When a man with a long grey beard tells you that he's going to teach you a secret about shotguns that he had from his father, it's always worth taking time to listen to what he has to say.
Via LawDog, who has an interesting story to tell about the history of this approach: it dates to poachers, African safaris and the British Home Guard.
I remember that trick from a comic book in the '50s -- comics were considerably less PC in those days.
ReplyDeleteThe protagonist, a wilder, woollier version of Mark Trail, used it to nail a grizzly the size of a small mastodon -- the beast was accommodating enough to stop tearing the cabin door apart long enough for Mark to make the cuts...
I do imagine that must have been pretty popular back in the days before slugs.
ReplyDeleteI had one uncle --on my father's side this fellow was the oft cited Black Sheep of that side of the family tree-- who was in the bid'ness of making & distributing fine alcoholic beverage. This was when he was in his late teens and early twenties and during the 1920's & '30's. Uncle taught me this trick, along with a few others pertaining to driving at speed at night, when I was a knee-high with a .410.
My dad, shortly after learning of my new knowledge, restricted how much/often my uncle was allowed to visit with me.
A few years later, uncle died a protracted and painful death. The wages of poor living.