MICHAEL'S SECOND GUN SELECTION

Here I am again with my reasoned and amiable analysis of what you need in the way of guns. I am mad as hell with news of anti-war demonstrators being arrested and federal reserve shenanigans but I will go ahead with this gun piece.

I think I made a good case for shotguns yesterday. Meanest machines on the block. No doubt about it. You need a slug barrel to get into sniping with the big boys but it can be done. New England Firearms has done all the work. I was listening to the sounds from deer hunters one morning and I heard two fairly rapid and loud shots go off. I figured two guys and two deer on the way. Wrong. It was one guy taking two shots from a single shot NEF slug gun. It's amazing how fast you can reload one of those suckers. That extractor really works!

Today I would like to get into 22 rifles. I have been shooting 22 rifles for over 50 years. I had my first mass murder of bull frogs at a pond back in the 50's with a J.C. Higgins semi-automatic tube fed 22 from Montgomery Ward. Wow. Just put the sight on the frog and squeeze the trigger. Go on to the next frog. And it was like you were hardly even shooting. There is no recognizable recoil from a 22. It won't wear your shoulder out or give you soreness the next day or anything like that. You get one that can hit where you aim and you have the world by the tail.

I read some years ago that it was a bad move to give a kid a semi-auto 22 to start with. They should have single shots and this would teach them to make the most of their ammo. And this may be true. I don't now. But after my wife stole my son and left Indiana for Nevada without telling me she was even going, I found her address and sent him a stainless Ruger 10-22. That fast shootin' gun did nothing to hurt his accuracy. When he came back to me a short time later I broke him in to a Colt AR 15 and about 700 rounds to blow up in one day.

Then I turned him loose with a Ruger 45 pistol of his very own and he did well with that. Then he got to use my bolt action Ruger .308 and that is when I found out he was addicted to recoil. He used to take the .308 when he went crawling around the creeks and ravines and might see a snake! He'd shoot a damn snake with a .308! Waste of ammo if you ask me but he liked the feel of what he was doing.

But it all started with that 10-22. I had one of them myself, with a small scope to help my aging eyes. And that little gun was deadly. You could buy 30 round banana clips made out of pretty tough plastic for the 10-22. They kept them on the market even when the gun capacity laws went into effect. You could load up two 30 round mags and tape then together and have a helluva mess of ammo at your disposal. They even had little nubs in the mags that fit together when you had proper alignment for your taping of them. I have a couple of them upstairs right now. And about 10,000 rounds of ammo to run through them.

I don't know if any of you read NOURISHING TRADITIONS by SALLY FALLON or not, but she is one of the smartest food people I have ever read. Her book sorta sits around the house like a welcome guest here at our little home. But in Sally's studies on food she found a study where a straight diet of vegetable protein was fed to a group kids and a diet of vegetable protein with a LITTLE BIT of meat was added to the diet of another group of kids. The kids with the small additional meat added to their diet grew larger and stronger than the kids with no meat in their rice and beans. That little bit of meat really made a difference in how much protein they uploaded into their systems. Pretty cool observation.

In looking at the price of 22 ammo these days, you can still go buy blow-up 22 LR for less than 3 cents a round. At todays prices that ain't bad. Remember that Wally World has raised the price of cheap #8 shot 12 gauge to 22 cents a round. Ouch! But I like the idea of utilizing the meat on ol' Tweety birds carcass to up my protein intake and usage. And that is where the 22 LR comes in.

There is not going to be any cheaper round to fire that will put that little extra kick of protein in my food. Nor my neighbors food. Yes, rice and beans is a complete protein. And so is corn bread and beans, especially if the cornbread is all slathered up in good Amish butter. But that little extra meat in the mixture seems to really kick up your utilization of the availble protein. And that is what we are all after. We want to get what we can into our bodies that will keep us strong and healthy. No firearm will do it cheaper than a 22.

The guns on the market today are fairly accurate and durable. Especially the Ruger 10-22. And you can get it in stainless steel and that is worth some piece of admiration right there. If it is too bright or is too noticeable for your taste then tape it or paint it. No big deal.

As far as larger game is concerned, the 22 LR will take them all, including whitetail deer. You gotta have extremely good shot placement to kill a deer with a 22 but it can damn sure be done. I kow a lot of old time deer hunters and they say they made most of their kills shooting downward and at a distance of 15 to 20 feet. I don't know if guys can hunt like that any more. Seems like the prefered method is to get the deer at a distance much longer than what I am accustomed to shooting. But if you have the patience and the learning ability, you can shoot whitetails straight down through the brain. You scramble the eggs in their Central Processing Unit with a 22 and they are going down. And most likely staying down.

The smaller game such as squirrel and rabbit and groundhog will accept your 22 contribution with total surrender and die for you quite nicely. Sure does help the flavoring of that stewpot.

Self defense is another matter all it's own, relative to 22's. If you get a clear, unhurried shot at a man then you can take him out of the picture with one shot and be done with the business. In the dark is another matter entirely. A 22 does not have the sound of authority that a shotgun has. And that is good if you ain't in to making a lot of noise. But if you are trying to instill a large measure of respect in an adversary, the 22 ain't quite got the audible oomph that it needs. It can inflict wounds pretty easily.

Wounding a man with a 22 is as good a shot as any. In the dark I would counsel you to just wait until you have SOME idea of what you are shooting at and where it is. Remember that your gun makes a flash just the same as the other guys does. And there are flash suppressors but there ain't any flash erasures. All guns make a flash of some sort. Chances are that if some one is shooting at you then you will see a flash. Being behind some protective cover is a good thing at this point. But the flash will tell you where your adversary is and you can commence to destroy the sonuvabitch immediately thereafter. If it is dark, shoot low and hope for a leg shot. You might get a scream out of that! Most guys don't get to practice noise discipline from woundings. They will holler when wounded. This is when you really pour it on. But whether or not you make a kill, you will have created a casualty. The other side receiving casualties is a good thing. It goes into their oral history when they get around the campfire at night ands start talking about places theyhave been. And they will remember the night ol' Joe got his ass shot to Swiss Cheese in the dark by some sonovabitch with a 22. They will think of that if they ever have to get close to you again. "Memories are made of this." That's a line from an old Dean Martin song.

If it is daylight and you have met some Freebooters on a trail or a path, just stitch them up like the seam on your shirt. Body armor can be a problem for a guy shooting a 22. So don't shoot anywhere the guy might have body armor. Who was it...G. Gordon Liddy that said "Shoot 'em in the head.'? Not bad of advice. I would also throw in the legs and the arms. Shoot fast and often. THE IDEA IS TO MAKE THEIR SKIN LEAK RED FLUID. And as much of it as possible. And if you are alone and it doen't look too good to you, then get the hell out of there. Get back to where you can get some support or get back to where you can set up an ambush. And remember: IT DON"T MATTER WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING, YOU ALWAYS LEAVE A BACK DOOR TO YOUR AMBUSH SITE. YOU ALWAYS LEAVE A WAY TO GET AWAY. Ain't no sure thing in the world of warfare. Smart men turn and run away and live to fight another day. Anything else is a suicide pact.

Fighting a battle is sort of like opening a safe. You make the correct turns with the dial and stop at all the right numbers and the door will open and reveal the contents of the safe to you. But if you miss one number then that safe door won't open for nothin'. 'Course, the same odds work for the other guy too. You just want to make him miss as many numbers as possible.

So there you have my reasoning for shooting a 22 for my second survival gun. It will protect you and put meat on the table. It is cheap to shoot. Can't hardly ask for more than that.

We are in the first day of Spring and God has given us a bright beautiful sun to light it up. We have had all week so far of overcast and rain. This day of sunlight is much appreciated. The gardening days are right around the corner. Just 41 days until our frost date. Gonna get tomatoes started pretty quick.

Tend to your business and stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net