I think that sometimes the bureacrats are crazy

After carefully reading the hunting regulations for the great state of Georgia, I discovered that opossums are considered "small game" and not "vermin" so there is a hunting season for them which ends in eight days. Go figure. I guess I’ll have to get the thing pretty quick. Also, I have determined that, while I do not need a hunting license to kill the opossum on my own porch, they way the regs are written I do have to be wearing my hunting vest when I pull the trigger. What a country…

I’ve tried the .410 barrel and the .22 barrel and I think I’m going to prefer the .410. They both have quite a bark when they discharge, but the .410 has less potential of a long downrange miss, even thought the .22 shells I bought are subsonic. I tried the .410 barrel this morning here at the house. I was a little surprised it was as loud as it was, but it was more of a crack than a boom. About five minutes after I fired it Neighbor E came dashing down her stairs wanting to know what was going on, who was shooting at her, she hasn’t done anything. She was probably waking up from a drug-induced stupor/sleep and feeling a little paranoid. I almost considered telling her I hadn’t heard anything, just to screw with her, but she looked kind of wild eyed and stumbled back up the stairs before I could say anything.

I tried the .22 up at the cabin (not wanting to mess with Neighbor E anymore than I had to) and while there were squirrels all over the place I didn’t actually aim at any of them, tempting though it was. However, one crack of the rifle and there were no squirrels anywhere in sight. I was up there for another hour and they still hadn’t come back out to play. If I’d known that’s all it took I would have done that a long time ago.

Pretty sure my next rifle/shotgun is going to be stainless steel, it’ll just make things easier. I saw a rifle in a magazine one time that I kind of want for my "crash kit" in my car: it’s entirely stainless steel and breaks down into three very tidy and manageable parts (similar to this one but much less expensive). I believe the standard re-assembly time is under two minutes. It was designed as a survival gun for Alaskan bush pilots who often don’t have a lot of room or weight to spare when they are loaded up with freight. Not sure if it was a single shot or had a small magazine, but either way it should handle anything the wilderness of the Appalachians can throw at me if it’s been tested in the Alaskan bush.

I’m thinking my next "at home" gun is going to be a 12 gauge pump action shotgun. Not really in the market for a semi-auto shotgun: it triples the price (at least) and they seem a bit hard to control. If Gunny Ermy can’t reliably stay on target with one I’ll pass. I need to get a pistol too though…hmmm.

Watching Weather Proof on The Weather Channel right now. This one is neat.