Astounding Strib Gun Ignorance

[DeanC]

So I'm checking headlines and I come across this:


Luckily, I keep the Pioneer Press headlines nearby so I can see something is up.

I check the Strib story first and start thinking "Omigosh! How could they accidentally shoot a guy so many times."

A Woodbury man who was shot multiple times in the neck and back while hunting Thursday afternoon has been released from the hospital.

Then I read a little bit later that he was hit with a 20 gauge shotgun. Jeez. Pellet gun?

[nyffman]

The victim, who was hit with 12 to 14 pellets,

Must have been a pellet gun.

The story on the website now give a little better account of what happened. Basically, over anxious kid, hears noise, turns around and shoots 200 lb squirell dressed in camo.

[macphisto]

We need to demand stricter controls on these menacing full-auto assault pellet machine guns! I'm writing my congressman right now.

[KA0OLD]

Back in the 70's, I ordered from Larc International, A full auto BB Gun. It fires 3000 Rounds a Min and the mag holds 3000 rounds. I checked at that time and because the round BB does not have a "caliber" (so what is .177), it was not under the "Full Auto" parts of the law. Had it fired Pellets, it would have been a much different story. It fired with a can of Freon 12, available for less than a dollar at that time. I looked a couple of years ago and and To the best of my Knowledge Larc International is long gone, so is Freon. the model is M19A. A plastic POS at best, but it did provide a couple of days of enterainment.

KA0OLD

[1911fan]

I had a good friend in high school whos dad bought him one of those "thompson" bb guns like you see at the Midway at the fair for shooting out the little red star. That tied to a gas station sized air compressor and a long hose was an awful lot of fun till some one ran a string of bb's across his daddy's 1976 El Dorado.

[White Horseradish]

Back in the 70's, I ordered from Larc International, A full auto BB Gun. It fires 3000 Rounds a Min and the mag holds 3000 rounds. I checked at that time and because the round BB does not have a "caliber" (so what is .177), it was not under the "Full Auto" parts of the law. Had it fired Pellets, it would have been a much different story. It fired with a can of Freon 12, available for less than a dollar at that time. I looked a couple of years ago and and To the best of my Knowledge Larc International is long gone, so is Freon. the model is M19A. A plastic POS at best, but it did provide a couple of days of enterainment.

KA0OLD

Freon is gone, but R134a has replaced it. The concept itself is far from dead. Have you seen the airsoft gas-powered guns? The green gas they use is R134a with lubricant mixed in.

And if you want a full-auto BB gun, check out Drozd: http://www.pyramydair.com/p/drozd-bb-gun.shtml

[Srigs]

You can't expect reporters to get their facts straight

[MsT]

How about a class to educate reporters on proper gun terminology ?

"course, I suppose they wouldn't want to be bothered by the facts.

[Ironbear]

How about a class to educate reporters on proper gun terminology ?

"course, I suppose they wouldn't want to be bothered by the facts.

There are several online dictionaries put together for exactly that purpose. I have read of several writer/journalist types that have offered to educate fellow writer/journalists. There have been a number of instructors that have offered to let journalists sit in on classes. For $15 (max) they can take a FAS (hunter safety) class.

Apparently they couldn't be bothered, to be educated.......

[chinakay]

200 lb squirell dressed in camo.

Wouldn't the squirrel have been dressed in blaze orange? Or is that just my naiveté showing?

[nyffman]

I should have copied the article, sorry. From memory, the victim was bowhunting, thus the camo.

[1911fan]

WHile bow hunters will argue, science says that some blaze mixed in with the camo will not tip the deer at all, as they have no color receptors in the eyeball. however, marketing people have convinced hunters that nothing less than "predator" like reactive camo will trick the wary whitetail...and so guys keep getting shot at.

Now, I have seen some of the 3D camo that works so well, as to make a guy hanging in a tree all but invisible in most light. Still where does the blame lie, with someone who can not tell the guy in the tree while following a squirrel from tree to tree, or the guy who refuses to wear a little orange?

[Greg]

I sent him this email when the article was first posted:

Tim,

You might want to check on the facts in the story below...

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1509850.html

Quote

The man, 29, was bow hunting in the Bayport Wildlife Management Area
in West Lakeland Township when he was shot by another hunter who was
using a pellet gun to hunt small game, said Washington County Sheriff
Bill Hutton.

The victim, who was hit with 12 to 14 pellets, called 911 and "was
very distraught," Hutton said. The man who shot him raced to render
aid and completed the emergency call, Hutton said.

Unquote

One shot that puts 12-14 pellets into the victim is from a shotgun,
not a pellet gun. The small shot in birdshot are called pellets but
they are round and made of lead or steel. A "pellet gun" shoots one
shot at a time using compressed air or CO2 and the pellets are more
bullet shaped.

Pellet gun:

http://www.pyramydair.com/cgi-bin/model ... el_id=1431

Pellets:

http://www.pyramydair.com/cgi-bin/show_ ... 177&Type=0

Shotgun shell:

http://homestudy.ihea.com/ammo/12shell.htm


Hope this helps,

Greg


The article was corrected about 10 minutes later. I was probably not the only person who emailed him. He didn't email back.

[Rem700]

WHile bow hunters will argue, science says that some blaze mixed in with the camo will not tip the deer at all, as they have no color receptors in the eyeball. however, marketing people have convinced hunters that nothing less than "predator" like reactive camo will trick the wary whitetail...and so guys keep getting shot at.

Now, I have seen some of the 3D camo that works so well, as to make a guy hanging in a tree all but invisible in most light. Still where does the blame lie, with someone who can not tell the guy in the tree while following a squirrel from tree to tree, or the guy who refuses to wear a little orange?

Be sure of your target and whats beyond.

[Pred]

WHile bow hunters will argue,

This bow hunter wouldn't argue that point. I've had deer walk within feet of me while dressed head to toe in blaze orange. As long as your stone cold still, I don't' think it matters what color you are wearing. But do I wear blaze orange while bow hunting? Nope, and I'm not real sure why...