Thought I would do a little bunny hunting today. That was my excuse anyway. Since my wife has become interested in canoe tripping with me, she has made it clear that she is not going on any remote trips unless I bring a gun. Like most people around here, she’s had some experiences with bears.
Now I like guns, and am a bit of a camel trader when it comes to them. This decree from my wife has opened up a whole new avenue of gun buying. I call it The Search For the Perfect Canoe Gun. I have been able to buy four or five new guns in the last year under the guise of finding one that will be just right.
Today I took two of the new ones with me, a Turkish made .410 and a Maverick 88, which is the real cheap Mossberg 500. The Turk only cost me a little more than a 100 bucks, but it shows it. It is a single shot folder, I’m not sure why I bought it, although folded up, it will fit in a 60 liter canoe barrel pretty easily. I was thinking I would use it on the off chance I saw a Bunny while snowshoeing today.
The other gun I brought was my Maverick 88 12 gauge. The local hardware store had a Browning BPS 12 there for quite a while, and he had a good price on it. But my arms are short, and the length of pull just didn’t feel right. I grabbed the Maverick just for fun, and it fit like a glove. I was out the door with two chokes and two boxes of shells for a little over 200 bucks. I killed a lot of partridge with it this fall. Anyway, I finally managed to find a short barrel for it last week, an 18.5 incher. I took it out with a box of slugs today.
I knew it wasn’t going to be super accurate with that short barrel, but I was pleasantly surprised. I took five shots from 25 yards. I put two shots into the paper right away, and they both went through the same hole, but high. Second attempt I put three shots mostly through the same hole, but slightly high and right of center.
I’m going to bulk order a couple of hundred rounds of slugs and get the feel for it. I’m fairly sure I can get pretty accurate at that distance, which is basically “cap-bustin in a bear’s arse” distance. The nice thing about this gun is that if it sinks to the bottom of a lake somewhere, I haven’t busted the bank to get it.
The other thing I tried out today was my new snowshoes that my wife bought me for Christmas. These are probably the biggest non-traditional shoes one can find, made by GV, a quality Canadian company. The picture shows the usual GV’s I have used for the last several years, at 36 inches long and 9 inches wide. The new ones look huge beside them. I must admit, they provide just as much floatation as my traditional Alaskan five footers.
Well, after all that shooting, I put the little .410 on my back and headed out. It was virgin snow.
I had opened up a little trail close to home last year for bunny hunting, but so many people started using it, I decided it was best to leave the gun home. This area should be safe from people. We had some new snow last night, so there were no tracks apparent, and nothing was moving in the bush. I only slogged it for a couple of kilometers before heading home. The loop is about 5 k, I hope to finish breaking it this week.
So no bunnies, but it was a nice way to spend an afternoon. ( I had a knife with me too, a buck folder, and one of those sparker thingies, but they saw no action either).
Now I like guns, and am a bit of a camel trader when it comes to them. This decree from my wife has opened up a whole new avenue of gun buying. I call it The Search For the Perfect Canoe Gun. I have been able to buy four or five new guns in the last year under the guise of finding one that will be just right.
Today I took two of the new ones with me, a Turkish made .410 and a Maverick 88, which is the real cheap Mossberg 500. The Turk only cost me a little more than a 100 bucks, but it shows it. It is a single shot folder, I’m not sure why I bought it, although folded up, it will fit in a 60 liter canoe barrel pretty easily. I was thinking I would use it on the off chance I saw a Bunny while snowshoeing today.
The other gun I brought was my Maverick 88 12 gauge. The local hardware store had a Browning BPS 12 there for quite a while, and he had a good price on it. But my arms are short, and the length of pull just didn’t feel right. I grabbed the Maverick just for fun, and it fit like a glove. I was out the door with two chokes and two boxes of shells for a little over 200 bucks. I killed a lot of partridge with it this fall. Anyway, I finally managed to find a short barrel for it last week, an 18.5 incher. I took it out with a box of slugs today.
I knew it wasn’t going to be super accurate with that short barrel, but I was pleasantly surprised. I took five shots from 25 yards. I put two shots into the paper right away, and they both went through the same hole, but high. Second attempt I put three shots mostly through the same hole, but slightly high and right of center.
I’m going to bulk order a couple of hundred rounds of slugs and get the feel for it. I’m fairly sure I can get pretty accurate at that distance, which is basically “cap-bustin in a bear’s arse” distance. The nice thing about this gun is that if it sinks to the bottom of a lake somewhere, I haven’t busted the bank to get it.
The other thing I tried out today was my new snowshoes that my wife bought me for Christmas. These are probably the biggest non-traditional shoes one can find, made by GV, a quality Canadian company. The picture shows the usual GV’s I have used for the last several years, at 36 inches long and 9 inches wide. The new ones look huge beside them. I must admit, they provide just as much floatation as my traditional Alaskan five footers.
Well, after all that shooting, I put the little .410 on my back and headed out. It was virgin snow.
I had opened up a little trail close to home last year for bunny hunting, but so many people started using it, I decided it was best to leave the gun home. This area should be safe from people. We had some new snow last night, so there were no tracks apparent, and nothing was moving in the bush. I only slogged it for a couple of kilometers before heading home. The loop is about 5 k, I hope to finish breaking it this week.
So no bunnies, but it was a nice way to spend an afternoon. ( I had a knife with me too, a buck folder, and one of those sparker thingies, but they saw no action either).
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