You never know what kind of excitment you'll encounter when you go to my parents' farm. I went over there yesterday to tend to all their animals while they were out of town, and ending up taking out a rabid possum. Fun day.

- The one in the left eye was the first shot, taken from about 25 yards.
- The one below and behind the left ear was the "just to make sure I don't walk up on a wounded rabid possum" shot from about 5 yards.



My POS cellphone camera was the only one I had handy.

What'd you bring them down with?

CCI Stingers and a 10/22

You just shot the neighbor's kitty.

On that note, two possum stories:

When my dad was a cop two towns over back in the '70's, a guy in the department hit a possum with his squad car one night. He went back to make sure it was dead, and one of the babies she was carrying on her back was still alive. He took it home and raised it like a pet. He could whistle it up like a dog, it'd sit in his lap to watch tv, slept in a dog bed...the works.

One afternoon when we lived up your way (Glen Bernie, MD), my mom called us all out on to the back porch, just a-hollering. We got out there, and she's pointing off into the woods saying "Look at that. Isn't that the ugliest dog you've ever seen?" My dad responded with "No...but it's a pretty darned normal-lookin' possum."
(And she grew up in the FL panhandle...how could she possibly not know what a possum looks like. :huh: )

That's what .45 is for.

Have you seen ammo prices?

Stingers are $10 for a pack of 100. .45 ball is at least 30 cents a pop.


If he hadn't wasted the second dime, he'd be 20 cents ahead.

My .45 was at home...only had what was in my dad's gun closet. That left me with a 20-gauge, a 12-guage, a Winchester 94 in .30-.30, a 1903 Springfield in .30-06, an AR-15 in .223, a .357, and a .50 Hawkins. The 20-gauge would've been fine, but he didn't have any shells...all the others would have been a bit overkill.

At my own house, I'd have probably grabbed my .410, though.

I lived in Glen Burnie for a while, too! My grandma still does. Though she still fits in there, 'cause she's from El Salvador and that area is Mexi-town now.

What was wrong with the .357? If you reload, you can get that cost pretty cheap. Not ten cents, but under 15 at least. And you'd certainly only need one. :lol:

.357 is easily the best handgun caliber to reload for. Admittedly, that's only because a revolver allows you generous COL variance without running into function/feeding problems. A lot of people roll with single shots, too. But the caliber gives you a huge selection of bullets and powders (even black powder in a pinch) and you can even squeeze certain rifle bullets in there for long range shooting. That, and it's cheaper than the .44 family.

With a full-size handgun and a 4-6" barrel in .357, the right bullet selection and some time on a reloading press, you'll be ready for anything in the lower 48 inside 200 yards. Ideal in every case? Perhaps not, but it's hella versatile.


And if that doesn't tickle your fancy, get a lever rifle too. It's the chambering I don't have that I most wish I did.


EDIT: Beef, how often do you go visit her? Bring your gear next time and we'll go to OA.

you should have used the .50 Hawkins.

would have been more of a show lol.

when the big cloud of smoke clears..... hey where did the opossum go? :D

Then I'd have had to clean that b!t@h. With the Ruger, 2 shots, run a barrel snake down the bore, call it a day. With the Hawkins, take it apart, scrub it in hot soapy water, dry it, oil it, put it back together...no thanks. :P

but thats the fun part about black powder :P

There's a REASON my GPR is Duracoated. :P

The other way to look at it is, had you used the black powder rifle, you'd probably decide that just shooting it once would be a waste of cleaning time. So you could still be outside shooting instead of posting on SCP. :P


Sheeeeit, if I could shoot in my backyard...

EDIT: I do dig the boresnake for .22s. Not as great for anything jacketed but still nice to be able to snake everything before even leaving the range.

Sure...and it'd be one thing if it was my own rifle (mine's a .54...even more overkill)...but I'm not about to go through the hell associated with cleaning a flintlock when it's not even my flintlock.

I mortally offended almost my entire research group a month or so ago by telling the story of my cousin who had to do the same thing. The only problem was, when he popped the possum, he neglected to account for the penetration of a 22 bullet and ended up also popping the back tire on his grandpa's pickup. He still gets flak for that.

I was a bit surprised when everyone was like, "But it wasn't hurting him, why did he have to shoot it? Couldn't he just have picked it up and taken it somewhere else?"

I tried explaining both the general temperament of possums and what it means when one is staggering around in broad daylight, but that only brought on the cries of, "Well shouldn't he have taken it to the vet then?"


(fp)

SSniper13

I'm reminded of a certain biology teacher who used to tell a story of a gentleman operating a gas station that had a rat problem. One day, a rather large rat met the business end of a 12 gauge loaded with buckshot for deer season. The side of the manager's kiosk didn't look so hot after that.

:lol: I sincerely hope you berated such ignorance, especially considering you rely on this person's contribution to a pursuit that requires rational.

edit: TM: :lol: I have an uncle that was thoroughly intoxicated, laying in the bed of his pickup after having pulled over because he was "too drunk to drive." He noticed a deer on the side of the road at some point and decided do some impromptu hunting...with an uzi.

My dad used to have a badass firebird. One day while he was still drinking he decided to go hunting, along with the guns he takes some more beer.

Well he is out stalking some deer when he sees a deer. He stops and slowly raises up his rifle, sights up the shot, squeezes off a round nice and slow. The deer dosnt fall so he fires again. So he gets up slowly and gets about a hundred feet closer and finds out he shot up the bird on his hood. Im not sure exactly what damage happened to the car but I know it was gone very soon after that.