Thread: Public perception of rifles

As a 16 year old in the 90's I used to bike down the road with gun on my back heading off to a local farm to shoot bunnies and never ever got a bad reaction and the same goes about 15-18 months ago walking along a gravel road with rifle while locals and tourists drove past after I came out from a farmers bottom paddock and was wanting to walk back up to the house.

A few years back I did a bit of hunting in "Austria" of driven boar and pheasant shoots. Quite often we would as a group... for pheasants there would be 15-25 guys with shotguns and dogs. We would have to walk from one side of the village to the other side to hunt on different fields.

Walking through the village we would bump into the locals, say hello and even stop for a brief chat. Not one person batted an eye lid as it was perfectly normal behavior... even saw a woman pushing a pram and she wasn't fazed one bit. At the end of the day it was off to the local pub to have the end of the hunt celebrations and a few drinks... just a few!

Even the driven boar hunts. 100 plus people show up, an array of firearms and again, no locals batted an eye lid.

In the states in Texas I was having dinner with a big group of people when talk got onto guns, everyone starts pulling out what they had from guys with 9mm's to 45's and women with revolvers and little .380's in their hand bags.

Besides me a local didn't have anything and everyone was like... WTF no gun!... they did have pepper spray!

Different countries, different cultures, different expectations and different reactions.

The best way to overcome people who have ill conceived perceptions of firearms or hunting is to talk to them, show them your friendly and not this crazed loony that the antis like to portray hunters/shooters as and even if they still disagree or turn nasty then you still walk away politely.

I have neighbours on either side of me who don't hunt or shoot, they know I'm a hunter and I've dropped off venison, sausages or salamis and even fish that we've caught. Sometimes its the little things that have the bigger and wider impact.

I remember seeing that youtube video made by "Toa Hunter Gatherer" a few years back where he dropped of wild meat to random elderly people. I can't find that video to link but what an amazing thing to do!