GUNS Magazine December 1958 - Jeffersonian

HOW WELL CAN YOU SHOOT YOURBIG GAME RIFLE? HOW WELL CAN YOU CONTROLBUCK FEVER? FIND OUT. ANDYOUWILL BE A BETTER SPORTSMAN. A BETTER HUNTERCanada sportsman has shot much gamewith .303 Ross, says nerve and skilloutrank the rifle in hunting results.By MICHAEL CRAMONDIT AIN'T THEIT'S A NASTY QUESTION, but let's face it: How manyof us ar e really fit to shoot a fine gun at a finel!il1l1P. tarzet ?IT'S A ASTY QUESTION, but let's face it : How man yof us ar e really fit to shoot a fine gun at a finegame target ?Understand, I' m not tr ying to talk you out of goinghunting ; quite the contrary. But if you're Mr. Averageamong the nearly 20 milli on men and women who willgo hunting this year, I do have a short sermon for youwhich, if observed, will make your hunt mor e successfuland you a better sportsman.Th at sermon in capsule form is ju st thi s: Tak e th athunting rifle of yours out somewhere and shoot at least20 shots through it at a target 50 yards distant. Studythe results, and then govern your shooting at game strictlyin accord with what you see on that target.Some years back, I was a territorial policeman andex-officio game warde n up on the Campbell River inBritish Columb ia. One day a young guy came busting intomy office with a story that will do to illustrate my sermon.This chap worked at a logging camp on the railway, andhe was really burning. He was scar ed, too ; and when Ihea rd his story, I didn 't blame him .The first words he shot at me were, " I ju st missed eightbears!""Which being true," I said, " and judging by the looksof you that they missed you too, you' re a lucky guy.""You ain 't kiddin' ! I'm lucky to get out 0 ' there alive!And it's all the fault of that damn gun! Look , th ere wereeight bears, and they weren't 50 yards off! After the firstfew shots, some of 'em were closer. I shot three tim es at onelumberin' right toward me not more'n half that distance!ow you know no decent rifle could miss a full-gro wnhea r at that distan ce! That rifle is-iu st-n o-damn-zood!"The garbage fr om that logging camp was dumped in aravine a mile or so from camp, and all the bears in thearea had spotted tha t ra vine as a free and easy feedin gTh e garbage fr om that logging camp was dumped in ara vine a mile or so fr om camp, and all the bea rs in thear ea had spotted that ravine as a free and easy feedingdepot. Our friend had seen them there, decided to gethimself a hide or two and some bear meat. He went outthere with a repeating rifle and, he told me, emptied twocomplete ma gazin es at various and sundry bears withoutcutting a hai r. He was right; he was lucky to get out ofthere alive. Not that I think an y of those bears cha rgedhim ; but with that man y scared bears in such a smallspace, it's a wond er he wasn' t trampled .. . And he wasright again : no decent rifle would miss such big targets,so close.I said, "I'd like to see that rifle, and shoot it. Maybethen I could tell you what was wrong.""See it? Hell, you can have it ! I wouldn't be caughtdead with it, a no -good piece of junk like th at! "Well, I took that no-good piece of junk out to thepolice ran ge and lobb ed five shots into five inches withoutany trouble. I asked another officer to fire it, ju st todouble-check it. He jolted it a little as he picked it up,and his group was like min e only a foot or more to theleft. A quick check showed that the front sight was loose,could be slipped back and forth in its slot enough to causethat foot of variance between the two groups. But notenought to account for a whole string of misses on bears;not by a dam sight ! .. . As a matter of fact, that same riflesaved my life two months later when I was charged by(of all things) a sow bear.So what explains the adven tur e of the little man andth e eight bea rs? Ask any experienced hunter. That manmissed his bear s for exactly the same reasons that cause