Monday, February 13, 2006

Questions for anyone who hunts

I was listening to the news last night (always a bad idea) and the big deal after the snow storm was VP Cheney's hunting accident. Since I don't hunt and everything I know about guns can be summed up in two sentences - 1. They make really loud noises and, 2. Looking down the end that the bullet comes out is pretty scary - I have to ask two questions.

1. Do you usually hunt quail with buckshot? I'd think that would make a hash of the bird rendering it useless. This, of course, assumes that you're hunting the bird for food. If not, I guess it doesn't matter.

2. Since both people were wearing those bright orange vests and the area didn't look as if it were heavily wooded, wouldn't you look (notice?) before you blasted something/someone?

Just curious.

6 comments:

Christina said...

Can't talk about the vest, but you do indeed use *bird shot* for birds, not buck shot (which, amazingly enough, is used for deer). I'm betting the newspaper reporter got it wrong, not the hunter. Plus, buckshot would have done a lot more damage (bigger pieces).

Unknown said...

Thanks, christina. I'm really pretty clueless on hunting matters.

Contagion said...

Christina is right, they probably used birdshot, but a lot of people get the two confused and almost use the interchangeable. Buckshot is something like .25 to .35 inches in diameter and used for deer, ie Bucks.

As for your second question, either they weren't paying attention, or Cheney had no idea what the spread on his shotgun was and made the ever so wrong assumption that his "friend" was safe. Either way the shot shouldn't have been taken.

Unknown said...

Thanks, contagion. I'm sitting here visualizing the idea of "spread" in relation to a shotgun. There's either some math or a cartoon in that. :-)

Now if the news would just let go of this - okay, Cheney made a mistake (how big is left to people more knowledgable than I am).

Unknown said...

Contagion - I posted this comment earlier, but it only semi-appears. And since my connection went wonky around then, I'm reposting.

"Thanks, contagion. I'm sitting here visualizing the idea of "spread" in relation to a shotgun. There's either some math or a cartoon in that. :-)

Now if the news would just let go of this - okay, Cheney made a mistake (how big is left to people more knowledgable than I am)."

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