27 Dec 03

Important lesson from Bob Ruark in Use Enough Gun:

"... I put the bead somewhere on his neck behind the ear and squeezed. The big Wesley-Richards, which I trusted so much, roared and possibly kicked, bu t I never felt it.

The tiger never left his crouch over the dead buffalo. He never moved his head. His chin dropped an inch and came to rest on the buffalo's flank. He did not flex his forearms. He did not kick. He was stone-dead on the body of his victim; his eyes closed in the strong light of the torch.

I raised the gun again to give him the other half, the finisher, the tenderizer.

'No, sahib,' Khan Sahib said. =98Don't shoot again. He is de ad... Do not spoil the hide. Nobody ever killed a tiger any more dead.'

... Kahn Sahib shook me by the hand and beat me on the back and danced up an d down... I took the little flask of emergency ointment and had a long pull at it. I toasted the tiger. I toasted Kahn Sahib, and I toasted me... One-sho t Bob. Some people miss 'em. Some people wound =98em. Not the Boy Genius. He shoots them in the neck.

I had just run for president and been elected. I had just been reelected to a second term and had won the water-boiling contest at the Campfire Club whe n I heard an awful roar. Kahn... flicked on the light just in time to see my dead tiger's tail disappear.

... the tiger had got up and gone away. I knew right then that I would neve r see that tiger again, although all common sense told me that this was a deat h flurry... We looked him high , and we looked him low for two days... No tiger. One-Bullet Bob... the new president of the jerk factory.

I could hear Harry's English Schoolboy voice saying, 'When it's big, and it's dangerous, shoot it once and shoot it twice, and, when you're absolutely certain it's dead, shoot it again. It's the dead ones that get up and kill you.'"

Comment: Bob Ruark died in London in 1965. He hunted during the golden days , and his lessons, which he shares with us in his own inimitable style, are timeless.

My experience with the oryx in the Karoo Desert in South Africa in 1999 was similar, and I'm lucky the beast chose to run away from us rather than at us . My oryx dropped with a single shot from my borrowed 270. He dropped as if h e had been struck by lightening. Nary a flinch or a shudder.

Like Ruark, I thought I was hot stuff and had splendidly succeeded in impressing my African hosts. Unfortunately, I had failed to impress the ory x, who miraculously sprang back to life twenty minutes later, long after my guide h ad insisted in unloading the 270. As I watched him casually lope away, display ing little discomfort, I, too, felt like the new president of the jerk factory!

Like Bob, I learned my lesson that day. In retrospect, it was a cheap one. Only my inflated ego was wounded.

"Experience never errors; what alone may error is our judgment."

Leonardo da Vince

/John

27 Dec 03

I visited a large, local retailer today. I asked him about Kel-Tec pistols, specifically their compact 32 and 380 autos. He indicated that he was unable to keep the 380 in stock and that both had shown themselves to be reliable and easy to use. He went on to say that these small Kel-Tec pistols sell better and have far fewer problems than the Beretta Tomcat, the Taurus equivalent, or the NAA equivalent, combined. In addition, the Kel-Tec is thinner and lighter than any of them.

I've seen several of these small pistols in courses, and all have worked just fine, but I have been doubtful with regard to their actual usefulness. However, I have to admit that everyone who owns one thinks they're great. One can surely carry one in many places where most other pistols would not fit. I may start carrying the 380 auto version as a backup!

/John