[samuel]

A 15yr old Ind. farm boy,hunting for food for his family walked into a brushey pothole with a .20ga double and flushed 15 pheasant and fired 2 shots rapidly and not one feather hit the ground.A 19yr old marine,home on leave had his cousins M12 Win with 5rds of #6 shot in it and a flight of blackbirds came over.He fired 5 shots and had 2 blackbirds and 5 empty casings laying on the ground.In sept.1966 a marine force recon was inserted into Laos to instruct Montagnards in the use of the new M16 which he had lots of maintenance expertise but little range or combat experience with.The Tards hunt and eat monkeys.They use bows with poisoned arrows and are highly succesful.This marine loaded 18rds in a 20rd box (We found loading 20rds caused them to jam.) and went hunting with these stoneage people.They came up on a place where there were over a hundred monkeys in the trees close togather.He flipped the selector on Full and lined up on one monkey and held the trigger back in a sweeping motion.One monkey hit the ground and the tards were impressed with all the noise but not too impressed with the results.Never again did this marine ever have his weapon on full whether hunting or fighting.The article about the 16 coyotes coming in and only getting one reminded me of these events.Rapid semi fire or depending on followup shots is almost a guarantee that you are going to get very little for all of your noise and effort.You need to line the followup shot up with the same effort and precision as the first shot if you expect to hit.Suppressive fire doesnt work on game animals unless you just like to get them away from you.It also makes you feel rediculus.Practice making each shot count.even in self defence. sam.

[rckymtnboy]

Sam, I am the one that wrote the post about calling in 16 coyotes and only getting one. The fact is, I only found one. I actually hit five others, and as you know, coyotes are pretty tough and can often make it a long ways after being shot. I never used "suppressive fire", or rapid fire for that matter. It was a semi-auto SKS, and I only shot when I had fur in my sights. When you have 15 coyotes on a dead run in several directions after you've shot the first, you're pretty lucky to come anywhere close on a second, let alone five. I'm sure I wounded them enough so that they died soon after. I watched each one wince, once I saw that, I moved on to the next target.

[samuel]

I wasnt advising you personally on how to shoot,I was trying to point out to less experienced hunters that if they really wanted to recover the game they shot at they should consentrate on one animal,one shot at a time.Your post seemed to represent what I meant about rapid fire.Now you say you shot at one animal until you saw it flinch.I really meant a person should consentrate on one animal until they see it go down.But that is so you can recover it.Altho I personally would stick with staying on one individual animal until it drops.I can understand how in the land of sheep and cattle people believe a die later shot is just as good as a recovery shot.It,s all about preditor control.Its just that I like to stand over what I shoot at and know I got it. sam.

[forestgleaner]

reminds me of when I was learning to use my grandfathers shot gun, only ever seemed to get a bird with the second shot. Decided that is was the patern maybe, and used the second trigger first. ussually didn't need the second trigger then, but when I did, I did ok with it. seemed the takeing the time to think about which trigger was what I really needed. I never had any one to teach me about hunting, and I was just so excited, and anxious, that I was really rushing the first shot.
Sam you seem to be a very ethical hunter, and to that I say good for you. As for the I see fur and shoot, isn't that how that guy shot that cow? varmints are varmints, but hunting isn't varmint control, it is extermination. I think I would rather hunt and know exactly what I shot at, and where it hit, and remember each shot. it is a personal choice I guess.