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The Shotgun And The City Boy
It was exciting for us. My Brother-in-law was visiting our summer place, and he was enjoying himself. We had taken a ride up to the thousand islands and
it was like he was in another country. "So much space. So few houses.” was his comment.
The big kid from the big city was happy with the boats, the water, the beach, my family, and us. He felt right at home. The water helped, as he was an
avid fisherman.
Somehow the conversation had gone from fishing to hunting. He couldn't grasp my comparison that eating venison was not much different than eating fish. To
him shooting Bambi, or any other game was something else completely. (This was from a fellow who worked in a butcher shop.)
He was curious about guns though. He asked how many and what kind I owned. Then, "Do you have any here?" I brought out a shotgun and asked if he
would like to try it. He told me that he would very much like to.
We went outside. I set up a beer can and then explained to him how the shotgun worked. I covered everything about the operation and safety aspect twice.
It was a Mossberg 500 commonly called a pump or slide action. It had a bead sight on the front of the barrel and only grooves on the receiver. It was a
tubular feed allowing 5 shells in the tube and one in the chamber. It was a 12 gauge with a decent kick but Dan was full grown with 5" and forty plus
pounds on me.
The can was at the edge of our woods in back, which rose quickly, becoming an excellent backdrop to shoot. I loaded six shells and once again explained
the safety. He sighted on the can. He pushed the safety off. He pulled the trigger. He missed, but the neither noise nor recoil fazed him at all. He even
remembered to place the safety back on.
He wished to try again. I told him to go ahead. I explained that most people would shoot more accurately if before they actually pulled the trigger they
took a deep breath let out halve and then held the remainder while they pulled the trigger. In addition, that pull did not mean jerk.
I watched as he remembered to pump in a new shell taking care to eject the old shell in a safe direction. He then fired. He was an instructors dream. He
listened, he followed instructions, and he remembered. But, he did not hit the target. I explained that hitting the target at the distance we had placed the
can (about 15 yards) was no easy feat. He asked if I could hit it. I told him I could, but to try it once more. I also explained how he could steady the gun
better by keeping his right elbow out and level while keeping the bend of his left elbow perpendicular with the ground. He fired again. He missed again. He
had missed by less than an inch or two, but didn't know it
He turned to me and said, "I'd like to watch you do it." I took the gun and took the safety off leaving it by my side, but pointed with both
hands at the can. Before he knew what happened, I pumped, fired, and hit the can three times in quick succession, the last while the can was in the air. Was
he impressed? At the same time he was depressed.
The gun was empty. I told him I would go and get some more shells if he would get another can while I did so. He said that he would try again another
time. I explained that I had been hunting for many years, and that it took time to become proficient. He still wasn't interested. The joke had gone far
enough. I then told him the difference between "slugs" and "bird shot".
(A slug is one piece of metal about 1/2" in diameter that has to hit the target to make it move. Bird shot is over a hundred pellets that leave the
gun in an expanding pattern, and only one pellet needs to hit the target to make it move)
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