were talking about reloading shotgun shells etc. He proceeded to tell me that the best shotguns slugs can be made by taking factory rounds and scoring them all the way around the hull with a utility knife just where the wad meets the powder. He said if you do it right the whole top of the shell becomes the projectile with the slug encased inside and all you eject out of the gun is the base of the hull. I asked him how the hull would get through the choke or even down the barrel. His answer? "I shoot them in a cylinder bore gun, there's plenty of room for the case". I hope there wasn't anybody who overheard the conversation and is stupid enough to try this. Maybe he'll make this year's list for the Darwin Awards. RD

Member Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 348 Location: Missouri

The biggest help I ever received on hunting ethics was through books on upland shooting.

George Bird Evans
Burt Spiller
H.G. Tappley
Nash Buckingham
Archibald Rutledge
Havilah Babcock

Just to name a few of my favorite authors.

There are some fine mentors there. These folks grew up in a time where good manners and respect for others were drummed into childrens' heads before they went to grade school. Many were raised by veterans or childern of veterans of the Civil War. some served in the Spanish- American War, WWI, and even WWII.

Our world was a different and a harder place then in many ways. Folks who survived long enough to have children knew the value of respect. The lack of it could get a person killed or ruined.

My mother was born in 1905. Her father was a sargeant major in the US cavalry when they actually rode horses. He served in the Southwest against Geronimo during the last Apache uprisings. He also served in Cuba and the Phillipines. He saw the horrors and endured things few folks could even imagine today. They say he had a steel ramrod for a backbone and commanded respect from everyone he met without having to ask for it. Standing fast with a Colt Model P .45 revolver and a sabre against an Apache or Moro charge will do that to one's backbone I suspect.

I never knew him directly. He died from the affects of malaria and battle wounds before I was born. However the lessons I learned at his daughter's knee were passed down from her own childhood. Through her, I owe him my thanks. The lessons have often served me well. I've also on occasion, paid dearly for a lapse in good sense and good manners. Those few occasions tend to drive the lessons home in a young man raised under this older code of conduct.

However, in our society, folks are more apt to be taught to lay the blame and consequences of their actions off on others. It seems that nobody is taught to take responsibility for one's own actions. It is always the other guy who caused a lapse in judgement, manners, or common sense. Self control is viewed as being repressed, weak, or stupid. So as long as things go this way, things will continue down hill I guess.

However, my grandfather's eyes and those of his daughter will always be on me. So other folks can see me as they wish. I will honor his lessons, and ignore the rest. In short, I will keep my own council. It has served me well into my 7th decade. I see no need to change now.