Hello again Stan, and to Sourdough, sorry for hijacking your thread, at least this about hunting and such though, right?

I should probably give you a little history: where I grew up I didn't have a dog to fetch birds out of the water so my friends and I mostly had to find them on land somewhere or flying to or from the land somewhere. Hence the majority of the shots were with the birds in flight. When they were flying towards you and you shot you could sometimes literally see the pellets bounce off of them. Then with the help of some seasoned old-timers they made the suggestion to wait til they were flying away from you, this allowed the pellets to make their way in from the open end of their feathers and to their bodies. Definitely increased the success rate. Now to the shot size, with this method in use the range of the shots was definitely out there a ways, magnum shells of the longest length that your shotgun was designed for, full-chokes, and #2 shot were the best way to ensure a kill. Had to be a bit more accurate with your shots, but at least if you got onto them they tended to go down.

I don't hunt anymore and haven't for quite some time, it's not that I am against it by any means and when I did I believed as you do. Kill what you shoot and eat what you kill. When I was hunting I shot and ate rabbits, quail, chukars, blue grouse, pheasants, drake mallard ducks, Canadian geese, 3 different species of deer (black tail, white tail, and mule deer), Rocky Mountain elk, and black bear. Shot coyotes too, but definitely didn't eat them. I am looking to get back to hunting coyotes and prairie dogs. They are considered nuisance animals around the state here so I don't feel too bad about killing them and not eating those. They will also challenge your abilities and your equipment.

One more little side note before I get off of memory lane. My dad always told me when we were pheasant hunting that if you head shot a pheasant that it would lock it's wings and glide even though it really was dead. On all of the occasions that I had one glide and then finally crash I found that it was indeed shot in the head. One other note on pheasants, if you shoot one through the heart it will make a steep climb almost straight up and then fold up and crumple and fall straight to the ground. I had this happen on a few occasions too and low and behold when I was cleaning the bird, I would find where a pellet or two had gone through it's heart. Not much useful information in this part of the story but just some interesting stuff that my dad shared with me while we were hunting together.   

Now I pretty much enjoy shooting for the challenge and the mechanics of it. I like to reload and develop loads. Most of the time anymore I stick with the small caliber weapons and avoid the heavy artillery. I do however, have a 300 Weatherby Magnum that I shoot on occasion that kind of fits the heavy artillery bill. It has a muzzle brake and some built-in recoil protection in the stock that it is fitted with though and helps me manage the recoil well. Have enjoyed the topics in this thread and wish you the best of luck on your business, hunting, and new home. Best regards, Allan