Thread: More Relaxed, and my New Henry .22

Interesting about your Chiappa experience. I had been considering a Chiappa as a possibility.

When I was a kid I just enjoyed hunting and shooting. There were basically three types of guns in common use... the .22, the "three-oh" and the shotgun. Occasionally I'd get to hear something mentioned about a 30-06 or .30-30. And my uncle had a Winchester 32-20 that I lusted after. My world opened up a bit when Dad went to Germany and was presented with an over-under 7x64 (or was it 65?). He also brought back a Krico .222.

My hunting and shooting knowledge basically came from first hand experience and through talking to relatives and close friends. I used whatever ammo I could scrounge, and it all seemed to perform well enough (apart from a brick of what I seem to recall was 'Super X' .22 where a good percentage of the ammo misfired. I knew that I was limited by distance, and I guess I kind of had an instinct about trajectory.

Nowadays we have the internet, and it is a marvellous thing. It is a place where shooters can indulge their passion when they aren't actually out on the hillside. There is so much we can enjoy... and learn from each other when each of us participates honestly with an open mind.

It seems that quite a bit of stuff gets posted on the 'net that appears to just be repeated opinion instead of springing from actual experience. And in keeping with our current tendency to be politically correct in all things, I can feel a bit reluctant to discuss things in some places when I feel it is likely I will be bombarded with 'expert' or 'righteous' opinion.

There can even seem to be a fervour associated with some topics that I feel is similar to a religious fundamentalism... where there are many 'experts' who parrot the same views so that they can be part of a club, organisation, political party or gang. I was raised in a church, and I've observed a lot of folks over the years. It seems that nobody is more 'correct' than certain young enthusiastic male members of a church. I was quite an expert myself once upon a time.... now I realise I know bugger-all, and I'm suspicious that many of us could be mistaken about a variety of things.

I think a lot of the shared and, to me, odd opinions arise from the fact that there are thousands of folks interested in shooting (or whatever), who don't get out to do it much but they do spend hours reading and commenting on it on the web. Folks may be inclined to take a 'safe' position where they feel they have the support of the peers they admire or the group they want to be identified with. In the developed world, a lot of people are living lives that are quite removed from the natural world.

So... having ranted a bit.... I am willing to 'come out' and state that it is ok to hunt with a rifle that won't shoot to 1"MOA, and that deer can be killed with less than a thousand foot-pounds of energy.... etc.